HARBIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the ninth Asian Winter Games in Harbin on Friday night time throughout a festive ceremony highlighting the town’s ice and snow tradition.
Over 8,000 spectators on the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center burst into cheers as Xi formally declared the Games open within the presence of visiting dignitaries together with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
The opening ceremony reached its climax as 4 torchbearers – two-time Olympic champion and quick monitor pace skater Yang Yang, China’s first male Winter Olympic gold medalist and freestyle skier Han Xiaopeng, Olympic race stroll champion Wang Zhen, and Sochi Winter Olympics pace skating champion Zhang Hong – joined by youngsters holding ice lanterns, lit the lilac-shaped cauldron at opening ceremony’s sub-venue, Harbin Ice and Snow World, the world’s largest ice and snow theme park.
Running from February 7 to 14, the Harbin Games, with the slogan “Dream of Winter, Love among Asia” represents one other main worldwide winter sports activities occasion hosted by China following the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. It additionally marks the nation’s third time internet hosting the Asian Winter Games, following Harbin 1996 and Changchun 2007.
A file 34 international locations and areas are competing in Harbin 2025, surpassing the earlier excessive set on the eighth Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan in 2017. Over 1,200 athletes are collaborating in ice occasions in Harbin and snow occasions in Yabuli, marking a rise from the earlier file of 1,147 on the Sapporo Games.
Amid roaring cheers from the venue viewers, star pace skater Ning Zhongyan and skier Liu Mengting, who made historical past by profitable the ladies’s large air gold on the FIS Freeski World Cup in January, bore the Chinese nationwide flag throughout the athletes’ parade.
The Chinese delegation consists of 257 members, together with 170 athletes. Five Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic champions, Xu Mengtao, Qi Guangpu, Gao Tingyu, Fan Kexin and Liu Shaoang headline the squad of 85 males and 85 girls that cowl 64 occasions throughout six disciplines.