This is a vivid portrayal of technology helping the Winter Olympics. Since the preparation of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the concept of the Science and Technology Winter Olympics has been consistent. From training preparations to venue construction to comprehensive service guarantees, this Winter Olympics has demonstrated the technological background of “intelligent manufacturing in China” everywhere.
Athletes are full of technology
China’s competitive sports have long presented a pattern of “strong in summer and weak in winter” and “strong in ice and weak in snow”. When the bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics was successful in 2015, about one-third of the 109 Winter Olympics events were still blank in China. How to fill the gap in a short period of time and quickly improve the competitive level of Chinese ice and snow athletes, technological empowerment has played a key role in preparing for the war.
At present, the role of technology in competitive sports is becoming more and more prominent. The use of “wind tunnels” for targeted training has been widely adopted by powerhouses in ice and snow sports. In October 2020, China’s first comprehensive sports training wind tunnel was officially opened. This sports “wind tunnel” tailored for the Winter Olympics has a maximum wind speed of 42 meters per second, which is equivalent to a 14-level strong typhoon and basically covers the wind speed range involved in all ice and snow sports. Athletes in steel frame snowmobiles and ski jumping have benefited a lot from the help of the “wind tunnel”.
The outside world has also noticed that the disc skiing machine has become a “black technology” equipment for cross-country skiing teams to improve their strength, the national ski jumping training team uses scientific means to help athletes adjust their aerial attitudes, and the introduction of the six-degree-of-freedom electric simulation sports training system provides athletes with opportunities. A realistic training environment… China is integrating multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary strengths, coordinating the promotion of technology research and development and technology transformation, and providing strong support for greater breakthroughs in competitive sports.
For more than 6 years, 109 Winter Olympics events have achieved “full project development, all project team building, and all project training”, and technology empowers ice and snow athletes. At present, Chinese athletes have been shortlisted in several events of the Beijing Winter Olympics, achieving a historic breakthrough. For example, China successfully “unlocked” the qualifications for the entire alpine skiing event for the first time, and the number of participants in events such as ski jumping reached a record high.
Technology empowers the construction of competition venues
Competition venues are the foundation for running the Beijing Winter Olympics well, as well as a window to observe China’s infrastructure level and technological content. Seven of the 12 competition venues in the Beijing Winter Olympics are newly built venues.
In the “four no” mountainous areas where there was no road, no water, no electricity, and no communication, the national snowmobile and sled center “Xueyoulong” was built on the mountain and rose from the ground. This is the first bobsleigh track in China and the world’s first 360-degree slalom track. The bobsleigh track is a semi-U-shaped concrete pouring structure, and a condenser tube with an error of no more than 5 mm is embedded in the concrete, and the track is finally formed by making ice on the surface.
It doesn’t seem complicated, but various cambers and various drops are intertwined, and the 1.9-kilometer-long track must be poured in one go, which is quite difficult to form at one time. Yang Jinkai, the facility manager of the National Snowmobile and Sled Center, told the China News Agency that the construction of “Snow Dragon” gave up hiring foreign teams with high salaries, and turned to independent innovation. One-time injection molding of concrete. For the “Snow Dragon” venue, Ivo, president of the International Snowmobile Federation, praised “this is definitely the best venue I have ever seen” during his inspection.
In fact, the 12 competition venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics all demonstrate the elements of technological innovation: the National Speed Skating Stadium has built the largest single-layer two-way orthogonal saddle-shaped cable-net roof among the world’s sports venues, and the National Ski Jumping Center is the first competitive artificial The design method and key construction technology of the profile track, the abandoned steel smelting plant in the old industrial park of Shougang has been transformed into a ski jumping platform… Behind this is the hard work of more than 2,000 craftsmen day and night, as well as countless technological innovations and challenges to overcome difficulties. “China Plan”.
Comprehensive service guarantee technology first
Technological innovation is the distinctive background of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In addition to training preparations and venue construction, the extensive use of technologies such as clean energy, artificial intelligence, and 5G in the field of comprehensive service support for the Winter Olympics has also made technology shine everywhere.
In June 2020, the world’s first DC power grid project that realizes the multi-energy complementation of wind, light and energy storage – the Zhangbei flexible DC power grid project was put into operation, and it is becoming a reality to use Zhangbei’s wind to light up the lights of Beijing. The transmission of clean energy such as large-scale wind power and pumped storage will help the Beijing Winter Olympics become the first Olympic Games in Olympic history to use 100% green and clean electricity.
In this Winter Olympics, artificial intelligence also participated, providing service guarantee and technical support. AI disinfection robots can clean and disinfect the Winter Olympics venues, AI sign language anchors allow hearing-impaired people to enjoy the excitement of the Winter Olympics, and “robot chefs” can cook a wide variety of delicious dishes… And in the protection of athletes’ equipment On the one hand, the successful research and development of the first domestic snow wax car and the first domestic snow car helped the athletes to better participate in the competition; the short track speed skating competition suits developed with anti-cutting materials and the award-winning suits using blazing technology have been comprehensively improved. The standard of clothing and equipment of the national team.
From training preparations to venue construction, from venue operation to epidemic prevention and control, the preparations for the Winter Olympics are also a road of technological innovation. The technology empowers the Winter Olympics, not only adding endless impetus to this world-renowned ice and snow event, but also laying a solid foundation for sharing the achievements of the Winter Olympics and promoting the sustainable development of ice and snow sports in the future.