This year marks the 15^th anniversary of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. On the evening of August 16, the 14^th Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival was ceremoniously opened at Beiguan Square, Juyongguan Great Wall Scenic Area, Changping District, Beijing. IOC President Thomas Bach delivered a video message. Yu Zaiqing, vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee; Sima Hong, vice mayor of Beijing; Han Zirong, member of the Party Leadership Group of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC, full-time vice president of Beijing 2022; and Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA), attended the opening ceremony and jointly launched this year’s Festival.

The launch ceremony

The opening ceremony reviewed the glories and highlight moments of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games through such original programs as “Time Back: Our Olympics,” “Time Back: The Olympic Games amid the Mountains and Waters,” and “Time Back: A New Start for the Summer and Winter Olympic City.” From the perspectives of fitness for all and urban renewal, it showed Beijing’s development and changes in the past 15 years and its inheritance and development of the Olympic legacy.

President of the International Olympic Committee Mr. Thomas Bach sent a video message to the opening ceremony. He pointed out that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games left an extraordinary Olympic legacy to China and the world and marked a new starting point for the vigorous development of China’s sports industry. With the success of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Beijing has become the world’s first Summer and Winter Olympic City. The IOC will always be grateful for Beijing’s outstanding contribution to the Olympic Movement. He highly praised Beijing for its practice in implementing the Olympic motto, and expressed his heartfelt thanks to BODA for persistently carrying forward the Olympic legacy and spreading the Olympic spirit, and wished the event a complete success.

IOC President Bach speaking via video

Sima Hong pointed out in her speech that the rich legacy left to Beijing by the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics had been transformed into “real legacy” of promoting mass sports, economic and social development, and international exchanges. It has been more than a year after the conclusion of the Olympic Winter Games, and Beijing has since then continued to popularize and develop winter sports and promote the national fitness-for-all campaign. The city has continued to make good use of the Olympic venues, which have actively bid for and hosted high-level sport events and steadily opened to the public. The development of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports, Culture and Tourism Belt has been going on steadily thanks to the joint efforts of Beijing and Hebei. She pointed out that after years of development, the Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival had become an important Olympic legacy brand project that inherits the Olympic spirit, disseminates the Olympic culture and promote fitness for all in the country.

Sima Hong’s speaking

BODA executive vice president Liu Jingmin awarded the plaque of “Demonstration Area for Sustainable Utilization of Olympic Legacy in Beijing” to Zhi Xianwei, deputy secretary of Changping District Party Committee and district chief.

The plaque awarding ceremony

At the opening ceremony, Beijing Olympic City Development Center, together with Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports and Zhangjiakou Municipal People’s Government, jointly issued the Plan for Advancing the Development of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports, Culture and Tourism Belt 2023. They agreed to work together in six areas, namely, establishing the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Olympic legacy inheritance coordination and support mechanism, strengthening international exchanges and cooperation, developing cultural links between Olympic museums, and promoting mass fitness and sporting events, with the aim to promote the post-Games use of Olympic venues and boost regional development. The plan was jointly released by Yang Shuo, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Zhao Wen, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, director Fu Xiaohui of Beijing Olympic City Development Center, and Li Keliang, mayor of Zhangjiakou.

Plan for Advancing the Development of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports, Culture and Tourism Belt 2023

The 14^th Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival is hosted by BODA and jointly undertaken by Beijing Olympic City Development Center and the People’s Government of Changping District. The Festival will last until the end of this year, and feature the main event, promotion of emerging sports in the world, Olympic education for the youth, the 19^th Beijing International Sports Film Week, the promotion of the culture of Summer and Winter Olympics, along with a variety of other activities. According to Party secretary and director Fu Xiaohui of Beijing Olympic City Development Center, this year’s festival will highlight the elements of the Beijing 2008 and the Beijing 2022 Games and global elements, and combine the Olympic culture with the Great Wall culture, simultaneously promote the culture of Summer and Winter Olympics and emerging sports worldwide, promote fitness for all and the post-Games use of Olympic venues, and organize brand-name activities to drive the coordinated development of regional sports, culture and tourism. Efforts will be made to integrate the Olympic legacy into people’s lives, and to contribute China’s proposals and play an exemplary role in passing on the Olympic legacy. In particular, during the festival, a series of mass sport events, including the Mini Ironman and RUN GIRLS will be held and open to the public, to greatly increase public engagement. Besides, global events such as Beijing International Sports Film Week and Beijing Teqball Challenge will play an important role in promoting teqball, an emerging sport in the world, and in building Beijing into an international exchanges center.

The main activities of the festival include the Summer and Winter Olympic Sports and Culture Camp, the Mini Ironman Growth Medal Challenge and the RUN GIRLS. The Sports and Culture Camp will be held from August 17 to 22 at Beiguan Square, Juyongguan Great Wall Scenic Area, Changping. To make sports entertaining and high-tech, it will include five activity modules: “Extreme Speed,” “Ice Rubik’s Cube,” “One Strike,” “Olympic Picture” and “One World,” with mass sports and cultural activities such as the 100-meter race, snowmobile drive, anti-gravity activity, long-distance shooting, exhibition of Olympic collections, and pin exchange. The Mini Ironman will be held on August 26 at the Yongle Youth Sports Camp and the Shisanling Reservoir in Changping. The contestants will be divided into three groups: U9, U12 and U15, and the U9 group will need to swim for 200m, cycle for 6km and run for 1km, while the U12 and U15 groups, swim for 200m, cycle for 8km, and run for 2km. They will pass through the triathlon venue of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The RUN GIRLS will be held on September 3 in Qikongqiao Huahai and the Shisanling Reservoir in Changping. It is specially designed for female runners. It will cover a distance of 10 miles (about 16 km). It will start from and end at the famous Changping scenic spot Qikongqiao Huahai, and also pass through the triathlon venue of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The promotion of teqball, an emerging sport, will be held on August 19-20 at Beiguan Square, Juyongguan, Changping District. The Beijing Teqball Challenge will take place on August 19, and the contestants will be divided into three groups: Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. On August 20, the Teqball Sport Carnival will be held, including activities to promote the sport and engage the visitors. The organizer hopes that by cooperating with the International Teqball Federation, the Challenge will become a top-ranking domestic international teqball event, and attract more people to participate in the sport and appreciate the charm of teqball.

Olympic education activities for the youth include the Five-Ring Medal Challenge and the elite training camp for secondary and elementary school students at winter Olympic venues. The Five-Ring Medal Challenge will be held on September 24 at the China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities in Shunyi District. The participating youngsters will complete skating, basketball, swimming, rock climbing, and team obstacle in the form of team relay, in honor of the Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.” The elite training camp will be held in November and December at Olympic venues including the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing District. It will recruit and select elementary and middle school students with good winter sports skills from 200 Olympic Education Demonstration Schools and 200 Winter Sports Characteristic Schools in Beijing, to improve their performance in winter sports.

On September 8, the 19^th Beijing International Sports Film Week will announce outstanding works and stage a screening of movies for the participants of the Beijing 2022 Games at the New Colorful Clouds Cinema, Haidian District. The productions shortlisted for this year’s Sport Movies & TV in Milan will also be announced, and the shortlisting certificates will be awarded. The official film of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2022, will be aired to the Games participants.

The series of activities for promoting the culture of Summer and Winter Olympics include eight themed activities in three categories. Among them, the serial activities to mark the 15^th anniversary of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games include two parts: a public call for stories of representative figures of the Games and the publicity of these stories, and a themed exhibition commemorating the 15^th anniversary of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The themed exhibition will be staged from August 8 to September 17 at the National Stadium, and tell the growth stories of the representative figures selected through the public call, to show the profound changes in Beijing since the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games. The lectures on the knowledge of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and the screening of sport movies and TV productions will be held at the Summer Palace during the summer vacation. The two-year anniversary of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games will be held at the Summer Palace at the end of December, including a themed touring exhibition on the spirit of the Beijing 2022 Games and the winter sports carnival for the youth, Ice Bicycle Relay, Parent-Child Fun Car Race on Ice, and Youth Curling Challenge (indoor). In this fall, a themed exhibition will be held in Zhangjiakou for one month, to promote the spirit of the Beijing 2022 Games. An inspection team for the tourist attractions along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports, Culture and Tourism Belt will be organized at the same time.

During the festival, Beijing Olympic City Development Center will jointly launch the sports and culture tourism consumption season with the People’s Government of Changping District, offering consumers discounts in facilities and services such as homestays, catering services, scenic spots, fruit and vegetable picking, spas, amusement parks, and shopping.

Initiated and hosted by BODA in 2010, the Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival is an important Olympic legacy brand project recognized by the IOC. It has been held for 13 consecutive years and has attracted more than 15 million participants. It has played an active role in spreading the Olympic spirit, building a “healthy China” and helping to build Beijing into an international exchanges center, and has become an influential urban sports and culture brand for promoting fitness for all.

Fu Xiaohui in an interview

Also present at the opening ceremony was Director Yang Jinkui, secretary of the Party Committee and director of China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities; Chen Jie, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau; Zhang Qian, executive vice president of the Beijing People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; Wang Shuxian director-general of Beijing Olympic City Development Foundation. They were joined by Guo Zhiwei, Guo Wenjie, Zhao Lijun, Zhao Hongwei, Dong Jian, Feng Zhiming, Bai Lin, Ren Jianghao, Liang Shiqiang, Feng Yi, Chen Xiang, Han Wen, Gao Yunchao, Ji Chuanpai, Wei Dengfan, Li Bukai, Zhong Zhiyong, Wang Dongjiang, Liu Bingquan, Chen Zuosong, Guo Zhiguo, Wang Maoqiang, representatives of the French and Swiss embassies in China, the gold medalist He Kexin of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, representatives of Chaoyang District, Shijingshan District, Yanqing District, Changping District and Zhangjiakou City, and representatives of sponsors of the Beijing 2022 Games and the Beijing Olympic City Development Foundation.

A scene of the program “Time Back: Our Olympics”

A scene of the program “Time Back: The Olympic Games amid the Mountains and Waters”

A scene of the program “Time Back: A New Start for the Summer and Winter Olympic City”

A scene of the module “Extreme Speed”

A scene of the module “Ice Rubik’s Cube”

A scene of the module “One Strike”

A scene of the module “Olympic Picture”

A scene of the module “One World”