U.S. Ski Team athletes praise China’s “spectacular snow and tantalizing terrain”

U.S. Ski Team athletes Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Travis Ganong have spoken glowingly of the conditions at China’s National Alpine Centre, which will host all alpine events at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

In an Instagram post published on 30 January, Cochran-Siegle writes: “First day skiing here in Yanqing and I’m blown away by the venue we get to compete at.”

“…I took today to explore the whole mountain and got a good first look at everything. Spectacular snow and tantalizing terrain should make for some amazing race conditions!”

 

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A post shared by Ryan Cochran-Siegle (@rc.s)

Downhill and Super-G specialist Travis Ganong was equally positive, describing the “beautiful conditions here in China”.

“The snow feels good and the @teamuse boys and I are ready to roll”, he says in an Instagram post published yesterday.

 

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A post shared by Travis Ganong (@travisganong)

China has come under intense criticism for its extensive use of snow-making at winter sports venues, with pundits raising concerns over the quality of snow and the environmental impacts caused by large-scale water use.

In Cochran-Siegle’s Instagram post, one user asks: “is it exclusively made-made snow?” to which the Olympian responds: “…for the most part, but pretty much no different than any other venue we ski at. Some snow is in the forecast tonight.”

In a 2019 interview, course designer and Swiss alpine legend Bernhard Russi described the (then) newly-completed National Alpine Centre as “one of the best racing mountains in the world“, promising a “very challenging course”.

Russi dismissed concerns that the area’s lack of natural snow would pose problems for alpine events.

“We are in the region where we do not have much snow, but for world-class ski racing, too much snow is not good,” Russi said. “If you have no snow at all, it’s much better because in the World Cup everywhere in the world, we have to produce man-made snow to have it [the course] concrete and packed.”

Athletes will get their first chance to test themselves on the Yanqing Downhill course today, with the Men’s Downhill medal event set to take place on Sunday 6 February.