(Zhangjiakou) Beijing and its surroundings have been grappling with an unusual phenomenon for two days: it is snowing.
Posted at 10:04 a.m.
A snowstorm about six inches of snow covered the mountains of Zhangjiakou and Yanqing on Sunday. The snow had already left a small white carpet on Saturday morning.
Olympic Games volunteers and staff have been busy clearing the streets and Olympic sites all weekend. Their arsenal is made up of shovels, but also leaf blowers and “gancao” brooms, hay in French.
The freestyle skiing downhill qualifications in which Quebecer Olivia Asselin is registered have been moved from Sunday to Monday morning (China time). Those of acrobatic jumps (Marion Thénault, Flavie Aumond, Naomy Boudreau-Guertin) will take place just before the finals, Monday afternoon.
In the giant slalom, 33 of the 87 men did not complete the course on Sunday not because of the snow on the course, but rather because of the reduced visibility.
In Beijing, the city also received a smaller amount of snowfall. It only receives an average of 2 to 3 centimeters per month, in winter.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The city of Beijing normally receives an average of only 2 to 3 centimeters of snow per month, in winter.
During the daily press conference of the organizing committee of the Games, there was a lot of talk about figure skater Kamila Valieva, 15, who tested positive before the Olympics. The other subject that was discussed at length: snow!
It is that until now, the athletes performed on entirely artificial snow. The Beijing Games have also been criticized for the environmental cost of 100% man-made snow. According to the BBC, 222 million liters of water were needed to cover the Olympic slopes with snow.
Very slow conditions
Olympics staff don’t just clear the roads. It also compacts the snow of the slopes like those of acrobatic descents which comprise three ramps and three jumps.
“In some competition sites, such as Genting Park in particular, we have already cleaned the tracks twice,” said Yang Shu’an, vice-president of the Games Organizing Committee, Sunday morning.
“There can’t be any surface snow at these sites. The cleaning crews are constantly removing the layer of snow. Since 5 a.m. Sunday, thousands of people in Zhangjiakou have been working on the tracks,” he added.
Already on Saturday, after a few centimeters had accumulated on the ground, snowboarder Éliot Grondin addressed the weather conditions during his interview with the media, after his second place in snowboard cross by mixed team.
“It was not easy conditions. It was difficult especially for the girls with the speed which was slowed down by the snow”, said the double medalist of these Games.
Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg, after winning her silver medal in the biathlon pursuit (10 km), spoke of “very, very difficult” conditions.
“It was super slow and the fresh snow made the tracks a bit soft which didn’t improve the speed. It was definitely some of the toughest conditions I’ve skied in. And the altitude, too! It was extremely difficult today. »
The snow should end on Monday. But athletes won’t necessarily get a break. Very cold temperatures, around -20°C, are expected in the coming days.
It will be cold, but at least the landscapes will be a little less brown and a little prettier.