FX.co ★ Curious facts about Beijing’s Olympic Winter Games

Cost of Olympic Games

According to the official reports, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics could cost China almost $4 billion. The budget turned out to be 13 times lower than the amount allocated for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In terms of the current prices, 14 years ago, China spent $53 billion on the Olympics. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games became the most expensive Olympics ever, with Russia allocating about $60 billion.

Profit from ticket sales

The Beijing Organizing Committee planned to earn $118 million on ticket sales. The amount was announced before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the difficult epidemiological situation, the committee decided to ban foreign spectators from the Winter Games. At the beginning of 2022, China took additional precautionary measures. It prohibited ticket sales to any individuals to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the country. Only a selected group of people were allowed to visit the games.

Cost of Hong Kong high-speed rail link

The Beijing–Hong Kong high-speed rail link is the longest in the world, totaling 2,200 km. Its maximum speed is 350 km/h. The construction began in 2005. The project was completed earlier thanks to the Olympics. When Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the government allocated all forces to finish the construction of the rail line connecting Beijing with Zhangjiakou, a Winter Olympics co-host city. Zhangjiakou hosted all freestyle, cross-country skiing competitions, and snowboarding. The authorities spent $9 billion on this high-speed rail link.

Beijing Olympics sponsors

The Organizing Committee did not voice the amount received from sponsors for the Olympic Games. However, 45 local and foreign companies, excluding official Olympic sponsors, invested money in the event. Oil and gas giant China National Petroleum Corp., State Grid Corp. of China, Yum China Holdings, etc. became domestic sponsors of the Winter Olympics. Mars' Wrigley-owned chocolate bar was the official chocolate of the 2022 Winter Olympic.

New Olympics venues

Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Olympics 7 years ago. Since then, the Chinese authorities have greatly expanded the country's sports infrastructure. They intended to popularize winter sports among local residents. Since 2015, 235 ski areas and 337 ice arenas have been built in China. As a result, the popularity of winter sports increased considerably. More than 300 million said they had tried winter sports at least once in the last few years.

Snow production

China lacks cold weather and snow, in particular. Therefore, snow in the 2022 Olympics will be produced by snow machines. According to preliminary estimates, 1.2 million cubic meters of fake snow was made to hold competitions such as cross-country skiing, ski jumping, bobsleigh, etc. To produce such an amount of snow, more than 220 million liters of water are required. Environmental organizations highlighted that this was rather an extreme measure taking into account the fact that the country faces a shortage of fresh water.