Beijing 2022 will be delivered to the highest possible standards in winter sports thanks to the meticulous recruitment of elite professional personnel from around the world.

While China boasts considerable expertise in infrastructure construction, the country had little knowledge of organizing major winter sports events prior to winning the Olympic hosting rights in 2015.

To compensate for this lack of experience, China hired overseas experts, just as it did for the 2008 Summer Games.

"We have adopted a global view in the preparation process," said Yan Cheng, head of human resources of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG).

"A total of 61 foreign experts from 18 countries were hired and their expertise has worked well in many key areas of the preparatory work for the Winter Olympics, such as venue construction, course design and event operations," Yan said.

Not only helping to shape the Games, these experts will also leave a significant legacy thanks to their work in training Chinese staff in winter sports development, venue design and sports tourism, according to Yan.

He added that BOCOG has been focusing on cultivating domestic professional talents, stressing the importance of self-reliance for China in the industry going forward.

Over the past five years, BOCOG has coordinated and implemented more than 400 training programs, involving over 40,000 people.

"The preparations for Beijing 2022 required a large number of elite professionals, so we conducted a series of systematic training programs to cultivate our own personnel, covering universal knowledge, professional knowledge, venue and post-Games knowledge," Yan said.

"Thousands of domestic officials have been trained, including salaried staff, technical officials, professional technical personnel, volunteers, contractors and so on," he said.

Close ties have also been fostered between BOCOG and the organizing committees of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, with cooperation focused on personnel training.

Yan said Beijing 2022 sent hundreds of staff members to Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 in secondment programs to acquire first-hand experience, working in key roles in the local organizing committee or joining in an observational capacity.

With the Beijing Winter Olympics just around the corner, Yan said the COVID-19 pandemic must be considered a major threat to the smooth operation of the Games.

BOCOG, together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), recently published the second edition of the Beijing 2022 Playbook, which outlines COVID-19 countermeasures for the Games.

Yan said it is extremely important for each and every BOCOG staff member to understand the rules of the Playbook in order to ensure safe Games.

"We will hold more training sessions on the Playbook to make sure everybody is thoroughly familiar with it. I hope that all of us can be advocates, role models and supervisors of these COVID-19 countermeasures," Yan said.

The Winter Olympics will take place from Feb 4-20, while the Winter Paralympics will be held from March 4-13.

Xinhua