SPORT / SPORTS
SPECTACULAR SPORTING GAMES Artificial snow and all Beijing’s robots
During February we enjoyed 17 competitive days, 109 competitions in 15 different disciplines and approximately 2,900 athletes who had only one goal: a medal around their necks BEIJING WAS SELECTED TO BE THE FIRST CITY to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and its Olympics will be remem- bered for the introducing of several new sports, but also for its strong promoting of gender equality. Accordingly, for the first time in history, competitions with mixed-gender teams were held in sports such as snowboard cross, freestyle skiing and ski jumping, while women were given an oppor- tunity to compete in the monobob event for the first time. All events were divided into three zones, or clusters, among which the city of Beijing dominated as a venue, giv- en that it hosted all indoor com- petitions. Nonetheless, we will best re- member the Beijing Winter Olym- pics for the magnificent opening cer- emony. The entire world watched this spectacle unfold at the sta- dium known as the “bird‘s nest”, which also served as the venue for the opening of the 2008 Summer
Olympics, and behind it all stood the same man: film director Yi-Mou Zhang, who engaged approximate- ly 3,000 people. It was mostly teen- agers and volunteers who initial- ly emerged wearing red suits and ice skates, traversing the virtual ice that had been installed in the sta- dium. They danced to John Len- non‘s Imagine. Given that the open- ing ceremony took place on the first day of spring according to the Chi- nese calendar, the start of the en- tire show carried symbols of this season. Scenes from the previous 23 Winter Olympics were projected onto a three-dimensional cube by laser, which looked really masterful. A Winter Olympics without snow might seem strange, but that‘s how it was! And that wasn’t because Beijing doesn’t have enough snow, but rather because the Internation- al Olympic Committee encourages hosts to use artificial snow in or- der for the Games to be sustaina- ble. However, this was the first time that artificial snow has been used ex- clusively, in 100% of cases, at all 17 locations where competitions were held. Creating such a large amount of snow required around 223 mil- lion litres of water, 100 generators and 300 snow cannons. The Olympic mascot could be seen on every corner in Beijing. As expected, it was a panda, called Bing Dwen Dwen. The bear was dressed in an outfit representing
Zimska olimpijada bez snega zvuči čudno, ali tako je bilo! I to ne zato što nema dovoljno snega u Pekingu A Winter Olympics without snow might seem strange, but that’s how it was! And that wasn’t because Beijing doesn’t have enough snow
the combination of skating equip- ment and a space suit, as a way of paying tribute to the new technol- ogies that allow us to constantly shift boundaries. This is also evi- dent on his face, or in the brightly coloured halo around his face that represents all the sophisticated tech- nologies used in sporting competi- tions, while the heart on his hand is intended to symbolise sports fans, but also China as a generous and hospitable host. In accordance with such a con- cept, the Olympic Village was full of robots that carried out a lot of work in order, among other things, to re- duce the risk of coronavirus conta- gion. As many as 120 robots per- formed tasks in the Olympic Village alone. They were even able to detect the presence of covid-19 in the air and automatically disinfect rooms. The future has arrived!
108 | Olimpijada » Olympics
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