ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) – Snowboarders from Australia and New Zealand praised the man-made snow after inspecting the slopestyle venue in Zhangjiakou earlier than the occasions start later this week.
“The snow is definitely superb, the man-made stuff. I feel due to how chilly it’s you need to be actually aggressive with the way you trip,” Zoi Sadowski Synnott, a Kiwi gold medal hopeful within the slopestyle competitors, mentioned on Tuesday
“The snow is tremendous grippy right here,” mentioned 23-year-old Australian snowboarder Matt Cox, who is ready to make his Olympic debut.
“Additionally … as a result of normally if you get to man-made snow and also you rip into an edge, for example, it slides out on you fairly simply, however with the chilly temps right here, it’s dreamy snow.”
The Beijing Winter Olympics would be the first Video games to make use of virtually 100% synthetic snow, deploying greater than 100 snow turbines and 300 snow-cannons working flat out to cowl the ski slopes.
Responding to the controversy over the environmental influence of manufacturing and utilizing man-made snow, the official Xinhua Information Company mentioned: “Beijing 2022 organizers have vowed to ship a sustainable and eco-friendly Video games. Consistent with this dedication, snowmaking at among the Beijing 2022 venues is something however detrimental to the atmosphere.”
The Olympic snowboarding competitions begin on Feb. 5 with qualifying rounds for the ladies’s slopestyle occasion.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Mari Saito, Enhancing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Supply: KFGO
