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International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has advised that he has no concern at all about the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, as the body is perfectly satisfied with all preparation work.

After discussing the latest 2022 Games preparation with the Chair of the Coordination Commission of Beijing winter games last week, Bach said that Beijing 2022 had once again emphasised that the main motivation behind the games is to make an overall program for health in China.

As reported by China’s Xinhua news agency, he advised that the Beijing games would be "using sports as a means for health to make two or three hundred million Chinese familiar with winter sports”, adding that even a small percentage of these people practicing and continuing to practice winter sports would be multiplying the participation in winter sports worldwide, a significant boost to the Olympic movement as a whole.

Bach went on to advise that all the infrastructure for Beijing 2022 is well underway and on time, and about 3,200 elite Chinese athletes are preparing for qualifications that cover all 109 events of the winter games.

Bach added "the IOC has great satisfaction with the innovative approach with regard to sustainability (of Beijing 2022), for example, in ice making in particular, high standards are respected and cutting-edge technology used. There's also great progress in marketing combined with great discipline on the budget.”

Bach's remarks came after the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland and he went to talk of the unifying power of the Olympic Games as "the only event in the world which brings together athletes from all the 206 IOC members and the IOC refugee Olympic team, in a peaceful competition and living together in one village, respecting the same rules.

"In general, the relation between sport and the governments should be one of mutual respect of each other's role. That means the governments should respect the autonomy of sport, and sport respects the rules and laws of a country and the international community.”

The IOC 134th Session has also announced that the Milan-Cortina in Italy will host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Images: Thomas Bach (top) and one of the planned downhill venues in the Games venue of Zhangjiakou (below, courtesy of Populous).

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