Beijing 2022 receives positive feedback as participants begin to arrive

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Beijing 2022 venues, villages and services have received positive feedback as Games participants begin to arrive.

Pierre Ducrey, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Games Operations Director, on Wednesday told a remote technical briefing on Beijing 2022 that his impression is "extremely positive" after arriving in the Chinese capital a week ago.

"We can confirm the impression that we had from the test event, which is that the field of play and the venues are outstanding, so we are going to have fantastic sport here in Beijing," Ducrey said. "The villages also look fantastic as planned."

"I think everybody here on the ground is very impressed with what we see. Be it from quantity of the venues that I mentioned before, quality of the services, and the quality of the welcome as well. We have a lot of people here, who are very welcoming, very keen to work with us," he added.

Ducrey also gave a thumbs-up for the pre-Games closed-loop, which he labelled "very safe" with "a good number of" COVID-19 countermeasures in the Playbook already in place.

He noted that pre-departure and arrival COVID-19 tests will help to block cases from entering the closed-loop and participants need to conduct daily testing and wear masks of a required standard inside the loop.

"[I am] very impressed by the establishment of the pre-Games loop, which really allows the stakeholders to fulfill their work plan," he commented.

Ducrey confirmed that 41 percent of the athletes have qualified for the Olympic Winter Games, with the rest of the qualification completed by January 16.

The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games will be held from February 4 to 20.