Interview: Beijing Winter Olympics organized with "incredible care" -- Turkish veteran skier

ISTANBUL, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Winter Olympics are organized with "incredible care," and preparations have been at the "highest level," said Atakan Alaftargil, president of the Turkish Ski Foundation.

"I have participated in two Winter Olympics so far. One was in Salt Lake City and the other one in Torino, and in both of them, the organizations were worthy of the Olympics. Nevertheless, I said to myself I wished I could have participated in this one in Beijing," he told Xinhua in a virtual interview.

Alaftargil was among the Turkish athletes who joined the Salt Lake City 2002, and took part in the Turin 2006 as a skiing coach of Turkey.

The former Olympic athlete was significantly amazed by the ski facilities of the Beijing Games. "This, of course, shows us how big this organization is and how complicated the work is,"he said.

As a former alpine skier, he has not missed a single race in the Beijing Winter Olympics so far.

"We saw a great track. We saw a very challenging track," he pointed out, referring to women's alpine giant slalom race held on Monday.

In Alaftargil's view, China has also made great progress in terms of the growing number and quality of its athletes. He mentioned the success of the young Chinese athletes, such as Su Yiming, who claimed the silver medal in the men's snowboard slopestyle at the Beijing 2022, and the freestyle skier Gu Ailing who has achieved outstanding victory.

He believed that the number of successful Chinese athletes will grow in the upcoming Olympics. "That's exactly how I see it. We will talk a lot about Chinese athletes in the future," he said.

Alaftargil also praised the COVID-19 precautions taken in the Olympics.

Regarding Turkish athletes competing in the Games, Alaftargil noted that their achievements will certainly drive the development of winter sports in Turkey. "Therefore, we wholeheartedly believe in our friends, and I hope they will carry our winter sports athletes to the place they deserve," he noted.