Interview: IOC member says Beijing Olympics offers safe environment with
well-planned measures

Chinese athlete Gu Ailing (2nd L) prepares to compete the freestyle skiing women's freeski halfpipe final of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

"As a medical person, I can say that the environment in the area (defined as the closed-loop), where everyone participating in the Olympic Games lives together, is currently the safest place in the world," said a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

ISTANBUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics offer a safe and secure environment for all participants, thanks to well-planned and well-prepared health measures, Ugur Erdener, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey, has said.

Erdener, who is also the head of the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission, reviews and assesses health-related issues on a daily basis, including COVID-19 measures and the air quality, during the Games with close cooperation with the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG).

"Every morning in our daily meetings, we make these evaluations with both the medical officials of BOCOG and the experts of our International Olympic Committee that we have specially designated for the Games," he told Xinhua in a recent online interview.

A volunteer poses for selfies at the Olympic Village for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Yanqing District of Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by An Yaoyang/Xinhua)

The IOC official emphasized China's successful management in preventing COVID-19 from spreading in the Olympic villages in Yanqing district, Beijing's downtown and Zhangjiakou in Hebei province.

"As a medical person, I can say that the environment in the area (defined as the closed-loop), where everyone participating in the Olympic Games lives together, is currently the safest place in the world," said Erdener, a physician specialized in Ophthalmology.

On the health services provided in the villages, Erdener said all have well-equipped outpatient clinics and hospitals that support them with ambulances and ambulance helicopters, and injuries or any other health issues can be intervened instantly.

In his view, China took a big step forward in constructing sustainable and environmentally friendly facilities based on green energy.

With regard to the Big Air Shougang, a facility where big air competitions are held, he said it "reveals a beautiful transformation of an old industrial area into a park, preservation of all the facilities there, but at the same time their rearrangement with an environmentally friendly approach ... These are the aspects that make Beijing 2022 different."  ■