Talk Sports: Former FIS chief on significance of Asian Winter Games

Sarah Lewis, former FIS Secretary General and the first women in the position, joined CGTN Sports Scene's Greg Laffradi in the latest episode of our Talk Sports series to discuss the promising potential of the Asian Winter Games.

The ninth Asian Winter Games will take place in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, from February 7 to 14. Though the program doesn't match the Winter Olympic Games in scale, Lewis believes that it has its own attraction.

"The Asian Winter Games are a special opportunity and a fantastic showcase of winter sport talents from all across Asia," Lewis said. "They feature a diverse mix of established winter sports nations like China, Japan and Korea, and alongside some emerging sport countries from Central and South Asia. The Asian Winter Games provide a crucial platform for the Asian athletes to develop, to gain experience at a multi-sport event."

Before hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, China set a goal of engaging 300 million people in winter sports and did a great job of realizing it. According to data in a survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in January 2022, over 346 million Chinese people have participated in winter sports since 2015 when Beijing successfully won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Games.

"That has certainly been one of the remarkable positives from hosting the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, without any question," Lewis said. "The commitment of everybody involved in China made this really the success factor. And consequently, China's efforts across winter sports development have been absolutely remarkable. The goal of getting 300 million people involved was ambitious, but it was met clearly and surpassed."