Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: With more than half athletes arrived, training gets underway

Nearly half of all athletes for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 have now arrived in China, and over the past few days have been familiarising themselves with the 12 competition venues following their opening for training.

In the mountain competition zones of Zhangjiakou and Yanqing, athletes have been testing out the cross-country skiing facilities. Nearby, lots of teams have been training in the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre.

How it started How it's going.

The iconic venue that saw @MichaelPhelps win EIGHT gold medals at Beijing 2008, will now be hosting curling at #Beijing2022, starting Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/dG7UKbOpyc

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This includes Sweden, whose head coach, Johannes Lukas, told media earlier this week, as per Olympics.com: "It really is a very cool stadium and the courses are very nice. I think the whole area is very good and it was a positive first day."

Some of the first athletes to test out the Alpine skiing facilities in Yanqing included American skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle.

He said: "First day skiing here in #Yanqing and I'm blown away by the venue we get to compete at. My PT and I took today to explore the whole mountain and got a good first look at everything. Spectacular snow and tantalizing terrain should make for some amazing race conditions!"

In Beijing, many of the ice venues have been busy. With lots of National Olympic Committees training in the "Ice Ribbon" for speed skating.

So far, several of the ice hockey teams have held on-ice sessions at the National Indoor Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Centre. This includes both the women's teams and the men's teams who have already arrived in Beijing.

The #Beijing2022 Opening Ceremony is just around the corner... 

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Athletes from China, Italy and the USA were among the first figure skaters to take to the ice at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Over the coming days, luge training will begin on February 1, and bobsleigh and skeleton on February 2, while Freestyle and snowboard athletes have two training slopes already available in the Genting Snow Park.

Athletes who will be competing in big air in Shougang and those participating in the curling tournament in the Ice Cube are expected to begin training within the next few days as well, with mixed doubles curling one of the first competitions to begin, alongside luge, on February 2.