“The snowboard halfpipe here is fantastic, meeting international standards—I felt great skiing on it,” said Liu Jiayu, China’s first world champion in snowboard halfpipe, smiling at the Tianshan Tianchi International Ski Resort on the afternoon of the 19th.
From March 17 to 20, the Tianshan Tianchi International Ski Resort hosted the 2011/2012 National Snowboard Halfpipe Skiing Championship, featuring 33 athletes from teams in Changchun, Jilin, Harbin, Shenyang, and Xinjiang, including 10 national team members. Liu Jiayu did not compete as she was undergoing post-surgery rehabilitation training, but came specially to carry out recovery training here.
According to Wang Hao, Marketing Director of the Tianshan Tianchi International Ski Resort, the resort’s halfpipe was built to international specifications in terms of length, width, and depth. It is currently the only venue in Xinjiang that meets all the requirements for the 2016 National Winter Games, and is also the only one in the region certified by the International Ski Federation, capable of hosting international-level events. It ranks among the best of existing halfpipes in China.
The Tianshan Tianchi International Ski Resort will host multiple events—including snowboarding—at the 2016 National Winter Games. Currently, relevant parties are actively negotiating in an effort to establish the site as a national snowboarding training base.