Celebrating 100th anniversary of CPC | Winter sports take root among Bolivian athletes thanks to China's assistance program

Thanks to a Chinese sports technical assistance program, a group of Bolivian athletes received professional training from Chinese coaches and made their final preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Yabuli Sports Training Base in Shangzhi, a county-level city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Program participants Timo Grönlund and Simon Breitfuss, representing Bolivia, competed in men's cross-country skiing and women's Alpine skiing respectively at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Grönlund said he was glad to see so many Bolivian people learn and practice snow and ice sports and hoped that his country will have a national cross-country skiing team in future international competitions.

Breitfuss said she started to learn skiing at the age of three and hoped that she could give a good performance at the  Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. She is looking forward to seeing more Bolivian people playing snow and ice sports.

Breitfuss added that she and her teammates received a warm welcome from Chinese volunteers, who gave them many Spring Festival gifts upon arrival.

Marco Mourindo, 26, a compatriot of Grönlund and Breitfuss, said he has comprehensively mastered the skills of cross-country skiing and hopes that he will further build up his skills and physical fitness to either qualify for future Winter Olympics or attend the Winter Olympics as a coach.

Maria Bigrasse, another Bolivian trainee at the Yabuli Sports Training Base, said she wants to catch up with her Chinese peers in snow and ice sports in the future.

Li Jingdong, a former member of China's national cross-country skiing team, coached the Bolivian trainees at the base. He formulated training plans in accordance with the trainees’ individual strengths in order to better improve their performance in future competitions.