2022-02-04

An Austrian from "Ötztal" in Beijing 

The Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre is located at the southern foot of the Xiaohaituo Mountains in the north-western part of Yanqing District, Beijing. Service technician, Manuel Schöpf from Ötztal (Austria), is in charge of on-site snowmaking. "Meanwhile, all our systems are up and running. Everything is going perfectly. Let the games begin," explains Schöpf. He has headed up TechnoAlpin's Chinese market, among other things, for ten years and was also on site at numerous important snow events.

During the installation phase of the snow-making systems at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Center, Zhangjiakou Chongli Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou Chongli Guyangshu Skiing Group and Beijing Shougang Big Air (all of which are competition venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games), Manuel Schöpf's tasks included site management and the coordination of employees at all four locations.

Covid has severely impacted their work over the last two years. "For example, traveling between the venues was rather difficult at times, as was entering China," says Schöpf, who has been back on site in Yanqing since September 2021. Compared to the Games in Russia and South Korea, the preparatory work in China was -according to Manuel Schöpf - "particularly demanding". Not least because of the language barrier. "But now I have learned enough Chinese to get through easily," says Schöpf. Over time, everything has really calmed down. There's a great team spirit here and a strong sense of cohesion."

Special requirements

"We installed one of the world's most powerful systems in Yangching. We set ourselves a target to guarantee snow 100%, and that's exactly what we did," emphasizes Schöpf. "As far as I'm concerned, it makes no difference where the system is used. I want to make sure that everything runs with 100% precision. And the systems for the Games are running just like Swiss clockwork."

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