IOC President at Spectacular Opening Ceremony for China National Games in Tianjin - Meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping

During the meeting - their second this year - the two leaders expressed a common commitment to continue with their very close cooperation. Excellent progress has already been made on preparations for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. President Bach said that these Games would be “clean, green and sustainable”.

During the friendly and cooperative meeting, they also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest. 

Earlier, the President was in Beijing, where he visited several of the venues for the Olympic Winter Games 2022. Many of them draw on the legacy of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008: Wukesong Indoor Stadium, which staged basketball in 2008, will be the venue for ice hockey in 2022; while the former Shougang steel works, which was closed down in the run-up to the Beijing Games, will be transformed into the venue for Big Air and is also the site of Beijing 2022’s innovative headquarters.

With a number of innovations, and particularly with the Global Partnership with Alibaba, the IOC President said the Games had the potential to “set a global benchmark for future Olympic Games.”

Later, he met Cai Qi, President of the Beijing 2022 Organising Committee, and the leadership team, to discuss the excellent progress of the preparations. Earlier, he held talks with the President of the NOC of China, Ghou Zhongwen.

Throughout the trip, the President was accompanied by IOC Vice-President Zaiqing Yu, IOC member Li Lingwei and IOC Honorary Member Timothy Fok.