Editor’s note
The modern Olympic Games, with thousands of athletes from around the world participating, are considered the world's foremost sports competition. For years, the world has always been inspired by Olympians with their energy and positivity.
As Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games begins and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games preparation work is well underway, let’s meet some of our TsinghuaRen who engage in Olympics and make contributions in various ways.
Apply Sustainability in Olympics Bid ——Zhang Li
“The bid for the Winter Olympics has faced challenges from various perspectives, while the key to resolving all the doubts is to be professional and speaking with facts.”
Zhang Li, a professor from School of Architecture focusing on sustainability, has been a part of the project planning for the 2022 Winter Olympics bid for Beijing, which started as early as 2014.
From design philosophy, resource allocation, to environmental conditions, countless obstacles have been on the way. Throughout the whole project, Prof. Zhang and his team strove to focus more on “sustainable development”, which has also perfectly coincided with the main concept of the Winter Olympics.
When Prof. Zhang and his team received the news on China’s successful bid to host 2022 Winter Olympics, they were overtaken by a special pride for being part of it. Also, as an architect, Prof. Zhang sees this experience also as a meaningful attempt to spread sustainability and developmental model.
Sports no longer Synonymous with Gold Medals ——Deng Yaping
Deng Yaping, one of the greatest table tennis players in the history, who won 18 world championships including 4 Olympic championships, became a TsinghuaRen in 1996 after her retirement from the sport.
Since she began playing table tennis, she has engaged fully in the competitions, which lead to a clear goal—to be the champion. As she grew older, the all-or-nothing results gradually turned into a source of pressure and made her nervous all along.
While in Tsinghua campus, Deng says, “I see other sides of sports besides winning or losing.” Here, sports is not necessarily associated with the results, but also personal developments, which inspired Deng with a new understanding of sportsmanship.
“Besides a healthy body, sports can bring us many valuable qualities including confidence, resilience, adherence, team spirit, and respect for others, etc.”
After escaping from the burden, Deng Yaping returned to her sports career with a brand-new identity—an advocate of sports. She engaged in the Olympics bid twice and did her utmost to introduce China to the International Olympic Committee. She also participated actively in public welfare activities concerned with sports, and worked with the China Women’s Development Foundation to set up sports rooms in rural areas.
“Sports is no longer synonymous with gold medals; instead, it becomes a part of me and my life.”
Feel honored and Recognized as a Volunteer ——Xiang Huan
“I’m really honored to work as a volunteer for the Winter Olympics that could make our utmost to prepare for such an international activity.”
Xiang Huan, a graduate student from Academy of Arts & Design, has dedicated herself into the volunteer work for 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for six months during 2018 to 2019.
Starting as a new hand, it has been a valuable journey, on which she has learned a great deal of Olympic-related knowledge and gained a deeper understanding of Olympic values. She was also greatly impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff and desired to be one of them.
After six-month service, Xiang Huan had to return to Tsinghua campus to prepare for her graduation project. While on May 10th, 2019, Xiang was invited to the 1000-day Countdown as a student representative.
“Coming back as a student representative makes me feel being recognized, and I would like to participate in volunteering work for the Winter Olympics again if possible.” As she wished, she will be the director of the Event Service in the National Stadium later on.