China News Service, October 14th. On the afternoon of the 14th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the preparations for the 33rd Winter Universiade in Changchun 2027. The 33rd Universiade Winter Games will be held in Changchun City and Jilin City, Jilin Province from January 15 to 25, 2027. The event has a total of 12 events and 97 events. Currently, more than 3,700 athletes, coaches, and officials from 63 countries and regions have registered, which is the largest number of registrations for any previous Winter Games.
Tong Lixin, vice chairman of the Winter Games Organizing Committee and deputy director of the General Administration of Sport, introduced the relevant situation of the competition organization. He said that at present, all preparatory work has been fully launched, and the competition organization work is progressing steadily and orderly according to the time node.
First, the competition organization system has been established. The competition organization system with the competition command center as the center and the individual competition committees of each event as the basis has been established, and the running-in work is being accelerated to ensure smooth operation during the competition, efficient transmission of instructions, and rapid handling of emergencies. The Ministry of Education, the General Administration of Sports and Jilin Province jointly selected 14 business backbones to serve as competition directors to provide professional guidance in aspects such as venue equipment, schedule arrangement, and emergency response. From September 16th to 18th, a special meeting on competition organization work was held in Changchun. Each work was reviewed and judged one by one according to the checklist, problems and deficiencies were identified, and rectification measures were clarified. In the future, domestic technical officials will be selected according to the needs of the event, and they will work with international organizations to do various tasks such as competition refereeing and organizational management.
Second, the project layout and competition schedule have been basically determined. The Changchun Winter Games will all use existing venues. The Changchun competition area will host speed skating, short track speed skating, figure skating, curling, ice hockey and cross-country skiing, freestyle ski aerials, ski orienteering, and winter cross-country running events. Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Division will host alpine skiing, freestyle and snowboarding big jump, U-shaped field, and slope obstacle skills events, while Songhua Lake Ski Resort will host snowboarding (parallel events) and ski mountaineering events. In terms of the competition schedule, there will be a total of 14 competition days from January 12 to 25, 2027. The curling mixed doubles event will start first on January 12. On the day of the closing ceremony on January 25, there will also be competitions in short track speed skating, cross-country skiing and curling. The finals of popular events such as short track speed skating, speed skating, freestyle skiing and aerials will be scheduled on the weekend.
The third is test drill arrangements. The Changchun Winter Games will arrange 15 test drills starting next month. Some projects will implement full-process and all-element practical drills, focusing on inspecting command and dispatch, venue operations, equipment, transportation, food and accommodation, team collaboration, timing and scoring, and performance statistics to make adequate preparations for the smooth launch of the main game. In addition, we are focusing on sorting out potential risks in competition organization, extreme weather, medical emergency, information technology and other fields, and formulating emergency plans to ensure safe hosting of the competition.
Fourth, registration for competitions is promoted simultaneously. The Changchun Winter Games is divided into three stages: intention registration, competition registration, and individual event registration. It is currently in the registration stage. As of October 12, a total of 3,716 athletes, coaches, and officials from 63 countries and regions have completed registration. From September 13th to 18th, a meeting of delegation heads was held in Changchun. The organizing committee gave each delegation a detailed introduction to the transportation, arrival and departure, accommodation and catering, training and competition during the competition, laying a solid foundation for the smooth entry of each team into the competition.
