The National Indoor Stadium will host most of the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament as well as games of the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament.
photo: Martin Merk
The first hockey teams have hit the ice at the National Indoor Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Centre to prepare for the Olympic ice hockey tournaments. The women will make the start with the first games in four days.
It will be the Olympics with the biggest arenas ever combined for the men’s and women's ice hockey tournaments. The seating capacity of the National Indoor Stadium is 19,418 and of the Wukesong Sports Centre 15,384.
The latter arena has already held ice hockey games before as home of the Kunlun Red Star men’s team in the Kontinental Hockey League and hosting NHL games.
However, both arenas have also had ice recently. With an international test event with national teams from various countries not possible last spring as originally foreseen due to border restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, a test event was organized with local teams last November in both arenas.
Here’s a video tour at the Wukesong Sports Centre, the venue that will primarily be used for the women’s ice hockey tournament but also host some games of the men’s event:
It will be the Olympics with the biggest arenas ever combined for the men’s and women's ice hockey tournaments. The seating capacity of the National Indoor Stadium is 19,418 and of the Wukesong Sports Centre 15,384.
The latter arena has already held ice hockey games before as home of the Kunlun Red Star men’s team in the Kontinental Hockey League and hosting NHL games.
However, both arenas have also had ice recently. With an international test event with national teams from various countries not possible last spring as originally foreseen due to border restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, a test event was organized with local teams last November in both arenas.
Here’s a video tour at the Wukesong Sports Centre, the venue that will primarily be used for the women’s ice hockey tournament but also host some games of the men’s event:
The men’s university teams of the test event were joined by Chinese referees. They enjoyed good ice quality produced by ice masters from abroad working with local staff. The test events were organized by the respective district authorities of Bejing and the Beijing Ice Hockey Association, and were partly held simultaneously in both arenas with game times like at the upcoming Olympics.
Beijing Arcfox won the tournament with a 7-4 gold medal game win against Beijing Shougang, the China Ice Sport College won bronze.
Not only the ice was tested but also the sport presentation and the broadcasting with 12 cameras. It was also a test of Covid-19 prevention technology including temperature measurements and daily PCR tests.
40 persons travelled to Beijing from abroad for the test event including Aivaz Omorkanov, IIHF Regional Vice-President Asia & Oceania, who led the directorate meetings, and the four IIHF Technical Delegates Hannes Ederer, Christian Hofstetter, Danny Kurmann and Martin Zoellner.
A debriefing meeting was held after each game to discuss game operations. The IIHF delegation also had the chance to meet Chinese Ice Hockey Association President Weidong Cao.
The test event was especially important for the National Indoor Stadium. The biggest indoor venue of these Olympics hosted many top events before including gymnastics, trampoline and handball competitions during the 2008 Olympics but ice hockey is new to the arena that got its ice sheet already one year ago. Both arenas were built for the Summer Games back then.
Join the venue tour of the National Indoor Stadium here:
Beijing Arcfox won the tournament with a 7-4 gold medal game win against Beijing Shougang, the China Ice Sport College won bronze.
Not only the ice was tested but also the sport presentation and the broadcasting with 12 cameras. It was also a test of Covid-19 prevention technology including temperature measurements and daily PCR tests.
40 persons travelled to Beijing from abroad for the test event including Aivaz Omorkanov, IIHF Regional Vice-President Asia & Oceania, who led the directorate meetings, and the four IIHF Technical Delegates Hannes Ederer, Christian Hofstetter, Danny Kurmann and Martin Zoellner.
A debriefing meeting was held after each game to discuss game operations. The IIHF delegation also had the chance to meet Chinese Ice Hockey Association President Weidong Cao.
The test event was especially important for the National Indoor Stadium. The biggest indoor venue of these Olympics hosted many top events before including gymnastics, trampoline and handball competitions during the 2008 Olympics but ice hockey is new to the arena that got its ice sheet already one year ago. Both arenas were built for the Summer Games back then.
Join the venue tour of the National Indoor Stadium here:
The Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament will be played 3-17 February and the men’s ice hockey tournament 9-20 February 2022.