Nearly 500 teenagers participate in the Five-Ring Medal Challenge of the 14th Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival

• Source：BODA
• Time🙀：2023-09-25

On September 24, hosted by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA), and jointly undertaken by Beijing Olympic City Development Center and China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities (CASPD), the Five-Ring Medal Challenge of the 14^th Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival was held at the base of China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities in Shunyi District. Secretary of the Party Leadership Committee and Director of BODA Fu Xiaohui, Secretary of the Party Leadership Committee and head of CASPD Yang Jinkui, Deputy Director General Shi Fenghua of Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau, deputy head Gao Yunchao of Beijing Olympic City Development Center, deputy head Song Qiang of CASPD attended the event and the awards ceremony.

Group photo of Fu Xiaohui, Yang Jinkui and the award-winning players

The winners and their medals

gun-firing ceremony

The Five-Ring Medal Challenge was one of the major youth Olympic educational activities of the 14^th Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival, another mass sports event following the success of the Mini Ironman Growth Medal Challenge and the Run Girls. The contestants were divided into two groups: U12 (10-12 years old) and U9 (6-9 years old), and competed in teams of five. They needed to complete five programs successively: track and field speed race (200 meters run), ice skills, rock climbing and bouldering (horizontal movement of 5 meters, height 1 meter), swimming (100 meters), and basketball skills (dribble over the pole, pass into the basket, and lay-up).  The event attracted nearly 100 teams, totaling nearly 500 teenagers to participate.

On the day of the event, as the starting gun was fired, young athletes competed with each other to forge ahead, and completed the above five programs. After fierce competition, the champion, the runner-up, and the third-place winner were announced for each age group. 

Gao Yunchao and Song Qiang posing for a group photo with the winners

The field of play (Track and Field Race)

The field of play (Ice Skills)

The field of play (Rock Climbing and Bouldering)

The field of play (Swimming)

the field of play (Basketball Skills)

Fan Yuchen, who participated in the challenge last year, said that she was very happy to participate again this year. “This competition emphasizes teamwork and team spirit. I am very happy and excited to see so many people in the competition. Through this competition, I learned more about different sports. The diversity of the competition setup is not only interesting, but also challenging, and motivates me to seek all-round development in my daily training. I look forward to participating in the Challenge again next year.” 

Fan Yuchen in an interview

Gao Yunchao, on behalf of the organizer, said that the five parts of the event included both the summer and winter Olympic sports, were designed to show the players the charm of the Games, stimulate their all-round development in daily life, and carry forward the Olympic spirit.  In the past two years, the CASPD has cooperated with Beijing Olympic City Development Center on many occasions to hold Olympic educational activities for young people, including the Five-Ring Medal Challenge. The two sides have also done a great deal together in the construction of the Beijing Olympic Museum and the promotion of disability inclusion. Recently, the two have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. In the future, they will leverage their respective resource advantages to jointly build a mechanism for comprehensive strategic cooperation in such areas as sports for persons with disabilities, youth Olympic education, popularization of the Olympic and Paralympic sports, promotion of the Beijing Olympic spirit and the spirit of the Beijing 2022 Games, social inclusion for persons with disabilities, and sports and cultural exchanges. They aim to carry forward the Beijing Olympic spirit and the spirit of the Beijing 2022 Games among the youth and the persons with disabilities, and promote the culture of Summer and Winter Olympics.

Gao Yunchao in an interview

It is reported that the CASPD, the venue of the Five-Ring Medal Challenge, is the world’s largest comprehensive training base for persons with disabilities, with superior training and security conditions. It is also the training base for China’s national team of persons with disabilities, which has been trained here for the Paralympics and many other major international sport events.  There are a large number of valuable exhibits and documents on both the Summer and Winter Paralympics, showing the visitors the perseverance of the athletes with disabilities.

Inside the venue

Initiated and hosted by BODA in 2010, the Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival is an important Olympic legacy brand project recognized by the IOC. It has been held for 13 consecutive years and has attracted more than 15 million participants. It has played an active role in promoting the Olympic spirit, building a “healthy China” and helping to build Beijing into an international exchanges center, and has become an influential urban sports and culture brand for promoting fitness for all.