By WANG Xiaoxia

The World Winter Sports Expo 2026 (WWSE 2026) was held in Beijing from October 15 to 17, bringing together global ice and snow industry resources, and focusing on empowering the outdoor economy through technology.

Representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), international winter sports federations, embassies, enterprises, universities, and media gathered to witness a new starting point for the industry in the opening year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).

Yu Zaiqing, honorary member of the IOC and vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said the expo has grown into one of the world's largest and most authoritative ice and snow industry platforms over its 11-year history.

He emphasized that China's ice and snow industry has built a complete ecosystem, with technology serving as the core driver, transforming the Winter Olympic legacy into a power source for high-quality development.

Yue Li, acting mayor of Beijing's Shijingshan district, which had been one of the venues of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, said the district is leveraging events to drive industry and urban development. Its national short track speed skating training base has been transformed into the Shougang Park E-sports Center—a vivid example of technology empowering venue transformation.

In a video address, Christophe Dubi, executive director of the IOC Olympic Games Department, cited the "Ice Cube"—originally the "Water Cube" from the 2008 Summer Olympics—as an example of how venues can achieve functional conversion and multi-purpose reuse with proper planning and appropriate technology. He stressed that global winter sports are in an era of transition, with climate change bringing challenges such as artificial snow technology and energy consumption.

Zhang Li, co-president of Asia Digital Group, released the 2026 China Ice and Snow Industry Development Research Report, which said the scale of China's ice and snow industry has surpassed one trillion RMB. The report emphasized that technology empowerment has become a critical support for improving industry quality and efficiency, with digital applications now permeating ice and snow platforms, smart wearables, and new materials for large-scale equipment.

In his keynote speech, Hong Ping, vice president of Beijing Sport University, outlined the path of technology empowering the industry. Calling science, intelligence, green development, health, and safety five indispensable segments, he proposed building an integrated air-space-ground-human safety emergency rescue solution in collaboration with enterprises.

In the high-level dialogue session, Florian Hajzeri, general manager of TechnoAlpin Ice and Snow Equipment Zhangjiakou Co., Ltd., described how the company has achieved snowmaking at temperatures of 25 to 35 degrees Celsius through simplified process design and electrified green technology.

Yi Li, vice president of Hot Snow Miracle, shared operational experiences from more than 10 indoor ski resorts across China, noting that technology-empowered operations have significantly improved energy management, customer service, and teaching delivery, resulting in over three million ski members.

Franz Roessler, commercial counselor at the Austrian Embassy in China, said data and AI are areas where China offers lessons for Austria. Li Jianrou, Olympic short track speed skating champion, said technological assistance has expanded from simple heart rate monitoring to systematic management of daily, weekly, and monthly recovery, greatly improving the precision of youth athlete development.

An ice and snow industry investment and development platform was jointly initiated by Sunac China and BONSKI together with Victory Star Design, Eternal Star Ice & Snow, and Bin Jarallah Group, to address the pain points in the construction and operation of indoor ice and snow venues.

The "Ice and Snow Seeds in Thousands of Schools of Hundreds of Cities" — National Youth Ice and Snow Sports Promotion Public Welfare Program was launched to broaden the reach of youth ice and snow education. World champions Li Jianrou, Wang Bingyu, and Zhao Nannan called for more schools, parents, and enterprises to bring ice and snow sports closer to children.

Yu said the expo is joining hands with global partners to advance the industry toward intelligence, green development, and internationalization, writing a new chapter in the transformation of cold resources to a hot economy.