FILE PHOTO: Staff members are seen outside the National Aquatics Center, known colloquially as the “Ice Cube”, a curling competition venue for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, in Beijing, China April 2, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
November 11, 2021
BEIJING (Reuters) – Attendance for curling events at Beijing’s “Ice Cube” will be limited to 20% of capacity as a COVID-19 prevention measure, the venue’s general manager told China’s Global Times newspaper in an article published late on Thursday.
The Games will take place from Feb. 4-20, without overseas spectators, and organisers have yet to announce arrangements for local attendees, as China sticks with a zero-COVID policy using some of the world’s most stringent measures.
The curling venue, built as the “Water Cube” for swimming events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, has seating for 4,600 people but actual attendance at the Beijing Games will be limited to under 1,000, the Global Times reported, citing Yang Qiyong, the venue’s general manager.
Also known as the National Aquatics Center, the facility can be converted between ice and water sports in a process that takes 19 days, the report said.
(Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editign by Ken Ferris)
Source: One America News Network
