At the invitation of Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Han Zirong, member of the Party Leadership Group of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Executive Vice Chairperson of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA), led a delegation to Milan from February 5 to 8 to participate in the torch relay of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and attend the Opening Ceremony of the Games. Han served as Full-time Vice Chairperson and Secretary General of the Organizing Committee for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (“Beijing 2022”). During the visit, the delegation had extensive exchanges with the IOC, the World Union of Olympic Cities, the International Sports Federations (IFs), the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee, and FICTS.

The delegation met with Juan Antonio Samaranch, Vice President of the IOC, expressed gratitude for his strong support for the successful hosting of the Beijing 2022 Games, and congratulated him on his successful re-election as IOC Vice President.

The delegation also visited the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and had in-depth discussions with its Chief Executive Officer on the impacts of technological changes such as cloud broadcasting and artificial intelligence on sports broadcasting, as well as the future direction of integrating Esports into the Olympic Movement.

At the invitation of Kirsty Coventry, Han Zirong, on behalf of Beijing 2022, participated in the torch relay in Milan together with representatives of the organizing committee for other editions of the Olympic Games on February 5, local time. The representatives had extensive dialogues in a joint effort to promote communication and cooperation among Olympic cities. Grégoire Junod, President of the World Union of Olympic Cities and Mayor of Lausanne, stated that efforts should be made to strengthen communication and cooperation between Olympic cities and develop more exemplary models on the utilization of Olympic legacy.

(Han Zirong attends the torch relay in Milan.)

The delegation visited the “2026 Passionate Games—Culture in Motion” exhibition co-organized by FICTS and BODA, during which they had substantive talks with Prof. Franco Ascani, President of FICTS, on future cooperation between the two sides.

The delegation had talks with leading officials of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). They engaged in in-depth exchanges on attracting high-level international events to Beijing, promoting the popularization and development of volleyball and skiing, especially cooperation on youth sports events, and advancing the public fitness initiative.