The National Speed Skating Hall for Beijing 2022, also known as the "Ice Ribbon", is the world's first Winter Olympic venue using carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling ice making technology. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By Musundali Bhuiyan

Despite many challenges, China has successfully staged a grand Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Amid many festivities and fanfare, the premier sports event in the world saw athletes from different countries flex their prowess in three Olympic arenas — Zhangjiakou city, Beijing city and Yanqing district — every day from February 4-20.

Beijing 2022 has attracted unusual attention due to many reasons. Since it was organized during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has kept a close eye on how it ensures the safety of their athletes. The so-called 'diplomatic boycott' of the U.S. has also drawn special attention to the games. Many were highly skeptical if China could actually be successful in holding the Games.

But thanks to the prudent leadership of China, the Games was a huge success, which is being considered a knockout  punch  to  the  face  of so-called boycotters. Beijing 2022 has also set several records in the history of the Olympics. China has stunned the world by applying its exciting and cutting-edge technologies in Games. From designing and evaluation to construction and operation, scientific innovation and technologies have been applied in every aspect.

High-tech has mainly been applied to preventing and controlling the pandemic, reducing carbon emissions, ensuring the safety of the events, and creating a better viewing experience for the fans. The much-expected 5G signals covered all venues, including the roads, providing network connectivity for applications such as ultra-high-definition video and smart services. Hydrogen buses and autonomous driving have also been a big talking point.

Robots were employed for disinfection, body temperature checks, and environment monitoring against aerosol transmission of COVID-19. Robots cooked mouth-watering dishes and served guests. The robots proved their mettle as butlers in the canteen of the Olympic village and  athletes were full of praise for the taste of the dishes they produced as well as the robots reminding them to wear masks.

China has made history by reusing its eleven Summer Olympics venues for the Winter Olympics, which has cut emissions, reduced environmental pollution, and minimized the consumption of water, energy, and materials. China demonstrated its commitment to the concept of a green Olympics by using many high-tech tools to ensure that the goal of carbon neutrality was achieved throughout the games.

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, all the venues were wholly powered by green energy. Power generated from the wind and solar resources in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, was used in all of the venues. In addition, China planted tens of millions of trees to ensure the carbon-neutrality of the venues.

To give viewers a real-time experience of the games, China employed new broadcasting technologies, such as 8K ultrahigh definition live streaming and 360-degree instant replays, for large-scale implementation at all of the venues. As a result, Beijing 2022 became the most-viewed Winter Olympics of all time.

Application of scientific innovation, high and new technologies, and artificial intelligence have earned huge acclamation across the world. The use of digital currency and smart beds also added a new dimension to the Games this time around.

Many splendid videos filming phenomenal upshots of the application of the newest technologies at the Games by the athletes have already gone viral on social media platforms. In my eyes, the Games have been an ideal platform to showcase high-tech innovation and the next stage of technology implementation, which is speaking volumes of the Chinese miracle in sciences and technologies, especially in artificial intelligence.

Musundali Bhuiyan is a Bangladeshi journalist and columnist now based in Beijing.