Turkish National Olympic Committee Sports Director Erdem Dogan (L1), some Turkish Olympic team members and Chinese volunteers pose to the camera during a race of the Turkish alpine skier Berkin Usta (R3) at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Beijing, China, Feb. 16, 2022. (provided by the Turkish Olympic team)
"All the volunteers and professionals from the Chinese side were very friendly and warm, and they demonstrated how much they love our country and made us feel this in every way."
"The work of the volunteers here has been incomparable, in terms of both efficiency and flexible working hours ... Their works were very successful."
ISTANBUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish Olympic team and the Chinese Olympic volunteers have built an "amazing synergy" at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, cultivating a warm friendship, Turkish National Olympic Committee Sports Director Erdem Dogan told Xinhua in an interview.
Praising the devoted hard work of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) assistants known as Olympic volunteers, Dogan remarked that they successfully linked a bridge between the organizers and the participant teams to ensure the entire Olympic process passes in great comfort.
"The work of the volunteers here has been incomparable, in terms of both efficiency and flexible working hours ... Their works were very successful," Dogan pointed out.
"There were times when they worked with us until late at night. They always came early in the morning. They worked very devotedly and made our work much easier," he said.
The Olympic delegation of Turkey parade into the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
Dogan and seven Turkshish athletes joined in the Beijing Games, competing in short-track speed skating, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and ski jumping branches.
The sports director noted that four Chinese volunteers, all university students fluent in English, were assigned to the Turkish team. Among them, Li Wenyi, whose Turkish name is Merve, studies Turkish language and literature in Beijing and speaks the language very well.
"All the volunteers and professionals from the Chinese side were very friendly and warm, and they demonstrated how much they love our country and made us feel this in every way," he continued. "We have responded to them in the same way. There was a very nice synergy between us."
The Turkish athletes have broken new ground in Beijing, achieving the best scores in Turkey's Winter Olympic Games history and attracting a tremendous interest of the Turkish audience.
Staff members and volunteers work after ski jumping competition round of nordic combined team gundersen large hill/4x5km at the National Ski Jumping Centre in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)
Furkan Akar, 19-year-old short-track speed skater, amazingly ranked 6th, and ski jumper Fatih Arda Ipcioglu, 24, passed the semi-finals for the first time and managed to enter the list of the top 40 ski jumpers in the world.
"For the first time, we joined the Olympics with the Turkish athletes who are really competitive in winter sports. Therefore, we all watched the games with great excitement," Dogan said.
The Turkish athletes who completed their races started to return to their countries with many gifts in their bags. Bing Dwen Dwen, the panda mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, became the indispensable souvenir for all.
"The mascot is so cute," Dogan said with a big smile on his face. After waiting in long queues in front of the gift stores, he managed to buy two Bing Dwen Dwens, which are so popular that they are often out of stock, one for his family and another one to be showcased at the Turkish National Olympic Committee's headquarters in Istanbul.
Fatih Arda Ipcioglu of Turkey competes during Ski Jumping Men's Normal Hill Individual 1st Round at the National Ski Jumping Centre in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)■
