The number of teams participating in the inter-school hockey tournament has increased to 36 from initial 12.

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) will announce in more than a month which city – Almaty, Kazakhstan or Beijing, China – will win the bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Beijing's final sprint ahead of the IOC announcement was reflected in the increasing popularity of winter sports in the city – even during the summer time. Earlier this month, from June 20-22, Beijing held an inter-school hockey tournament that attracted more than 30 teams.

Hockey is not a sports tradition in the Chinese capital city, but Yao Naifeng, a former Chinese national men's hockey team player and the former head coach of the country's women's hockey team, noted that "hockey is the sport for the best men!" meaning that hockey plays a remarkable role in enhancing a person's comprehensive abilities.

Yao, who has been working in beginners' hockey coaching in Beijing for more than 10 years, said more parents, especially those in first-tier cities in China, have started to acknowledge the team sport. "Positive changes, for example those in physical fitness, willpower and the sense of teamwork, will take place in a child after he or she starts to play hockey. This is the key reason for the parents' support," he said.

The inter-school hockey tournament is already in its third season, and the number of teams participating increased to 36 from the initial 12. However, although the tournament was designed to accommodate both middle school teams and primary school teams, no middle schools have actually participated in it yet, mostly because few middle schools in Beijing have a hockey team.

"Primary school students have less study pressure, so their parents can focus more on developing the students' comprehensive qualities," said Yao in his explanation of the phenomenon. "Not a single famous university has preferential policies for students capable of playing hockey, so the sport can hardly become an extra advantage for middle school students," he added.

His words show how support from parents could help young hockey players go further in their pursuit of the sport; in the larger picture, other winter sports are becoming more popular in the city for the same reason.

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