Manitoba ice technician shares experience in Beijing at Winter Olympics

Head ice technician Hans Wuthrich, from Gimli, Man., stands beside the curling sheets at the Ice Cube Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

As the Winter Olympics in Beijing are preparing to get underway, a Manitoba man is on the ground in the Olympic bubble, making sure the ice is in perfect condition for the entire tournament.

Hans Wuthrich of Gimli is working his fourth Winter Olympics as the chief ice technician for curling, ensuring the playing surface is ideal as teams take the ice.

“It’s getting a little better every day,” Wuthrich told CTV News in a recent interview from Beijing. “We’ve got some humidity into the building. It’s like Manitoba here. It’s so dry, you can’t make ice. It’s eating it all up and taking it up in the air.”

Wuthrich has been in Beijing since January 16 and has been working to get the ice ready for when the competition begins.

Olympic curling events are taking place at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre, which has been renovated and nicknamed the Ice Cube.

Wuthrich said the venue is beautiful, but noted there are challenges to the conditions to making ice.

“It’s a pool, so the surroundings and operation of the air handling and unification and all of those things are not the greatest to what we’re used to, but the rest of it, the ice-making part of it, is really good.”

As part of the Olympics, athletes and other personnel are participating in a bubble, restricting movement to avoid the spread of COVID-19, including Omicron. Wuthrich said the current restrictions pose some challenges.

“We can’t really go anywhere,” he said. “We go from the hotel to the venue, venue to the hotel. But, like, say if I want to go outside and look at one of my air conditioning units, I’m not allowed to go outside, it’s outside the bubble. So it’s creating a lot of problems for us. You can’t go up on the roof or look at something or go somewhere to see if something is working, so it’s a little difficult.”

When the action starts, Wuthrich said the hardest thing is to keep the ice conditions perfect.

“We’re exactly the same as the curlers,” he said. “We need to have that first game or the first few rocks thrown to see what we need to do.”

“What happens if the ice warms up? What happens if the building warms up and changes? It’s exactly the same. We have the chitters, and I’ve done this for 40 years.”

The Winter Olympics run from Feb. 4 – 20.