Chongqing- When everyone was busy settling final preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics at The Genting Ski Park in Chongli district, Zhangjiakou city, Qin Shi was the lone representative from Chongqing.

The mother of two just switched her career from finance to snow sports five years ago. In her 30s, Qin became one of the national technical officers (NTO) at the Beijing Winter Olympics and the only one from Chongqing.

The NTO refers to the general name of technical representatives, competition officials, referees, and metering officials. Qin will work on the slopestyle, ensuring traffic safety and access conditions during the Winter Olympics.

Gu Ailing and Su Yiming will compete in the freestyle ski slopestyle event where Qin will serve. They are superstars in China's snow sports and enjoy great popularity now. "I certainly hope they can show their best and achieve good results!" Qin's voice beamed with excitement when she spoke about the upcoming competition, 

Qin graduated from Sichuan International Studies University, majoring in international economics and trade, and later worked in a bank. Her first try at skiing was "forced" by a friend in 2017. "It was so exciting that I fell in love with it right away," said Qin. At that time, she had never imagined that she would become an NTO in the Winter Olympics.

From then on, Qin spent plenty of time practicing skiing every year and made rapid progress in both skateboarding and skiing. She then made a bold decision to quit her bank job and start working in the ice and snow industry.

Now Qin is already a professional skiing practitioner, with professional instructor certificates such as ESF Double-board Instructor (Level 2) and SBINZ Snowboard Instructor (Level 1). In 2020, she participated in the third Winter Sports Season in Chongqing and won gold medals of Ladies' Parallel Giant Slalom in both snowboarding and skiing. 

She had long been working in Chongqing's ice and sports industry and now works for a famous international ski academy. She said, "The job in the bank is for living; the job now I do is for dreams and love. I feel lucky to be able to fight for what I love."

In Qin's eyes, it's never too late to try what you love. She started skiing at 30, which is not a young age to start this sport, but she had made it this far. Skiing has changed Qin's life greatly, and now she is leading a happy life. She said that we should never set limits for ourselves. As long as we want, we can always start a new life.

Qin will work for the Winter Olympics during the Spring Festival. Qin felt it was a pity to be apart from her family when they should have been reunited, but she thought it was worth it. "I feel honored and happy to work for the Winter Olympics."

The intern Mei Xuhang has attribution to this post.