He also claimed the championship of a three-day, 246-kilometer Chinese endurance event through Taiwan in 2014.

Wang still holds the record among Chinese participants in the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run in the United States.

"Running is the best way to release tension, which makes me relaxed and more energetic at work," he said.

Veronika Holmgren, a BOC employee in Sweden, has held the championship in an annual yachting race for four years.

The Chinese government pledged during its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics to enable 300 million Chinese people to participate in snow and ice sports.

"Participants in snow and ice sports have a good income and strong consumption capacity, and so they are one of our target groups," Huang said.

"There is enormous potential for developing related industries, which will bring about huge opportunities for our business clients," he said. "As the client group is growing larger and stronger, it is our turn to ofer customized financial services to meet their needs."

Since 1988, BOC has issued seven types of Olympic-themed credit cards.

In addition, the bank provided services for the Asian Games in 1990 and partnered with the 2012 Asian Beach Games and the 2013 National Games. It also sponsored a series of other events, including the 2017 Beijing International Running Festival and Beijing Half Marathon.

An active player in advancing cooperation in the sports industry, BOC helped British Columbia in Canada and Zhangjiakou, a co-host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Hebei province, to reach an agreement on the construction of a Sino-Canadian Winter Olympic industrial park in 2016.

The bank has also signed another deal with Invest in Finland, a government agency, for collaboration in ice and snow related industries.

(China Daily 07/14/2017 page24)