The mascot for the 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski, Freeski & Snowboard World Championships was announced at an online ceremony Saturday in Zhangjiakou city of North China’s Hebei province, where the winter sport event will take place in February 2021.

The mascot, Jin Niu, or golden ox, was designed over more than a year by a team led by Associate Professor Gu Xin from the Department of Visual Communication of Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts and Design.

It was created as a New Year’s greeting for 2021, or the Year of the Ox, one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals.

The mascot symbolizes Zhangjiakou people’s diligence and pioneering and innovative spirit. The dynamic image also incorporates elements of winter sports - freestyle skiing and snowboarding - to highlight the characteristics of ice and snow sports.

The cutting, engraving and dyeing techniques of Yuxian paper-cutting, the most typical folk art in Zhangjiakou, was also used in the design of the ox as well as its scarf and snowboard.

The 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski, Freeski & Snowboard World Championships, considered to be the biggest in scale, the highest in competitive level and the longest in duration, and comprising the highest number of competitive disciplines prior to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, is the final test event for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

（Editors: Li Han, Cassandra Ler)