Olympics-Sleepless nights for Beijing ice master

By Julien Pretot

BEIJING (Reuters) - Remy Boehler sleeps just four hours a night during the Beijing Olympics to make sure athletes can skate at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

The venue that hosted the 'Ping Pong Diplomacy' matches in 1971 has been renovated to welcome the figure skating and short track speed skating events at the Winter Games.

It is ice master Boehler's task to keep the rink in top shape for two competitions that require different surfaces.

"I leave the place around 3 a.m. with the last team and I come in around 6:30-7 a.m. for the first practice session," the 45-year-old Frenchman, who arrived in Beijing a month ago, told Reuters.

"For the figure skating, the ice needs to be softer than for the short track, where speed is essential.

"So for figure skating events the ice must be at -3.5 degrees Celsius and it needs to be at -7 for short track. It is a big difference, and you cannot do it too quickly otherwise the ice cracks."

Boehler said water is the key to getting it right.

"For each resurfacing, we have a team of patchers to fix the holes and we use about 800 litres of water to remodel the ice. Then we use the resurfacing machines)," said Boehler, who heads a team of 20 including 12 Chinese pilots and four interpreters.

"And the quality of the water is essential. The Chinese have done a great work in improving it in the last months."

EAR FACTOR

For Boehler and his team, time is of the essence.

Some days the rink is used by both for figure skating and short track, leaving only three hours to redesign the ice, with an hour of that needed to change the padding around the rink.

Boehler, who was also the ice master at the Pyeongchang Olympics four years ago, worked on the Capital Indoor Stadium's ice at the