Courtesy of Mai Tarumi

A Japanese volunteer hailed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry for collecting and presenting Japanese Olympics volunteers' supportive messages to cheer on Chinese volunteers for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games has expressed her determination to continue her efforts to support the Paralympic Games. 

The 34-year-old Japanese volunteer, Mai Tarumi, said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Monday that she felt honored and appreciated being hailed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and hopes that encouragement from overseas can boost the morale of the Chinese volunteers, as they hope both the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics can be successful, which reflects the real spirit of the Olympics. 

According to Tarumi, the Tokyo Games were held amid the COVID-19 epidemic for the first time when a chaotic vaccination rollout and the changes of regulations for volunteers made life very difficult for the Japanese volunteers. 

As the Beijing Olympics also faced the same situation, Tarumi organized the online communication event and sent good wishes to the Chinese volunteers. 

According to Tarumi, she had hoped to take part in the Beijing Winter Olympics-themed exhibition to strengthen the relationship between the Chinese and Japanese people and Winter sports (the exhibition was held by the Chinese Embassy in Japan between November 29 and December 5, 2021), but unfortunately, she was unable to make it due to travel restrictions. 

Even before the Beijing Olympics kicked off, Tarumi had studied the schedules of the events and later excitedly watched the games. She is a big fan of freeskier Gu Ailing of Team China and was deeply impressed with her performance in the competition as well as her humorous and witty responses in interviews. 

Tarumi was also touched by the stories between Chinese snowboard prodigy Su Yiming, who bagged one silver and one gold medals, and his Japanese coach Yasuhiro Sato. 

"The two of them have worked together to overcome all kinds of difficulties and have gone all the way to winning the gold medal on this huge stage of the Winter Olympics, which not only made the Chinese people happy, but also made the Japanese people proud," Tarumi said, noting that ordinary people like her also want to strengthen friendly exchanges between the two countries through sports. 

She added that she will continue to organize Japanese volunteers to cheer on and support the Chinese volunteers in the Paralympic Winter Games.