BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's curling training squad has expanded its selection pool in order to better prepare for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Three men's and women's teams and ten pairs of mixed doubles gathered in January at the newly-built National Winter Sports Training Center in Beijing's Shougang Industrial Park, after an expanded selection last year.

Last August, more than 100 curlers from across China participated in qualification trials for the national training team.

While curling remains a niche sport in China, the 2022 Beijing Games has served as a catalyst for developing the sport.

"Great changes have taken place in the Beijing Olympic cycle. This brand new training venue has been built for the 2022 Games. In the past, we had to travel around China and overseas to prepare for the Winter Olympics, and it was very tiring. But now we have top training facilities here at Shougang," said Ba Dexin, China's men's curling team captain, after training on Wednesday.

Ba, who was part of the Chinese team that placed fourth at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, said he felt happy with the expanded selection for the national team.

"This time there are more than 100 players coming to the qualification trials. It's the first time in the history of Chinese curling that we have had such a large pool of talent. In previous Olympic cycles, we only focused on one team to prepare for the Olympics, but now we have three teams to choose from."

China hopes to have 300 million people participating in winter sports by 2022. Meanwhile, the Winter Sports Administration Center of China has committed to improving training conditions for China's winter sports teams.