The 47-year-old American revealed he was satisfied with the ice-making work in the stadium as it staged an ice hockey test event involving local teams for the upcoming Games.

"I think the ice has been fantastic," said Ragan, as reported by China's official state news agency Xinhua.

"We have a really good crew here, and they have learned a lot.

"They've worked really hard and the ice is really good.

"It'll be the best ice they've ever seen."

Ragan, previously the general manager for Magic Ice USA, the largest ice rink management company in America, is currently working for the International Ice Hockey Federation on its preparations for Beijing 2022.

"I really like working here," Ragan told Xinhua.

"The engineering side of the building has been great.

"I've been able to tell them what temperature I want and they do it right away.

"That has been really, really fantastic, which helps a lot for the ice."

 It was originally built for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and staged basketball preliminaries and finals.

The Arena is now branded as the Cadillac Center, but it is not allowed to be called that during the Olympics because of sponsorship rules.

It includes a modern, flexible ice hockey rink designed and produced by Finnish rink manufacturer Vepe Oy in November 2016.

It has staged Kontinental Hockey League, where Beijing expansion team HC Kunlun Red Star played some of their early matches there. 

"I think one of the challenges is that this is not a hockey building," Ragan said. 

"It's a basketball building.

"That's kind of a little bit challenging to figure out the [different] systems."

The 2022 Winter Olympics are due to take place from February 4 to 20, and the Paralympics from March 4 to 13.