Original Title: Great Changes in China’s Ice and Snow Sports Family
At the beginning of the 2022 New Year, Gu Ailing launched the first shot for the Chinese ice and snow athletes who are preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics to achieve great results in 2022-January 1, local time, the 2021-2022 FIS Freestyle Ski U-track World Cup Held in Calgary, Canada, Gu Ailing won the women’s championship with 92.80 points. With only one month left before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese ice and snow athletes are already eagerly waiting for the arrival of the Games. In addition to players who are expected to compete for gold and silver like Gu Ailing are worthy of attention, the Chinese team will also leave a place in the history of Chinese ice and snow sports in terms of participating in all events, transporting talents in southern and western provinces and cities, and building a multi-ethnic family of athletes. A strong stroke.
On January 1, local time, Gu Ailing’s victory in Calgary, Canada, gave the Chinese team a good start to 2022. For Gu Ailing, winning in international competitions is already the norm. This also makes the outside world optimistic that she is likely to win all the gold medals in the three participating events at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Coupled with the Chinese team’s ability to win gold in short track speed skating, figure skating, freestyle skiing and aerials, some foreign media predict that the Chinese team will win at least 6 gold medals in the Beijing Winter Olympics. The best record in the history of the Chinese team in the Winter Olympics.
But generally speaking, the foundation of China’s ice and snow events is relatively weak, and it is difficult for the Chinese delegation to rank as the first group in the Winter Olympics gold medal list like the Summer Olympics. Taking the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics gold medal list as an example, the top three delegations on the gold medal list all won more than 10 gold medals, while the Chinese delegation only won 1 in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Gold medals, ranked 16th in the gold medal list. In this home battle, although the gold medal points of Chinese athletes have increased, it is a relatively optimistic prediction if the Chinese athletes can finally win about 6 gold medals, and it is already a huge improvement for the Chinese team. Therefore, the performance of the Chinese team in the Beijing Winter Olympics is definitely not just a gold medal event worth looking forward to.
A few days ago, Wang Zhonglin, the leader of the Chinese national bobsled team, said that the Chinese bobsled team has won the Olympic seats in the men’s and women’s single and double events, and has also obtained the qualification for the team relay, and has completed the goal of participating in the entire event. The Beijing Winter Olympics sled competition will use the same track as the snowmobiles and steel-framed snowmobiles, which is the national snowmobile sled center “Snow Dragon” in the Yanqing competition area. Sleds, snowmobiles, and steel-framed snowmobiles have only a short history of development in China for a few years, but the speed of development is amazing. In 2015, the Winter Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of the People’s Republic of China started to form China’s sled, snowmobile, and steel-framed snowmobile national team in response to the needs of preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Athletes were selected through cross-border and cross-sport selection. In the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Chinese bobsled, bobsled, and steel-framed bobsling projects have just been launched for only three years, and they have won four Olympic Winter Olympics seats. They are two men’s double sleds and one men’s sled. Four-person qualification and one men’s steel-framed snowmobile qualification. Among them, Chinese athlete Geng Wenqiang won 13th in the steel frame snowmobile race, which became a milestone in the history of China’s snowmobile sled event. But at that time, neither the Chinese team nor its foreign opponents could have imagined that in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics four years later, Chinese athletes will participate in all events on the snowmobile.
The tremendous progress made by Chinese athletes in the snowmobile sled project comes from the country’s full guarantee for the project, technological assistance, and Sino-foreign exchanges, as well as the hard work of the team members. Wang Zhonglin described the players as “heroic” and “not afraid of losing.” The snowmobile sled event is known as F1 on snow, with a speed of more than 130 kilometers per hour. For cross-border athletes, unlike many foreign athletes, they are in contact with snowmobiles. In the early days of sledding, it was easy to feel fear of high speed, but the Chinese team members Wang Zhonglin saw “all wanted victory like fighters, not afraid of sacrifices, daring to fight, even if their heads were broken.” This spirit motivates the players to grow rapidly.
This kind of fighting spirit of athletes is also widely present in other Chinese ice and snow events with a weak foundation. For example, the Chinese cross-country skiing national training team, which has achieved all events in the Winter Olympics, and the Nordic two national training team of China, where an athlete (Zhao Jiawen) qualified for the Winter Olympics for the first time.
On July 31, 2015, when Beijing successfully obtained the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, about one-third of the 109 events in the Winter Olympics had never been carried out in China. During the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, China The contestants only qualified for half of the total small items. At present, as the qualifying and points competitions for various events of the Beijing Winter Olympics are coming to an end, Chinese athletes have already qualified for 92 out of 109 events. This is already a result that surprised foreign opponents. Chinese athletes are still striving to obtain qualifications for the remaining dozens of small events, and strive to achieve the goal of participating in all events.
Behind the competition of all events, the competitive talent training system of China’s ice and snow events is also moving from the three provinces to the whole country. There are more than a dozen provinces and cities in northern China with ice and snow resources, but for a long time, the training of competitive talents in China’s ice and snow events has been concentrated in the three northeastern provinces, of which Heilongjiang and Jilin are the main provinces. Compared with the cultivation of competitive talents in summer events, the coverage of the cultivation of competitive talents in winter events is extremely limited. The slogan that the North Ice expands from the south to the west and advances to the east has been mentioned for many years, but it has been difficult to see results until after Beijing successfully bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. With the upsurge of ice and snow sports sweeping the country, the cultivation of ice and snow sports talents has finally entered many provinces, regions and cities in the south and west.
China’s cross-country skiing national training team is the epitome of such athletes from multiple regions and multiple ethnic groups. According to Zhang Bei, the leader of China’s cross-country skiing national training team, the foundation of China’s cross-country skiing project is relatively weak. 10 ethnic groups, including Yi, Manchu, Uygur, Pumi, and Lisu, come from 14 provinces. Athletes are mostly transferred from middle and long distance running, cycling, marathon, Sanda, rowing and other sports. In recent years, as the selection of materials has expanded and the training methods have been in line with international standards, China’s cross-country skiing performance has been significantly improved. In addition to the 17-year-old Pumi teenager Gu Long Zeren, who won the first gold medal in the U18 international cross-country skiing event for China for the first time, Uyghur Dinigel won the International Snow Federation Beijing Cross-Country Skiing Grand Prix in 2019. The women’s individual short-distance silver medal was the first medal won by a Chinese athlete in the international cross-country skiing competition. China’s national cross-country skiing team also achieved the goal of participating in all cross-country skiing events in the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2021.
Cross-country skiing allows young people from all over the world and different nationalities to join the same group-the China National Cross-Country Skiing Training Team. Not long ago, several ethnic minority athletes of the Chinese cross-country skiing training team organized by the State Sports General Administration Winter Games Center were interviewed. They were Dinigel from the Uyghur nationality, Suolangquzhen and Gesangquzhen from the Tibetan nationality, and Pumi nationality. Gulong chooses benevolence. Speaking of the feelings of being in this group, several young people unanimously expressed unity and warmth. At the same time, everyone has a strong sense of mission: to work hard and win glory for the country.
Now, with only one month left before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese ice and snow athletes are ready. They must not only strive for the best results, but also allow the Chinese delegation to go further on the gold and medal lists, but also through themselves Shows the comprehensive and positive changes in ice and snow sports in China. (Reporter Cixin)
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