In the early morning of December 13, Beijing time, the 2021 Speed Skating World Cup in Calgary, Canada, resulted in the last matchday of the competition, and the speed skating competition before the Beijing Winter Olympics was over. China's Ning Zhongyan hit the 1,000 meters with full force on the final day of the race, and won the championship with a time of 1:06.656. This result is not only Ning Zhongyan's personal best in this project, but also set a new national record. With this result, Ning Zhongyan also successfully qualified for the men's 1000m speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Chinese speed skating training team, led by head coach and team leader Li Yan, went out on November 5 and participated in a total of 4 races in Poland, Norway, the United States and Canada for more than a month, and won 4 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze. This result is also the best result of the Chinese speed skating team in the past years, showing that Chinese speed skating is not only likely to create good results in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, but even a miracle.
Ning Zhongyan won the championship, and China's speed skating ushered in new opportunities.
Ning Zhongyan Gao Tingyu double star shines, and Chinese men's speed skating ushers in the best in history
The 1,000 meters is Ning Zhongyan's sub-event, and he has not qualified for the Winter Olympics in this event before the Canadian station. Therefore, this time in Calgary, Ning Zhongyan's goal is to impact the qualification for the Winter Olympics. To this end he gave up his main project 1500 meters. The Chinese team made such a choice, in fact, it was also carefully considered in advance, because Ning Zhongyan had already locked up the qualification for the Winter Olympics after winning the second place in the Polish station, the norwegian station champion and the second place in the United States station in the 1500 meters. At the same time, in the 1000-meter event, many famous players also gave up the Canadian race after ensuring that they qualified for the Winter Olympics, which also created conditions for Ning Zhongyan to strive for good results.
Ning Zhongyan in the game
However, Ning Zhongyan's final victory was still full of gold, personal best plus national record. Prior to this, in September, Gao Tingyu had also done the same thing in domestic competitions. This shows that in the cycle of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese male speed skaters are not only in good shape, but also have a world-class level, and may create good results in world competitions at any time. In fact, in the Chinese speed skating training team that went out this time, Ning Zhongyan and Gao Tingyu were also the two brightest stars - Ning Zhongyan 3 gold and 2 silver, Gao Tingyu 1 gold and 1 silver. All indications are that at the Beijing Winter Olympics, this is also the two players who have the best chance of the Chinese team to impact the speed skating gold medal.
Gao Tingyu is expected to continue to shine
In the history of the Winter Olympics, Zhang Hong won the women's 1,000 meters at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which was also the first Winter Olympic gold medal in China's speed skating. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Gao Tingyu won the bronze medal in the men's 500 meters, the first Winter Olympic medal in Chinese men's speed skating. Today, China's speed skating is likely to create new historical results at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Li Yan is in danger and is expected to lead China's speed skating to create a miracle
On November 2, Li Yan was officially appointed as the head coach and team leader of the Chinese speed skating training team. For this appointment, many people's first question is: Is it too late?
As a meritorious coach of China's short track speed skating, Li Yan's coaching ability is beyond doubt, but in the eyes of the outside world, her "specialty" is short track speed skating rather than speed skating, plus she has only 3 months left before the Beijing Winter Olympics when she took office, so the concerns of the outside world can be said to be not unreasonable.
Li Yan is expected to create new miracles
However, after leading the team for 40 days, Li Yan used the results achieved by the team to dispel the doubts of the outside world. In fact, although Li Yan left the position of head coach of the Chinese short track team and speed skating team in May 2019, both Gao Tingyu and Ning Zhongyan can be said to be familiar players of Li Yan, especially Ning Zhongyan, who was first selected for the national team in 2018 during her administration. Therefore, although the time for her to be appointed this time is indeed in a hurry, after all, she has led this team, in a sense, it is also a "return", not a "battle without preparation". From this point of view, it is no accident that Li Yan led the team to achieve the best result in the history of Chinese speed skating in one month.
At present, it can be said that under the leadership of Li Yan, Chinese speed skating has not only seen the dawn of hope, but also presented a huge possibility of creating miracles. China's speed skating, Beijing Winter Olympics can be expected!