Hebei: The "pyramid" event system promotes the in-depth development of ice and snow sports

In recent years, Hebei Province has taken the goal of "running wonderful competitions and participating in the competitions to be brilliant" to promote the leapfrog development of various competitive ice and snow sports.

The winter event started from scratch, and 18 provincial professional teams were formed in 5 years, and 32 athletes were selected as national training teams. Steel-frame snowmobile yin Zheng won the intercontinental cup in Innsbruck, Austria, which ended on 3 December 2021, after winning four consecutive European Championships and breaking the sliding record at Lillehammer. Snowmobile Li Chunjian won the 3rd place in the North American Cup Whistler in the 2021-2022 season. Cross-country skiers Liu Rongsheng and Chen Degen have reached the A standard of the Winter Olympics and can participate in all the minor events of cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics.

A number of outstanding athletes have been trained in a short period of time, which is inseparable from Hebei Province's active construction of a "pyramid" event system with the provincial ice and snow games as the spire, the ice and snow league as the tower, and the ice and snow sports entering the campus as the base. The "pyramid" event system effectively promotes the in-depth development of ice and snow sports in Hebei Province.

This year, Hebei Province, focusing on the goal of "30 million people in the province to participate in ice and snow sports by the end of the year", has continued to promote the high-quality development of ice and snow sports throughout the province with the provincial, municipal and county ice and snow games as the traction. The series of qualifiers for the 3rd Hebei Ice and Snow Games was launched from September to December 2021, with a total of three groups: youth group, university group and social group, and the projects were divided into 7 major events, 17 sub-events and 342 sub-events. At present, more than 1,100 competitions in 11 sub-events such as short track speed skating, figure skating, skating, skating wheels, and land curling have been completed, and the remaining 6 sub-events have been held in Laiyuan County, Baoding City from December 3 to 28.

Hebei Ice and Snow League, as the third ice and snow games qualifier in Hebei Province, was fully launched in September 2021, with 5 major events and 71 minor events of roller skating, roller skating, land curling, skating and ice hockey, and the province is divided into two divisions in the east and west, each project has 3 races, and a total of 1753 matches are held in 8 cities in the province, showing the three highlights of multi-station sub-regional competitions, double holidays and double holiday competitions, and multi-subject participation. According to the relevant regulations, the top 8 participants in the total score of each small event of the Hebei Ice and Snow League will directly advance to the finals of the Third Ice and Snow Games in Hebei Province.

This year's Ice and Snow Games has a total of nearly 5,000 athletes from 82 representative teams from 14 prefectures and cities in the province and 68 colleges and universities, doubling the number of athletes from the first Ice and Snow Games; the competition venues have been completed in recent years, the construction standards are high, the venue facilities are new, the good competition environment ensures the smooth progress of the event, and also reflects the fruitful results of the construction of ice and snow venue facilities in Hebei Province; the referee team formed in accordance with the national event standards is composed of first-class domestic referees, which not only improves the professionalism of the event. It more fully guarantees the fairness, impartiality and openness of the event.

The holding of various ice and snow events at all levels has also greatly promoted the development of mass ice and snow sports, and in 2021, more than 5 million people in the province will participate in ice and snow sports.

Source: Hebei Provincial Sports Bureau

People's Daily (17 December 2021, 15th edition)