Not easy: a curling pot weighs up to 40 pounds Attractive: test physical strength and test intelligence

Yesterday, the Jiangsu Curling Challenge was held on the ice in a shopping mall in Hexi. On the competition field, the players learned curling skills and felt the joy of ice and snow sports. Photo by Feng Peng, a reporter from Nanbao Rong Media

The bottom of the skates is rubber, the bottom of the sliding shoes is plastic, and one of the two shoes is responsible for "resistance" and the other is responsible for "assist", which is extremely rare in most sports. Curling, the "chess" on ice, is approaching the citizens of Nanjing with its unique charm. Yesterday, the curling challenge Nanjing station promotion activities were held in Nanjing Jin'ao Binrunhui Ice Edge Skating Club, 50 curling enthusiasts from all walks of life attended a curling experience class taught by national coaches to feel the charm of ice sports.

A little tired

A curling 40 pounds

"It's a lot of work! I thought curling was very light! After throwing six curling and experiencing the ice sport for the first time, 8-year-old Yao Yuxin said. Although he had already checked the curling related information with his father on the Internet before coming, Yao Yuxin still felt a different charm when he was really on the ice. Yao Yuxin's father introduced that he and his daughter had watched the curling competition broadcast together, but after the experience, they had a new understanding of the sport, "We thought that curlers threw it lightly, but they tried to know that a curling 40 pounds is really heavy, and it is not easy for athletes." ”

Outdoor sports enthusiast Liu Airong also completed his first curling experience. Liu Airong was extremely athletically talented, and quickly figured out the strength and angle of the throw, and also played a "mini game" with his companions. He said: "Curling is really interesting, not only does it require physical strength but also brain power, I have only seen it on short video websites before, and I think it is more interesting after experiencing it myself." ”

After Beijing's successful bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, ice and snow sports have received unprecedented attention across the country, in addition to the traditional areas of winter sports such as Northeast China and Beijing, ice sports have a southward development trend, and Nanjing has also held curling events many times.

According to Guo Dongmei, president of the Municipal Ice and Snow Sports Association, in response to the country's call to "drive 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports", the association recently entered enterprises and institutions to bring curling to ordinary citizens, "so that they can be released from busy work and experience the different charm of ice sports." "The citizens who came to the scene yesterday to experience are ordinary employees of the association's popularization unit." Most of them have been trained in the basics of curling, but most of them are really on ice for the first time. Guo Dongmei introduced that after the Spring Festival, the Curling Challenge Nanjing Station will officially start, and the competition will last until March.

A bit expensive

A set of curling is about 180,000 yuan

Curling, also known as "curling" and "ice skating", is a kind of throwing competition on the ice as a team, which is known as "chess" on ice. Curling originated in Scotland in the 14th century and did not develop in China for a long time. In 1995, the Harbin Ice Base held the first curling workshop in the history of Chinese sports. What many people don't know is that curling is actually an "aristocratic sport", not to mention the cost of equipment such as ice brushes and curling shoes, the cost of curling itself is not low. Curling used in international competitions costs about 12,000 yuan per curling pot, and a set of high-grade curling (16) imported into China costs about 180,000 yuan.

Why is curling so expensive? Curling coach Ma Jiamin said that there is a reason for this, "Curling has special requirements for rough materials, first of all, it needs to be hard stone, and secondly, it requires that it cannot be broken under low temperature conditions. The world's Winter Olympic-grade curling rough is harvested from a small island in Scotland, Krieger Island. "It is understood that making a curling pot goes through multiple links such as mining, shaping, polishing and so on. In these links, except for mining, all other links need to be completed by hand. Therefore, there are no two identical curling rough in the world, and there is a saying in the industry called "Curling is eternal, and a curling pot can be used for a lifetime." ”

According to industry insiders, the current price of curling in the Nanjing market is about 2500 yuan per 1.5 hours, which can be 2 to 2 or 4 to 4, and the cost is evenly shared, while the cost of participating in related clubs will be slightly lower.

There is hope

Nanjing is expected to build two more real ice rinks

"The response to today's event was overwhelming." Ma Jiamin said, "This project may still be blank for most Southerners, and after close contact, we found that everyone's enthusiasm was very high, and almost everyone said they still wanted to participate." The charm of curling is that it requires not only physical strength but also intelligence and teamwork skills. Ma Jiamin said that the advent of the Winter Olympics has made ice and snow practitioners feel unprecedented heat, public interest is high, and the relevant departments have promoted it strongly, "I believe that in the near future, more and more southerners will enjoy the fun of ice and snow sports." ”

The development of ice and snow sports venue facilities is indispensable, the cost of an indoor real ice rink is about seven or eight million yuan, and the monthly electricity bill is also hundreds of thousands of yuan. At present, the number of real ice rinks in Nanjing is not much, and the real ice rinks operated by the Jianye District Olympic Sports Center Skating Hall, the Yuhuatai District Hongyue City Skating Hall and the Jin'ao Binrun Hui are 3, of which the annual passenger flow of the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Ice Sports Club is nearly 100,000 people.

In the near future, this data may be updated. Guo Dongmei revealed that next year, Nanjing is expected to build two new real ice rinks to meet the needs of citizens' fitness. "When the conditions of the venue are not rich, the association is currently focusing on promoting the work of 'rotating ice', wearing roller skates to learn technical movements, and then practicing on the ice, so that learning is more efficient." Guo Dongmei said that in the future, the association will do a good job in the promotion and education of ice and snow sports among young people, actively provide members and ice and snow enthusiasts with services such as athlete level declaration, coaches and referee qualification applications, and organize professional coaches and athletes to train and guide everyone. ”

Ding Yuanyuan, a media reporter from Nanbao Rong

Intern Xing Ying

Figure Skating: One of the most ornamental Winter Olympics events

Figure skating is one of the most popular and ornamental events of the Winter Olympics, with athletes dancing on the ice to the music, demonstrating technical movements such as balanced jumping, spinning, jumping, gliding footwork and coherent movements. The referee team evaluates and ranks the athletes based on the accuracy, difficulty and artistic performance of their technical movements. The competition venue is stipulated to be 56-60 meters long and 26-30 meters wide.

Figure skating originated in England in the 18th century and has been rapidly developed in Germany and North American countries. In 1892, the International Skating Union was officially established in Switzerland and the rules for the competition of the project were established. In 1872 Austria held its first figure skating competition. Figure skating is one of the oldest Olympic sports, debuted in the London Olympic Games in 1908, the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games again carried out figure skating competition, after the establishment of the 1924 Winter Olympic Games, figure skating transferred to the Winter Olympics, became the previous Winter Olympic Games.

Beijing Winter Olympics events: men's singles, women's singles, men's and women's pairs, ice dance and mixed teams, a total of five gold medals.

Source: Nanjing Daily