Editor's note: On February 4, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be unveiled, and Chinese Olympic athletes are currently stepping up their preparations for the excitement of the flame.
In Shanghai, which lacks ice and snow, the general public's understanding of the olympic sports of the Winter Olympic Games is certainly not as "handy" as that of the Summer Olympic Games. Jiefang Daily Shangguan News "Sports +" specially launched the "Beijing Winter Olympics Primer" science popularization column, taking everyone closer to the 7 major events, 15 sub-events and 109 sub-events of the Winter Olympic Games, and know the doorway of ice and snow sports.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Qualifying Points Tournament has recently closed. At present, in 15 sub-events and 109 sub-events, Mainland China has won 96 sub-events and 188 seats in real time, and 168 people have been shortlisted in real time. Following the major events and sub-events such as ice hockey, short track speed skating, figure skating, and alpine skiing, China's cross-country skiing has achieved the goal of "participating in all projects" in 12 small events.
Cross-country skiing is not only a gold medalist in snow sports, but also a "façade" for the entire ice and snow project. Of the 12 sub-events of cross-country skiing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, plus 3 minor events in the Nordic biathlon and 11 minor events in the biathlon in winter, there are actually 26 sub-events related to cross-country skiing, accounting for nearly a quarter (23.85%) of the 109 sub-events of the Winter Olympics.
Basic project: both physical and technical
Cross-country skiing has a long history as a skiing sport that uses skis and ski poles as tools, using techniques such as downhill, turning, and sliding. Cross-country skiing is popular in the Nordic countries, and the level is also the highest. Since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, cross-country skiing has produced a total of 170 gold medals, Norway alone won 47, accounting for about 27.65%, and countries from northern Europe won a total of 141 pieces, accounting for 82.94%.
Cross-country skiing is a fundamental sport. From the perspective of project classification, cross-country skiing is one of the 6 sub-events of skiing, and the Beijing Winter Olympics will have 12 gold medals. The importance of cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics is similar to the status of athletics at the Summer Olympics. As is customary, the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics presents awards to the top 3 places in the men's 50 km and the women's 30 km in cross-country skiing. This award is similar to the summer Olympics closing ceremony to award the top 3 marathon events.
Cross-country skiing in general is a physical activity. Some experts believe that this is the best aerobic exercise, because cross-country skiing requires the mobilization of upper limb strength, lower limb strength and core strength. Of course, cross-country skiing is not a pure physical sport, and it also requires athletes to have excellent skiing skills. Some of the 12 sub-events require players to use both traditional and free techniques.
Cross-country skiing is not skiing in the snowfield of the forest sea, it is actually a "circle" competition. It's just that this circle has a special design, there is a starting area, there are uphill, downhill, flat, almost one-third each, very test the skills of the players. Because of the uphill slope, cross-country skiers can separate the heel of the shoe and the snowboard, while alpine skiing is fixed. Players glide in circles and can pass through the audience stage many times, which is a good thing for players, spectators, referees, TV broadcasts, etc.
Competition: Few preliminaries, majority finals
After understanding the two skiing techniques of cross-country skiing, the project setting and venue layout of cross-country skiing are relatively clear.
There are 3 features of the cross-country skiing program. First, it embodies the principle of equality between men and women, with 6 sub-items for men and women. Second, in principle, in the same event, the distance between men is longer than that of women. Third, most of the minor events only have finals, no preliminaries. Of the 12 sub-events, 4 minor events have preliminaries and the other 8 sub-events are direct finals.
The individual sprint is a preliminary race, which is a speed-fighting event, equivalent to sprinting in athletics. A player has to reach the final and has to play 3 rounds. The Beijing Winter Olympics individual short distance adopts free technology.
Team racing tests the level of the 2 strongest players on a team. Taking into account that there may be more than 20 teams participating in the project, the project is divided into semi-finals and finals based on the capacity and safety needs of the track, and the top 5 semi-finalists in each group participate in the final. The Beijing Winter Olympics team uses traditional techniques for short distances.
The interval events are now known as the men's 15 km and the women's 10 km, which is equivalent to the middle distance event, with no preliminary rounds. This event is characterized by the players starting sequentially at an interval of 30 seconds, and the final ranking is determined by the time of the players. There is no preliminary race for the 50 km group departure and 30 km group departure, which is equivalent to the marathon event of athletics.
The chase uses two techniques, first traditional and then free, and there is no preliminary round. There were also no preliminaries in the relay race. The full expression of the project is the 4×10 km relay, the 4× 5 km relay, the former is a man, the latter is a woman. 4 athletes from each team compete in relay. The first 2 athletes of each team use traditional techniques to glide; the last 2 athletes use free techniques.
The importance of cross-country skiing is also reflected in the fact that it is an important part of several other projects. Nordic biathlon is also one of the six sub-disciplines of skiing, which consists of ski jumping and cross-country skiing, and there will be three gold medals at the Winter Olympics. Biathlon is one of the seven major events of the Winter Olympics, which consists of cross-country skiing and shooting, and the Winter Olympics have 11 gold medals.
Chinese Legion: There is both history and breakthroughs
China's Xinjiang Altay region is the birthplace of skiing in the world and has a long history in cross-country skiing. Since its first participation in the Winter Olympics in 1980, the mainland has been competing in the biathlon event, and even the women's biathlon has been good.
Chinese cross-country skiing at the Asian level, in the 2017 Asian Winter Games cross-country skiing event, Man Dandan won the women's sprint (1.4 km) championship, and Sun Qinghai won the men's sprint (1.4 km) runner-up. The Chinese team also finished second in the women's 4×5 km relay.
At the Winter Olympics, continental cross-country skiing did not have medals in the account, but had a good performance. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the Chinese women's 4×5 km finished 13th; Wang Chunli won the women's 10 km (traditional technology) 18th place. At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Li Hongxue finished 22nd in the women's 30 km group race. At the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, Chi Chunxue, then 18 years old, won the silver medal for women's 5 km freestyle cross-country skiing.
Since 2018, the Chinese cross-country skiing team has selected talents in middle-distance running, cycling and other projects through cross-border cross-border selection, among which Chen Pengbin, a long-distance running master, also participated in the training, which improved the popularity of cross-country skiing. At present, the personnel of the Chinese cross-country skiing team have initially come from the three northeastern provinces to 14 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. They conduct physical and technical training at the Chengde National Training Base, and participate in points competitions and training in Xinjiang.
Since May 2021, the Chinese cross-country skiing team has participated in an almost monthly points station, including the ITB City Cross-Country Skiing China Tour in Shanghai in December. Chi Chunxue, 24, has competed in the Winter Olympics and World Championships, Li Xin, 30, has participated in the last Winter Olympics, and 21-year-old Diniger has won a silver medal in the women's individual sprint event at the FIS China Beijing Cross-Country Skiing Grand Prix.
Cross-country skiing has a long schedule and a dense schedule at the Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics have 16 competition days, and cross-country skiing has 10 days of competition, and each competition day produces a gold medal. It is the only event in all winter Olympic events to have a gold medal on the first and last day of the winter games. On February 5, the gold medal for the women's doubles chase will be produced, and on February 20, the gold medal for the women's 30 km collective departure will be produced. Since the Chinese cross-country skiing team has a breakthrough in the number of 12 sub-events, it seems that the improvement in the ranking can also be expected.
About the Author:
Chen Guoqiang, male, is an associate professor at Shanghai University of Sport, a master supervisor, and a doctor of journalism and communication
Visiting Scholar, School of Public Health, Indiana University,USA (2013-2014)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Chen Hua Text Editor: Chen Hua Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency
文内插图：新华社 Source: Author: Chen Guoqiang