"Snow Dragon" is about to stage "Fast and Furious"

Snowmobiling originated in Switzerland, and since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, snowmobiling has become an official event of the Winter Olympics. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Bobsleigh Race will be held at the National Bobsleigh Center in Yanqing. As the event with the highest average speed per hour at the Winter Olympic Games, the snowmobile race will explain to the audience what "fast and furious" is.

Competitions are set up

4 gold empty seats to be waited for the women's singles as a new small item

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics snowmobile competition has a total of 4 sub-events, including women's single snowmobile, women's double snowmobile, men's double snowmobile and four-person snowmobile, of which the women's single snowmobile event is a new event.

Snowmobiles are also known as "luges" – at the end of the 19th century, the Swiss installed a steering device on the bobsleigh and created the bobsleigh. Initially, snowmobiling was a niche sport with a predominantly adventurer, but in the 1950s, snowmobiling gradually attracted more young people and track and field athletes began to be absorbed into the snowmobile program.

Before the snowmobile race starts, the bobsleigh blade should enter the groove to ensure that the body does not slip sideways. Within 6 seconds of the departure signal, the athlete can push the snowmobile to start the initial speed, after the implementation distance is about 50 meters, the athlete needs to jump into the body one by one, the four-person snowmobile in accordance with the order of the helmsman, the two intermediate team members and the brakeman, the tandem jump into the body in turn according to the helmsman, the brakeman order, and quickly put away the handlebars, in a sitting posture. During the taxi, the helmsman needs to control the vehicle and choose the optimal route. After the snowmobile passes through the finish line, the brakeman brakes.

In order to ensure that the race is conducted in a relatively fair environment, in 1952, the International Snowmobile and Steel Frame Snowmobile Federation began to stipulate the weight of the participating snowmobiles and the total weight of the snowmobiles and the participants, limiting the minimum weight of the body of each event and the maximum value of the total weight of people and vehicles. In a snowmobile race, if the total weight does not reach the upper limit, the runner can counterweight the body under the premise of ensuring safety. In the early 1990s, female skates began to appear in snowmobile races in Europe and North America, and at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, women's double bobsleigh became an official event.

The newly released "Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Competition Schedule" shows that the snowmobile competition has a total of 6 competition days, the first women's single snowmobile competition will be launched on February 13, the first women's single snowmobile gold medal in Olympic history will be born on February 14, the men's double snowmobile final will be held on February 15, the women's double snowmobile champion will be produced on February 19, and the medal ownership of the finale four-person snowmobile will be released on February 20.

Development pattern

Germany leads the way in the women's event

Judging from the results of recent Winter Olympics and World Championships, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Russia and Canada are the strongest teams in the snowmobile event.

At the men's snowmobile race, Germany's Francisco Friedrich was the brightest star, and at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, he won gold medals in both events. In a series of World Cup events in the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, he also proved his king status with crushing results. Friedrich's team-mates Hafel and Johannes Lochner are also regulars on the men's snowmobile World Cup podium. The Friedrich team firmly topped the IAF Men's Doubles And Fours Olympic standings, with Canada's Justin Cripps and Johannes Rockner in third place. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Germany and Canada won full quotas.

In the face of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, Friedrich said in an interview with the media that the athletes who are the most relaxed, the most able to adapt to the environment and are not disturbed by off-site factors will be able to win the Winter Olympic Championship, and he who has participated in the Winter Olympic test activities in Yanqing highly praised the "Snow Dragon" track, "The conditions and environment of the track are very good, better than expected." ”

While friedrich's German men's snowmobile team is the "dream team" of the "Ice F1" arena, it is not invincible, with Justin Klipps, Austria's Benjamin Meyer and Russia's Gatiyukovic team taking the podium several times this season.

The competition in the women's snowmobile field of the Beijing Winter Olympics is more intense, with Germany's Laura Nolt, Kaliki and Jamanka performing well in the season, their main opponents are Canada's Christine De Bruin, Cynthia Apia and American celebrities Taylor Meyers and Kelly Humphreys, it is worth mentioning that Kelly Humphreys has previously represented Canada in the Winter Olympics and won two gold medals.

The Chinese team won two seats in the women's single snowmobile, women's double snowmobile, men's double snowmobile and four-person snowmobile, helmsmen Sun Kaizhi and Li Chunjian won seats for the team in the men's double snowmobile and four-person snowmobile events, and helmsmen Ying Qing and Huai Mingming won seats for the Chinese team in the women's single snowmobile and women's double snowmobile events.

The current state of the continent

Start from scratch and work hard to improve

In the snowmobile event, there is still some gap between the mainland players and the world's top players. The late start, thin foundation and few talents are the current development status of China's snowmobile.

In order to promote the leapfrog development of winter sports, the State General Administration of Sport vigorously promoted the cross-border selection of cross-sports materials after the successful bid for the Winter Olympics, and the snowmobile established a national training team for the first time through cross-sports selection in the summer of 2015, most of the team members were transferred from athletics, weightlifting, wrestling and other sports, shao Yijun of the men's team practiced discus and shot put before, the women's team Should Qing mainly attacked the hurdles, and Du Jiani focused on the heptathlon.

These athletes, who have been selected from across disciplines, learn from scratch and improve their gliding skills in the process of climbing and rolling. After more than two years of hard training and hard work, he won two seats in the men's double bobsleigh event and one seat in the men's four-person snowmobile at the PyeongChang Olympic Games. Debuting in the Winter Olympics is a milestone in the history of Chinese snowmobiles, after competing with the world's highest level athletes, Chinese snowmobiles look at the gap to find problems, and improve the training plan around improving sliding technology, enhancing coordination, improving physical fitness and sprinting ability, etc., in order to shorten the gap with strong teams as soon as possible and gain a firm foothold in the international arena as soon as possible.

After scientific preparation and hard training, after entering the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, China's snowmobile performance has improved significantly. In the men's team, in the 2019-2020 Bobsleigh World Cup, Li Chunjian and his teammates successfully ranked in the top ten of the double bobsleigh event in the competition at St. Moritz, Switzerland, and ranked seventh in the four-a-side event. The women's team also began to make results, standing on the podium of international events such as the North American Cup, among which Ying Qing tied for the championship with Australia's Walker in the 2019-2020 women's single bobsleigh series in Germany's King Lake Station, winning the first gold medal in the women's singles snowmobile event for China.

In the 2021-2022 season, Chinese snowmobilists continued to make breakthroughs in the process of competing for Winter Olympic points in the World Cup, Altenberg Station, Ying Qing/Du Jiani, Huai Mingming/Wang Xuan two pairs of combinations won the eighth place; Winterberg Station, Huai Mingming / Wang Xuan combination won the sixth place; Sigurda Station, Huai Mingming / Wang Xuan, Ying Qing / Du Jiani two pairs of combinations won the fourth and sixth places respectively, Huai Mingming / Wang Xuan combination created the best result of the Chinese women's double bobsleigh event in the World Cup In the women's single snowmobile race of the World Cup in Sigurda, Huai Mingming and Ying Qing won the fourth and fifth places respectively, creating the best result of the Chinese team in the World Cup event.

Brave the hardships and dangers to rush forward, bravely strive to achieve good results. The pace of Chinese snowmobiles catching up with the strong team is very fast, and I believe that in the "Snow Tour Dragon" arena, Chinese snowmobile athletes will be able to race out of style.

Reporter Feng Jiajia

Source: China Sports News