The 2021-2022 Season of the Russian Women's Ice Hockey League ushered in a special team, that is, the Chinese Women's Ice Hockey National Training Team, which participated in the name of the Shenzhen Vanke Sunshine Ice Hockey Team, which won 15 games in 22 rounds of the league and was fully trained to prepare for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Hockey Club has continued its consistent practice in the past 5 years since its establishment, contributing to the national team from all levels.
The state training team participates in the Russian league
In order to complete the task of achieving excellent results in the ice hockey project of the Beijing Winter Olympics and winning glory for the country, in the summer of 2021, with the approval of the State General Administration of Sport, from August to December, the women's ice hockey national training team will participate in the 2021-2022 Russian Women's Ice Hockey League (WHL) under the name of Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club.
As we all know, due to the impact of the epidemic, many events have been postponed or cancelled, and other teams have also been restricted by various factors such as entry and flights, and the Chinese women's ice hockey national training team can only be closed for a period of time, lacking the opportunity to fight. Participating in professional leagues in the name of the club will be a better way to alleviate this difficulty.
At the same time, Brian Idalski, who led the team to great success in the WHL last two seasons, will continue to serve as the head coach of the Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Vanke Sunshine Team in the 2021-2022 season, and he has also been appointed as the head coach of the Chinese women's ice hockey national training team by the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports. Brian Idars began coaching Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing in 2019 and led the team to win the championship in the 2019-2020 Russian Women's Ice Hockey League, winning the first championship trophy for the Chinese team in an international professional ice hockey event.
Ni Huizhong, director of the Winter Games Center of the General Administration of Sport and secretary of the Party Committee, said that the ice hockey national training team went abroad for a long time, a large span, and a large number of people in the history of mainland competitive sports, and was a major event in China's ice and snow.
The team's home stadium is at the Mytish Stadium in the Moscow region of Russia. In the past 5 months, the Shenzhen Vanke Sunshine Team, which is composed of the women's ice hockey national training team, has been conducting daily training and competitions, and the team has participated in a total of 35 games, including 22 rounds of the WHL League, with a record of 15 wins and 7 losses, and is currently in fourth place among 10 teams. In addition, the team also played more than ten warm-up matches with the Russian national team and the Russian U18 national team, improving the competitive state and accumulating competition experience.
After ending the friendly match with the Russian U18 national team, Zhang Mengying, vice captain of the Chinese women's ice hockey national training team, said that in the 5 months in Russia, she participated in the Russian women's ice hockey league and other warm-up matches, and the opportunity to play was precious, every game was prepared for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the team was able to better cooperate, and the team as a whole improved a lot.
Zhang Hanhui, Chinese ambassador to Russia, said at the farewell ceremony of the Chinese national hockey training team to the Beijing Winter Olympics that during the Russian training tournament, the Chinese national ice hockey training team worked hard, united and cooperated, carried forward the Olympic spirit and also carried forward the national spirit, and added a strong and colorful stroke to the relations between China and Russia. Under the current severe epidemic situation, the training team went to Russia to participate in the training competition in preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics, which made an important contribution to promoting people-to-people exchanges between China and Russia and enhancing the friendship between the personnel of the two countries.
At present, the women's hockey national training team has returned to China from Moscow, Russia, for the final closed preparations, and strives to achieve the desired results at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The joint construction of the women's hockey national team has borne fruit
In fact, in 2017, when the Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Hockey Club was established, it was based on serving the women's ice hockey national team. At that time, the club signed an agreement with the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, and the People's Government of Longgang District of Shenzhen, and cooperated with many parties to build the national women's ice hockey team, and settled in Shenzhen to participate in the professional league in the name of Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club.
In the 2017-2018 season, the club's two teams, Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing and Shenzhen Vanke Sunshine, participated in the Canadian Women's Ice Hockey League (CWHL), hoping to give more players the opportunity to play, be immersed in a high-level training and competition environment, and quickly improve their technical and tactical level.
At that time, the lineup of the two teams included Yu Baiwei, Liu Zhixin, Fang Xin, Wang Yuqing, Zhu Rui, Zhao Qinan, Wen Lu, He Siye, He Xin, Kong Minghui, Lu Yue, Wang Yuting, Lin Ni, Hu Baozhen and other players, and more than a dozen players appeared in the 2021-2022 Chinese women's hockey national training team to participate in the Russian women's ice hockey league, proving that the tempering of several seasons has indeed helped the players grow.
Guarantee the national ice hockey project training base
In 2019, with the support of the Shenzhen Longgang District Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau, Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club built an exclusive training base for the national women's ice hockey team, which is located in Aixin Road, Longgang District, with a standard ice rink with a length of 60 meters and a width of 26 meters, which is the only Olympic standard ice surface in South China, and the project was completed at the end of 2020 and has been put into use.
On August 3, 2021, at the Shougang Training Base of the National Hockey National Team in Beijing, Ding Dong, executive deputy director of the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports and deputy secretary of the Party Committee, Yang Hai, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Sports Bureau, Han Xingyuan, inspector of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, Zhu Yuhua, director of the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports of Shenzhen Longgang District, and Yue Xinyu, deputy leader of the leading group for the preparation of the ice hockey project of the Beijing Winter Olympics and founder of Kunlun Hongxing, signed the "Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Building the Shenzhen Longgang Training Base of the National Ice Hockey Team".
Ni Huizhong, director of the Winter Sports Management Center and secretary of the Party Committee of the State General Administration of Sport; Long Yuxiang, executive chairman of the China International Cultural Communication Center; Wang Xuan, head of the leading group for the preparation of the Ice Hockey Project for the Beijing Winter Olympics and head of the working group of the national training team for foreign competitions; and Shan Zhongli, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of China Chengtong Group, witnessed the signing of the contract on the stage.
Next, Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club will do a good job in providing logistics support for the accommodation, catering, transportation and other aspects of the Chinese national ice hockey team athletes during the training period of the "Shenzhen Longgang National Ice Hockey Project Training Base", and will also provide coaches and athletes for the formation of the Chinese national ice hockey team through the club's participation in high-level ice hockey leagues.