"The Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou from February 4 to March 13, 2022... I hereby invite Comrade Zhu Jun of your unit to serve as the domestic technical officer of the veneer freestyle project..." On December 29, 2021, a "recruitment notice" from the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee was sent to the air separation workshop of PetroChina Fushun Petrochemical Acrylic Chemical Plant, which made the equipment staff Zhu Jun excited.
"It's amazing", "Real cow", "Come back and tell us what it's like in the Winter Olympics"... The news that Zhu Jun became the referee of the Beijing Winter Olympics quickly spread in the unit. In the expectations of friends and family, Zhu Jun got the "admission ticket" of this grand event - to join the referee team of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Looking back on these years of tempering and going through 3 years of selection, Zhu Jun is full of emotions.
In the winter of 2007, the 37-year-old Zhu Jun became acquainted with skiing. From the beginner to the "king" in the eyes of snow friends, thanks to his "punching card" in the major snow fields every winter, in the process of practicing skiing skills, Zhu Jun enjoys the speed and passion of invigorating.
Zhu Jun has worked in fushun petrochemical acrylic fiber plant for 30 years, and is now an equipment clerk in the air separation workshop, mainly responsible for the maintenance of equipment for heat stations and refrigeration stations. He took out the tenacity to study the skills of the post, carefully pondered how to improve his skiing skills, and even synthesized the ski videos of himself and the world's top ice and snow "big coffee", played them frame by frame on separate screens, compared the gap between himself and them, and then practiced repeatedly. Soon, his skiing skills took a qualitative leap.
"Brother Zhu, the Municipal Sports Bureau and our association decided to send you to participate in the selection of referees for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the opportunity is rare, you have to grasp it well." One day in August 2019, Song Yang, secretary general of the Fushun Ski Association, conveyed a message on the other end of the phone that surprised Zhu Jun.
At that time, Zhu Jun was already a national alpine skiing second-level referee and a national alpine skiing first-class social instructor. He often participates in refereeing at provincial and municipal ski competitions, but he never dreamed of refereeing international competitions.
Pistes design, track selection, track safety, record judging... In September 2019, at Beijing Sport University, Zhu Jun participated in the week-long training and selection of domestic technical officials in the Beijing Winter Olympics obstacle chase. A thick Referee's Handbook is the focus of training and theory exams. On those days, Zhu Jun took classes during the day and reviewed them at night, and found English oral learning materials to listen to and practice repeatedly. The 50-year-old put all his hard-working energy into learning, and finally successfully passed the first round of "knockout rounds".
In October 2020 and March 2021, the online training examination and the field skiing skills on the field were "big competition", and Zhu Jun passed the strict assessment of the State General Administration of Sports with his superb ski professional comprehensive quality.
The dream of joining the Winter Olympic referee team is close at hand, but if you want to referee at the Beijing Winter Olympics, you still have to pass the fourth round of "practical exercises". In November last year, the "Meet Beijing 2021/2022 FIS Snowboarding and Freestyle Steeplechase Pursuit World Cup" – the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Test Match was held in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. After "bravely" passing three levels, Zhu Jun was successfully promoted to the NTO (Domestic Technical Officer) of this event.
In the World Cup competition, Zhu Jun's NTO group is mainly responsible for the maintenance of the 1380-meter track, the pre-race preparation such as flag gate setting, the guidance of the athlete's route, the inspection of ski equipment, and the refereeing of the athlete's competition action. At the Genting Ski Park, the venue of the World Cup, every morning at 5 o'clock, he and his colleagues had to get up for nucleic acid testing, and then climbed the slopes at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, staying for a day. On the snow track, the "white hair wind" is sandwiched with snow foam, often blowing people can't open their eyes, heavy workload, hard working conditions, 7 days down Zhu Jun lost 5 pounds.
The Winter Olympics steeplechase ski competition requires referees to skate freely on a "steepleged" track, and according to the scene situation, they must be able to quickly leave or reach the designated position, so skiing skills are an important test point for selection. Proficient in the relevant theoretical knowledge of referees, able to communicate with foreign friends in English, high sense of responsibility, hard-working spirit... The Winter Olympics have many high standard requirements for referees, Zhu Jun has one by one, and superb skiing skills are his advantages.
In this way, an ordinary grassroots oil worker, with the dream of ice and snow, bravely broke through the "four passes" and finally realized his dream of being selected as a referee for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. At present, Zhu Jun is making intense pre-race preparations at the Genting Ski Park, the venue of the Chongli Competition in Zhangjiakou. He said that he should fulfill his duties on the ski field and contribute wisdom and strength to the complete success of the Beijing Winter Olympics.