Beijing Winter Olympics | three participants The Hong Kong delegation looked forward to showing a good look

Live Bar January 30 News At the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, a total of three Olympic athletes from Hong Kong, China, will stand on this stage, although the number of participants is small, but it has set a record for the previous year. The person in charge of ice and snow sports in Hong Kong said that he hoped that the players could put down their burdens and greet the ice and snow event held at their doorstep with the best mental outlook.

The Hong Kong delegation has qualified for six consecutive Winter Olympics since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the Winter Olympics, the three athletes of the Hong Kong team were Zhu Dingwen, Jin Hexiao and Weng Houquan. Among them, Zhu Dingwen will compete in the men's 500m short track speed skating competition, and Weng Houquan, Jin and Xiao will participate in the men's and women's alpine skiing events respectively. The covid-19 pandemic has led to the lack of systematic training and participation of many athletes, adding variables to their path to the Winter Olympics, and the record of continuous participation has been almost interrupted. Looking back on the past two years, several respondents said it was "not easy.".

The Hong Kong short track speed skating team can be regarded as a regular visitor to the Winter Olympics, and they have been present in the previous five competitions and four times, only regrettably absent at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. At the end of November last year, in the final leg of the short track speed skating World Cup in the Netherlands, the Hong Kong team in China qualified for the promotion and boarded the "last train" to the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Lü Shuo

Lu Shuo, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Skating Union, told reporters that in order to be able to participate in the Winter Olympics, the league began to prepare very early, it can be said that all the work is centered on the Beijing Winter Olympics, but the epidemic has disrupted all the deployment: the team members have not been able to train on the ice for a long time, and the incomparable competition has also greatly reduced their competitive status.

He said: "During this period, we encountered unprecedented difficulties, and at one point we felt that the hope of entering the Winter Olympics was very slim. But we got the tickets through the last race, which was really tough, and there was a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. ”

Lu Shuo, who came out of the Jilin Short Track Speed Skating Team, led the Hong Kong team to participate in four Winter Olympic Games as a coach, and he lamented that every time he won the qualification, it required great efforts, and this was also a great incentive for the team. "It has been twenty years since the Hong Kong team of China first participated in the Winter Olympics, there are so many participating teams, Hong Kong as a city close to the tropics, if there is no persistence and some ordinary people can not imagine the hard work, it is difficult to achieve such results."

Earlier, the reporter met Zhu Dingwen in the ice rink of a shopping mall, and due to the epidemic, he could only prepare for the battle in a non-standard venue. Now that he has arrived in Beijing and some adaptation training, he will officially start his first winter Olympic journey.

Regarding the expectations for Zhu Dingwen, Lu Shuo said: "Under such conditions, I have no specific achievement expectations. I hope that while he successfully completes the competition, he will show the spirit of the athletes in Hong Kong, China who will not give up. ”

Although the ice event did not qualify for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the participation of female alpine skier Wu Yili continued the dream of the Hong Kong team in 2018. On the 30th, Weng Houquan, Jin and Xiao will depart from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is also the second time that the Hong Kong team of China will participate in the snow sports of the Winter Olympics.

Yu Guoxian, chairman of the Hong Kong Ski Federation in China, told reporters that after Beijing successfully won the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2015, the Ski Federation began to strengthen the formation of ski teams and made up its mind to send team members to participate. In recent years, in addition to arranging as many team members as possible to participate in the competition and obtain sufficient points, the Federation has also signed a framework agreement with the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport to strengthen exchanges and cooperation. After the outbreak of the epidemic, in order to maximize the safety of athletes, they also went from place to place.

Yu Guoxian

Yu Guoxian revealed that the current situation of the two athletes is good, and he hopes that they can play lightly and make a breakthrough. "I want them to play at their best and it's important to play on the spot. Last time we finished 56th in the women's big slalom and expecting them to break through 50 and even finish in the top 30, that's our goal. ”

In addition to the competition itself, Lu Shuo and Yu Guoxian also hope to take the opportunity of the Winter Olympic Games to further promote the popularity of ice and snow sports in Hong Kong. Lu Shuo came to Hong Kong in 1997 to engage in ice and snow sports, according to his observation, The enthusiasm of Hong Kong citizens for this sport is very high, but due to the limitation of venues, the potential in this area has not yet been fully released, and he hopes that Hong Kong can have more ice rinks to meet the needs of citizens in the future.

Yu Guoxian said that about 20,000 people in Hong Kong like to ski, and he looks forward to more cooperation with mainland ski resorts in the future to provide high-quality venues for ski enthusiasts in Hong Kong.

"There are also a lot of indoor ski resorts in the mainland, and we have to do it in this direction." Yu Guoxian said.

(Xinhua News Agency)