There are still 4 days to go before the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and there are only 2 days left before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the longest time and the most curling matches. On February 2, the first round of the mixed double event was staged at the National Aquatics Center. In this event, known as "chess on ice", the Chinese curling team has achieved full participation and will compete in the men's team, women's team and mixed doubles events. Together with the Chinese team, the team that achieved full participation in the curling event is Sweden, Canada, the United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who will also become strong contenders for medals in the three minor curling events.
(Picture source Liu Yuanjun of Beiti Media)
Wang Bingyu is the mark of Chinese curling
Asian curling first began in Japan, introduced to China in 1998, after just 12 years of development, Wang Bingyu, Liu Yin, Yue Qingshuang, Zhou Yan, Liu Jinli composed of the Chinese women's curling team won the world championship in 2009, curling is a niche sport in China is more known. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Chinese women's curling team won another bronze medal and made history again, and their stories of hard work inspired a generation of young people. "A piece of ice in the jade pot" Wang Bingyu has also become a well-known sports star in the winter project.
The breakthrough in women's curling has also led to the improvement of men's curling level, in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the Chinese men's curling team won the fourth place, although it failed to get on the podium, leaving regrets, but in the men's curling world of masters, such results have been very rare.
With the end of the two Winter Olympic cycles, many veterans chose to fade out, in the 2016 Curling Mixed Doubles World Championships, Wang Rui / Badexin pair of "post-90s" combination won the silver medal, and the emergence of new people made the Chinese curling team achieve new results. In the 2017 Curling Mixed Doubles World Championships, the two once again took the podium to win the bronze medal, and the "Xinrui" combination became one of the most powerful combinations in the mixed doubles event in the world pot world.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the "Xinrui" group played again, and finally ended the Olympic journey with fourth place; the Chinese women's team led by Wang Bingyu finally won the fifth place. The Chinese men's team did not qualify for Pyeongchang due to insufficient points.
The youngest captain has to fight the toughest battles
Four years later, the Beijing Winter Olympics came, and the Chinese women's curling was led by "post-00s" youngster Han Yu. Although she is the youngest captain of all the curling teams, she has already led the team to win the Asia-Pacific Curling Championship, and the addition of Wang Rui has also allowed the team to make up for the lack of experience in the competition, in addition to Dong Ziqi, Zhang Lijun and Jiang Xindi.
However, looking around the world, the women's program has never had such a diverse state.
In the Beijing Winter Olympics, both the foreign war has never lost his hand, and the 47-year-old Canadian veteran Jones, who has achieved grand slam in the Winter Olympics and world championships, there is the Swiss team Alina who is only short of the Winter Olympic gold medal in hand, the defending champion Swedish team Anna Hasselberg's strength is still online, in addition, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, Denmark and South Korea are also very mature teams, and the Chinese women's team must resist several hard battles if they want to qualify.
The Battle of the Gods is thrilling and exciting
The Chinese men's curling team is composed of Ma Xiuyue, Zou Qiang, Wang Zhiyu, Xu Jingtao and Jiang Dongxu, from the past experience, this team has not played a world-class competition in its entirety, so the strength is difficult to judge, but from the perspective of the status of the selection competition, the four-base Ma Xiuyue's ultra-low center of gravity throwing technique is particularly good at hitting.
Looking at the world men's pot world, the competition is still fierce, there are many world championships, European championships champions but only one winter Olympic champion of the Swedish team Edin, he must be one of the favorites to win the championship; there are also defending champions of the United States team, whether this time can stage the miracle of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is unknown; Gu Shu, who stood out from Canada's almost cruel selection competition, must defend the honor of Canada's "curling kingdom"... There is a certain gap between the Chinese team and the world's first-line teams in terms of strength, and in order to achieve good results, it is necessary to hold the mentality of impacting the opponent in order to obtain good results.
The Chinese delegation was the first pair of debutants
The Chinese mixed doubles curling team is composed of Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi, and at 20:05 on February 2, the first round of mixed doubles became the first event to open at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which must be watched by everyone.
China Mixed Doubles Team (Image source Beiti Media Guan Zihao)
Lingzhi has performed outstandingly in this cycle, and has been in a leading position in domestic strength, and also has certain experience in competitions. Fan Suyuan has been a player specializing in mixed doubles events for nearly 2 years, and although he lacks experience in competitions, he has a stable performance in the selection competition. The mixed doubles event only became an official Olympic event for the first time in 2018, so the two still have room to win. Sweden is a new combination of old and new, Canada's strength as a defending champion can not be underestimated, the first game against the old rival Switzerland team can successfully get revenge? Although the Australian team is competing for the first time, from the recent performance, there is a situation that the newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. （Jason）
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Curling Schedule:
February 2, 20:05 Mixed Double Curling Round Robin Round Robin Round Robin
February 9 20:05 Men's Team Curling Round Robin Round Robin
February 10 9:05 Women's Team Curling Round Robin Round Robin Round Robin