Preview: The first full participation Chinese ice hockey strives to achieve the level of the Beijing Winter Olympics

(Beijing Winter Olympics) Preview: The first full participation Chinese ice hockey strives to achieve the level of the Beijing Winter Olympics

Beijing, February 1 (China News Service) -- At the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese delegation will achieve full participation in the ice hockey event for the first time, and the debut of the Chinese men's ice hockey team in the Winter Olympics has attracted much attention. Although the active players of the North American Professional Hockey League are unable to participate due to the epidemic, the ice hockey competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics is still not lacking in highlights.

Infographic: The opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics is imminent, and the Chinese Winter Olympic Legion is ready to embark on the journey. Photo by China News Service reporter Tomita

The Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament will kick off on February 3 and end on February 20, with gold medals in the women's and men's events decided on the 17th and 20th respectively. A total of 22 ice hockey teams participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics, including 12 men's teams and 10 women's teams.

The Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams have both qualified for the competition this time, which will be the first time that the Chinese men's ice hockey team has appeared on the stage of the Winter Olympics.

In the history of the development of Chinese ice hockey, the Chinese men's ice hockey team once achieved good results in the Asian arena, winning the Asian Winter Games ice hockey championship in 1986 and 1990 respectively. However, since then, the development of men's ice hockey in China has been relatively slow, and the current gap with the world's ice hockey powers is large.

In the men's ice hockey game at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese team was in Group A with Canada, the United States and Germany. These three opponents are stronger, although the absence of active players in the North American Professional Hockey League has a weakening effect on the Canadian team and the United States team, but objectively speaking, it is very difficult for the Chinese team to win against the group opponents, and it is more difficult to qualify from the group.

How to make good use of the opportunity to play against strong teams to increase competition experience, compete in training levels, and show competitive spirit is a realistic task facing the Chinese men's team. However, for the Chinese men's ice hockey project, being able to appear at the Winter Olympics is already a major breakthrough, which has obvious positive effects on the further popularization of ice hockey in China.

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be the fourth time that the Chinese women's ice hockey team has participated in the Winter Olympics, and so far, the best record of the Chinese women's team in the Winter Olympics is the fourth place achieved at the Nagano Winter Olympics. In this Winter Olympics, the primary task of the Chinese women's team is to strive for the group qualification.

In preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's ice hockey national training team participated in the regular season of the Russian Women's Ice Hockey League under the name of Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Vanke Sunshine Team, showing a certain competitiveness in the league.

At the Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's ice hockey team was divided into Group B, with the same group against Japan, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Denmark. If the Chinese team wants to qualify, every game in the group stage is crucial. Among them, the Japanese team is the stronger opponent in the group, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Denmark are the winter Olympic tickets obtained through the qualification round, and the Danish team is the first time to step on the women's ice hockey field of the Winter Olympics.

Yu Baiwei, Liu Zhixin, Zhang Mengying and other members of the Chinese women's team participated in the Winter Olympic Games for the second time, have certain competition experience, and if the team plays well in the game, it is expected to strive for a better position after qualifying from the group.

Due to the continuous confirmation of the new coronavirus by players in the North American professional hockey league, the final league made a decision not to send players to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which may have a greater impact on the pattern of the men's ice hockey field of the Winter Olympics.

Many famous players in the traditional strong team Canada and the United States will not be able to participate, the two teams have a large proportion of young players in the list of this Winter Olympics, and the overall strength has been significantly weakened, while European teams may continue the strong performance of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and players from European leagues will become the focus of the ice hockey arena of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

In women's hockey, gold medalists are likely to be produced in the United States and Canada, which have won five of the six Women's Olympic Ice Hockey gold medals since the women's ice hockey "Olympics" in 1998. (End)