On the evening of February 2, the opening match of the Beijing Winter Olympics - curling mixed doubles will be played in the "Ice Cube" of the National Aquatics Center, and the Chinese curling team will face the Swiss team in the curling mixed doubles round robin tournament held at the National Aquatics Center.
As one of the earliest competitions to start at the Beijing Winter Olympics, curling is known as "chess" on ice, which puts the participants on a comprehensive test of physical fitness and brain power.
On October 6, 2020, Jiang Xindi (left) and Ma Xiuyue competed in mixed doubles. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Chao
The youngest event of the Winter Olympics
Curling is one of the oldest team projects in the world, and it originated in Scotland in the 14th century. In 1795, the first curling club was founded in Scotland, and almost 40 years later, the Scottish curling club first established the official rules of competition.
In 1924, curling was included in the first Winter Olympics as a performance program. In 1927, Canada held its first national curling competition, a sport that was introduced to Asia in 1955.
At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, curling became an official sport. Curling is the latest of the seven major events of the Current Winter Olympics.
The "Ice Cube" track, the venue of the first beijing Winter Olympic Games. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
Throwing the pot determines the winner
The rules of curling are not complicated, and on a special ice rink 45 meters long and 5 meters wide, there are 4 players on each side, and the two teams take turns to throw the pot. Each member of both teams has two curlers, i.e. two chances to throw the ball.
The two teams alternated to roll the ball in order of first, second, third, and fourth base. When one player throws the ball, two players of their own side hold a brush and quickly brush the ice surface left and right in front of the curling slide to adjust the curling forward line and speed so that the curling can accurately reach the center of the camp. At the same time, the opposing player can also wipe the ice surface in front of the curling in order to keep the curling away from the center of the circle.
Image source: Visual China
The whole game consists of 10 innings, with curling on the field far from the center of the base circle to determine the winner, with the team located in the center of the base closest to the center of the base score, 1 point per stone, the side with the most points wins.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, there were three gold medals in the curling event: men's, women's and mixed doubles, and a total of 10 teams participated in each event. From February 2 to 20, the competition is the longest time and the most games in the Winter Olympic Games. The three gold medals will be awarded on February 8 (mixed doubles), 19 (men's) and 20 (women).
The Chinese women's team made history 12 years ago
Curling officially entered China in 1995, and at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the Chinese women's curling team that made its debut won a bronze medal, creating the history of this event. The five players of the Chinese women's team are Wang Bingyu, Liu Yin, Yue Qingshuang, Zhou Yan and Liu Jinli.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Chinese men's curling team finished fourth, and it is still the best result of the Asian men's team at the Winter Olympics. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, mixed doubles became an official event, and China's Ba Dexin and Wang Rui won the fourth place.
In order to help the Chinese curling team prepare for the Winter Olympics, the current head coach (Linton Home) and coaches (Mariani, Latamanki) are all foreigners, which is also the most neat project for the Chinese team to introduce foreign high-level coaches in various projects of this competition.
The number of participating teams set a record for the Winter Olympics
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the curling mixed doubles event debuted on the Olympic stage, when only 8 teams participated, while the mixed doubles of the Beijing Winter Olympics increased to 10 teams, plus 10 teams each in the men's and women's quadruples, a total of 30 teams participated, setting a record for the largest number of curling teams in the history of the Winter Olympics.
This is a race curling shot at "Ice Cube" on January 27. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Jingyan
Curling at the Winter Olympics includes a grand round robin, semi-final and final. In the grand round robin, each team in each event has to play against the remaining 9 teams once, and finally the large round robin ranking is arranged according to points, the top four enter the semi-finals, and the winner of the semi-finals starts a gold medal battle, and the loser decides the bronze medal.
Because of the large number of participating teams, curling competitions played a total of 49 games in each event, and a total of 147 games were played in the three sports, making curling the most games in this Winter Olympic Games.
The Mixed Doubles Chinese players are expected to create surprises
The Beijing Winter Olympics Information System recently announced the list of players from the Chinese men's and women's curling teams and mixed doubles teams.
The five players of the men's team are Ma Xiuyue, Zou Qiang, Wang Zhiyu, Xu Jingtao and Jiang Dongxu.
The five players of the women's team are Han Yu, Wang Rui, Dong Ziqi, Zhang Lijun and Jiang Xindi, of which Jiang Xindi and Wang Rui participated in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
The mixed doubles players are Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi.
Among them, 32-year-old Ma Xiuyue is from Harbin and has won the men's championship of the National Curling Championship. Han Yu, a 21-year-old Beijing girl, is led by a young team newly formed after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which won the 2019 Asia-Pacific Championships and the tenth place at the 2021 World Championships.
It is reported that Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom are the traditional strong teams in curling, and the Momentum of the United States, Italy and Japan in recent years has also been very strong. In comparison, 10 of the 12 players on the Chinese team participated in the Olympic Games for the first time, and they were one of the teams with the lowest average age and the least experienced in the competition.
Relatively speaking, the mixed doubles that were only included in the Olympic gold medal event four years ago is very exciting, and the Chinese team is currently ranked sixth in the world in this event, and Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi are expected to create surprises.
Source Yangtze River Daily
Edited by Meng Ziwei
Process Editor Wu Yue