【Article/Observer Network Columnist Sun Bo】
In all the events of the Winter Olympics, ice hockey has attracted much attention and is one of the highest-rated events. It is fast, confrontational, and the situation is changing rapidly, and the charm is unstoppable. When it comes to ice hockey, people naturally think of cold Canada, and there is a local saying: "It's Our Game" (this is our sport). It can be seen how much Canadians love ice hockey, from politicians and businessmen to the people of Lebanon, they are crazy for ice hockey.
Ice hockey is known as Canada's national ball, and its status is like table tennis in China. In the international arena, Canada's male and female hockey teams occupy a dominant position, which is worth learning from Chinese athletes.
After Beijing's successful bid to host the Winter Olympics in July 2015, there have been more and more exchanges between China and Canada in ice hockey, and Ms. Han Jinwen, director of the North American Center of the China Ice Association and director of the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center, has also become the "messenger" of ice hockey exchanges between the two countries. The center has organized many activities to promote Chinese ice hockey to learn advanced concepts and experience from Canada, providing a good opportunity for Chinese ice hockey to be more professional and international.
In August 2019, at the Toronto Olympic Training Camp, Han Tao, Chinese Consul General in Toronto, and other players from both sides took a group photo with the players of the competition, and the athletes wearing black sports uniforms on the left were all of Chinese descent. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
In August 2019, the Olympic Ice Hockey Camp was held in Toronto. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
The number one ice hockey power, Canada, dominates the field
In 1855, ice hockey originated in kingston, Canada, northeast of Toronto, about 240 kilometers apart. In the 1890s, ice hockey gradually radiated to the rest of the world. Men's ice hockey has been an official sport since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, and women's ice hockey entered the Olympic Games in 1998.
Important international organizations of ice hockey are the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the North American Professional Hockey League (NHL). The former was founded in Paris in 1908, and its main events include the World Championships and the Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament. The latter is the world's highest level of professional ice hockey, one of the four major professional sports in North America, founded in 1917 in Montreal, Canada, the "Stanley Cup" is the highest award.
When the NHL was founded, the league had five teams — all from Canada. Today, a hundred years later, the NHL has a total of 32 teams, of which 7 are canada's homegrown teams, accounting for the highest proportion of the four major leagues.
According to the International Ice Federation, there are 1.3 million registered ice hockey players in the world, of which Canada accounts for more than 500,000 people. Canada has more than 3,300 hockey halls, more than the rest of the world combined.
In 2014, Canada got together for a group photo after beating the United States 3-2 in the Women's Ice Hockey Gold Medal Extra Time at the Winter Olympics. Source: The Associated Press
Canada deserves the title of "the world's first hockey country" and occupies a dominant position in the international arena. The National Men's Ice Team has won 9 Winter Olympics and 18 World Men's Ice Championships, and is also the team that has won the most titles in these two competitions. Canadian women's ice also did not let su mei, and once won the Winter Olympics four consecutive championships.
Toronto is Canada's hockey powerhouse, and every NHL season, the whole city is like a big festival. Some flocked to the stadium to watch matches or live on super big screens, while others gathered in bars to watch live TV. More is a family around the TV to watch live broadcasts, beer, potato chips are indispensable. The "Toronto Maple Leafs" are also very competitive, holding the "Stanley Cup" 13 times before and after. On the night of the championship, every corner of the city boiled over, and fans spontaneously took to the streets to march and sing and dance.
As the saying goes, "One side feeds the other." "Ice hockey is a very fast-paced sport, the game is full of confrontation and collision, so ice hockey is also regarded as the best embodiment of the brave character and team spirit of the plus people.
Some Canadian children have started to play hockey since the age of four or five, and they are tall every year, changing clothes and shoes every year, plus training fees, which cost about 10,000 Canadian dollars a year, which is a lot of money. Twenty years ago, if you went to the hockey hall to watch junior hockey training and games, tall white people were the most. Recently, the author visited several ice hockey halls in Greater Toronto and found that there are many Chinese faces of the players of the junior ice hockey team, and some of them account for half of them.
In 2010, Canadian men's ice hockey won the Olympic gold medal. Source: Wikipedia
In the fierce collision of ice hockey, the physique of Chinese children is not inferior to other ethnic groups, the playing style is flexible, and the fake movements are realistic. This phenomenon is very different from twenty years ago, one is to show that ice hockey has gradually become popular among the Chinese, and the other is that the current Chinese are not short of money.
Ice hockey is a national sport in Canada and is suitable for men and women. Winters in Canada are cold and long, so there are many natural ice rinks, which also provides unique conditions for the development of ice hockey. In winter, many frozen streets, parks, parking lots, and small lakes have people playing "street hockey". In the spring, summer and autumn, many people will play roller hockey, and the alleys can be seen everywhere, so be particularly careful when driving.
The Chinese men's ice national team members have a very close relationship with Canada
The Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey program will have 12 men's teams and 10 women's teams participating, and the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams are also among them as hosts. Since joining the IIHF in 1963, Chinese men's ice has made its debut in the main Olympic Winter Olympics.
The Beijing Winter Olympics Men's Ice Championships are divided into three groups, and China fell into the "death group", and the strong Canadian, American and German teams are in Group A. Despite the absence of NHL players, the strength of the Chinese men's team is still far inferior to that of their opponents.
Canadian men's ice currently ranks first in the world, while Chinese men's ice ranks 32nd, with a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. There is no doubt that Canada has accumulated a wealth of ice hockey experience and is worth learning from China. In the past decade, the exchange of ice hockey in Canada and China has become more and more frequent.
On January 26, the Chinese men's ice hockey team's Winter Olympic squad was released, with a total of 25 athletes, all of whom participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time. Local players include Ying Rudi, Xiang Xudong, Han Pengfei, Yan Ruinan, Guo Ning, Zhong Wei, Chen Zimeng, Zhang Zesen, etc., while most of them are Chinese naturalized players, such as Ye Jinguang, Wang Taylor, Fu Jiang, Fu Shuai, Jian'an, Luo Jia, Wei Ruike, Yuan Junjie, Liu Jie, Zheng Enlai and so on. Judging from the big list, many team members have "inextricable" ties with Canada, they are Ying Rudi, Zheng Enlai, Ye Jinguang, Wang Taylor, Yuan Junjie, Liu Jie, Luo Jia, as well as Fu Jiang and Fu Shuai brothers.
The Chinese player Ying Rudi is the son of the famous director Yingda. Source: The Paper
Yingrudi is the son of the famous director Yingda, born in Beijing in August 1998. He began to learn to skate at the age of 3, and at the age of 9, he was sent by his parents to study and live in Chicago, the United States, where the sport of ice hockey is developed. At the age of 18, he came to Canada and joined the Ontario Youth League "Toronto Patriots" to play professional hockey. At the same time, he also represented the Beijing team and the Chinese junior team in major competitions at home and abroad. Since September 2018, Yingrudi has represented Kunlun Hongxing Origen Ice Hockey Team in the Silk Road Super Hockey League, and now Yingrudi has been selected for the Winter Olympic team of the Chinese men's ice hockey team.
In order to improve the performance of Chinese ice hockey in the Winter Olympics and pursue more breakthroughs, the Chinese Ice Association has also thought of many ways, and "naturalized" players are one of them. In order to achieve results in a short period of time, naturalized players are not uncommon in various sports.
Compared to other sports, the rules of hockey naturalization are not complicated. The FIA stipulates that if a player has not represented his or her country in any of the IHF-organized events, naturalization can only be achieved by complying with a "two-year policy" – a foreign player can represent a foreign player in an international tournament for two years after he has played in a country or region.
Born in Canada in 1997, his grandmother Zheng Fengrong is a famous Chinese high jumper and the first female athlete in New China to break the world record; his grandfather Duan Qiyan was the first men's high jump champion at the 1959 National Games; his mother Duan Li was also a high jumper, his father is a German-Canadian, and his sister is track and field athlete Zheng Ninali. Zheng Enlai's original name was Ty Schultz, and the earliest Chinese name was Zheng Tai. However, because his birthday and Premier Zhou's birthdays were on March 5, his grandmother Zheng Fengrong admired Premier Zhou so much that she changed his name to "Zheng Enlai".
In this hockey league "International Column", Zheng Enlai, who returned from injury, is regarded as "the hope of the whole village". Source: The Paper
Zheng Fengrong and Duan Qiyan went to Canada to help their daughters with their children, and also took over the cultivation of the third generation of the sports family. Zheng Enlai went to the ice rink at the age of three and began to play ice hockey at the age of five under the leadership of his grandfather. At the age of 13, Jeong eun-lai was able to play in the Western Canada Youth Hockey League (WHL) ice hockey league and dreamed of playing in the North American Ice Hockey League, but was injured while attending training camp in 2017. In the same year, on the day Zheng Fengrong turned 80, Zheng Enlai gave up his Canadian citizenship and became a naturalized Chinese and played for the Chinese Ice Hockey Association. Today, Zheng Enlai has been selected for the Chinese men's ice hockey team's Winter Olympic squad.
In addition, Ye Jinguang, the captain of kunlun Hongxing Vanke Dragon team, will also play in the Beijing Winter Olympics and serve as the captain of the Chinese men's ice hockey team. He is a veteran hockey player, born in Canada, and his parents are both Chinese. Because he studied criminal investigation in college, he also got the nickname of "Officer Ye".
It is worth mentioning that Song Andong, who previously became the first chinese male ice player in the NHL, did not qualify for the Winter Olympics roster. Born in Beijing in 1997, he went to Canada at the age of ten to study and joined the Oakville Rangers of the Toronto Hockey Club. In 2012, he moved to the United States with his family and continued to play hockey. In June 2015, 18-year-old Song Andong was selected by the New York Islanders at the NHL draft, becoming the first Chinese player in the league's nearly 100-year history.
After the success of the draft, Song Andong was invited by the Beijing Winter Olympic Bidding Committee to go to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the end of July as the image ambassador of the Winter Olympics, and witnessed the historical moment when Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, but regrettably did not have the opportunity to represent China in the Winter Olympics.
Canada has pushed the Chinese women's ice hockey team to enter the international development
Although ice hockey is still a niche sport in China, it has developed rapidly, especially by the expanding middle class. The success of Beijing's bid to host the Winter Olympics has led to the development of ice hockey in China. With the approaching of the Beijing Winter Olympics, ice hockey has undergone a spurt of development in China and is increasingly favored by people.
In Beijing, the "city of the Two Olympics", the registered ice hockey population has reached 67,000 people, and many ice rinks have been put into use, with hundreds of mature coaches, making Beijing's ice hockey foundation leap to the forefront of the country. More and more schools and students are involved in ice hockey in the capital, and there are more than 1,000 youth ice hockey matches every year, and the scale of events is also expanding. At present, the Beijing Youth Ice Hockey League has 256 teams and 3600 young players.
In southern cities like Shanghai, many people have also begun to accept ice hockey in the past decade, and there are a group of ice babies and ice babies and mothers who have been quietly riding on the ice rink for many years.
In 2008, the University Student Skating Center in Songjiang District was inaugurated, which was the first standard ice rink built in Shanghai at that time, thus opening the road to professional ice sports in Shanghai.
Just more than ten years of development, now Shanghai has 13 ice rinks, 34 indoor skiing venues, 3 curling venues, a total of 8 curling tracks, all kinds of ice and snow sports venues distributed in 13 districts, 4 colleges and universities, the city has carried out a total of short track speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating, curling, snowmobiling, skiing and other seven ice and snow sports projects.
At present, there are about 2,000 teenagers in Shanghai who insist on ice hockey training all year round. Shanghai Youth Ice Hockey Championship as a youth IP event that came into being, from the initial few teams, to the current event order book, the introduction of the participating teams has exceeded 40 pages.
The development of ice hockey in China has also attracted the attention of the NHL, and CCTV has repeatedly broadcast NHL games. The "Toronto Maple Leaf Team" also sent personnel to Shanghai and Beijing to open ice hockey training camps.
You may still remember that in September 2016, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Canada, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore jerseys in Montreal to kick off a game for Chinese Xiaoice players – which also pushed the Sino-Canadian ice hockey exchange to a climax.
Li Keqiang and Premier Trudeau tee off the game for Chinese Xiaoice players. Source: Chinese government website
Ms. Han Jinwen, director of the North American Center of the China Ice Association and chairman of the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center, has also become the "messenger" of ice hockey training and exchanges between the two countries. She is China's "women's volleyball predecessor", as early as the 1960s, she represented Beijing Sport University and participated in the famous Japanese women's volleyball coach Hirobumi Ohmatsu to come to China Devil Training Camp. Nearly 40 years ago, she arrived in Canada as an exchange scholar to study exercise biomechanics. Later, he has been living in Toronto and engaging in business activities.
She said in an interview that the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center takes Canada-China sports and cultural exchanges as a bridge and promotes the development of China's ice hockey industry as its purpose, and carries out a series of activities such as ice hockey promotion, training and training. The center carries out two cycles, on the one hand, to transmit Canada's ice hockey culture to China, on the other hand, to create a larger participation and viewing crowd for the sport, and jointly push ice hockey to a peak.
In order to vigorously promote the development of Chinese ice hockey, further learn from the advanced experience of ice hockey power Canada, and provide a good opportunity for China's ice hockey to become more professional and international, the China-Canada Sports and Culture Exchange Center, entrusted by the China Hockey Association, has hosted a number of activities to deepen cooperation in the field of ice hockey between China and Canada, so that Canadians can better understand China, promote bilateral sports people-to-people exchanges, and achieve win-win cooperation.
In May 2019, in order to prepare for the ice hockey competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association held an international training camp at Beijing Sport University. The China-Canada Sports and Culture Exchange Center also teamed up to beijing to participate in and conduct friendly competitions, aiming to exchange skills and improve the level of China's national training team.
Canadian women's ice currently ranks second in the world, while Chinese women's ice ranks 20th, and the gap between the two countries is large. In August 2019, the Toronto Olympic Hockey Training and Selection Camp was held at York University, with 29 female players from Shenzhen and more than a dozen Chinese players from North America participating. The training camp was hosted by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, and hosted by the Ontario Women's Ice Hockey Association of Canada and the North American Center of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association. Among them, the Ontario Women's Ice Hockey Association is currently the only women's ice hockey association in the world.
In August 2019, Han Tao, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto, kicked off the Olympic training camp competition, accompanied by Fran Reed, president of the Ontario Women's Ice Hockey Association (2nd from right), and Si Liang, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association (2nd from left). (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
They trained in the form of race training, during which they also invited experts in nutrition and psychology from the University of York to conduct professional training for the team members. Under the professional guidance of the relevant personnel of the training camp, the athletes learned a complete theoretical knowledge of ice hockey and further improved the level of ice hockey competition. After the opening ceremony, athletes from Shenzhen played a wonderful friendly match with local Canadian players in the ice hockey hall, and some Canadian players had represented Canada in the Winter Olympics.
In October 2019, Fran Rider, president of the Ontario Women's Ice Association, and his party visited Beijing, visited the Winter Olympic facilities, Beijing Sport University, and climbed the Great Wall. She was the first woman to be inducted into the International Hockey Federation Hall of Fame and president of several Hockey World Championships. She co-sponsored the informal Women's Ice Hockey World Championships in 1987 and contributed significantly to recruiting teams. In 1998, she also became an important contributor to the promotion of women's ice hockey into an Olympic sport.
Han Jinwen (left), director of the North American Center of the China Ice Association and chairman of the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center, and Fran Reed, president of the Ontario Women's Ice Association, took a group photo. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
In November 2019, the Chinese women's U18 (under-18) ice hockey team, invited by the Ontario Women's Ice Association, came to the Greater Toronto Area for three weeks of intensive training, aiming to prepare for the U18 World Championships in Poland in early 2020. As a strategic partner of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, the Ontario Women's Ice Association provides coaching and competition support for the training team.
The young women's players practiced intensively on the pitch and played 9 friendly matches with teams belonging to the Ontario Women's Ice Hockey Association. Han Jinwen said that the training has given Chinese young players a deep understanding of Canada's ice hockey culture, and the ice rink has also allowed young girls from the two countries to understand each other and establish friendship.
In the end, the Chinese girl went to Poland to achieve a good result of 4 wins in 5 games and won the bronze medal, which is also the best result achieved by the Chinese women's U18 team at the World Championships in recent years. It is undeniable that the intensive training camp in Canada before the game played an important role in the outstanding performance of the athletes.
In November 2019, the Chinese women's national U18 ice hockey team came to the Greater Toronto Area for three weeks of intensive training. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
Canadian Ice Baby celebrates the Winter Olympics in spring
The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped people from loving hockey. On the first day of 2022, as the 30-day countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics approached, the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center and the North American Center of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association joined hands to host the "Together to the Future, Welcome the Beijing Winter Olympics" Youth Ice Hockey Friendly Tournament in Toronto.
The competition was fiercely played between the Toronto "Future Star" junior team composed of Chinese players and the Toronto "Maple Leaf Star" junior team composed of non-Chinese players. The participants, all under the age of 10, pedaled the ice and waved their best wishes to the Athletes of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the Global Winter Olympics.
Han Tao, Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto, was invited to attend the event and kick off the match, saying: "I hope that the Beijing Winter Olympics will further promote exchanges between the Chinese and Canadian sports circles, and I also hope that the young players participating in this friendly match will have the opportunity to visit China in the future, exchange skills with Chinese young ice hockey enthusiasts, and enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples." ”
On New Year's Day 2022, the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Centre hosted a youth ice hockey friendly tournament in Toronto. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
On January 16th, a unique "Together to the Future, Ice Baby Spring and Winter Olympics" lake ice hockey exchange event was held in the north of Toronto, and the young contestants competed on the frozen river in the park.
Between exchange activities, the ice dolls carried Chinese lanterns and shouted in unison "Welcome to the Beijing Winter Olympics, Celebrate the New Year of the Tiger" to send good wishes to the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Chinese New Year. The competition was co-sponsored by the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center and the North American Center of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, and invited local Chinese youth ice hockey enthusiasts to participate.
On January 16th, the ice baby spring and winter Olympic lake ice hockey exchange activity was held in the north of Toronto. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
For days in a row, canada's eastern part has dripped into ice, but the blood of people who like hockey is boiling. On January 22, the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center and the North American Center of the Chinese Hockey Association organized a group of Chinese children from Toronto to come to the famous attraction of Niagara Falls. Accompanied by the melody of the theme song of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "Together to the Future", Bingwa waved the Chinese knot and red lantern in her hand, eagerly looking forward to the red fire of the Year of the Tiger and wishing the Beijing Winter Olympics a complete success.
On January 16, the ice baby spring and winter Olympics event was held in the north of Toronto, and the person who held the word "Fu" in the picture was Ms. Han Jinwen. (Courtesy of China Ice Association North American Center)
At the end of the interview, Han Jinwen, chairman of the Canada-China Sports and Culture Exchange Center, stressed that the Chinese in Canada and the motherland breathe together and share a common destiny, fully support Beijing to host an extraordinary Winter Olympics, and also look forward to making ice hockey exchanges a highlight of China-Canada sports diplomacy through the Beijing Winter Olympics, and bringing the hearts of the two peoples closer together.
She said: "In the future, we will continue to organize a series of ice hockey exchange activities to make positive contributions to the development of ice hockey in China and play a greater role in sports and cultural exchanges between Canada and China." ”
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