The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is about to open, and of the 176 Chinese athletes participating in the Winter Olympics, only Wu Dajing is an active Olympic champion. Compared with athletes, many coaches in various sports have performed brilliant duties, and both athletes and coaches have made history in the Winter Olympics. Below, you may wish to take a look at China's ice and snow coach team.
Li Yan and Wu Dajing
Li Yan: The Vancouver Winter Olympics led the Chinese women's team to win four golds
Li Yan is currently the president of the Chinese Skating Association and the head coach of the Chinese speed skating team. As an athlete, Li Yan won gold medals in the women's 1000m, bronze medals in the 500m and 1500m in short track speed skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. However, at that time, short track speed skating was still a performance project. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, short track speed skating became an official event, and Li Yan won the silver medal in the women's 500 meters, winning the first Winter Olympic medal for Short Track Speed Skating for China.
After retiring from the army, Li Yan transformed into a coach and successively coached short track speed skating teams in Slovakia, Austria, the United States and other countries. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Lee Yan led American Apollo to a gold medal in the men's 500 meters, breaking the dream of former South Korean star Ahn Hyun-so as to win the Triple Olympic Championship.
In May 2006, Li Yan returned to China as the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. At that time, China's short track speed skating fell into a trough, and after Li Yan's arrival, a number of outstanding players such as Wang Meng and Zhou Yang were trained, and the performance of the Chinese short track speed skating team began to improve by leaps and bounds. At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Wang Meng won two gold medals in the women's 500 meters and 1000 meters, Zhou Yang won the gold medal in the women's 1500 meters, and the Chinese women's team composed of Wang Meng, Zhou Yang, Zhang Hui and Sun Linlin broke the world record in the women's 3000 meters relay with a time of 4 minutes 06 seconds 610, and the Chinese women's team won the gold medal in four events of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, creating a record for the Winter Olympics. After Wang Meng became the "double champion", the scene of kneeling on the ice to thank Li Yan also became a classic moment of the Winter Olympics.
Wang Meng knelt down to thank Li Yan
Li Yan almost single-handedly rewrote the history of short track speed skating in China, and at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the Chinese team reached the final in all 8 men's and women's events, winning 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in the case of consecutive missed gold points, Wu Dajing won the gold medal in the men's 500 meters and broke the world record at the same time, achieving a breakthrough of zero Olympic gold medals for Chinese short track speed skaters.
After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Li Yan stepped down as the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. Last year, she became the head coach of the Chinese speed skating team. After switching from short track to avenue, Li Yan still reflects the level of gold medal coach, Gao Tingyu broke the field to win the championship in the World Cup, Ning Zhongyan won consecutive championships in the men's 1000 meters and 1500 meters, and at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Li Yan is expected to lead the Chinese speed skating team to create history again.
Kim Sun-tae: The gold medal coach has coached all over China, Japan and South Korea
Kim Sun-tae is currently the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team, which is a veritable "gold medal coach" for south Korean coaches, and has coached all over China, Japan and South Korea.
Jin Shantai has a long relationship with China's short track speed skating, as early as 2004, he came to China to coach, as the head coach of the Changchun short track speed skating team, and single-handedly excavated Zhou Yang, Han Tianyu, Liang Wenhao and other short track speed skating stars. In 2006, Kim Sun-tae left China for the first time to coach in Japan as the head coach of the Japanese short track speed skating team. Four years later, when Kim Sun-tae's coaching period expired, he turned down a high-paying contract extension for Japan and returned to China to continue coaching in Changchun.
Kim Sun-tae (middle)
In 2014, Kim Sun-tae's contract with Changchun expired, when the South Korean short track speed skating team issued an invitation to him. Moreover, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were held in his home country, and Kim Sun-tae accepted an invitation to start coaching the South Korean short track speed skating national team. After four years of coaching in South Korea, he trained a number of outstanding players such as Lin Hyo-joon, Hwang Dae-hyun, and Choi Min-jing. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Kim Sun-tae led the South Korean team to 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze results, ranking first in the medal table for short track speed skating.
After entering the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, Jin Shantai came to China for the third time to coach and became a member of Wang Meng's coaching team. Returning to China to coach, Kim Sun-tae also brought with him the gold medal support team that served in the South Korean national team in the previous cycle. In October last year, Jin Shantai was officially appointed as the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, he will lead the Chinese team to more gold medals.
Ahn Hyun-so: The "Six Golden Kings" of the Winter Olympics became the technical coach of the Chinese team
Victor An, formerly known as Ahn Hyun-so, is currently the technical coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. As an athlete, Ahn Hyun-so represented South Korea and Russia at the Winter Olympics.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Ahn Hyun-so won 3 gold and 1 bronze. Ahn Hyun-so became a victim due to factional struggles in South Korea's short-track speed skating teams, and in 2011 he switched to Russia and changed his name to "Victor-An" to represent the Russian team in international competitions. At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Victor Ann won three gold medals again, punching the South Korean team in the face. With six gold medals at two Winter Olympics, Victor Ann made history in men's short track speed skating. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Victor-An was banned from participating in the Winter Olympics in his home country due to russia's doping storm. On April 27, 2020, Victor An announced his retirement.
Victor Ann
In October last year, Victor An followed Jin Shantai to China as the technical coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. With the addition of the Olympic "Six Golden Kings", Chinese short track speed skating is expected to create new history at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Bjør Darren: Norwegian biathlon legend coaching the Chinese team
As the oldest event in the history of the Winter Olympic Games, biathlon (cross-country skiing + shooting) is considered to be a "combination of dynamic and static", and the comprehensive strength of athletes is extremely high. Norwegian star Bjør Darren is known as the "King of Biathlon".
Beginning with the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Bjør Darren has participated in six consecutive Winter Olympics. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, he won the biathlon 10 km title; at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Bjør Darren won four gold medals in the 10 km, 15 km and 12 km chases plus 4×7.5 km relay, becoming the only person to do so in biathlon so far; the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Bjordalen won 2 silver and 1 bronze; the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, won the biathlon men's 4× 7.5 km relay; and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Bjorddalen first won the gold medal in the biathlon 10 km scramble, and in the mixed relay race, he worked with his teammates to win the gold medal with a huge advantage of 32.6 seconds ahead of the second place, thus increasing his medal count to 13, becoming the most medal-winning player in the history of the Winter Olympics.
Bjordalen
In the 6th Winter Olympics, Bjør Darren won 8 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze. After announcing his retirement in April 2018, Bjordalen did not leave the snow field, and a year later he came to China to take charge of the Chinese biathlon national team. After joining the Chinese team, Bjordalen quickly applied his experience to team building, including improving the data analysis team, equipment management team, psychological intervention team, etc. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the biathlon legend will lead the Chinese team to compete as a coach and strive to achieve a historic breakthrough.
Zhao Hongbo: China's first pair skater to rewrite history
Zhao Hongbo is currently the head coach of the Chinese figure skating team, and when he was an athlete, he and Shen Xue teamed up to rewrite the history of Chinese figure skating many times.
At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the young Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time and won the fifth place in pair skating. Since then, their technology has matured and stabilized, and gradually emerged in the figure skating Grand Prix and the World Championships, and has won the runner-up of the World Championships and the championship of the Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals.
Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won a bronze medal in pair skating, the first pair skating medal in China's history to participate in the Winter Olympics, and the third Figure Skating Medal in China after Chen Lu won two consecutive women's singles bronze medals at the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics. In 2005, with only six months left in the sprint phase of the Turin Winter Olympics, Zhao Hongbo broke his left Achilles tendon during training. Half a year later, Zhao Hongbo magically appeared on the field of the Winter Olympics and won the bronze medal again with injuries. After winning the 2007 Figure Skating World Championships, Zhao Hongbo successfully proposed marriage on the spot, and the figure skaters finally achieved positive results. After the World Championships, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue were in semi-retired state. In 2009, 36-year-old Zhao Hongbo and 30-year-old Shen Xue officially returned to prepare for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. At the Winter Olympics, they won the double skating championship with a total score of 216.57 points, achieving a breakthrough of zero Gold medals in the Chinese Figure Skating Olympics.
After the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo officially announced their retirement. In May 2013, Zhao Hongbo took over the coaching whip of Yao Bin, the "godfather of Chinese figure skating", and officially served as the head coach of the national team's pair skating group and the coach of the youth team. After Zhao Hongbo became the coach, excellent combinations such as Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, Peng Cheng/Jin Yang emerged in The Chinese pair skating. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Sui Wenjing/ Han Cong finished second in pair skating. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhao Hongbo, who is already the "elder of the Seven Dynasties", will take the lead in Chinese figure skating to launch another attack on the gold medal.
Lindholm: Swedish curling coach joined the Chinese team
Lindholm is currently the head coach of the Chinese curling team, and as an athlete, Lindholm reached the top of the World Championships three times as a fourth baseman. As head coach and sporting director of the Swedish team, the Swedish team achieved a series of outstanding results. He won a total of 31 medals in various world competitions, including gold medals in women's curling and silver medals in men's curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and women's silver medals and men's gold medals at the 2019 World Curling Championships.
Lindholm
In 2019, Lindholm officially served as the head coach of the Chinese curling team. He said that at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese curling team will fight for the gold medal. (Huang Kai)