CCTV News (Focus Interview): The opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics is imminent, and relevant news is intensively released, and the atmosphere is hot. Like the establishment of the Chinese sports delegation, the torch relay activities and so on have attracted much attention. Just this morning, as a very important cultural event of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Torch Relay was launched. From today to the 4th, about 1,200 torchbearers will carry out torch relays in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, including 11 closed relay areas outside the closed loop and 1 independent relay area within the closed loop. The first torchbearer was Luo Zhihuan, the continental speed skating world champion. As for the establishment of the Chinese sports delegation that everyone is very concerned about, the training and participation of Chinese Winter Olympic athletes, the reporter of "Focus Interview" interviewed the secretary general of the Chinese sports delegation.
On the morning of February 2, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay officially began. About 1,200 torchbearers, including aerospace hero Jing Haipeng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Ye Peijian, and Yao Ming, chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, carried out torch relay relays from February 2 to 4.
Luo Zhihuan, who served as the first torchbearer, is very interesting, he is the first world champion of Ice and Snow Sports in China, at the 57th World Men's Speed Skating Championships in 1963, he set a new record of 1500 meters at the World Championships with a time of 2 minutes and 09 seconds 2, becoming China's first speed skating world champion and making China's ice and snow sports stand on top of the world for the first time.
Being able to serve as the torchbearer of the Beijing Winter Olympics and cheer for the Chinese Winter Olympic Team, Luo Zhihuan, who is already 81 years old, feels unprecedented pride.
Luo Zhihuan, the torchbearer of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and China's first speed skating world champion, said: "The Winter Olympics at the doorstep of Beijing shows that our country is prosperous, and I will assume a torchbearer to pass on the spirit of the older generation. I hope that the athletes of our country participating in the Winter Olympic Games will work hard, work hard, and cheer up! ”
Tenacious struggle, all-out efforts and the pursuit of excellence are also the spirit and pursuit of the Chinese sports delegation at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Just on January 27, the Chinese sports delegation for the Beijing Winter Olympics was officially established. The total number of Chinese sports delegations at the Beijing Winter Olympics was 387, of which 176 were athletes, an increase of 94 athletes over the 82 athletes of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which was the largest participation of the Chinese sports delegation at the Winter Olympics.
The chinese sports delegation to this Winter Olympic Games not only has a large number of participants, but also has a large age span, including veterans like Wu Dajing, Qi Guangpu and Cai Xuetong who have participated in the Winter Olympic Games many times, as well as young players like Gu Ailing, Su Yiming and Ning Zhongyan who participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time. The large number of young players is also a major feature of the Chinese sports delegation. Among them, the "post-00s" athletes account for about a quarter of the total number of athletes. It will soon be on the beijing Winter Olympics, and these athletes are also looking forward to participating in such a sports event on their doorstep.
Like Gu Ailing and Su Yiming, of the 176 athletes in the Chinese sports delegation, 131 athletes participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time, accounting for 74.43% of the total number of athletes. In other words, most of the athletes of the Chinese sports delegation were trained and selected in the Beijing cycle. This is not only for the achievements of the Beijing Winter Olympics, but also for the long-term development of ice and snow sports in the mainland to reserve talents and accumulate strength.
Ni Huizhong, secretary general of the Chinese sports delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics and director of the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports, said: "Young is strength, young is hope, young is the foundation, such a group of young people is a solid foundation for the future development of ice and snow sports in China." ”
To lay a solid foundation for the future development of Ice and Snow Sports in China, on the one hand, it is necessary to cultivate young athletes, but also to actively expand more projects and strive to make up for shortcomings. The realization of "all-project participation" is a highlight of the Chinese sports delegation at this Winter Olympic Games.
Ni Huizhong said: "We have achieved 7 major events and 15 sub-events of the full project, there have been 100 small events in real time, and there are 4 in-competition events, to launch an impact on the qualifications in the competition, to achieve the goal of participating in the whole project." ”
Therefore, the Chinese sports delegation has also become one of the few delegations in all participating delegations of the Winter Olympic Games, like Russia and the United States, to participate in 7 major events and 15 sub-events. Among them, 35 small events appeared for the first time in the figure of Chinese athletes, including 7 small events of freestyle skiing, 6 small events of alpine skiing, and 1 small event of ski jumping, which is undoubtedly a very big breakthrough in ice and snow sports in the mainland.
When Beijing won the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2015, a third of the 109 sub-events in China had never been held. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, China accounted for about half of the total. As of now, Chinese athletes have won a total of 104 small events and 194 seats, accounting for 95.4% of all 109 small events. It's an achievement that amazes the world, and it's not easy to come by. Looking back, the pointer should be set back to the moment when the bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics was successful seven years ago.
The successful bid for the Winter Olympics has been celebrated by the whole country, but at the same time it has also brought a huge challenge to China's ice and snow sports. Affected by the region and the environment, the ice and snow sports on the mainland started late and the level of development was low, and many projects were even blank. If you want to host a successful Winter Olympics, as the host, you must make up for the shortcomings of the ice and snow project.
Ni Huizhong said: "When the general secretary came to inspect in 2017, he proposed to us to make up for the shortcomings. The bad short board is a historical overview of the development of ice and snow sports in the mainland, the ice is strong and the snow is weak, the summer project is better than the winter and a series of strategic judgments, and the specific action guideline is the bad short board. ”
To make up for the shortcomings, we must first solve the problem of shortage of athletes and regional conditions.
Ni Huizhong said: "In the past, the winter project did not have such a large talent reserve, this difficulty must be very large, in the past it was all the selection of talents on the field, and the summer project was the four-level selection platform of the county games, the city games, the provincial games, and the national games to discover talents." But the winter projects have not been carried out, where to select talents? A very important requirement is to cross borders and projects. ”
After the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the state carried out cross-border cross-discipline talent selection attempts to select winter athletes nationwide. Many athletes who were originally engaged in athletics, martial arts, boxing and other sports were selected to enter the national training team of winter sports. Many of these athletes have been living in the south and have little contact with even ice and snow.
Among the 176 athletes in the Chinese sports delegation at the Winter Olympic Games, about one-fifth of them engaged in professional training in ice and snow sports through cross-border cross-sports selection, and nearly half of the athletes in snow sports came from cross-border cross-sports selection. These athletes are not familiar with ice and snow sports, to be able to shine on the field of the Beijing Winter Olympics, in addition to unremitting efforts, the mainland's rapid development of science and technology has also inserted "wings" for them. In the Laiyuan National Ski Jumping Scientific Research and Training Base in Baoding, Hebei Province, there is a ski jumping wind tunnel laboratory, which is a high-tech snow project training tool.
In the process of the Chinese sports delegation preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics, there are many high-tech means and equipment like this. They are very effective in helping coaches develop scientific training programs and helping athletes quickly improve their competitive level. It can be said that science and technology is an important means for the Chinese sports delegation to achieve rapid growth and leapfrogging.
The Olympic Games are a common event for all mankind, and openness and sharing are also important concepts upheld by China in hosting the Winter Olympics. Among the coaches of the Chinese sports delegation at the Winter Olympics, there are also 51 foreign teachers. Such figures fully reflect the mainland's open and pragmatic attitude and focus on the long-term development of ice and snow sports.
Ni Huizhong said: "We compared a series of shortcomings, barrel theory, the shortest is the coach's board, and one-third of the emerging projects we have no coach at all. This can be said to be a bottleneck that stuck our necks and restricted our development, foreign coaches handed over technology to our athletes, and gradually able to lead a group of local coaches to grow up, and their existence made China's ice and snow quickly integrate into the international ice and snow family. ”
Through the continuous efforts of all parties, many athletes in the Chinese sports delegation have achieved good results in the world arena in recent years. Athletes like Cai Xuetong and Su Yiming won the World Cup. These report cards are a microcosm of the continuous struggle, continuous growth and progress of China's ice and snow legion, and the best witness to the gradual development and growth of China's ice and snow sports and unlimited vitality. The upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics will also have more exciting fighting spirits and wonderful moments on the ice and snow stage.
Just before the expedition, in the early morning of January 25, more than 100 athletes and coaches from the Chinese sports delegation at the Beijing Winter Olympics made a special trip to Tiananmen Square to watch the ceremony of raising the national flag and take the oath.
Just tonight, the opening match of the Beijing Winter Olympics - curling mixed doubles competition was launched at the National Aquatics Center "Ice Cube", looking forward to the athletes to compete in level and style. After several years of preparation, several years of hardships and several struggles, China's ice and snow has achieved from small to large, from weak to strong. Some advantageous projects have consolidated the world's first-class status, many projects that have never been carried out before have obtained Olympic qualification, and the competitive strength of ice and snow sports has been significantly improved. There is no doubt that at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese and foreign athletes will bring us more excitement and surprises.