"Alpine skier" became a hot word at the opening ceremony of yesterday's Winter Olympics in Beijing.
"Now coming to us is the Ghanaian delegation, whose flag bearer is their only athlete, who will participate in the alpine skiing competition of this Winter Olympics", "The Kosovo delegation has two athletes participating in the Winter Olympics, both from alpine skiing"... This item was the most frequently mentioned word in the opening ceremony delegation's commentary.
Alpine skiing has become a breakthrough for many winter sports "small countries" to participate in the Winter Olympics.
Like Saudi Arabia and Haiti, who participated in the First Winter Olympics, although they had only one athlete at the Beijing Winter Olympics, they all came from alpine skiing.
Without alpine skiing, fewer than 22 countries are involved
According to the statistics, 13 delegations from the countries and regions participating in the Winter Olympics have only two athletes, of which 7 are only participating in alpine skiing competitions; 19 delegations have only one athlete, of which up to 15 participate in alpine skiing.
In other words, a total of 22 countries and regions have come to Beijing by qualifying for alpine skiing, which is almost a quarter of all the countries and regions participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics. And almost half of them are tropical countries, and it can be said that it is precisely because of the alpine skiing program that these countries and regions can join the big family of the Winter Olympics.
"Emphasis on participation" and "participation for all" are also one of the embodiments of the Olympic spirit. It is precisely because of this consideration that the International Olympic Committee has made alpine skiing a country that loves ice and snow sports in the world and is most likely to touch the threshold of the Winter Olympics.
"Big Package" – This is the lowest threshold for the Winter Olympics
There are 11 sub-events in the alpine skiing event at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee has given 306 places, 153 for men and 153 for men and women.
And in order to prevent countries with high alpine skiing levels from monopolizing the number of places to participate in the Winter Olympics through performance, the IOC stipulates that each country can only send a maximum of 22 athletes to participate. In this case, after the top 20 or so alpine skiing countries have taken away the first 200 or so places, the IOC has given each country and region that wants to participate in the Winter Olympics a "ticket" for two alpine skiers, one man and one woman.
Of course, these "tickets" are not without achievement requirements, as long as you can slide from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain. Athletes are also required to meet a minimum number of points between July 1, 2019 and January 16, 2022, by competing in a series of alpine skiing international competitions.
This point system and the conditions for obtaining places in the Winter Olympics are somewhat complicated, in simple terms, in the entire two-and-a-half-year cycle of so many competitions, athletes can participate in the Winter Olympics as long as they have entered the top 80 or top 100 international competitions twice.
As a result, a total of 83 countries and regions at the Beijing Winter Olympics have won quotas for alpine skiing, including, of course, many ice and snow sports "Third World" that are almost impossible to participate in.
Why alpine skiing? Easy to learn and save money
Why did the National Olympic Committee choose alpine skiing? Because the cost of alpine skiing participation is relatively low, the population coverage is wide, and the countries and regions involved are also the largest.
First of all, alpine skiing does have a relatively low training and competition threshold. A pair of snow poles plus a pair of snowboards, find a snow field to practice. As long as you can slide from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, you have completed an alpine skiing. Moreover, the technical difficulty requirements are far lower than those that must be practiced from an early age in ice sports and freestyle skiing and snowboarding.
In the case of the International Olympic Committee's large-scale "big gift package" for the Winter Olympic qualification, novices like Jamaican athlete Benjamin Alexander, who only began to contact alpine skiing six years ago, will now appear in the men's giant slalom event of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Secondly, the cost of training is also a major factor in the most popular snow sports in alpine skiing.
Go to the snow field by yourself, master the basic techniques and be able to practice on your own, the cost is much cheaper than the projects that require high-quality ice rinks, and other winter sports that require high-level professional coaches. Especially in European and American countries, in the winter, the number of snow fields is not only large, the conditions are not bad, and the cost of hiring ordinary coaches is not too high.
Moreover, participating in individual projects abroad is basically raised by athletes themselves, either at their own expense or sponsored. Benjamin Alexander has said that he has invested a lot of savings in skiing, has not had a full-time coach, and can only train through "buying lessons" in various parts of Europe like gym fitness.