The first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics was won by Norwegian actress Johaiyug, and the first gold medal production event , cross-country skiing , is a must for the soldiers on the Winter Olympics.
At the Summer Olympics, people always say, "Those who get track and field, they win the world." "At last year's Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. delegation was the country that won the most gold medals in athletics (7), and in the end, they beat the Chinese delegation (2 track and field gold medals) in the overall gold medal.
What about the Winter Olympics? "Cross-country skiers, the world." Like the "Mother of Sport" athletics, cross-country skiing firmly occupies the position of the basic event of the Winter Olympics.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, 12 gold medals will be produced in cross-country skiing, and although the number of gold medals is not as good as 14 speed skating and 13 freestyle skiing, the 11 gold medals in biathlon are also based on cross-country skiing. Therefore, to take the lead in the Winter Olympic medal table, cross-country skiing is crucial.
Norway's supremacy is unassailable
At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics four years ago, the Norwegian delegation, which ranked first in both the gold medal table and the medal table, won 7 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in its traditional cross-country skiing.
This is the eighth time Norway has dominated the Winter Olympic gold medal table. And in the winter Olympics' all-time gold medal table and overall medal table, Norway's 119 gold and 330 medals are in first place. It has a lot to do with the fact that they won 108 medals in cross-country skiing.
Norway's two top ten gold medals in the history of the Winter Olympics have also been related to the unexpected failure to win any gold medals in cross-country skiing.
The individual gold medal and medal count records since the Previous Winter Olympics are also related to cross-country skiing and Norway.
The no. 1-ranked Björggen (8 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze medals totaling 15 medals) is a women's cross-country skiing legend from Norway. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the 37-year-old Bjorgan, who competed for the fifth time, won 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze in cross-country skiing. Even counting the Summer Olympics, Björgen's total number of medals has reached third place.
And Bjorgan surpassed her Norwegian compatriot in Pyeongchang, Bjordalen, who has the title of "King of Biathlon". In what is considered a cross-country ski spin-off, Bjør Darren, who competed six times, won 8 gold medals and a total of 13 medals.
Most of the Chinese runners are middle- and long-distance runners
As the longest distance event in the winter event (men's longest 50 km, women's longest 30 km), it is naturally the most test of physical fitness and endurance, which is equivalent to the summer Olympic Games' middle and long distance running and marathon.
An article on the Internet after the Pyeongchang Olympics titled "Bjorgan's 13,600 Hours of Cultivation" has attracted a lot of attention in the winter sports circle. It mentions that the success secret of the Winter Olympic queen is actually the most common "hard work".
"In 18 years, 8,015 snow flights, 7,642 trainings, 463 competitions, a total of 13,600 hours of hard work, the data can tell the world a lot, at least this legend is fully in line with the "10,000 Hours Law". The scientists' first conclusion doesn't seem to be very clever — any athlete who trains in endurance sports should be convinced that it takes a long time to get something out of it. ”
And Bjorgan spends 91 percent of his time focused on endurance training, the most basic thing that cross-country skiing must have.
It is precisely because of this that China's cross-border skiing selection in preparation for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is mainly to select excellent middle-distance runners with high physical fitness, good basic ability and ability to endure hardships.
For example, two cross-border athletes from Yunnan, a strong middle-distance runner in China, will participate in the cross-country skiing competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Chen Degen, who started ski training in 2019, won the third place in the men's 15 km of the national competition 6 months after the snow, and then won three gold medals in last year's national competition, and won the winter Olympic quota through the Olympic points race.
Chen Degen, who entered zhaotong sports school at the age of 14, won the sixth place in the national youth middle and long-distance running competition after only half a year of systematic training; at the age of 15, he reached the standard of a national second-level athlete in the 10,000-meter event. Before being selected for cross-country skiing, Chen Degen was already a long-distance runner in the Yunnan Athletics Team.
There is also Chen Degen's teammate Liu Rongsheng in the cross-country skiing team, who is also from Yunnan, and is also an excellent seedling in middle and long-distance running. Excellent endurance, good cardiopulmonary function, and hard-working strength are the most important factors for Liu Rongsheng to stand out among many cross-border athletes and qualify for the Winter Olympics.
Compared with the master, the difference is the sense of snow
Easy to get started and difficult to improve, cross-country skiing is especially evident in many athletes from tropical countries.
For example, at the opening ceremonies of the two Summer Olympics in Rio and Tokyo and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tongan athlete Pita, who was shirtless as the standard-bearer, played bare-chested. It was after competing in taekwondo at the Rio Olympics that he taught himself cross-country skiing for less than two years and went to Pyeongchang with the success of a qualifying tournament.
Tropical countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia, which produce the world's best middle-distance runners, have also participated in cross-country skiing in their Winter Olympic debuts, relying on cross-border middle-distance runners.
Of course, although cross-country skiing is much easier to learn than other snow and ice sports, there are still certain skills. Therefore, even if you have superhuman physical strength and endurance, you may not be able to compete for gold and silver in the Winter Olympics.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Kenya won four athletics gold medals all from the middle and long distance running events, including the men's and women's marathons. But in the Winter Olympics, they are best known for cross-country skier Philip boyt competing for three consecutive years, finally realizing the story of not being the last place.
Boyette was originally a middle-distance runner, but his results in Kenya, the middle-distance running kingdom, were too ordinary. In 1996, under commercial sponsorship, Boyette qualified to go to Finland for free 10 km classical cross-country skiing training, and two years later participated in the men's 10 km cross-country skiing competition at the Nagano Winter Olympics. It was also the first time in Kenya's history that athletes had participated in the Winter Olympics.
As a result, Boyette ranked last out of all 92 players, a full 20 minutes slower than the champion. But his tenacious fighting spirit touched everyone, and at the initiative of the top three players, the award ceremony was deliberately postponed, and the champion Norwegian star Dali stood in front of the finish line to greet and hug Boyt.
Four years later, at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Boyette reappeared on the cross-country skiing field, but due to lack of funds and almost no snow training, he once again finished at the bottom without suspense.
Not convinced, Boyette competed in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, where he finally beat five athletes and was no longer the penultimate.
In fact, cross-country skiing is indispensable to become a truly top athlete, just like the feeling of swimming swimmers in the water is extremely critical.
Nordic countries like Norway have never been short of ice and snow resources. For most local children, they can ski from an early age. The feeling of snow accumulated after more than ten or twenty years of sliding on the snow is definitely something that those crossover athletes cannot achieve in a short period of time.
Chinese athletes can at least get a very good guarantee of snow training time, and for those cross-country skiers in African countries who lack training funds and sponsorship, the pitiful snow training is the biggest obstacle to their breakthrough in performance.