Roller Skating Youth at the Opening Ceremony, Interpreting from "I" to "We"

On February 4, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the roller skating performance of "Salute to the People". China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Li Junhui / photo

Under the melody of the Beatles' song "Imagine", 24 young Chinese people are sliding out of the vast white snow. The snow has left traces, and the traces of musical curves are strung together into Chinese knots, showing the Olympic motto. The fluttering notes and English lyrics above the bird's nest also convey the same good expectation as the old Chinese saying "the world is the same".

The session, titled "Tribute to the People," was one of the most memorable sessions at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with roller skaters gliding across the floor and tuging at the heartstrings of the audience.

From the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening ceremony of the "Double Olympics", once said that the biggest change in the opening ceremony is from "I" to "we".

The students who completed the roller skating performance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics interpreted "we" with their actions.

Behind the perfect presentation, the substitute hopes that he will not be used

Dressed in a gorgeous hockey suit and waving a shining ice hockey stick in his hand, when the ice ball hits the ice cube, the Olympic rings slowly rise, and the door of China opens, opening the prelude to the entry of athletes from all over the world. And this "ice-breaking" action was completed by 6 young people from the "future ice hockey team".

The 6 actors of the "Future Ice Hockey Team" are also substitute actors in the "Tribute to the People" roller skating part, and the performers of both programs are students of Beijing Sport University, most of them are post-00s.

In September 2021, 30 people were selected from 200 people. Of these, 24 are the official actors of the "Tribute to the People" roller skating part, and 6 are substitutes, while performing in the "Future Ice Hockey Team" section.

For these actors, participating in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics brings them closer to their dreams.

Xiao Yao, 20, is a sophomore majoring in ice hockey at the China Ice Sports Academy of Beijing Sports University. The China Ice Sports Academy is a newly established college of Beijing Sport University in 2020, and the background of its establishment is inseparable from the goal of "300 million people participating in ice and snow" in the Winter Olympics.

That year, Xiao Yao, who had just taken the college entrance examination, chose to fill in the ice hockey major of this college, hoping to contribute to the Beijing Winter Olympics in the future. He said that he is half a northeasterner, grew up in the northeast before the age of five or six, began to skate and ski from a young age, although he has successively learned fencing and athletics, but ice and snow sports have always been his enlightenment on the road to sports, and he has a deep affection for ice and snow.

In the winter of Heihe, Heilongjiang, "an ice rink can be made anytime and anywhere", and He Yubo from Heihe was worried about danger when he was a child and did not dare to go to the ice. As a teenager, he became a sprinter in the 200-meter. The university came to the China Ice Sports Academy to major in short track speed skating.

He said that the two sports have similarities, both have strong requirements for explosiveness, and choosing this major is both the inspiration of the Winter Olympics and the purpose of challenging themselves and learning more. "Participating in the Olympic Games is the dream of every athlete, and now to participate in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games is equivalent to fulfilling my Olympic dream!"

The performers of the roller skating part of the "Tribute to the People" link are like He Yubo, with a strong body and a strong sports foundation, their height is more than 1.75 meters, and the highest is more than 1.9 meters. On the largest ground screen stage in the country, a larger body amplitude is needed to show the grand scene.

Xiao Yao said that compared to the two-and-a-half-minute roller skating performance, the 30-second future ice hockey team program is slightly less difficult, and for professional students like him, the whole set of ice hockey movements can be started faster. Last October, they spent a month training the hockey program in advance, and then prepared with 24 roller skaters.

Zhang Xinjun is one of the substitute actors in the "Tribute to the People" roller skating part. He does not want to "turn" from the bench to the "future ice hockey team", otherwise there will be one less person to participate in the opening ceremony. He hopes that every actor will successfully have the opportunity to participate in the Winter Olympics.

After the opening ceremony, all the actors walked up to the stage and sang and danced. Roller skaters in red Chinese knots stand with the future ice hockey team, laughing and playing, and they line up to glide freely on the stage.

After 7 days of hard training in street dance, the program was almost withdrawn

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is also a feast of digital technology. He Yubo told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter that the action of sliding out the Chinese knot and the Olympic motto was initially conceived to be completed by robots. By November 2021, the performance of artificial intelligence was still not stable enough to be perfect, and the director team finally chose 24 students from Beijing Sport University.

The second "crisis" of the show occurred in the row at the end of 2021, and the director team felt that only professional roller skating action was still too monotonous after watching it. How can we present a richer program effect? The director team proposed to add elements of hip-hop to roller skating. After 7 days, if it still doesn't work well, the show will be deleted.

However, this group of actors are all sports students, have no dance foundation, and have to wear roller skates to perform street dance, which is more difficult. "It felt like no one could do it." He Yubo recalled that everyone felt incredible.

Some even started a retreat. He Yubo encouraged his teammates, who have been training for so long, not to give up. "And most of you have the experience of athletes, this training is very similar to the athlete period, and it used to be so hard."

The first week of 2022 was their toughest day, but none of them quit. Students and coaches work together to design movements, line up in shape. January 1-7 is full of training schedules: from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., from 2 p.m. to 4 or 5 o'clock, after eating and resting, going to the bird's nest in the evening, or training at school until 10 p.m.

Xiao Yao told reporters that sometimes in order to buy time, after the training, he would directly wear roller skates to the canteen, and directly wear roller skates back to the dormitory after eating. "In those days, the roller skates didn't seem to have been taken off."

In Beijing in January, it was freezing cold. The intense training made them sweat like rain. After several days of continuous practice in the indoor and outdoor venues, even a young man of about 20 years old can't eat his body. Some people have a cold and fever, but they are still training.

He Yubo said that when he was unwell, he did not tell the director, for fear of delaying the rehearsal due to rest, we only had 7 days, and the time was too tight.

"Everybody was holding their breath and wanted to show the best to the directors on January 8th, so they could keep our show." Even as a substitute, Xiao Yao, along with the official actors, did his best to win a hand for the show.

The final answer was revealed at the opening ceremony on February 4. Zhang Yimou, who has always been strict, said, "I want to give our team and the opening ceremony presentation a score of 100. ”

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Zhang Yi Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily client