▲ Fan Jun, chairman of Century Star International Ice and Snow Sports Center (right), and Yang Hui, general manager
Since returning to the ice rink in 1999, Fan Jun and Yang Hui, who are professional athletes, have adhered to the socialization and marketization of ice and snow sports for 23 years, continuously cultivating and transporting professional athletes for the country, and also providing training opportunities for many amateurs.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Xu Mei sent from Beijing
Chen Bixin, intern reporter of Southern People Weekly
Photo / Southern People Weekly reporter Liang Chen
"In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a lot of well-known actors asked us to borrow clothes for performances, and our sequin-sewn costumes were very rare at that time." Yang Hui, general manager of Beijing Century Star Skating Club, laughed. In 1992, as the best male ice dancer in China at that time, he and his partner Han Bing competed in the Albertville Winter Olympics in France and won the 16th place, which is still the best record in the Chinese Ice Dance Olympics, and he is looking forward to breaking it in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
"I retired after the Olympic Games, I wanted to retire for a long time, and the team has been holding on." He ran to Shenzhen, where the spring breeze of reform was blowing, and defected to his brother Fan Jun, who was already wandering in the south, "He is two years older than me, and we are both children, and we have been training together since we were ten years old." Both brothers were members of China's first figure skating national team, and Fan Jun was the eldest disciple of Coach Yao Bin, the "godfather of figure skating", and won the national championship many times.
In 1988, the figure skating national team, which had been established for only two years, was disbanded, and Fan Jun turned to the sea. Yang Hui's ice dance project was retained for two more years, although "taking the championship will increase the salary", but until he retired, the salary was only 180 yuan, "but at that time it was the highest in the industry." ”
Figure skating is notoriously difficult in various sports, and there is a saying in the industry that the difficulty of training a figure skater is second only to training a pilot. But Fan Jun and Yang Hui had bad luck when they were athletes, catching up with the difficult period of Chinese figure skating from zero to one. Time is difficult, people "old" seem to be extra fast, many shining ice and snow stars in their early twenties retired to change careers, "At that time, winter sports were very difficult, and Chinese figure skating had not yet achieved any results in the world. "There is no good place to go after retiring, local authorities and large enterprises are most willing to accept basketball players," we skate, not very needy, after retirement placement is not too good." ”
Going south is one of the few ways out. Fan Jun, Yang Hui when they were athletes, after retiring also have a burst of energy, they have been to the Japanese in Guangzhou opened the ice rink, in Shenzhen opened a side stove food stall, with them like the south of the figure skaters and later the international referee Huang Feng, "He loves to sing, retired to Run to Guangdong 'fried', singing in various bars." ”
In 1999, the brothers returned to Beijing, returned to the familiar Capital Gymnasium Skating Training Hall, and founded the Century Star Skating Club, which was also the first private skating club for amateurs in China. Years later, the company grew, Fan Jun became the chairman, and Yang Hui became the general manager.
When the club was founded, Fan Jun was 34 years old and Yang Hui was 32 years old, but they had already deeply experienced the ups and downs of the commercial sea, "We returned to our hometown of Jilin from Shenzhen and opened restaurants, bars, KTV, and hotels in Changchun. The "reincarnation" bar on the edge of the People's Square is a classic in the business history of the two, because he once formed a friendship with the musician Wu Tong in the first body, using the word 'reincarnation' of wu tong's reincarnation band, "Later (he) also went to our place to perform." ”
Turning around and back to the ice rink is the real "reincarnation" of Fan Jun and Yang Hui, "Our dream has always been to have a club of our own, to have an ice rink of our own, but there was no possibility before, until 1999, when Yao Bin took Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo, they made some achievements in the world, the figure skating market had a chance, and we finally returned to the industry." Those things I used to do to make money are okay, but at the end of the day it's not our specialty. ”
▲The Beijing women's youth ice hockey team trains at the Century Star Ice Rink
"Old Ice" assembled
At the beginning of their business, they recruited soldiers and called back several retired "old ice", one of whom was named An Longhe, who was one of the top three athletes in the men's single skating at that time, and was arranged to work in the security section of a factory after retiring. After Returning to the Ice Rink, An Longhe created many legends, even serving as the head coach of the Thai figure skating national team, his daughter An Xiangyi went to ice at the age of 3, participated in the national championship adult competition at the age of 12, and became the youngest champion in the history of the event, but because she was not 16 years old and could not participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, ice fans expected her to touch the long-frozen women's singles awards at the next Winter Olympics.
"Lu Meijia, Zhao Guona, Tian Ying all called us back," Lu Meijia won the women's singles national championship, Tian Ying was less than 20 years old when she retired, "as soon as a female athlete develops and gets fat, it affects jumping, and she retires earlier than men." ”
Huang Feng, who was "fried", heard that he could return to the ice rink and also dropped the microphone to return to the team.
In addition to the coaching team with the national champion and national training team, they also started a business with Yang Jiasheng, a newly retired international referee, "He is the earliest international figure skating referee in mainland China, and served as the chief figure skating referee of the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006." Mr. Yang is the first Academic Director of our club. ”
Yang Jiasheng formulated a set of syllabus from scratch to the eighth level of the major and the national level test examination standards, which are still used today. Unlike the amateur exam grades used in most commercial ice venues, Yang Jiasheng's set of standards is fully in line with the International Skating Union (ISU) technical system. Century Star Club later launched a series of professional textbooks and teaching videos "From Scratch to National Level Testing".
"Participate in elegant fitness sports, cultivate ice world stars", their founding purpose reads a little bit of the age today, but also very accurately conveys that this is not a grassroots club, but a high match in the industry, a shot is national.
The club rents a training ground for the national team, "when the national team rests, such as in the evening, and on weekends, we take amateur trainees to the ice." "The office is right next to the ice rink, and the cabin, which is less than ten square meters, is where today's skating training industry leader started.
An old photo printed on June 13, 1999 records the "pomp" of their first admissions, Yang Hui and Yang Jiasheng are wearing ties, Tian Ying and Zhao Guona, two young female coaches wearing short skirts, smiling sweetly, "We ran to the door of the surrounding school to hand out leaflets, and China Sports News also published a report: "China has its first figure skating club." "The coaching lineup is so strong, Fan Jun and Yang Hui, who have seen the world, do not intend to make a small fuss, and specially rent a VIP room for the first body to prepare to welcome the students who are pouring in like a tide."
"There are not a few people hahaha..."
But the strong ice complex of Beijingers still helped a lot, Fan Jun said, on the love of ice and snow sports, "Beijing first, northeast can not be compared." "At that time, every winter, the Shichahai Ice Rink and the Taoranting Ice Rink were gathering places for fashionable youth," at that time, the national team training ground was also open to the public, and many skaters were willing to come to Beijing's earliest indoor ice rink to compete. ”
The first few batches of students have zero foundation, and the former national champions have all taught, and the brothers are no exception, "Fan teaches 123 grades, I teach 456 classes, and then there are coaches to bring." Yang Hui said.
"We took the trainees by the hand and taught them to stomp on the ice, from a little to be able to stand, and then slide up again."
Among the early students, the Beijing brother and sister duo of Wang Xue/Wang Jian slid into the national team. At the beginning of 1999, Coach Yao Bin and Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo went to CCTV to record a program on "Five Rings Night Talk", and Wang Xue and his parents were on the scene as spectators. When Wang Xue was 6 years old, she had created a new Guinness world roller skating drill pole record at the Yuetan Roller Skating Rink, and after listening to Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo's sharing, she approached Coach Yao Bin and said that she wanted to practice skating.
"Because she was introduced by Teacher Yao, we sent her a pair of skates and sponsored their brothers and sisters." Wang Xue and his brother Wang Jian teamed up and "won the good result of the sixth place in the country." The two native Beijing children were selected for the national team, becoming the first pair of Beijing national figure skaters.
Two or three years after the club opened, there were already so many students that the ice rink could not stand.
Took a shower in the capital markets
On the afternoon of January 6, 2022, when we arrived at the Century Star Jiuhua Base in Changping, Beijing, the ice rink was very lively and the conversion was efficient.
Located in the middle of the base, Hall A is an international standard competition hall with a grandstand, and the ice experience class of the children of the nearby school has just ended, and the members of the Beijing Youth Girls' Ice Hockey Team have swung on the ice. Next to it is Hall C, where figure skaters dance on the ice. Parents sit in the warm and cozy café bar and can see their children sliding and jumping on the ice through the large glass.
After taking us to see the professional curling venue, Yang Hui pointed to the scaffolding and workers on the ice rink of the speed skating hall and told us that this ice rink had just hosted an ice and snow program of the TV station, "Just finished recording yesterday, and today I am disassembling the light set." ”
Fan Jun Yanghui, who wanted to own an ice rink at that time, now in addition to the four professional ice rinks in the base, there are also many commercial ice rinks operating throughout the country, "At the most, there were more than 30 commercial ice rinks, 60% of which were leased and 40% of which were self-built directly operated." "The most difficult thing in the operation of commercial ice rinks is the lack of coaching talents, Fan Jun and Yang Hui have been suffering from the inability to send out excellent coaches, "good coaches are not willing to leave first-tier cities", and many coaches in second- and third-tier cities are recruited and trained locally. At the beginning of the business, they themselves went off as teachers, and after the commercial ice rink expanded, "we trained coaches again, and Fan Zong himself went there." ”
"Commercial ice rinks, to be honest, everyone has not run out of a rational business model," after Beijing's successful bid for the Winter Olympics in 2015, capital poured into the ice and snow industry, and Century Star, which already had 30 commercial ice rinks, successfully raised funds. Capital is eager to try, want to build them into the first stock of the new third board ice and snow, "At that time, we were also a little excited, feeling bitter for so many years, and finally had a chance." ”
The capital plans to invest in the construction of 100 to 200 ice rinks in the country, and the market has also risen rapidly to do a number of ice rinks, "the construction cycle of ice rinks is long, the contracts are signed five years ago, and when there is a commercial ice rink project, everyone goes to grab it." Yang Hui said with a bitter smile that whether they are or other small and medium-sized enterprises, everyone actually has no concept of the operation of commercial ice rinks, "it is also very hard to grab it, like we do so many chain ice rinks is more difficult." ”
Fan Jun participated in the forum sharing outside, always reminding peers that they cannot develop in disorder, "Most of the ice rinks now may not be able to achieve good profits, it is not a good professional project, especially in disorderly competition and blind investment. But this kind of words is easy to be blown away by the wind when capital pours into the wind, and what everyone likes to hear is "how to dig into the trillion-scale ice and snow industry."
The epidemic has pressed the brake button on the ice and snow industry that has entered the fast lane. In 2019, the market size of the mainland ice and snow industry has exceeded 500 billion yuan, and the market size has declined sharply in 2020. "As soon as the epidemic broke out in Wuhan during the Spring Festival that year, we both came to the office for a meeting and resolutely 'reduced the burden'."
After the removal of some commercial ice rinks with difficult operation and maintenance, the coach's difficulties have also been temporarily alleviated. The capital that rushed to invest money in the market also encountered difficulties, and the follow-up funds could not reach the account, "We did not move the money they played in front of, and we have returned them in the past two years." ”
Yang Hui said with a smile that he took a bath in the capital market, "chopped a few knives, and almost sold it," Fan Jun Yang Hui deeply experienced the ruthlessness and pursuit of profits of capital, but also learned a lot of things, such as financial combing is more standardized.
Elementary school students at a nearby school experience ice sports at the Century Star Ice Rink
Professional conveying that is difficult to replicate
The professionalism in the genes of the founding team has opened up a product line that is difficult for other clubs to replicate – professional athlete training and delivery. Since its inception, Beijing Century Star Skating Club has continuously sent talents to the national team, and after signing a government purchase service agreement with the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2016, the burden on their shoulders has become heavier.
Ice and snow project investment is huge, almost from the beginning can not be separated from social forces, as we saw in the Century Star Jiuhua base, an ice rink can only be profitable by high-frequency activities, competitions, training for as many amateurs and professional teams as possible, "take our curling hall as an example, a year of electricity and electricity bills need to invest two million." ”
Fan Jun and Yang Hui themselves are the most outstanding figure skaters of the same era, involved in the sports market earlier, and the base camp is in the "city of the double Olympics" in Beijing, the time and place are favorable and the people occupy the whole. From the very beginning of its business, the club has represented the Beijing figure skating team. When ice and snow sports were not rolled out across the country, the Winter Games were often jokingly called the "Games of the Three Eastern Provinces", and it was rare for Beijing to send teams to compete in several events.
After the successful bid for the 2015 Beijing Winter Olympics, ice and snow sports ushered in a great development, and the industry authorities also made full use of the national sports baton, through the integration of some ice projects into the National Games, ice and snow project points into the National Games points, and strive to promote ice and snow sports "south exhibition west expansion eastward".
In July 2016, the Beijing Ice and Snow Sports Team held its inauguration ceremony at the Capital Gymnasium, and all 16 ice and snow sports teams under the Winter Sports Management Center of the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau adopted the method of government procurement of services to form teams in conjunction with social forces. Among them, the Beijing Municipal Ice Hockey Association was entrusted to form the Beijing Men's Ice Hockey Team, and the Century Star Club was entrusted to form the Beijing Figure Skating Team, the Beijing Curling Team, the Beijing Municipal Ice Hockey Team, the Beijing Short Track Speed Skating Team and the Beijing Speed Skating Team, the Beijing Snowboard and Double-Board U-Shaped Ski Team, and the Beijing Ski Jumping Team.
In the summer of 2019, the Beijing team won 28 gold medals in the winter sports competition of the Second National Youth Games, of which 13 gold medals were won by the Century Star team. Xinhua News Agency broadcast a report that "the Beijing team won the winter sports competition of the Second Youth Congress and the government's purchase of services model was affirmed." Compared with the traditional "captive" professional team, the market-oriented socialized team is more efficient, and after the Winter Olympics examination, the separation of ice and snow sports management offices will continue to deepen.
"The best player in the men's singles now, Jin Boyang, is training on this field," after the ice and snow national teams have assembled one after another, the Jiuhua base has resumed the liveliness of mass fitness, after 3 p.m., the café has gradually increased, and the mothers with excellent perseverance have worked tirelessly to drive their children who have just left class to come here to ice.
Fan Jun and Yang Hui walked through the atrium and sat down in the stands of Hall A, where the Beijing women's ice hockey team was training, "We invited the former Chinese men's team coach Keisuke Araragi, the goalkeeper coach was invited from Russia, and the two foreign teachers did not go back during the epidemic and have been sticking here." ”
Since returning to the ice rink in the summer of 1999, Fan Jun and Yang Hui have also held out for 23 years.