Thoughtful service to help the hockey game more exciting (focus on the Winter Olympics guarantee)

Figure (1): The de-icing team at Wukesong Sports Center clears the ice surface between games. People's Daily reporter Li Gang (2): Children at the short track speed skating training center of Qitaihe Vocational College in Heilongjiang Province are training. Photo by Zhang Tao, Xinhua News Agency (3): Overlooking the ice hockey arena of the National Stadium. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng

Standing on the Olympic Tower, the National Stadium is like an "ice sail" that sails smoothly on the lakeside of the Olympic Central Area; the Wukesong Sports Center in the southwest direction can achieve "ice basket conversion" in 6 hours, and the new training hall "Ice Diamond Flower" is beautiful. In these two "double Olympic venues", the fierce Winter Olympic ice hockey competition is in full swing.

Ice hockey is one of the most popular group sports at the Winter Olympics and has special requirements for event service guarantees. It is the only winter sports program that requires laundry services for athletes and referees in the venue; 1,800 square meters of ice must be cleaned in 70 seconds between matches; dentists must be on standby in the venue... How to do a good job of these events? How to provide a full range of high-level services to help athletes achieve the best competitive state? The reporter came to the National Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Center to find out.

Express laundry service is available

The black ice ball crossed the white ice and ran through the small half of the ice rink, and the Japanese goalkeeper did not react enough to miss the ball, and Hu Baozhen, who was wrapped up on the side, scored in front of the goal.

1:1, The Chinese women's ice hockey team equalized!

On February 6, wukesong sports center, Beijing Winter Olympics women's ice hockey group stage is being staged, and finally after a penalty shootout, China defeated Japan 2:1. The whistle sounded and the girls on the bench rushed into the field with their clubs held high to celebrate the hard-won victory with the players on the field.

Meanwhile, volunteers Li Mengyang and Wang Ao were waiting at the door of the locker room, ready to collect laundry items.

"After every hockey game and training, athletes go into the locker room to shower. We tied their clothes one by one with ropes and sent them to the laundry room. Li Mengyang introduced.

Ice hockey is very competitive, and after a game, the athletes are sweating and soaking wet, and they need to change their clothes in time.

According to estimates, wukesong sports center has about 29 ice hockey games and 139 trainings, with 7,000 athletes and referees, and about 45,000 pieces of laundry need to be washed. On the most intensive competition day, the washing volume reached 4,000 to 5,000 times.

The reporter saw that the clothes that needed to be washed were put into different laundry bags according to the category. Each bag is 1 meter deep and 0.5 meters wide, and the blue bag contains race uniforms and training uniforms, and the yellow bags contain quick-drying clothes and underwear.

Laundry also has doorways, different fabrics of clothing have different washing requirements, such as competition clothes and training clothes can not be dried. Usually, it takes 80 minutes to wash and disinfect quick-dry clothes, 21 minutes to wash the race clothes, and 100 minutes to wash bath towels and towels.

"Washed laundry needs to be delivered to the participating teams and referees at least two hours before the match." Yan Saisai, a staff member of the laundry service team, said, "In order to complete the cleaning task at the first time, we are often busy until one or two o'clock in the evening. ”

Repair the damaged ice surface at the first time

The side door of the course opened and 12 members of the de-icing team quickly came on the field with snow shovels in hand, 9 of them lined up in a V-shape, holding snow shovels to quickly glide from one end of the field to the other end, and then divided into two groups of 4 people to clean up the remaining ice chips; the leader divided into two groups with 3 other people and shoveled the accumulated ice chips into the bucket; the two turned back to the end, and 12 people quickly left the field.

On 10 February, the Slovak and Finnish teams played at the National Stadium. The reporter saw at the scene that between the games, the de-icing team was quickly dispatched, and the whole set of work was smoothly completed within 70 seconds.

Due to the fierce confrontation of the ice hockey event, the player's high-speed sliding and frequent steering will wear out the ice surface in a large area and scrape up a large amount of ice chips, which will affect the speed and trajectory of the ice hockey. Therefore, ice crews were required to quickly repair about 1,800 square meters of ice. Although the actual cleanup is ice ballast, it looks more like snow.

"The de-icing team has a low threshold, and it is necessary to have strong sliding skills to ensure that the formation is maintained when using tools such as snow shovels, so that they can work efficiently." Wang Xiaoliang, superintendent of snow removal at the National Gymnasium, said.

The 24 de-icing team members of the National Gymnasium are all professional ice hockey players from the China Ice Sports Institute of Beijing Sport University and the Qiqihar Men's Ice Hockey Youth Team, almost all of whom are post-00s and selected after 3 rounds of testing.

Wang Xiaoliang introduced that an ice hockey game is divided into 3 innings, each innings is 20 minutes. The de-icing crew will play 14 minutes, 10 minutes and 6 minutes in each countdown, clearing the snow nine times. During the break between the 3 innings, the ice team will carry out the ice pouring operation to repair the damaged ice surface.

"Tighten a string at all times and be in place at the entrance 1 minute in advance. As soon as the referee blew the whistle, we quickly rushed to the field and shoveled the ice ballast clean, and the tension was no less than the game. Huang Huan, captain of the de-icing team of the National Stadium, said, "Our team must be neat and fast, in order to give athletes a better venue environment and help the game more exciting." ”

Equipped with a professional medical service team

Falling on the ice during physical confrontation, clubs from opponents or teammates in fierce scrambles, ice hockey balls that leap forward during the game... These can all cause damage to the mouth or teeth of an ice hockey player. Ice hockey arenas at top events usually feature dentists. The Wukesong Sports Center "moved" the dental consultation room to the venue based on athletes.

"There are two medical rooms in the venue, one is a general consultation room, the other is a dental consultation room and a trauma treatment room." Following fan Qing, the venue's medical manager, into the door, a custom-made dentist's treatment chair is particularly conspicuous, with a variety of handles, operating tables, surgical lights, mouthwash cups, face screens, etc.

"We set up double shifts, with a dentist working in the venue with the chief dentist, with two specialist dentist nurses as assistants." Ni Yaofeng, chief dentist of the venue and dentist of Beijing Shijitan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, introduced.

If an athlete unfortunately has a tooth injury, how is it treated?

"The venue doctor will make a preliminary judgment, if the athlete's mouth and teeth are injured, it will be sent to the dental consultation room for preliminary diagnosis and treatment by the dentist, and then the first time in the venue medical CT car to do the scan, by the dental doctor suture to stop the bleeding." Fan Qing said that if the situation is more serious, especially when surgery is needed, it will be transferred to the designated specialist hospital by the venue ambulance.

It is understood that during the event, the Wukesong medical service team had 104 staff members to help the competition proceed safely and smoothly. At the press conference on the arrangement and operation guarantee of the National Gymnasium in the Beijing Area of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games held on February 8, Qi Liang, secretary general of the national gymnasium venue operation, said that the service guarantee of the national gymnasium was fully recognized by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

"After the vice president of the International Ice Hockey Federation visited the venue, the evaluation of the venue was that the venue had very good software and hardware facilities and service conditions." Qi Liang said. (Reporter He Yong)

Coordinator of this issue: Ta Huaiyang

Layout design: Cai Huawei, Zhang Fangman, Zhang Danfeng, Wang Zheping

People's Daily (February 11, 2022, 14th edition)