On February 11, the men's steel frame snowmobile event of the Beijing Winter Olympics ended the competition, and Yan Wengang from Tianjin finally won the bronze medal with a time of 4 minutes 01 seconds 77! It has created a new history of China's steel frame snowmobile project and Tianjin ice and snow sports.
In the first two rounds of the competition on February 10, Yan Wengang played steadily, ranking third with a time of 2:01.08. In the third and fourth rounds of the 11th, Yan Wengang continued to work hard, and achieved 1 minute 00 seconds 54 and 1 minute 00 seconds 15 times in these two rounds. In the end, Yan Wengang achieved a total of 4:01.77 after four rounds, winning the bronze medal! This is the first medal won by a Chinese athlete in the Winter Olympics event, and the first medal won by a Tianjin athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics!
Wang Luhua
Deputy Director of Tianjin Municipal Sports Bureau
This achievement is the breakthrough of our Tianjin sports in the Winter Olympic Games. This Winter Olympics is the first time that Tianjin athletes have participated, and the athletes who have participated in the first time have stood on the podium, which is really worthy of congratulations. In just over two years, it is not easy to cultivate an Olympic bronze medal athlete.
Zhang Zhongquan
Director of Tianjin Winter and Water Sports Management Center
Yan Wengang this child is determined, the action technology, the rhythm of the game is relatively stable. This glide is very similar to the fourteenth winter. I believed at the time that Yan Wengang would be able to achieve his best results.
Yang Shuying
Yan Wengang's mother
It is really not easy and hard for children to compete for the honor of the country on the stage of the Winter Olympics. The first thing I saw from him was: Boy, you've worked hard. Come back and get some rest, then go back to a new challenge.
Born in 1997, Yan Wengang was originally a track and field athlete, after Beijing's successful bid for the Winter Olympics in 2015, he transformed into a steel frame snowmobile athlete through cross-border cross-discipline selection, after hard training, Yan Wengang broke through the fear of high-speed sliding, physical fitness and technical ability have made great progress, he also entered the ranks of the top steel frame snowmobile athletes in China. At the end of 2018, Yan Wengang won the European Cup at King's Lake, which was also the first gold medal won by a Chinese player in the European Cup.
In October 2019, the steel frame snowmobile event of the 14th National Winter Games was held at the Lillehammer Circuit in Norway, and the competition format was the same as that of the Winter Olympics, and the players carried out four rounds of skating, and the four rounds of sliding time were added up to the total result. After the first three rounds of skating, Yan Wengang was also 0.01 seconds behind the first ranked Geng Wenqiang, and in the key fourth round of skating, Yan Wengang slid out of the fastest 52 seconds 98 of the round, successfully completed the reversal, won the gold medal in the men's steel frame snowmobile event in the 14th Winter, and also achieved a breakthrough of zero gold medals for tianjin in the National Winter Games.
In March 2020, Yan Wengang finished 11th in the men's individual event at the Steel Frame Bobsleigh World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, and in the mixed team event, he teamed up with teammate Lin Huiyang to finish 6th, which is also the best record in the history of Chinese athletes in the Steel Frame Bobsleigh World Championships. Compared with germany, Russia and other steel frame snow car old strong teams, founded in 2015, the Chinese steel frame snow team is a new army, and the overall strength is also obviously different from the world's top players, but through the unremitting efforts of the past two Winter Olympic cycles, Yan Wengang and his teammates are also constantly narrowing the distance with the world's masters.
On February 10, Yan Wengang finally made his Winter Olympic debut at the Xueyoulong Circuit in Yanqing, and he was also the first athlete in Tianjin to participate in the snow sports of the Winter Olympics. In the first two rounds, Yan Wengang skated 1:0.43 and 1:0.65 respectively, and finally he ranked third among all the players with a total of 2:01.08 in the two rounds. Although the results are not bad, Yan Wengang is still not very satisfied with his own performance, especially in the handling of the most difficult 360-degree circular curve, but after two rounds of competition, Yan Wengang, who has the initial experience of the Olympic arena, is still more looking forward to his own competition in the last two rounds. In the last two rounds, Yan Wengang really lived up to expectations! He achieved a greater breakthrough for Tianjin Ice and Snow and even China's steel frame snowmobile project at his first Winter Olympics!
In the Winter Olympics, Yan Wengang used a bronze medal to achieve a new breakthrough in the steel frame snowmobile project, all thanks to the teamwork of the national team, to the strong support and guarantee of the Tianjin Municipal Sports Bureau and the Tianjin Winter and Water Sports Management Center, and to the tenacious struggle of Yan Wengang himself.
"On the Chinese track, slide out of the world speed!" This is the goal of the Chinese steel frame snow racing team, and this sentence is always kept in Yan Wengang's heart. In the past few years, from winning the championship in the North American Cup and the European Championship to creating the best result of China's steel frame snowmobile on such a big stage as the World Championships, Yan Wengang has continuously caught up with the footsteps of top masters and achieved his own growth step by step. Now standing on the stage of the Winter Olympics and even on the podium, this is undoubtedly the greatest affirmation of his efforts, and it is also the motivation for him to continue to break through himself on the track in the future!