(East to ask) Ice and snow sports "latecomer" China, how to highlight the siege?
China News Service Beijing, February 12 Title: How does China, the "latecomer" of ice and snow sports, stand out from the siege?
Yang Zhijie, a reporter from China News Weekly
In 1980, China participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time, the first decade, zero medals; the second decade, zero gold medals. In the third decade, China won 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and began to show its strength in a few events such as short track speed skating.
Another decade ushered in the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle.
The Winter Olympics have been held for nearly a hundred years, in Canada, Norway, the United States, Germany, Russia and other ice and snow sports that occupy an absolute dominant position, how can the late Chinese team break through? Recently, China News Agency's "East and West Question" interviewed a number of historical witnesses to sort out the history of China's Winter Olympics.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. Photo by Mao Jianjun, reporter of China News Service
From 0 to 1
Ye Qiaobo, one of the benchmark figures in the history of the Chinese Winter Olympics. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, 28-year-old Ye Qiaobo won two silver medals in the 500-meter and 1,000-meter speed skating events, breaking through the history of zero medals at the Chinese Winter Olympics.
Ye Qiaobo experienced the darkest and most confused first 10 years since China joined the Winter Olympics. On October 25, 1979, the IOC restored China's legal status in the international Olympic movement. Just four months later, China is competing in the U.S. Winter Olympics. In 1980, China urgently set up a team of 28 athletes to participate in 17 individual competitions in 5 sports, including speed skating and figure skating. "Except for Cao Guifeng, who skated at speed skating, who won the 16th place, the other projects are basically at the bottom." Ye Qiaobo recalled.
In 1985, Ye Qiaobo joined the national speed skating training team, when there were very few athletes in domestic ice and snow sports. China's first participation in the Winter Olympics stimulated Ye Qiaobo and his teammates, who were determined to win better places in the Winter Olympics.
However, at that time, ice and snow events had a history of a hundred years abroad, and the gap between China and the ice and snow powers in Europe and the United States was all-round. At that time, Ye Qiaobo only had a pair of skates. Before the 1992 Winter Olympics, she competed in a World Cup competition, and the ice tube suddenly fell off before the game, and the temporary shoe change resulted in no time to grind with the ice knife. She found a local auto repair shop, but no one could weld an ice knife. In a hurry, Ye Qiaobo compared to the clerk, asked for welding, soldering and other tools, and welded them according to the coach's method according to the impression, "The next day I still took two gold medals."
In 1994, Ye Qiaobo won the third place with an injury at the Winter Olympics. Photo by Zhao Tongjie, China News Service
In addition to poor training conditions, Chinese athletes lack scientific training methods and systems. Before the 1970s, the improvement of competitive sports performance mainly depended on the growth of training volume, but since then most of it has benefited from the understanding and application of scientific training systems. Ye Qiaobo's specialty is speed skating short distances of 500 meters and 1000 meters. Her strength is that she is explosive, but she has been plagued by the problem of insufficient endurance for a long time - the last 100 meters of 500 meters, the last 200 meters of 1000 meters, and her speed has dropped very quickly. In 1989, she met a couple of coaches from a Dutch speed skating club during a competition abroad. The Netherlands is a speed skating power, and Ye Qiaobo consulted them.
"I learned at this time that the most critical secret is to change speed." Ye Qiaobo said. The Dutch coach told her that when her heart beats faster and she has trouble breathing, her muscles accumulate a lot of lactic acid, and it should be stimulated more intensely. Repeated stimulation and repeated breakthrough of the limit can improve the problem of reveling after the race. "In addition, the Netherlands uses a short-cycle training program, even on a weekly basis." Ye Qiaobo's original comprehensive quality is very good, and the changes brought about by the new training methods with stronger pertinence are very significant.
Before participating in the 1992 Winter Olympics, Ye Qiaobo had won 9 gold medals in the world competition. She is confident of winning the first gold medal of the Winter Olympics. But in the 500m speed skating final at the Winter Olympics, she was collided by a foreign player and lost to the American by a gap of 0.18 seconds. The referee did not rule that the other party was fouled, Ye Qiaobo was not convinced, wearing a knife sleeve to chase the referee, but due to the large size of the field, the other party quickly disappeared into the sea of people. But this silver medal brought the first Winter Olympic medal to the Chinese team, achieving a breakthrough from 0 to 1.
Tactical breakouts
In 1993, Li Chengjiang, a 14-year-old young player in Changchun, Jilin Province, was selected for the national figure skating training team, and three years later he was selected for the national team.
Figure skating consists of jumping, spinning, pace, music, choreography and many other elements. Chinese figure skating has long been "heavy difficulty and light performance", reaching its peak in the period of Li Chengjiang. In 1998, Guo Zhengxin was the first player in the world to point out ice for four weeks after the completion of the Olympic Games and then two weeks after the outside point ice, Zhang Min, Li Yunfei and Li Chengjiang, and the jumping difficulty reached the world-class level.
In 2003, Chinese athlete Li Chengjiang finished third in the men's singles final of the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. Photo by Wu Zhonglin, a reporter of China News Service
Li Chengjiang said that this was the "tactic" of the early days of the national team. China wants to catch up with and surpass Russia, the United States, Canada and other figure skating powers, and it needs to find a way. At that time, the difficulty score in the international competition was an important point, and the national team decided to "push the door of the country from the difficulty".
The tactics worked. China won three full-time seats at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, a bronze medal in pair skating, and a world championship in pair skating. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the first world championship in China's pair skating at that year's World Championships.
In 2002, short-track speed skater Yang Yang won the first gold medal of the Chinese Winter Olympics. Heilongjiang athlete Zhang will see the news and choose to switch from speed skating to short track speed skating. In 2008, Zhang was selected for the national team, and six months later, her name appeared in the World Cup squad. What was even more unexpected was that she formed a 3,000-meter relay team with Wang Meng, Zhou Yang and Liu Qiuhong, and broke the world record in the semi-finals on her first world cup.
"I was lucky enough to catch up with the Wang Meng era." Zhang Hui told reporters. In addition to the guidance of Coach Li Yan, in her opinion, Wang Meng played a more critical role in the 3000-meter relay. At that time, Wang Meng had an absolute dominance in the world of short track speed skating; in the team, Wang Meng was also a "soul figure".
In 2010, in the women's 500m short track speed skating competition at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, China's Wang Meng easily led his opponents in the competition and won the championship. Photo by China News Service reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Zhang Hui and his teammates found that China had several times more World Cup titles than South Korea, but lost to South Korea as soon as the Winter Olympics arrived. Before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Sun Linlin, Wang Meng, Zhang Hui and Zhou Yang used their leisure time to repeatedly watch the game video, analyzing the skills, glide routes and pushing and handover habits of each Korean player, and even the strength of the shot, the speed of the corner, etc. "We won all the previous World Cups, and as long as we don't wrestle and don't foul, it's impossible not to win this title." Zhang hui said. Finally, they crossed the finish line for the second time, and the South Korean runners were already waving the national flag to celebrate. Coach Li Yan immediately appealed, and finally the referee watched the replay and ruled that the Korean players were fouled and disqualified from the game, and the Chinese team won the championship, breaking the monopoly of the Korean team for 16 years.
"Ice is strong and snow is weak"
"Ice is strong and snow is weak" has always been a major dilemma in the development of China's ice and snow projects. China has won 13 gold medals in the six Winter Olympic Games, including 12 on ice and 1 in snow, but the total number of gold medals in snow sports at the Winter Olympics accounts for 70% of the total number of gold medals in the Winter Olympics. This restricts China's performance in the Winter Olympics.
For a long time, Heilongjiang and Jilin have been the "cradles" of China's ice and snow projects, sending most of the talents to the national team. Ice sports flourished in The provinces of Kurohe and Kyrgyzstan, but it was not easy to ski in the early days. Snow projects are greatly affected by climate, mountain shape, geology and site, and also require more professional equipment. Until 2017, there were no alpine snow fields in the country. Ye Qiaobo mentioned that in the 1980s, there were no cable cars on the snowy mountains, and athletes practiced skiing and could only ski twice a morning. "The snow didn't go over the knees, and the athletes wore snow boots and carried very heavy sleds, climbing up the mountain step by step. Climb to the top of the mountain for 50 minutes and slide down for tens of seconds. ”
According to the statistics of the "White Paper on China's Ski Industry", in 1996, there were only 11 ski resorts in China, and the market began to increase rapidly after 2010, and the total number of ski resorts reached 770 in 2019.
This is also related to the early Chinese breakthrough path. Under the guidance of the Outline of the Olympic Light Plan, China will choose projects with low venue requirements in the early days, such as figure skating, short track speed skating, speed skating, etc.
In the past few years, China has built indoor snow fields to extend snow training time and improve training conditions. More importantly, cross-border and cross-project training of talents. The earliest cross-border selection of freestyle skiing aerial skills: At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Han Xiaopeng won the freestyle skiing men's aerial skills competition, he trained in the sports school skills team since he was a child, and turned to aerial skills at the age of 13. Sledding has high requirements for the upper limb strength and core strength of athletes, and the Chinese bobsleigh team has selected some kayaks and athletes in javelin, shot put and other athletics in various provinces and cities.
In 2006, China's Han Xiaopeng won the gold medal in aerial skills at the Turin Winter Olympics, winning the second gold medal for the Chinese team. Photo by Wu Zhonglin, a reporter of China News Service
Beijing Winter Olympics time
In January 2022, 30 years after Ye Qiaobo won the first medal at the Chinese Winter Olympics, the documentary short film about her "Winner Fearless" was launched, talking about the 1994 Winter Olympics, she braved injuries and spelled out the 1,000-meter bronze medal, returned to China in a wheelchair, and created the "Qiaobo Spirit".
At the end of the video, Ye Qiaobo met Gu Ailing, a "genius girl" in the post-00 sports world. Today, athletes can enjoy the sport itself more. Gu Ailing told Ye Qiaobo that she skied because she loved it, could feel freedom and creativity, and could also improve her self-confidence. The Olympic spirit of the two eras meets and is passed on here.
On February 8, In the final of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Freestyle Ski Women's Big Jump at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China's Gu Ailing won the championship. The picture shows Gu Ailing celebrating. Photo by Mao Jianjun, reporter of China News Service
As the host, China has made breakthroughs in a number of projects. Alpine skiing, ice hockey and other sub-events, which have always been short boards, have all qualified for the Winter Olympics for the first time.
A group of young generals have emerged. Gu Ailing is the most talked about player at home and abroad at the Beijing Winter Olympics; last year, 17-year-old Su Yiming achieved the first Chinese male athlete to win the men's snowboard jumping World Cup, which is highly anticipated at the Winter Olympics.
On February 7, the men's steeplechase final of the snowboarding event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was held at the Genting Ski Park in Zhangjiakou. China's Su Yiming won the silver medal in the men's steeplechase skills. The picture shows Chinese player Su Yiming in the competition. Photo by China News Service reporter Tomita
For the traditional gold medal-winning project, Ni Huizhong, director of the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport, said that what kind of achievements the Chinese delegation can achieve at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the short track speed skating team will play the role of the main force.
At this Winter Olympics, Chinese men's ice hockey qualified for the Winter Olympics for the first time, and Gao Hongqun, deputy director of the Qiqihar Municipal Sports Bureau, introduced to reporters that ice hockey allows physical collisions, and European and American athletes have innate advantages. In addition, the opponents of the Chinese ice hockey team, Canada, the United States and Germany, are all in the top group, and China has never played against them. No one in these countries can shake their place in hockey.
"Because we can't shake it, won't we fight?" No. Everyone recognizes their level, but the countries still play hockey, and more importantly, surpass themselves. Gao Hongqun said. Among them, there is also the spirit of cooperation in collective sports projects, "everyone coordinates, cooperates with each other, and makes up for each other".
"We're on the Olympics and we've made history." Gao Hongqun said. (End) (Intern Lei Xiaolin also contributed to this article)