On February 13, the China Steel Frame Snow Team held a summary press conference of the Winter Olympics at the Visitor Center of Yanqing Winter Olympic Village, which was attended by team leader Sun Fan, foreign teacher Andreas Schmid, and team members Yan Wengang, Yin Zheng, Zhao Dan and Li Yuxi.
Yan Wengang made history for the Chinese delegation to win the first medal in the slide event in the men's steel frame snowmobile competition. Zhao Dan's ninth place gave the Chinese women's steel frame snowmobile a good Winter Olympic debut. Commenting on the performance of the Winter Olympics, Austrian foreign teacher Schmid said, "I am proud of the achievements of the players, and more importantly, I am not worried about their future. ”
From the formation of a national training team in 2015 to the podium in 2022, the China Steel Frame Snow Team has only taken 7 years. Yan Wengang, a long jumper who once dared not even sit on the roller coaster of the amusement park, was reborn after more than 5 years of training and preparation, and in the "ice F1" arena that challenged the limits of speed, he was only 0.75 seconds away from the final champion Christopher Grote hull at the end of the first two rounds of the Winter Olympics.
When it comes to his first trip to the Winter Olympics, Yan Wengang has both satisfaction and regret. "To get a bronze medal, I was both happy and unhappy. I didn't play at my best in the last two rounds, after all I've skated more than 500 times on this track. I am familiar with every corner and have accumulated a lot of experience, and I am confident that I will get good results in this Winter Olympics. But in the race, I made mistakes big and small, even mistakes that are not common in training. To get a bronze medal in this situation, I could have done better. He said.
For the performance of the Chinese disciples, Schmid from the traditional power of the slide project gave affirmation. "In my experience, it takes seven or eight years for an athlete to win a medal on the international stage. When I watched them stabilize their results in the top 10 of the Olympics after several years of hard work, I was very proud of my team. This is inseparable from the efforts of the whole team. ”
Yan Wengang said that he felt he should do better, which I agreed with. Judging by the ability of the players in training, we had the opportunity to hit the gold medal. But the Olympics are not training grounds, and not everyone can show their better selves here. Schmid used the german team, the king of the slide event, which won all two gold medals in the steel frame bobsleigh, as an example, there are 4 professional tracks in Germany, and many athletes have been exposed to the sport since 12 years, and then continue to train and compete to become first-class players. For Chinese athletes, doing something that is not used to from an early age is a new experience and a challenge.
As for how the Chinese steel frame snowmobile will continue to improve in the post-Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, Schmid replied with a smile: "There is no shortcut, down-to-earth accumulation of ice time, when you have enough experience, you will naturally become a high-quality athlete." And these are all things that the Chinese team lacks at present. But don't worry too much, after all, China has its own professional venue 'Snow Dragon', and the rest only needs to be accumulated little by little. Go to Europe and let athletes experience a completely different track overnight and adapt to it in the shortest possible time. After that, it is to try to qualify for the next Olympic Games. I think the existing players already have a good foundation, and I don't worry about the future of the Chinese team at all. "