In addition to the wonderful figure skating competition of this Winter Olympics, many people have also noticed that Chinese faces have become the strongest group of figure skating venues.
Under the various hot searches, Chen Wei, a Chinese-American athlete, attracted a lot of attention before and after winning the gold medal in this Olympic Games; and Zhu Yi, another figure skater who represented China, also became the center of the public opinion field because of his performance in the competition.
As many as 5 people in the four events have Chinese ancestry, including the heavyweight protagonists of the men's singles and ice dance: Chen Wei, the national champion men's singles team, and madison Chuck, the female partner in the ice dance group.
Expanding the scope further, the faces of East Asian countries are even more active. Japanese young player Key Mountain Youzhen played well, South Korea's post-00s young player Che Junhuan was beautiful and smooth, and mainland player Jin Boyang brushed the screen on social networks with the attribute of "sheniu".
On the figure skating men's singles free skating podium, there was a clear Asian face, and Zhou Zhifang, who could not participate for some reason, was also a strong contender for the medal.
That's interesting. After all, figure skating, an ice sport, originated in Europe and the United States, and for a long time it was a caucasian sport: after the emergence of figure skating in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, it was popular in Germany, North America and other countries. It was not until the 1990s that figure skating gradually spread to Asia. But in just two or three decades, east Asian athletes have firmly occupied a place in figure skating.
There's not even a need to mention black figure skaters here — in the early days of apartheid, blacks couldn't even enter figure skating clubs or compete. Because of the demand for figure skating venues, the cost of this sport is far more expensive than that of basketball, football and other sports. Blacks don't have the opportunity to train and compete on ice.
These athletes are proud to have achieved such results. Because in the figure skating field, the referees will rate non-white players more severely, and it is difficult to protest and appeal when it comes to the subjective artistic performance points of the referees.
American figure skater Harding showed the referee the problem of his skates during the game.
This scene was filmed in her autobiographical film
Although figure skating has a relatively perfect and objective scoring system at present, the score is still human, and it is inevitable to mix subjectivity. In the era of figure skating six-point system, the artistic score of the contestants' performances depends entirely on their good feelings in the hearts of different judges. Even now, the reform of the scoring system still exists in the ambiguity.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics, figure skating referees focused on their looks
It is rumored that because of the same problems on the ice rink, Yu yushin studied the operability of future figure skating AI scoring in his graduation thesis: he hopes that in the future, he can use AI, sensors and other equipment that will not interfere with the players to capture the player's movements, and then "score without any prejudice" accordingly.
In the United States, those Asian players who finally defeated European and American players undoubtedly did nothing wrong in all aspects, and under their continuous efforts, the ice rinks of figure skating gradually had more and more Asian faces.
One explanation for this phenomenon is that Asians are smaller, more flexible, softer, and aesthetically pleasing when performing figure skating moves. The president of the International Skating Federation, Chin Kuanta, once said, "Asians must understand that figure skating is a sport that suits them, and watching Asian skaters skate is a pleasure." ”
But that view has been denied by experts, with Christina Chen, who teaches the sociology of sport at California State University Fulton, saying in an interview that "cultural acceptance, social pressures or opportunities, structural forces and institutions make it possible." ”
Nagano Winter Olympic Figure Skating Women's Singles Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalists:
Lipinsky (center) Guan Yingshan (right) Chen Lu (left)
Take Japan, for example, where indoor skating rinks can be found everywhere, and figure skating is a national sport. After learning about the sport of "ballet on ice" from Europe and the United States, there was a high enthusiasm for figure skating in Japan. After Nagano, Japan, was selected as the host of the 1998 Winter Olympics in 1992, the Japan Ice Association opened a youth development training camp to select potential athletes from all over the country and invite world-class athletes to guide children in training, so as to establish a long-term and perfect training system. Japan's leading figure skaters: Yusuke Habu, Ewha Kihei, Mayo Asada and Makoto Honda have all trained in the camp.
Top-notch selection and first-class training have allowed Japanese figure skating to reach its peak in recent years. In this men's figure skating, it is not surprising that Japanese players occupy the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places.
But on the other hand, in this Winter Olympics, Asian figure skaters in the United States also attracted everyone's attention: among the 8 single figure skaters, there were 4 Chinese skaters, and Chen Wei also won the Olympic champion of men's single free skating.
There are various reasons behind the Chinese leadership of American figure skating, and the enthusiasm of Chinese for figure skating is the first.
Chen Tingting, Guan Yingshan and other first Asian figure skaters encouraged a new generation of Chinese people, and the achievements and popularity of the world champion proved that minorities can be widely recognized in the United States, and Chinese can also win the world championship in figure skating.
Gaining recognition for your own skills in a foreign country is undoubtedly a shot in the arm and has become the best template. Inspired by the pioneers, it can be said that this year's rising figure skating stars have more or less opened the road to figure skating under the encouragement of their predecessors.
The reason why Liu Meixian, the youngest 16-year-old in the American team, started skating is also because her father is a super fan of Kwan Ying Shan.
Kwan Young-san, Arakawa Shizuka, Kim Yeon-er
Figure skating, on the other hand, is not a low-threshold sport: venue rental fees, equipment costs, travel expenses, transportation expenses... It is between $80,000 and $100,000 a year. This is not a price that ordinary Americans can afford, but the Chinese who can establish a firm foothold in the United States have more or less a certain social status and economic strength, and the Chinese are more willing to pay for their children's education, so the Chinese also have an acquired advantage in figure skating training.
In addition, in the United States, figure skating is not the mainstream sport of ice sports, and once there was a stereotype: male athletes who play figure skating are gay.
Europeans and Americans generally love physically confrontational sports, and in their view, ice hockey is obviously more masculine than figure skating. Due to the action of figure skating, the performance atmosphere is more feminine, in the 1950s, North American figure skating male players often receive sexual discrimination, after the 90s of the last century, a number of figure skating male players died of AIDS, "fear of AIDS" atmosphere, this stereotype deepened again, when a boy tries figure skating, will receive resistance from family and friends; even if the family agrees, even the coach will not approve, some European and American ice hockey coaches will persuade student parents: want to let the child become a real man, or do not touch figure skating, to play ice hockey.
At that time, Chinese immigrants who had not yet been infiltrated by this prejudice became the main group of people in the figure skating competition. As a result, generations of Chinese American families began to pour into the movement, trying to achieve the goal of improving their social status in a white American-dominated society.
It is worth saying that several Chinese figure skaters at the Beijing Winter Olympics are not only talented in sports, but also have "both culture and martial arts":
Chen Wei scored perfectly in SAT math and studied statistics at Yale University. In addition to figure skating, he is proficient in piano, gymnastics, ballet and ice hockey; Zhou Zhifang, who retired from the test positive for nucleic acid, completed high school at the age of 16 and won the President's Award with a full ACT score; and Chen Kaiwen, who participated in the Pyeongchang Olympic Games, now majors in human development at Cornell University.
Including 16-year-old Liu Meixian, the three Chinese players are from the Bay Area, which has also caused a lot of discussion among Chinese. Most of the Chinese who can gain a foothold here have graduated from the top science and engineering schools in China, and they have a high level of education, so they will naturally have higher expectations for the education of the next generation.
Figure skating is not the only choice for these Kochi Chinese parents, Zhou Zhifang, Chen Wei and others are almost all in tandem in many sports: learning ballet, piano, swimming, tennis, etc., and eventually in the training of children, selective continued to develop.
The San Francisco Bay Area is the hardest hit area for chicken babies.
It is jokingly known as the Haidian Street Office in the Bay Area of the United States.
For these Kochi families, there is nothing more important than raising children, and both Zhou Zhifang and Chen Wei mentioned that the families have given great support for their training. Chen Wei thanked his mother for the first time after winning, and his mother not only insisted on taking him to training, but also took notes to save coaching costs and helped him practice after class.
This phenomenon of "chicken babies" continues. A Bay Area mother said in a recent interview that her third daughter is also learning figure skating, the cost of figure skating is not low, costing at least $25,000 a year, for the education of their children, Chinese parents are also at all costs. Of course, everything is done under the premise of learning well.
Chinese parents have another consideration: parents from 985 still have certain expectations for Harvard and Stanford, and once their children can achieve results in their strengths, they will be more divided when applying for prestigious schools, and Zhu Yi, another Chinese naturalized player who represents China, has also fallen into controversy.
But at the end of the day, figure skating is still a sport and a sport to keep fit. Yu yu knotted the string to treat asthma and embarked on the road to figure skating, this story you may have heard. Masama Uno, the second japanese figure skater who has been shrouded in the aura of Habu, is also a premature baby who embarked on the road of figure skating in order to exercise, and his story has also inspired many people to go to the ice rink.
Love may betray you, career may betray you, only sports will not betray you.
Written by: tt, jonas
Edit: Sebastian