Canada's "Tianshi Weekly": Former head coach of the Chinese women's curling team: Curling is a messenger of friendship between Canada and China

China News Network, February 15, Canada's "Tianshi Weekly" reported that curling is also known as chess on ice, this is known as the sports "evergreen tree" of the wisdom of the competition, so that Tan Weidong obsessed for a full 23 years, Tan Weidong coached the Chinese women's curling team, only five years to win the world championship, three times to compete in the Winter Olympics brilliant record, creating a legend in the sports world. What is less known is that it is precisely because of the "curling love" that The Tan Weidong family got married to Canada. Invited by Yue Qingshuang, the current coach of the National Wheelchair Curling Team and a member of the team he has coached, Tan Weidong flew from Canada to Beijing to guide the National Wheelchair Curling Team to prepare for the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics. The latest issue of Tianshi Weekly published an interview with Tan Weidong. Tan Weidong said, "No matter where we are, our patriotic heart has not changed, only when the motherland is strong, can we be stronger!" Anytime, anywhere, as long as the motherland has a call, I am ready to move forward..."

Chinese women's curling is as sweet as a five-year journey to cast a crown of glory

When curling was popular in Europe and North America for nearly a century, China knew nothing about curling.

In July 1998, Tan Weidong happened to see a Canadian ice hockey match against Denmark on television. The layout strategy of your comings and goings, the spark of skill and wisdom collided, and suddenly deeply attracted Tan Weidong.

The more he learned about curling, the more Tan Weidong felt that China had a lot to offer in curling. In 1999, Harbin set up a curling team, and he immediately signed up for training. In 2000, the national team was formed, and he participated as an assistant coach. In 2004, the national curling team was divided into men's and women's teams, and Tan Weidong became the head coach of the women's team. During his coaching period, Tan Weidong, who came from a scientific research background, paid more attention to the screening of talents. Each team member had to undergo a series of tests such as psychological stability and personality analysis, and the "four golden flowers" Wang Bingyu, Yue Qingshuang, Liu Yin and Zhou Yan became the first team members.

In 2003, the Chinese women's curling team participated in the Pacific Division, because it was the first time to participate, and the women's team was still very inexperienced. After systematic analysis, Tan Weidong feels that these opponents are not as strong as imagined, and the Chinese team is very likely to break into the top three. So he suggested going to the curling powerhouse of Canada for training, which was echoed by all the team members. However, the funds must be borne by themselves, at least each person has to pay 20,000 yuan at their own expense. Although the players are not rich, they have the full support of their families. In particular, Yue Qingshuang's mother, who raised chickens for a living, killed all 2,000 chickens that were ready to be left for her daughter as a dowry, she said, "Even if you sell chicken meat, you also have to raise this money for your daughter." This made Tan Weidong very moved, and this sincerity also attracted attention, and finally the relevant state departments bore the round-trip air tickets, and the Harbin local departments bore the cost of food and accommodation. In 2004, the Chinese women's curling team finally made a trip to Canada.

After training for a while, Tan Weidong learned that Alberta, Canada, is an elite place for curling, and the idea of switching to Calgary was germinated. At this time, he met Ye Tian, the president of the Macau Overseas Chinese and Canada-China Sports Association, and introduced him to Kenda, the president of the Curling Federation at that time, and Kenda enthusiastically recommended him to come to the "City of Champions" Edmonton as a training base. With Mr. Kenda's help, they rented the curling arena at the University of Alberta at a very low price.

Intensive training was maintained under difficult conditions, and everyone was selflessly engaged in training. At that time, the house they rented had an outlet, but the team members did not know, until the quilt was frozen due to low temperature, the team members realized it, you can imagine how much training was invested at that time.

The training ground is highly concentrated, back home is to study technology, the team members are closed training so there is no communication tools and networks, which also brings great challenges to everyone's mental endurance. Just by pressing the ball slowly, Tan Weidong crushed a dozen of them. Sometimes because of tactical problems, people will break out into fierce quarrels, and some players cannot understand such training arrangements. Tan Weidong explained, "Our technical parameters and indicators have not been met, we want to get good results, to ensure that the game is brilliant, we must take this as the support, to overcome the innate deficiencies through serious training." A gamble, Tan Weidong tore off the training plan one by one. Seeing this scene, the team members calmed down, and the two team members first cried. Tan Weidong also shed tears, and as a result, everyone cried together. After venting, the next day, Tan Weidong stood on the curling rink again with another sticky training plan, and the players said, "Dad, you are just scaring us." "During that time, no one ever regretted their commitment to curling.

Everyone gets along like family, all the team members are called Tan Weidong "Dad", Tan Weidong has to worry about everything, he is born sensitive to data, has a detailed plan in training, and the program arrangement of "two training and one competition" is full. At that time, driving to catch the game often missed the meal point, too late to eat, often Tan Weidong while driving to rush the road, the team members while stuffing food into the mouth of the father, he did not know what to eat, only knew to seize the time to eat, grasp the competition training.

In 2005, the Chinese women's curling team finished seventh in the Scottish competition. At the time of the award, Tan Weidong and the team members stood directly behind the podium, and the referee Eva hung five gold medals on her arm to prepare for the award. Tam said that after getting Eva's permission, he took a picture of the gold medal. Tan Weidong told the players, "Winning the championship is our goal, and we must use three years to make the Chinese women's curling stand from the back line to the front line!" "The whole team boiled over. In order to win the championship, everyone had no distractions and once again threw themselves into closed training.

The full dedication on the field and every move fell into the eyes of the overseas Chinese in Canada. During the New Year's Festival, the overseas Chinese led by Ye Tian invited the athletes to dinner, Ma Junqiang sent red envelopes to the Chinese team members, and Xie Yinyou invited the team members to eat at their own Vietnamese rice noodle shop. Regardless of whether the competition is won or lost, the local overseas Chinese are trying their best to relieve the stress of the athletes. Tan Weidong still remembers Ye Tian with his guitar, came to their residence to sing and cheer for everyone, sang to the emotional place and shed tears, this scene deeply touched Tan Weidong, in his opinion, behind the support of these overseas Chinese and Chinese for the Chinese women's curling team, is their full of love for the motherland!

In 2009, when the Chinese women's curling team went through five years of hardships and miraculously won the world championship with "Chinese speed", Wang Bingyu, Yue Qingshuang, Liu Yin and Zhou Yan were known as the "Four Golden Flowers" and were paid attention to by all of China! And Tan Weidong, who has been separated from his wife and daughter for many years, also made a bold decision in life.

Immigrants have a decade of ups and downs in life and unswerving patriotic feelings

Through curling, I met the simple Edmonton and a group of local overseas Chinese with affection and righteousness. All this has made Tan Weidong have a strong sense of belonging to his family, and he has been playing outside for many years, and he also longs for more time to be reunited with his family. After six years of knowing Canada, he felt that the educational environment here was more suitable for her young daughter and allowed her to enjoy a relatively relaxed environment for growing up. In 2010, Tan's family immigrated to Canada. At this time, the Chinese women's curling team after winning the championship is busier, and Tan Weidong needs to lead the team to play all over the world. In this way, I started to be a trapeze artist again, and began to gather less and leave more. After emigrating, the wife worked in the meat department of the supermarket. The 12-year-old daughter is in the sixth grade, and her English is also improving rapidly. For ten years, wives and daughters have experienced ups and downs together. A lot of things happened before he knew about it. Once the daughter fell off the horizontal bar to the fracture, the wife who could not drive the car carried the daughter all the way to the hospital near the home, the tall daughter, her feet dragging on the ground, every time he thought of this scene, he was sad.

"There are many things like this, my wife doesn't want me to be distracted by the game, she is alone!" It's hard to imagine how much she has endured over the years when she can't drive. Speaking of this, Tan Weidong's eyes were red.

The wife often joked that she had been tricked into going to Canada by Tan Weidong, 12 months a year, and staying at home for less than 30 days. Because of the game, Tan Weidong treated his home as a hotel. The biggest advantage is that the training team members of the national team have a place to stay and stay, which is the second home of the team members, and when they win glory for the country on the field, it is the family that gives them the most selfless support. "At the beginning, my daughter had a sense of distance from me, and every time she came home to talk to me, she carefully hid behind her mother, and only when she became an adult did she slowly open her heart to me..." Talking about his wife and daughter, Tan Weidong was full of guilt, in his opinion, his wife was willing to sacrifice her career for herself and her family, and the shining gold medal always remembered a gratitude to her family.

Curling concludes Canada-China love affair Caravan roars throughout China

Tan Weidong believes that in the sport of curling competition, he is also constantly enriching his life: dare to challenge, dare to take on, bear pressure, and accept growth.

The enthusiasm of the Canadian people for the Chinese women's curling team is also beyond their imagination. Sometimes Tan Weidong and the team members ate at the restaurant, and before the dishes were finished, the bill was paid by the people at the next table. These people also laughed and said in English, "I saw your team uniforms, I know you are a Chinese team of curling, support you!" "At that time, the Chinese women's team had more fans in Canada than in China. Whenever the Chinese team and Canada played against each other, all the spectators watched the game quietly and showed their support for the two teams with actions. Tan Weidong said, "There is not a single spectator stomping their feet at the scene, everyone just wants to quietly enjoy a pure sports competition." "Curling has also opened up a new understanding of the Chinese in Canadians, and the dialogue with curling has become an interesting sports culture phenomenon."

China is also gradually popularizing the sport, and now there are more than 20 curling halls across the country. Tan Weidong and others also participated in the professional guidance of laying curling tracks in sports venues such as Shougang, and worked hard to create a professional international standard venue. In order to promote this intellectual and fun sport, Tan Weidong and his colleagues have jointly promoted the "curling caravan" project throughout China. In this way, professional curling rinks can be manufactured in different regions according to local conditions, and the sport can be completely promoted in the folk! "I want people to know that this is not an aristocratic sport, it is an ice chess that everyone can participate in, and what tests your life experience and experience is your life experience." Only by breaking the restrictions of the venue can we truly achieve national sports, ensure the supply of national reserve talents, and greatly enrich the sports and cultural projects. ”

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics paralympic games will be held from March 4 to 13, and Tan Weidong will participate in the training of the national curling wheelchair team, a Chinese wheelchair curling team that is an honorary teacher, and won the first medal in the history of the Chinese Winter Paralympic Games at the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympic Games in 2018. He won the 2019 World Championships in Wheelchair Curling and again won the gold medal at the World Championships held at ice cube in October 2021. At the training ground, Tan Weidong sent a video on the first day of the first training in the Year of the Tiger: "I hope that through the Beijing Winter Olympics, we can further promote and popularize this ice and snow competition project, so that China can change from an ice and snow power to an ice and snow power as soon as possible, which is the responsibility of our generation of sports people." It can be said that curling has been in my blood and is deeply rooted! (Xie Yan)

Source: China News Network