Today is the last day of the Nordic biathlon of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, producing a team gold medal, and the Chinese team is mainly involved in participating in the strength reasons to accumulate experience for future world competitions and the next Winter Olympics.
In the previous individual event competition, Zhao Jiawen, the only post-00s youngster to represent China, won the 43rd and 47th places respectively in the standard platform/10 km cross-country and the big jump/10 km cross-country. Although it is not the last place at the bottom, it is only in the second to last place.
Although the results were not satisfactory, this was already a breakthrough for the Chinese delegation at the Winter Olympics. Before the Beijing Winter Olympics, the project was still in its infancy, and no athletes had yet stood on the Olympic field of the Nordic biathlon.
The most manly project, with the presence of Chinese players
Nordic biathlon is to put ski jumping and cross-country skiing together, athletes need to participate in the ski jumping competition, according to the results to determine the order of departure of cross-country skiing, to the final cross-country skiing ranking to determine the final ranking of the whole competition.
Beginning with the first Winter Olympics in 1924, nordic biathlon was an official event. And because the requirements for athletes in all aspects are very high, this is also the only event in the Winter Olympics so far that there is no women's competition.
The two sports in the Nordic biathlon are very different in characteristics, ski jumping requires instantaneous jumping and physical coordination during the aerial flight phase; cross-country skiing requires strong cardiopulmonary ability and physical fitness. Participating in both events at the same time is undoubtedly a huge challenge for athletes. Therefore, for China, which is already weak in snow projects, it has not been able to reach the world-class level.
Like the other originally backward projects of the Chinese delegation, after the successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Nordic biathlon was also used as a key breakthrough object, especially it was the key to completing the host's full participation in all the events.
Zhao Jiawen, who rewrote the history of the Chinese Winter Olympics, went from a cross-country skier who had quit to a key player in China's Nordic biathlon.
In 2015, Zhao Jiawen, then 14, gave up cross-country skiing training he was engaged in. He said that he felt that this was because of his personality, and there were too many problems in himself, "And then I successfully applied for the Olympic Games in 2016, and I came back and started practicing Nordic biathlon." ”
In the past three years, Zhao Jiawen's performance has greatly improved, especially in ski jumping that he has never been exposed to before, and even surpassed his old cross-country skiing. In the 2018-19 season, Zhao Jiawen was basically able to rank in the top ten in the ski jumping competition in the Intercontinental Cup.
However, a mistake in training, so that Zhao Jiawen knee injury for 8 months to recuperate, but also had a great impact on his psychology, "At that time I was in the ascending period, the results are going up, this injury is still very lost." ”
This setback did not really hit Zhao Jiawen, and when he returned to the training ground, he worked harder and harder to recover from his injuries and continued to improve his competitiveness in the Nordic two-sport competition.
Although China is the host, according to the IOC's "Flying Eagle Rules" to ensure the quality of Olympic competitions, most events must meet a minimum standard of participation. Among them, the nordic requirement is that Chinese players must get points in the Intercontinental Cup.
At the end of November last year, zhao Jiawen finished 22nd in the men's individual standard platform/10 km competition at the INTERNATIONAL SNOW FEDERATION Nordic Intercontinental Cup in Russia, with 9 points. This ensured that the Chinese delegation was able to participate in all 15 sub-events for the first time at the Winter Olympics held on its doorstep.
This is also the best reward for Zhao Jiawen's hard work throughout the Olympic preparation cycle, "Host, we are stepping on our own land to compete, it is definitely different." ”
High-tech makes Zhao Jiawen full of confidence in the future
For Zhao Jiawen, who just celebrated his 21st birthday in January, the Beijing Winter Olympics were just the beginning. He has already set his sights even bigger for the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics.
"I think I should be able to get on the podium at the 2026 Olympics." Zhao Jiawen has confidence and vision because he feels that in fact, this project that requires both physical coordination and balance, as well as physical fitness and endurance, is quite suitable for Chinese athletes, and his progress is the best proof.
In addition, before the Winter Olympics, Zhao Jiawen also specifically mentioned the Laiyuan National Ski Jumping Training and Scientific Research Base in Laiyuan, Hebei Province, where the Chinese Nordic biathlon team is stationed, such a high-tech training center is an important factor in the rise of China's ice and snow projects.
This training and scientific research base in Laiyuan County, Baoding City, is one of the three national ice and snow sports training bases for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The two tracks that have been built by the base are the big platform track and the standard platform track, which are consistent with the "Snow Ruyi" of the Ski Jumping Competition Of the Beijing Winter Olympics, regardless of length, slope and width. Even the referee tower next to the track, the simulated turf on the track, is exactly the same. In order to make Chinese athletes more familiar with the competition environment and conditions of the Winter Olympic Games.
Even harder, it's the world's largest ski-jumping wind tunnel, setting multiple world firsts.
The results of ski jumping competitions are closely related to the athletes' athletic posture, equipment and aerodynamic performance of clothing. The method of using wind tunnels for targeted training and testing has been widely adopted by ice and snow sports powers and has become one of the important scientific and technological means to improve the performance of athletes.
The glass curtain wall pipe of the wind tunnel laboratory of Laiyuan National Ski Jumping Training and Research Base is 3.5 meters wide and 4.5 meters high, which is the first in the world, and the large pipe cavity makes the wind simulation closer to reality. When the oversized "electric fan" with 24 blades is running at full capacity, the wind speed in the wind tunnel can reach 50 m/s, which is equivalent to about 15 winds, which is also the first in the world. In addition, it is the most sophisticated risk control of its kind in the world.
This wind tunnel laboratory has three most critical maneuver test sections for leveling, taking off and leaping ski jump. At the horizontal, 11 degree angle and 32 degree angle, the athlete can be trained to measure the resistance of the skiding stage, the force of the left and right feet at the moment of jumping and the uniformity of the ground force of the feet pedaling, and exercise the athlete's ability to maintain the best posture in the air and the balance ability to control the snowboard flight.
It should be known that ski jumping is affected by factors such as venue facilities and weather conditions, and an athlete can only complete a maximum of 10 jumps every two hours of training under daily outdoor conditions, and can only complete 5 jumps when there is less. The wind tunnel training facilities that can simulate the aerial flight stage of athletes can greatly improve the training efficiency and become the secret weapon for athletes in snow sports such as ski jumping to improve their sports performance.
Moreover, the completion and use of the source country ski jumping training and scientific research base also allows ski jumpers not to have to go abroad to train as before, and the ski jumping project can already continue to carry out high-level training at the doorstep of the family all year round.
On January 2 this year, Song Qiwu, who participated in the ski jumping competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics, jumped a national record of 141.5 meters on the big jump here, becoming the first Chinese athlete to jump 140 meters.
Source: Thoughtful Shanghai