Gu Ailing

Behind the brilliance of Su Yiming and Gu Ailing: The Chinese delegation to the Winter Olympics is quite international

Text/Li Hongdi

Gu Ailing's fluent English is not surprising, so when Su Yiming, Jung, Cai Xuetong, Han Cong, Wang Shiyue, Liu Xinyu... When more and more Chinese athletes can blurt out English, Japanese and French in front of the camera, it is not difficult to see that the wave of globalization has profoundly affected the development of Chinese sports.

China's first appearance at the Winter Olympics was at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, when 28 male and female athletes were sent to participate in 18 individual competitions and did not win medals. More than 40 years later, in order to make up for the huge gap with the world's top ice and snow sports powers and prepare for the Winter Olympics held at the doorstep of their homes, the Chinese sports delegation has reached a new height this time.

Among the 78 coaches of the Chinese delegation at the Winter Olympics, 51 foreign teachers from 19 countries, including the United States, Canada, Russia, France and Japan, set a record for the number of foreign coaches in the Chinese Winter Olympics delegation.

Su Yiming

South Korean coach Kim Sun-tae, Korean coach Ahn Hyun-so, and Su Yiming's Japanese coach Yasuhiro Sato will be known to more people because of this Winter Olympics.

Norwegian athlete Bjør Darren and his wife, Belarusian biathlon star Domraceva, joined forces to become coaches of China's biathlon national team – the couple won a total of 12 Olympic gold medals. Ski jumping team head coach Mika Kojonkowski is from Finland, freestyle skiing snow skills head coach Toby Dawson is a Korean-American skier; the figure skating team signed Canada's Brian Oser coaching team, curling team head coach Linton Home Pitt Pia Rattle is from Sweden, and men's ice hockey team head coach Zanata Ivano is from Italy.

It is worth mentioning that among the 48 athletes in the Chinese ice hockey team, 28 are naturalized players, most of whom are of Chinese descent. Canada-born men's ice hockey team captain Ye Jinguang and women's ice hockey team goalkeeper Zhou Jiaying both impressed the audience on the field. Yan Jiarong, spokesman for the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said that naturalized athletes are a very common phenomenon, which is conducive to the more balanced development and popularization of sports in the world.

The Chinese men's ice hockey team in the Beijing Winter Olympics qualifiers

Steel-frame snowmobile athlete Yan Wengang won a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics, making a breakthrough in the event for China. The former head coach of the steel frame snow team, Andy Smith, is from Austria, bringing a complete training system, participation system and talent training system to the Chinese steel frame snow car project, and pierre Rudez, the head coach of the Winter Olympic cycle, has carried out a comprehensive "upgrade" of the Chinese team.

In addition, China's various Winter Olympic sports teams also have other forms of in-depth cooperation with more than ten ice and snow sports powers such as Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and so on, including long-term overseas training and competition for athletes, short-term training camps, etc. The Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams also participated in the 2021-2022 Russian men's and women's ice hockey leagues under the club's name.

Just as we often see Chinese coaches and athletes in foreign table tennis teams, the exchange and cooperation between the strengths of various countries is the epitome of globalization in sports. Competitive sports are not limited to the view of the door, in order to bring long-term vitality. As Yasuhiro Sato said when he became Coach Su Yiming: "I think there are some things that can transcend national boundaries. ”