After experiencing the full capacity of the Sochi and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the development pattern of snowboarding has completed a subversive restructuring at the Beijing Winter Olympics. With the rapid rise of Asian countries represented by China and Japan in the skill category, the situation of long-term domination of snowboarding in Europe and the United States has been completely broken. However, in the racing project, the overall competitiveness of Asian countries is still weak, and the dominant position of European and American countries is still very prominent.
Asia has achieved a major breakthrough
Snowboarding has been an official Olympic sport since the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and then has been monopolized by European and North American athletes for a long time, until the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Australian Players Bright won the women's U-shaped track skills championship, this situation was first broken, but then Australian athletes were only occasionally able to climb the winter Olympic podium on snowboarding. Asian athletes did not achieve a breakthrough of zero medals in snowboarding until the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. However, at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Japan's Hirano Bumeng won the men's U-shaped track skills gold medal for the first time after the silver medal at the Sochi and Pingchang Winter Olympics, which was also the first Winter Olympic gold medal in snowboarding for Asian athletes.
After Hirano Bumeng, China's Su Yiming won the men's big jumping competition, which is not only the second Winter Olympic gold medal for Asian snowboarding, but also the first Winter Olympic gold medal in China's snowboarding event. In addition, Su Yiming also won a silver medal in the men's slope obstacle course. Japan's Naina Tomita and Shinsuke Murase won bronze medals in women's U-shaped track skills and women's big jumping events, respectively.
In the men's and women's competitions of slope obstacle course, U-shaped track skills and big jump, the Chinese team won a total of 1 gold and 1 silver, and the Japanese team won 1 gold and 2 bronze. Asian players won a total of 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze in these skills competitions, New Zealand and Australia won a total of 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze, and the remaining 9 medals belonged to European and North American players. From the former domination of the world to now only occupy half of the country, the dominance of European and American players in the skill category has been seriously weakened and shaken.
China leads technological breakthroughs
With Su Yiming's outstanding performance, the turn of 1800 degrees became a hot word on the Internet during the Beijing Winter Olympics. In the skiing skills category, the Chinese team showed strong competitiveness in the slope obstacle course and the big jump event, although only one male and one female player qualified for the competition. In the women's steeplechase competition, Jung stopped qualifying, but she played well in the big jump and finished 5th. In contrast, Su Yiming's performance is particularly outstanding, he not only won 1 gold and 1 silver, but also became the only snowboarder in this Winter Olympics to successfully complete a 1800-degree turn in different directions, leading the direction of technological breakthroughs.
Realistically speaking, Su Yiming's experience in the competition is too small, and his technical ability in the prop area of the slope obstacle needs to be further improved compared with the famous players such as McMorris and Parot, who have experienced hundreds of battles, which is an important reason why he is the runner-up of the slope obstacle skill. Although Su Yiming successfully demonstrated the most difficult 1800-degree movement of the turn, but the slope obstacle skills are after all, it needs to more comprehensively consider the comprehensive ability of a player in 6 stages, although the winner Parot has flaws in the grasping action in the first platform area, it is not difficult to see from his 3 different grasping actions in the 3 platform areas, his overall ability is still very strong. However, Su Yiming successfully completed the difficulty of turning 1800 degrees twice in the final jumping area of the second and third rounds of the slope obstacle course finals, which not only showed his ability, but also impressed the referee, which laid a solid foundation for his subsequent victory.
In the subsequent men's big jump final, Su Yiming did not use his most difficult 1980 degree technical reserves, and with the two different directions of rotation 1800 degrees in the first and second rounds of the final, he locked in a gold medal in advance. In the winter olympic snowboard competition, Su Yiming has challenged the turn of 1800 degrees 5 times and succeeded 4 times, maintaining a very high success rate. Driven by Su Yiming, other players had to launch an impact on the 1800-degree difficulty of the big jumping competition, but the success rate was not high.
In the U-shaped field skills competition, the Chinese team achieved full participation in both men's and women's events, although this time it failed to win a medal, but still maintained a certain talent and technical thickness.
Japanese talent is dominant
In the snowboarding skill category, the talent thickness advantage of the Japanese team has been very obvious, which is also an important reason why Japan can take the lead in achieving zero gold medals for Asian snowboarding.
In the men's U-shaped field skills, women's U-shaped field skills, men's slope obstacle course skills and men's big jump events, the Japanese team achieved a full quota of 4 people, only the women's slope obstacle course and the women's big jump were not full, both 3 people participated. And in the above events, the Japanese team has at least 2 people to reach the final. Among them, the four men's U-shaped venue skills all entered the final, hirano Bumon, who participated in the Winter Olympics for the third time, won the championship, Hirano Haiju, born in 2002, won the 9th place, Totsuru Totsuka, born in 2001, won the 10th place, and Hirano Ryuka, born in 2002, won the 12th place. Since the Sochi Winter Olympics, Japanese athletes have been on the podium of the men's U-shaped venue skills project for three consecutive Winter Olympics, and it is not difficult to see from the current talent allocation of the Japanese team that they will continue to maintain a strong sustainable competitiveness in the new Winter Olympic cycle.
In the women's U-shaped field skill project, the talent echelon construction of the Japanese team is also ahead of the curve. Although U.S. team Chloe King successfully defended his title, this time only one member of the U.S. team reached the final. The Japanese team had three players in the final, with Tomita Se winning a bronze medal in 1999, Ryushi Tomita finishing 5th in 2001, and Mitsuki Ono in 2004 finishing 9th.
In the men's slope obstacle course and the big jump event, although the Japanese team failed to win medals, it has shown good potential in both the talent echelon and technical ability. Ken Otsuka, born in 2001, is the second most challenged snowboarder in 1800 degrees, after Su Yiming. He challenged the turn 1800 degrees four times and failed twice. However, he succeeded twice in the same set of moves in the preliminaries and finals, and in the end he finished 9th in the men's big jump.
Although the Japanese team did not achieve full participation in the women's slope obstacle course and the big jumping event, the three contestants all had very strong technical skills. Two women's slope obstacle course players reached the final, with Reiko Iwase, born in 2001, finishing 5th and Murase Shinsuke, born in 2004, finishing 10th. The women's big jump was a three-person final, with Shinsuke Murase finishing third, Reiko Iwaso in 4th place, and Onizuka Masa in 11th place.
Europe and the United States dominate racing projects
Although Asian countries have achieved major breakthroughs in the skill category, the racing category is still the world of European and American athletes. Asian athletes in this Winter Olympic Games generally lack competitiveness in the racing category, and it is not easy to qualify for the competition.
Previously, the Japanese team won a silver medal in the women's parallel giant slalom event at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and South Korea's Lee Sang-ho won a silver medal in the men's parallel giant slalom at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which is also the only two medals won by Asian athletes in the snowboard racing event at the Winter Olympics.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Asian athletes were all out of the way in parallel giant slaloms and obstacle chases. The best performer was South Korea's Lee Sang-ho, who stopped in the men's parallel giant slalom quarterfinals, while China's Bi Ye finished 22nd in the event, the first time a Chinese athlete competed in the Winter Olympics. In the women's parallel giant slalom competition, China's Gong Naiying refreshed the Chinese team's all-time best ranking in the project, but neither she nor Zang Ruxin could break into the later knockout rounds, and Japan's Tsubaki Miki and Tomoka Takeuchi stopped in the 1/8 final.
In contrast, Asian players are less competitive in obstacle-chasing competitions, or have difficulty qualifying, or exit early in the knockout rounds. In particular, no Asian team qualified in the new event obstacle course chase mixed team competition, and the overall strength of the United States, Italy and Canada won the gold, silver and bronze medals in the event.
The Austrian team won 2 gold and 1 silver in the racing event as the biggest winner, and the American team won 2 gold medals in the racing category. In the combined racing and skill categories, the Austrian team and the American team have 3 gold and 1 silver medals, and they are tied for the first place in snowboarding. The strength of the Canadian team in the two types of projects is relatively balanced, with a total of 1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze. Followed by the "partial section" of the more serious Chinese team and New Zealand team, both won 1 gold and 1 silver. The Japanese team, which is also only good at skill, won 1 gold and 2 bronze.
Overall, in the snowboarding event, Asia, Europe and the United States have taken the lead in the situation has initially taken shape. However, for Asian countries such as China and Japan, while further consolidating the advantages of skill projects, the lack of competitiveness of racing projects should also be further emphasized.
Photo: Wang Xianmin, Ni Minzhe, Lu Lin, An Lingjun