At the Beijing Winter Olympics, both Chinese men's and women's ice skaters failed to advance to the quarterfinals, but Chinese ice hockey still opened "two doors": after returning to the Winter Olympics after 12 years, the world's 20th-ranked Chinese women's ice team defeated the world's 11th Danish team and the world's 6th Japan team. Although the Chinese men's ice team, which debuted in the Winter Olympics, did not win the first victory, people saw the progress of this team.
"Chinese Mulan" has impressed the world
Losing 1-3 to the Czech Republic, 3-1 to Denmark, 2-1 to Japan, 1-2 to Sweden, the Chinese women's ice team is only one point away from advancing to the quarterfinals. At this Winter Olympic Games, Chinese women's ice players brought surprises to the Chinese people with their tenacious struggle and brave struggle. Yu Baiwei, the captain of the Chinese women's ice team, concluded: "Unfortunately, we have seen where the gap with other teams is, and how big the gap is, and then we will improve it in a targeted manner." It was a valuable experience and the beginning of a better chinese female ice girl. ”
This 23-person Chinese women's ice team, with an average age of 25 years old and an average height of 1 meter 65, is not physically superior compared to European teams such as the Danish women's team with an average height of 1 meter 71, but the performance is not inferior.
The 19-year-old goalkeeper Tia Chan played in her first match against the Czech Republic. Although she lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic, it was a good start for Tia Chan, who was entering her rookie season in international competitions, to achieve 36 saves and 33 successes in the game. The starting goalkeeper for the next three games will be 26-year-old Zhou Jiaying, and even in the strong Winter Olympics, she can also top the goalkeeper list with a save rate of 95.51%, conceding an average of 1.31 goals per 60 minutes. In particular, in the match between the Chinese team and the Japanese team on February 6, the two sides fought to the penalty shootout, and it was Zhou Jiaying's five consecutive saves at key moments that allowed the Chinese team to win the game, and also ended the record of 13 years of failure to defeat the Japanese team.
China's most powerful scorer is No. 8 striker Lin Qiqi, who has scored 2 goals and 2 assists. Especially in the 3-1 win over Denmark to win the first victory of the Beijing Winter Olympics, 3 goals are related to her, it was she who equalized with a club pad in front of the goal in the second quarter, in the third quarter she grabbed the opportunity to cross from the left, assisted Linny to score, and it was also her accurate empty goal score at the end of the game. The Chinese Women's Ice Team scored a total of six goals at the Winter Olympics, with the remaining four goals being scored by Hu Baozhen, Kang Mulan, Miller and Linni. No. 49 defender Wang Yuting got 2 assists, the 30-year-old became the longest player in the team with 119 minutes and 36 seconds, and the 33-year-old No. 2 defender Yu Baiwei also got 1 assist against Denmark, they are the "Dinghai Shen Needle" of the Chinese women's ice backcourt. The other players failed to score, but they tried their best every second they played. "We have done our best, and everyone has paid without reservation, but this is not the end, it is a new beginning for Chinese women's ice, and the team will get better and stronger." Zhang Mengying sighed after the game.
Speaking about the team's performance at the Winter Olympics, Chinese women's ice coach Idarski said: "I am satisfied with the efforts of the Chinese team and the level we have shown. Every game we work hard to create chances to win and play very aggressively. I hope that China's female ice can continue to move forward in the future. ”
Chinese men's ice beat morale
The Chinese men's ice team played against three of the world's top 5 teams on their Winter Olympic debut. He lost 0-8 to the United States in the first match and lost 2-3 to Germany in the second match, but scored the first goal of the Winter Olympics, and the opponents in the third and fourth games were Canada. Compared with the third game, the Chinese team has improved in the fourth game. LUKE Tadev, president of the International Ice Federation, said: "The Chinese team has played a good level and needs to maintain this momentum and continue to improve. ”
4 goals in 4 games, each with a different meaning. The first goal was scored by No. 92 striker Fu Shuai when he was 3-0 behind Germany, assisted by No. 7 defender Kylios and No. 5 defender Spree, the first goal of the Winter Olympics for Chinese men's ice, boosting the morale of Chinese men's ice. Fu Shuai said: "After losing the first game with the United States, we were sad. But after we scored the goal today, it proved that our team is competitive and inspired our confidence. Even after falling behind by a big score, we survived. As we said in the locker room, the whole team has one heart and has made 100% effort. The second goal came shortly after, and in the third quarter, the Chinese team seized an opportunity to play more and play less, and Wang Taylor took the captain Ye Jinguang's pass and directly hit the goal, rewriting the score to 2-3, unfortunately the team failed to win again. The third and fourth goals were scored by No. 47 Jian'an, who said: "We are very happy to have two more goals for China, although our Olympic journey is over, but our mission has just begun. ”
Despite failing to achieve a win, the progress of the Chinese team is obvious to all. As captain Ye Jinguang said: "In the course of the Winter Olympic Games, the overall strength of the team has improved significantly, and we have avoided some mistakes that may have been made before the last game, and we have tried our best." Chinese ice hockey is still in its infancy and still has a long way to go, and hopefully our game will give Chinese ice hockey the strength to move forward. "Head coach Zanata Ivano said he was satisfied with the performance of the Chinese men's ice team at this Winter Olympics. The experience of the Winter Olympics is incredible. We are ranked 32nd in the world, the opponents are the top 5 teams in the world like the United States, Germany and Canada, and having such a result shows that we have very good players and 'chemistry', we are a competitive team, and Chinese ice hockey is getting started. ”
For the future, Ye Jinguang said: "There are many things we can do, and my goal is to develop Chinese ice hockey. "The trip to the Winter Olympics of Chinese men's ice will inspire more young ice hockey players, and at the same time, the local training of ice hockey players also needs to accumulate time." Luke Tadev said: "It takes 10, 12 years, or even 15 years to successfully establish a youth training system, and to produce 25 professional players, it needs to be based on thousands of children playing hockey. ”
Photo: Wang Xianmin, Ni Minzhe, some images transferred from Xinhua News Agency