On March 7, four gold medals were awarded at the Genting Ski Park in Zhangjiakou District on the first final day of the Paralympic Winter Games. The Chinese team won a total of 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze in 4 minor events, achieving a breakthrough of zero medals in the history of Chinese Paralympic snowboarding in the winter Paralympic Games.
Runner-up Wang Pengyao, runner-up Zhu Yonggang, champion Ji Lijia and teammate Zhang Yiqi (from left to right) after the game on March 7.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lan Hongguang
Paralympic snowboarding became a sub-event of alpine skiing at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympic Games, and became a separate event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang 2018. The Beijing Winter Paralympic Paralympic Snowboard event will be held at Genting Ski Park, where a total of 8 gold medals will be produced, and the competition will be divided into two categories: slope slalom and obstacle course chasing, including 6 men's events and 2 women's events.
On March 7, the Beijing Winter Paralympic Winter Games snowboarding men's steeplechase pursuit UL final, the champion Chinese Ji Lijia (center), the runner-up Chinese player Wang Pengyao (first from left) and the third-place Chinese Zhu Yonggang celebrated after the game. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Mou Yu
Chinese Paralympic snowboarding started late, but progressed quickly. The Pyeongchang Winter Paralympic Games were the first time that Chinese Paralympic snowboarding appeared on the Olympic stage, when only 4 athletes participated, and the number of participants in the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games reached 18, achieving full-event participation for the first time. The breakthrough and progress in the number of participants is the result of the joint efforts of all parties in the past four years. Since 2016, the China Disabled Persons' Federation has selected outstanding talents by holding a number of events such as the National Snowboard Championships, and at the same time improved the competitive level of domestic Paralympic snowboarding through competitions. Since 2016, paralympic snowboard teams have been conducting systematic training in Inner Mongolia, Shanghai and other places to prepare for the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games. In the 2018 World Cup races and world championships in the Netherlands, Finland, Dubai and other World Cups, Chinese disabled athletes won the championship. In 2019, Ji Lijia won the gold medal in the men's steeplechase of the Para Snowboard World Cup in Finland, hu Nianjia won the runner-up of the women's LL2 snowboard slope slalom project of the 2022 World Para snowboard world cup, and the Chinese youngster has gradually shown a strong momentum in the international arena. In January this year, the 2022 World Paralympic Snowboarding National Championships was held in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, and the Chinese team won a good result of 8 gold, 8 silver and 7 bronze, adding confidence to the team members in preparing for the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games.
The average age of the Chinese Paralympic snowboard team is 21.8 years old, making it the youngest team in all the events of the Chinese Paralympic sports delegation. Most of the 18 athletes are practicing skiing from scratch, and through scientific training methods and excellent will quality, they have made Chinese Paralympic snowboarding by leaps and bounds in several years, and also let the world see the confident style of Chinese athletes.