A few days ago, the 2023 National Curling Championship came to an end in Inner Mongolia. Chinese men's curling stars Ling Zhi and Han Yu partnered to win the mixed doubles gold medal. The Jilin team won the men's team championship and was considered the big dark horse of this competition, and the Beijing team led by Han Yu won the women's team championship. It is worth mentioning that Xu Jingtao, Zou Qiang and Ma Xiuyue, who represented the Chinese team in the Beijing Winter Olympics, also appeared in this competition. After the game, several national team leaders said in interviews that they would continue to work hard to improve their technical strength and strive to qualify for the Milan Winter Olympics. However, many netizens do not agree, in their opinion, the competitiveness of the Chinese curling team in the international arena has declined rapidly, and the possibility of not winning the Olympics cannot be ruled out.
The Chinese men's and women's curling teams have achieved excellent results in the international arena. In particular, the golden generation of Chinese women's curling, represented by Wang Bingyu, Liu Yin, Yue Qingshuang, Zhou Yan, etc., won 1 gold and 1 bronze in the World Championships and Olympic Games. However, since the beginning of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics cycle, the overall level of the Chinese curling team has shown a clear downward trend. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, with its status as the host, the Chinese team successfully won the ticket to the mixed doubles, men's team, women's team and other events. Judging from the final results, almost everyone made a common voice, that is, "the Chinese curling team has long ceased to be brave"!
Entering the Milan Winter Olympics cycle, many people expect the Chinese curling team to get out of the trough and climb the peak. However, the team was pushed to the forefront due to successive withdrawals or missed several important international top competitions. Last season, the Chinese Curling Association announced that the Chinese team collectively withdrew from the Pan Intercontinental Curling Championship in Calgary, Canada. In this year's men's and women's team curling world championships and curling mixed doubles world championships, the Chinese team also failed to qualify. This result made many netizens quite dissatisfied.
Some people have raised doubts, saying that the Chinese curling team has begun to "rot", and neither the men's nor women's teams can see the way forward. Some netizens said that the team's results are directly linked to the competition funds and commercial sponsorship, and the worse the results, the more difficult it is to have financial support, at present, the Chinese curling team seems to have fallen into a vicious circle. In the National Curling Championship held in Inner Mongolia, many famous players and main players of the national team chose to participate. In the high-profile mixed doubles final, Ling Zhi and Han Yu teamed up to help Beijing win the championship.
Ling Zhi posted on his personal social platform that this season's matches have all ended and successfully won 3 mixed doubles championships, thank you for your support and encouragement. In the women's event, the strong dialogue between Wang Rui and Han Yu, two national players, is the biggest attraction. In the end, Han Yu led the Beijing team to defeat Wang Rui's Heilongjiang team in the gold medal battle and won the team championship. The men's team gold medal was won by the Jilin team, and the Heilongjiang team of Xu Jingtao, Zou Qiang and Ma Xiuyue, who had participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics, won the third place.
(Luo Treasurer)