The Paper's reporter Ma Zuoyu
【Editor's Note】
On October 27, the Beijing Winter Olympics ushered in a 100-day countdown.
This is China's sincere invitation to the world, conveying the beautiful expectations of 1.4 billion Chinese people - riding the torch of the Beijing Winter Olympics, connecting Chinese civilization and the world, and rekindling the passion and dream of the Olympic Movement.
At the same time, as a "city of two Olympic Games", the Beijing Winter Olympics uphold the olympic concept of "green, shared, open and clean", and Chinese athletes are also working hard to achieve a breakthrough in China's ice and snow sports at their doorstep.
On this occasion, The Paper launched the "100 Days of The Beijing Winter Olympics" column to help you get a panoramic bird's eye view of the Winter Olympics.
The Chinese men's ice hockey team competes in the KHL League in Russia.
For Chinese sports, ice hockey is not a popular sport with a wide audience, but its development history in China is not short.
More than a hundred years ago, in the early 20th century, modern ice hockey was introduced to China, and the sport developed rapidly in China and reached a "golden age" in the 80s of the last century.
However, due to the limitations of the venue and equipment, Chinese ice hockey once went into a trough. But this time, taking advantage of the host, the Chinese men's ice hockey team finally got the first chance to stand in the Winter Olympics.
However, the obvious gap in strength has made the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Luc Tadev, put forward the proposal that "Norway should replace the Chinese team in the Winter Olympics"...
Whether Chinese ice hockey can finally stand on the Olympic field is still inconclusive. But to get out of the trough and write a new history at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese ice hockey team can only show its strength in front of doubters.
The Chinese player Ying Rudi is the son of Yingda.
Question the reality behind it
With 100 days left before the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams are still participating in the KHL League in Russia to make final preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
However, compared with other Chinese Winter Olympic teams that have entered the preparation sprint stage, the pressure in their hearts is much greater.
Just about a month ago, according to Agence France-Presse and other media reports, the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Luc Tadeff, told the media that if the Chinese ice hockey team suffered a fiasco in the official competition of the Winter Olympics, it would not be good for China and for the development of ice hockey.
"The International Ice Federation has questioned the qualifications of the Chinese team and has informed the International Olympic Committee." "The FIA will make a decision after the Beijing Winter Olympics test match in October, and the Chinese team's seat may be replaced by Norway, ranked 11th in the world. ”
Tadif's remarks are not fair to the Chinese ice hockey team that qualified for the Olympics. After all, on May 17, 2018, the International Ice Hockey Federation held a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, and passed the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey team to obtain the direct qualification for the 2022 Winter Olympics by 47-0, and issued a "passcard" to the host of the Winter Olympic Games.
But Tadif will burn the "first fire" of the new official's appointment to the Chinese ice hockey team, which cannot be regarded as nothing wrong.
The Chinese men's ice hockey team is currently ranked 32nd in the world, and their opponents at the Beijing Winter Olympics are all strong teams from the world's top ten. Not only that, since 2019, the Chinese ice hockey team has not participated in any international competitions.
It is precisely because of this slightly embarrassing situation that Tadif demanded that Chinese men's ice hockey need to prove that it deserves an Olympic seat with its achievements in the KHL League.
Song andong has competed in the NHL draft.
Open material selection, the hope of the whole village
To beat the strong team in the world's top hockey league is not a simple task for today's Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams, but it is not without opportunities.
According to domestic media reports, on October 10, the Chinese Kunlun Hongxing team defeated the Moscow CSKA hockey team 2-1 in the Russian Continental Hockey League KHL.
The two teams participating in the 2021-2022 Russian Men's and Women's Ice Hockey League (KHL/WHL) under the name of Beijing and Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club are the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams.
Although the final roster for the Olympics has not yet been determined, the 35 players in the current team participating in the foreign training competition are composed of three parts:
There are players from the traditional ice hockey teams Harbin and Qiqihar, such as Guo Ning and Han Pengfei; there are Song Andong and Ying Rudi, who have gone abroad to study and play since childhood; and there are also high-level Chinese players whose parents are Chinese and born overseas, such as Kunlun Hongxing captain Ye Jinguang, Hu Yang, Wang Taylor, Yuan Junjie, etc.
Zheng Enlai.
In this "international column", Zheng Enlai, who returned from injury, was regarded as "the hope of the whole village".
Born in 1997, Zheng Enlai grew up in Canada. His grandmother was a famous Chinese high jumper Zheng Fengrong, his grandfather Duan Qiyan was the men's high jump champion at the first National Games in 1959, and his sister was track and field athlete Zheng Ninali.
Zheng Enlai, who was born with athletic talent, went to the ice rink at the age of 3 and gradually showed his talent in ice hockey.
It is a bit of a shame that originally dreamed of entering the NHL of the North American Hockey League, but when he was in training camp in 2017, he was injured, resulting in a groin strain and a crotch injury.
During this period, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association opened up its overseas selection policy. On May 16, 2017, on the day of Zheng Fengrong's 80th birthday, Zheng Enlai gave up his Canadian citizenship; on June 23 of the same year, zheng Enlai's name appeared in the overseas selection training list announced by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association.
Now, Zheng Enlai, who returned from injury, also caught up with the precious opportunity of the last foreign training and strived to play a good result in the KHL League.
Song Anton in the game.
Chinese ice hockey must prove itself with strength
In line with the goal of foreign coach Ivan, he hopes that the Chinese players who participate in the top league in Russia this time will take advantage of the opportunity of competition and training to quickly improve their level.
However, according to the Beijing Youth Daily, from the current playing time, in addition to players with overseas playing experience such as Ying Rudi and Zheng Enlai, it is difficult for other domestic players to enter Kunlun Hongxing's current four-group lineup.
Nowadays, the overall strength of Chinese ice hockey is indeed not in the international first class.
40 years ago, in 1981, the Chinese men's ice hockey team participated in the World Ice Hockey Group C World Championships held in Beijing, and finally won the second place, promoted to Group B for the first time, and reached the highest ranking in the history of 15th place. That was the best result of the Chinese ice hockey team since it participated in the World Ice Hockey Championships.
According to media reports, the Capital Stadium witnessed a warm post-match scene: the home audience threw countless candies from the stands to the ice to reward the team, while the team members threw the candies back to all corners of the stands to share the joy of victory with ice fans.
At that time, "rushing out of Asia, going to the world" was the slogan of the Chinese men's ice hockey team, and the public's attention to ice hockey reached an unprecedented height.
At the first Sapporo Asian Winter Games in 1986, the Chinese male ice team achieved a stunning reversal with the "no life" playing style and won the gold medal. After that, from 1991 to 1994, the Chinese men's ice hockey team remained in The B Group of the World Championships.
Since then, although the performance of the Chinese men's ice hockey team has declined, the women's ice hockey team has gradually entered the ranks of the world's strongest teams.
In 1998, the Chinese women's ice hockey team won the fourth place in the Nagano Winter Olympics, creating the best record in history, and it was also in this Winter Olympics that women's ice hockey was officially included in the Winter Olympic games. For a long time after that, the Chinese women's ice hockey team ranking has been in the top eight in the world.
Now, the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams have the opportunity to show their strength on the Olympic stage. According to the international ice hockey federation announced the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey competition grouping situation - The Chinese men's ice hockey will meet the three strong teams of the United States, Canada and Germany, and the Chinese women's ice will be in the same group as the Japanese team.
But whether it can finally write a new history at the Olympic Games at home, Chinese ice hockey can only prove itself with strength.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Liu Wei