Li Jianrou, coach of the Hebei Short Track Speed Skating Team: Let the short track speed skating catch fire in Hebei

"Top slip!" "Pay attention to the angle of the pedals!" "Knife clamp up!" At the Jilin City Skating Hall, the petite Li Jianrou issued loud and majestic shouts to the team members from time to time.

To say that Li Jianrou's identity is really a bit complicated. Because in recent years, she has frequently "crossed the border".

On February 13, 2014, Li Jianrou won the women's 500m short track speed skating championship at the Sochi Winter Olympics, which was the first gold won by the Chinese sports delegation at the Sochi Winter Olympics. In February 2015, Li Jianrou retired. On July 31 of that year, Beijing joined hands with Zhangjiakou to successfully bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. At that time, Li Jianrou, who was already fond of snowboarding, had a "whim": to be a snowboarder and impact the Winter Olympics again. In 2016, as a teacher at Northeast Normal University, she registered as a snowboarder. In 2017, Li Jianrou was introduced to Hebei, became a member of the Hebei Snowboard Team, and served as the image ambassador of Hebei Ice and Snow Sports.

Li Jianrou's snowboard slope obstacle course is one of the most "wind-pulling" but also the most dangerous events in the winter Olympic skiing competition. When she first embarked on the pistes, she suffered "more injuries than 18 years of short track speed skating combined."

Just a few days after the ski slopes, she was admitted to the hospital once. In the first two months of the first snow track, she was admitted to the hospital six times, and sprains and concussions were almost common. The worst of them, which left her with amnesia for two hours, "went blank and didn't remember anything."

But Li Jianrou did not give up, but fell more and more courageously. The 540-degree action of turning in the air, even if the members of the national snowboard team have been practicing for eight or nine years to complete, Li Jianrou can complete it in less than a year. Since then, she has participated in the national championships and national championships as a snowboard team athlete in Hebei Province, and although she did not win medals, she entered the top ten in the championships.

Just when Li Jianrou was working hard to impact the snowboarding project of the Winter Olympics, another "inflection point" appeared.

At the end of 2017, in view of the fact that short-track speed skating is a dominant project in China and the talent training cycle is relatively short, the Winter Sports Management Center of the Provincial Sports Bureau plans to establish a provincial short-track speed skating team. However, there is a shortage of relevant talents in the province, and where athletes and coaches come from has become a big problem. At this time, someone thought of Li Jianrou.

Can you go back to your old ways and go from athlete to coach? Li Jianrou thought for a while before nodding.

In this regard, she explained: "Although I do not want to give up my dream of impacting the Winter Olympics as a skier, from the overall situation of the development of winter sports in our country, snowboarding without One Li Jianrou will not have any impact, and the expansion of the short track speed skating foundation needs me more." ”

Although short track speed skating is China's Winter Olympic gold medal project, it faces problems such as insufficient popularity and shortage of reserve talents. In view of this, Li Jianrou opened the Jianrou Ice and Snow Club after retiring, which is committed to cultivating amateur ice and snow talents, including short track speed skating. Therefore, as a short track speed skating coach, she has the foundation and conditions.

In May 2018, the Hebei Short Track Speed Skating Team was officially established and began training. The team was established by drawing on the provincial enterprise joint office method that has been successful in boxing and other sports in our province, and is jointly organized by the Winter Sports Management Center of the Provincial Sports Bureau and the Jianrou Ice and Snow Club; the team members are mainly cross-border cross-sports materials, supplemented by the top talents cultivated by the Jianrou Ice and Snow Club. At present, the team has 20 members, ranging in age from 10 to 19 years old. Li Jianrou, 32, became the first provincial short track speed skating team coach to win the Winter Olympics championship when he was an athlete in China.

Due to the lack of venues in the province, the Hebei Short Track Speed Skating Team trains at the Jilin City Skating Hall all year round. "Now it feels like the whole person is engaged in this new role, and life revolves around it." Li Jianrou said.

In order to be a good coach and lead the team, she not only used her spare time to recharge, but also asked her mentor, Li Yan, the president of the Chinese Skating Association and the head coach of the national short track speed skating team, for advice many times.

Whether it is the entry of small team members or the skill improvement of team members with a certain basic foundation, Li Jianrou must consider it holistically. Today, some of her team members have emerged, breaking into the top three in the national u13 age group competition. She explained her goal this way: "Don't think about the Winter Olympic champion first, and strive to let Hebei athletes win the national adult competition championship and enter the national team as soon as possible." ”

"Only by involving more children can the reserve strength of short track speed skating be more secure." Li Jianrou revealed that she will participate in a short track speed skating promotion and popularization plan, and is planning to set up short track speed skating clubs in Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Hengshui and other qualified cities to promote the popularization of short track speed skating in a point-by-point manner.

Li Jianrou was born in Jilin and grew up in Jilin, but her hometown is actually in Hebei, and she now has many relatives in Wuyi County. "So I think we must give full play to our strengths and let the short track speed skating catch fire in Hebei." (Reporter Wang Weihong)