On February 3, Wang Kexin (right), a member of the cross-country skiing team in Tianjin, China, participated in the training competition in Mount ahorina, BiH. During the Spring Festival, it was the European skiing season. Many Chinese ice and snow athletes went to Europe to insist on training to celebrate the Chinese New Year with hard work and sweat. Xinhua News Agency (taken by Nedum Grabovica)
Xinhua News Agency, Norway, Lillehammer, February 5th: winter Olympic dream on ice and snow-training Chinese athletes outside Europe to welcome the Spring
Xinhua News Agency reporter Liang Youzhang Xiuzhi Liu Qu Zhang Shuhui
The Land of the motherland, Wanjia reunion and celebration of the festival. In Europe thousands of miles away, many places are be covered with snow and the snow peaks are stretching, which is a good time for ice and snow sports. With the dream of Winter Olympics, some Chinese athletes stick to this hot land where ice and snow sports are booming.
Cross-border leap
On the morning of February 4, Lunar New Year’s Eve. Although the sky is clear, the temperature at Starr ski jumping training ground in central Norway is only minus 17 degrees Celsius.
“Coach, did my two boards share too much before?” “Well, a little. Jump Again!”
Chinese ski jumping national training team cross-border cross-project Group female team members Zhai Yujia heard the instructions and immediately glided down the aid slide, accelerated, and then accelerated…… Jump! The vigorous body rose from the sky. Ahead, the snow is vast and boundless.
In order to prepare for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and excavate and cultivate ski jumping talents, the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports has enriched the reserve talent team by means of cross-border and cross-item selection. This team, which was sent to Norway for training, adhered to international standards and high-point positioning at the beginning of its establishment, and aimed at the 2022 ski jumping podium.
Cross-border cross-term means that athletes are transferred from other sports. These players who came to Norway for training in last August have been able to leap on the snow practice stage since the beginning of wrestling on the snow slope.
Norwegian coach Eric renmeilmer said that the current training is progressing smoothly, and these Chinese athletes have great potential. I hope they can go as far as possible, and the Olympics is their goal.
Chinese coach Li Yang also praised these young players aged between 16 and 19. “Everyone has made progress. They have a particularly good sense of snow now. They can make movements as soon as they get on the snow, and their basic skills are relatively solid.”
China’s ice and snow sports have poor foundation and weak foundation. To achieve the goal of “participating in the competition and winning the competition” in Beijing Winter Olympics, it is necessary to fully mobilize all forces and resources, it also needs “big waves and sand washing”. This is an almost cruel elimination process. There were 22 players who came to Norway last year, and now there are only 4 men, 5 women and 9 players in total.
Zhai Yujia, who has been practicing trampoline since childhood, said, “Our goal is the 2022 Winter Olympics. Now the latest (goal) is to train well every day.”
Teenager’s dream
The ground is covered with snow, the sky is cold and rainy, and the climate of Mount horiana in BiH is awesome.
In the cold rain, Jiang Yuliang and Wang Kexin, together with their teammates, were panting and sweat interwoven with rain, flowing down their cheeks. The two have just finished the free skating of 4 kilometers and 2 kilometers respectively.
Jiang Yuliang and Wang Kexin are from the cross-country skiing team in Tianjin, China. 50 days ago, the Tianjin cross-country team came to BiH jarrina mountain for training. Yahorina Mountain is one of the venues for the 14th Winter Olympics in 1984 and is now a famous ski resort in Europe.
The game on the day before New Year’s Eve was played between the ski team and five local ski clubs in Sarajevo. Jiang Yuliang and Wang Kexin won the third place in the male and female groups respectively. Although they didn’t win the championship, they still laughed brightly.
After the order was issued, Jiang Yuliang started half a minute later than others. His skiing crutch could not be pulled out in the snow for a while. Otherwise, his grades would be better.
Tanya kosarak, a foreign coach of the ski team who participated in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, said that these children in China trained very hard and some players were very talented. I am very satisfied with the performance of the Chinese players today. If it is not the weather of rain and snow, the performance of the players will be better.
Chinese coach Ji Liang also expressed satisfaction with the performance of his team members. He told reporters that competitions are also a kind of training. During the training, there are such competitions from time to time.
Dujiliang said that the cross-country skiing team consists of 14 members, the oldest is 17 years old and the youngest is only 12 years old. Mainly selected from Heilongjiang, Jilin and other places, most of the team members are only three or four months old. The goal of the cross-country team is the 15th National Winter Games in 2024. However, the Olympic Games is also a goal held by this team. Everyone secretly expects that at least one of the 14 children will appear in the Olympic Games in the future.
Usually, the team members train 4-5 times a week, each time they train to slide 25-30 kilometers, the snow is unimpeded.
The children usually live in a three-story villa. 14 children, plus team leader, coach, assistant coach and translator, live in different rooms. The room was not spacious, but the whole team was like a family, and there was often laughter echoing upstairs and downstairs.
Assistant coach Peng Yonghong has made a big pot of ginger decoction waiting for the children.
New Year’s Eve is around the corner. The children, with sincere smiles, face the direction of the motherland and pay a Happy New Year’s greetings: “Mom and Dad, compatriots of the motherland, happy new year!”
New Year’s blessing
On the evening of New Year’s Eve, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, the president of the International Olympic Committee Bach celebrated the Chinese new year with more than 100 overseas Chinese from Switzerland, and everyone cheered “Happy New Year” in Chinese “!
Bach said in an interview that although the Spring Festival is approaching, he knows that there are still many Chinese athletes who insist on training to prepare for the Winter Olympics. While wishing these Chinese athletes a happy Spring Festival, he also encouraged them to train hard and hoped that they would achieve excellent results on behalf of their motherland at home in the future.
Build 25 kilometers south of Starr ski jumping training ground in Norway, which is Lillehammer who held the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 2016 Youth Winter Olympics. On New Year’s Eve, the local government and enterprises hosted the Chinese traditional Spring Festival celebration, and the Chinese ski jumping team and the national cross-country skiing team who were training here also participated in the activity.
“In the next few years, maybe I can see some of your athletes who can beat some of our Norwegian players in some competitions.” The deputy mayor of Lillehammer, Ingen troshi Holmen, said in a New Year message that night.