Xinhua News Agency, Russia, March 13: from the competition for gold and silver to the roots of ice and snow education: the winter will witness the development process of ice and snow sports in Chinese universities
Xinhua News Agency reporter
On the evening of 12th local time, the 29th World University Winter Games ended in Russia, and the main torch burning for 11 days was gradually extinguished. In this competition, the Chinese delegation has performed well in such advantageous projects as short track speed skating and freestyle skiing aerials.
The team members participating in this competition and the heads of relevant education departments said that ice and snow education has taken root in colleges and universities since it was only used to compete for gold and silver, the great winter festival witnessed the development of ice and snow sports in Chinese universities.
24-year-old Guan Yingying comes from Changchun Normal University and is currently a student majoring in ice hockey. She was already the third time to participate in the Winter Games. She told reporters that she had a dream of engaging in winter sports since she was a child. In the 1980 s, ice hockey had a very good mass base in cities such as Harbin in the northeast, many schools formed ice hockey teams when they were young.
“In those schools without teams, children make their own simple clubs and use tin boxes as ice hockey. Nowadays, we not only learn very systematic training knowledge in school, but also attach great importance to the education of ice and snow culture.” Guan Yingying said.
Zhu Zhiqiang of Harbin Institute of Physical Education is the deputy head of the Chinese delegation of this winter games. His other identity is the special expert of Beijing Winter Olympics organizing committee. Harbin Institute of Physical Education is one of the earliest universities in China to set up ice and snow sports. In recent years, the discipline construction, personnel training and international exchanges of the school have been continuously plus-sized. Zhu Zhiqiang was also delighted to see that ice and snow education has formed a situation of “blooming more” in China.
Zhu Zhiqiang said that when the school was founded in 1956, Harbin Institute of Physical Education had only “water ice teaching and research section”, and there was no skiing teaching and research section at that time; In the 1980 s, the school established the ice and snow department; In 2012, the school has established a Winter Olympic college focusing on master’s degree and doctoral training.
He said that there are more than 6,000 students with bachelor’s degree or above in the school. “We not only pay attention to the training of reserve talents for ice and snow sports projects, but also cooperate with universities such as South Korea and the United States to establish a training plan for ice and snow talents. With the continuous advancement of education cooperation, China will emerge a group of high-end talents who have both international vision and understanding the development of China’s ice and snow industry.”
Zhu Zhiqiang once participated in the drafting and revision of China’s ice and snow sports development plan (2016-2025). He said that the plan mentioned the specific requirements of ice and snow culture entering the campus and training ice and snow talents, which is exactly the next key work content of Harbin Institute of Physical Education.
In terms of training ice and snow talents, the school strives to make the students going out of Harbin Sports Institute have the corresponding basic skills of Ice and Snow projects, so that every student can benefit from running schools with ice and snow characteristics, to achieve the goal of full coverage of ice and snow teaching in the school and all members of basic ice and snow skills. On the other hand, the school will continue to give full play to the national leading advantage of ice and snow discipline, directly facing the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and train and reserve more high-level and high-level ice and snow sports talents for the country, including athletes, coaches, management personnel, scientific researchers, snow and ice field facilities management and maintenance professionals, etc.
“Talent cultivation is our ultimate goal, and we hope to make Harbin Institute of Physical Education truly become the main force of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ‘not the home court’.” Zhu Zhiqiang said.
Yang Shiqi, the flag bearer of the Chinese delegation in this winter conference, is also the direct beneficiary of ice and snow education in colleges and universities. Before joining the Chinese delegation of the great winter club, Yang Shiqi’s most well-known identity was the captain of the ski team of Peking University. This March, Yang Shiqi experienced many firsts in his life: he participated in the official international competition for the first time, won the points of the International Snow Federation for the first time, and also served as the flag bearer of the delegation for a large-scale event for the first time.
Yang Shiqi, who likes skiing since childhood, is a junior student in the School of International Relations of Peking University. She entered Peking University through the college entrance examination rather than the status of a sports student. She said: “In recent years, the ice and snow education atmosphere and culture in Chinese universities have become stronger and stronger. At present, there are about 5,000 registered members of Peking University Ski Association, from freshman to Junior. I have also witnessed the process of skiing becoming more and more popular on campus.”
Xue Yanqing, executive vice chairman of China University Sports Association, said that driven by the strategy of “0.3 billion people participate in ice and snow sports”, more and more colleges and universities in China have carried out ice and snow education, in addition to northeast universities, many students from Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong and other universities also participated in this winter meeting and achieved very good results.
“Ankai, who won the 1500-meter short track speed skating championship this time, came from Ocean University of China. We can see that more athletes are enjoying the competition, showing the good style of sunshine, confidence, openness and friendliness of Chinese college students, the experience they have gained in the competition will add a wonderful touch to their college life.” Xue Yanqing said.
Zhu Zhiqiang said: “ice and snow sports contain a profound cultural intension, which is an attitude that is not afraid of cold and conquers nature, a spirit of tenacious struggle and never giving up, a challenge to the limit, the courage to surpass oneself is also a realm of pursuing excellence and ambition. It is hoped that through the continuous efforts of the Education Department, ice and snow culture will continue to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that ice and snow education can take root in Chinese campuses and make the flowers of ice and snow more glittering and dazzling.” (Writing Reporter: Li Linhai; Participating reporters: Lin Deren, Xu Zheng, Zhang Yifei)