Chinese Winter Sports Athletes Begin Preparations for the Winter Olympic Games

Nearly a month into 2021, it is only a little more than one year away from the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. This winter, our nation's winter sports athletes should be competing everywhere, racing and training, and strive for chances to increase their scores. However, due to the impacts of the pandemic, most international competitions have been cancelled or postponed. In order to achieve great records at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Chinese athletes did not relax. They are dispersed in different regions nationally, grasping every opportunity to enhance their skills, seeking to showcase great conditions when competitions resume.

"The more challenges ahead, the more we head forward. Sturdily improve on our weaknesses, build more solid foundations, we are not afraid of the elements and hardships, nor the dangers and impediments, we aim to seize every minute, and live up to our glorious youth." The motto for the figure skating team of athletes in training is displayed on the background of the figure skating training center at the Shougang Winter Training Center. This also shows their determination in preparation for the competitions. It is only two months away from the World Figure Skating Championships that will be held in Sweden from March 23 to 28, the first international championship for figure skating in 2021, and the qualifying competition for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Athletes who have not competed for over 4 months yearn for the opportunity to showcase their training results at the arena of the world championship.

In the last two months of preparation for the world championship, polishing the details of the program and increasing the skating speed are important tasks for the figure skating team. Aside from the training on ice, specialized training on land, and physical training which consists of two 3-hour sessions each day, the team is also training with professional dance teachers from the dancing academy to practice pair skating modern dance, ice ballet dancing, to improve the performance of figure skating athletes. Zhao Hongbo, head coach of the Chinese Figure Skating Team, indicated, basic physical ability training early in the competition season greatly enhanced the completeness and quality of the athletes' programs. At the same time, after training over an entire competition season and the tests through several competitions, currently, the athletes from the figure skating team in training are ready to enter competition, and are prepared to create great results on the competition arena.

Beijing has encountered the coldest winter over half a century. Athletes training at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing, Beijing, are unwavered by the cold weather in their enthusiastic preparation for the battles. Even when the outdoor weather is as low as negative 30 degrees Celsius, the training for the athletes were unimpacted. Leader of the skeleton team states: "Under the Winter Olympic Games cycle and our annual objectives, our training is divided into four-week periods to formulate training plans for different phases, and to add in some technological means to improve training."

The physical training and stamina competitions made the national curling team in training put more emphasis on physical training. Besides the current training goals, the team has increased additional running requirements. Zou Qiang, leader for the men's team, states: "We have a large treadmill that can accommodate four people to train at once. While running we also make it display time-limited puzzle games to build up endurance and concentration. Physical training helped us enhance the abilities that are needed for our specialized training, to help us achieve our best conditions on ice, and to do everything possible to prevent injuries."

The main areas of the national men's hockey team who are undergoing closed training at the Shenyang Institute of Physical Education are in-depth intensification of physical training, with an emphasis on physical confrontation abilities. Head coach Wang Yuyi has always been stressing that, although the technical level of Chinese men's hockey team cannot compete with its peers in the Winter Olympic Games, if we want to stand on the arena of the Winter Olympic Games, then we have to play with our strong style and volitional quality.

Ni Zhonghui, director of Winter Games Center at the General Administration of Sport of China, states that, according to the systematic arrangement and deployment of relevant departments, next, they will gradually resume domestic winter games competitions according to different circumstances. "After the national championship, tournament, the national team qualifying games, and the Olympic Games qualifying games, these four rounds of screening will select the most outstanding athletes that can represent the ability of our winter sports for the line-up for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games."

Contributed by Wang Dong, reporter of Guangming Daily

Translated by Zhang Junye