"The more difficult and dangerous the more forward", Wang Zhonglin, the leader of the Chinese bobsleigh national training team, described the young team at the China Ice and Snow Media Open Day organized by the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport on December 30, 2021. Since 2015, when it selected cross-discipline athletes from scratch to form an overseas training team to complete the goal of participating in all projects of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese bobsleigh team has only taken 6 years.
"Meet in Beijing" International Bobsleigh Federation Bobsleigh World Cup, China's Huang Yebo / Peng Junyue in the team relay competition. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yichen
Breakthrough of zero
This season, the Chinese bobsleigh team continues to create "zero" breakthroughs. On November 19, in the 2021-2022 International Bobsleigh Federation Bobsleigh World Cup Yanqing Station, Fan Duoyao finished 32nd, becoming the first Chinese athlete to participate in the Bobsleigh World Cup. A week later, Wang Peixuan also broke into the main competition at sochi station and finished 25th, creating a new breakthrough in China's women's singles event.
Recalling the mood of participating in the World Cup for the first time, Fan Duoyao bluntly said that he was a little nervous, "This is my first World Cup, in fact, I am very nervous, but I see that foreign players are very calm and calm, they can treat the day's game as training, show the best state, this is the place I should learn the most." Secondly, I also see that there is still a big gap between myself and them, there are many deficiencies, and I need to constantly improve. ”
As one of the first athletes in China to engage in bobsleigh, most of the athletes of this national training team were selected by transfer. Fan Duoyao switched from cross-country skiing to sledding, Wang Peixuan had practiced sprinting and javelin before, and Peng Junyue from Guangdong had never seen snow before practicing sledding. Transformation, adaptation, change, and improvement have become the issues they need to face together.
Fan Duoyao recalled that the most difficult part of the transition was the understanding of different sports, "cross-country skiing is pure endurance, and sledding tests pure explosiveness." Another difficulty is weight, because the bobsleigh project needs to use weight to get acceleration, at the beginning I was very thin, how to eat can not eat, but I was injured once, lying in the hospital for two months, the weight rose from less than 70 kg to more than 80 kg. ”
Van Duo Yao before the game. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Duan Xuefeng)
A track
Bobsleigh competition is the fastest, high-risk factor and highly professional event in the snow competition of the Winter Olympic Games, which has strict requirements for the competition venue. Currently, there are only 17 standard bobsleigh venues in the world, spread across 11 countries. Of these, 10 are located in Europe.
Before the completion of the National Bobsleigh Center, the Chinese bobsleigh team trained overseas all year round, and even the national competition had to go to Europe to find a venue. The birth of "Snow Dragon" not only filled the gap of domestic bobsleigh tracks, but also planted a seed of hope in the hearts of Chinese bobsleigh people.
In the view of team leader Wang Zhonglin, the "Snow Dragon" is of great significance to the development of China's bobsleigh project. "In the past, there was no track in The country, so everyone didn't know about bobsleigh projects. With their own track, more media and spectators will learn about these projects. With 4 bobsleigh venues, Germany has the largest number of bobsleigh venues in the world and is the number one power in bobsleigh events. In Germany, seven- and eight-year-olds are playing sledding, and our athletes are basically transferred from other sports and have not been exposed to this sport since childhood. In the future, more children can participate in sports through a track. Wang Zhonglin said.
"Snow Dragon" has 16 curves with different angles and different shapes. Of these, the 11th turn is a 360-degree roundabout that is rare in the world. Athletes accelerate noticeably when they first enter this corner, so it's easy to make mistakes when passing corners 12 to 14. This requires athletes to stay focused throughout the process and ensure that their posture is not deformed.
Fan Duoyao, who has already created a breakthrough of "zero" in the World Cup in "Snow Dragon", looks forward to writing a new history at the Winter Olympics at the "doorstep". "This is China's first track and the best in the world, because there is a raised difficulty in the middle of it, and the top international athletes also need to work hard to get familiar with it, so we still have a great chance of creating good results at the Beijing Winter Olympics." Fan Duoyao said.
Wen | Xu Sijia