Ice hockey is one of the earliest and most popular sports at the Winter Olympics. Speaking of our Beijingers' fate with ice hockey, it is far deeper than imagined. As early as the 1950s, Beijingers were already "deeply rooted" in ice hockey. The success of Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics also has a credit to our hockey boys. Beijing Ice Hockey, which has a strong mass base, has made great contributions to the realization of the dream of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports".
The first ice hockey team was born
Located in North China, Beijing is surrounded by water systems, severe cold in winter, and the "northern scenery" frozen on natural rivers and lakes can be seen everywhere. Because of this unique advantage, skating has become a hobby of many Beijingers in winter, and highly skilled people will also play ice hockey on the ice. However, in Beijing before the founding of New China, people played ice hockey in the strict sense can only be regarded as a small game of self-amusement, and the venue, utensils, and playing style are not very formal. After the founding of New China, with the great development of social production and economic construction, Beijing's sports industry also developed synchronously, and the real ice hockey sport rose up at this time.
On June 10, 1952, Mao Zedong wrote an inscription for the All-China Sports Federation: "Develop sports and enhance the people's physique." In response to Chairman Mao's call, the citizens of Beijing generally realized the great significance of carrying out sports and exercising their bodies in national defense and production construction, and ice sports with Beijing's regional characteristics were rapidly launched.
Ice sports not only make people have a strong physique, but also cultivate people's will and courage to overcome the cold and not be afraid of hardships. On January 4, 1953, the city's ice sports conference was held at the Shichahai People's Ice Rink. This is the most abundant ice games since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and ice hockey is the most popular sport in the conference, with 58 athletes from 6 ice hockey teams participating in the competition. On the ice hockey rink, the first to start the tournament are the Reds and Ice United teams, the athletes have skilled skating skills and rich skating experience, they are flexible, skating fast, stopping fast, playing accurately. After a fierce battle between the two sides, the Reds won 20:0.
January 3, 1953, Beijing Daily, page 1.
The conference was also a selection competition, and the outstanding athletes selected formed the Beijing Ice Sports Representative Team to participate in the North China Ice Sports Conference held in Beijing that year. In this way, the first ice hockey team in Beijing was born in early 1953, and the main players were goalkeeper Pan Guilin, left winger Wang Yingfu, right winger Cui Yichang, etc., most of whom were students and young teachers. At the subsequent North China Ice Games, the Beijing ice hockey team won the championship. Then, the North China Ice Hockey Team, which is mainly composed of beijing ice hockey teams, won the second place in the National Ice Sports Conference. In the 1950s, the Beijing ice hockey team won the national runner-up four consecutive times, winning honors for Beijing.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 1955, the capital held an ice sports conference, and the Tianjin Ice Hockey Team and the Beijing Ice Hockey Team were carrying out friendly matches. Photo by Feng Wengang
How hot was ice hockey in Beijing in the 1950s and 1960s? Tsinghua Affiliated Primary School, 25 Middle School, 31 Middle School, 65 Middle School, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Central Institute of Physical Education, Aviation College and many other schools have their own ice hockey teams, and most of the ice rinks also have special ice rinks, such as the Shichahai People's Skating Rink, the largest and best equipped in North China, there are two ice rinks. The ice rinks help the masses learn to skate through methods such as broadcasting and specific guidance, and often hold some small ice hockey games. Shichahai Ice Rink also holds a short-term training class on ice, regardless of age, all workers, students, and cadres of the city, as long as they have a certain level of ice sports technology and good health, can sign up. After being admitted by test, you can learn a variety of ice sports courses, including ice hockey, which is particularly popular.
Even the temple fairs that Beijingers love to visit are indispensable to ice hockey games to help. In the Spring Festival of 1963, there were 10,000 people visiting the temple fairs in Shichahai and Beihai Stadiums, most of whom were ice sports enthusiasts. At the temple fair, the most people watch the ice hockey game. Ice hockey players are clad in armor, the club in their hands is like a "flower gun", a pair of ice knives under their feet are like "hot wheels", watching them lightning-like for a moment east, a moment west, ice skillfully fierce competition, the spectators are very excited, busy cheering, full of joy.
"Two cents to the White Rock Bridge to see the ice hockey!"
In the 1980s, with the spring breeze of reform and opening up, the Beijing Capital Gymnasium hosted the World Ice Hockey Group C Championship. Beijing was the second city in Asia to host the World Ice Hockey Championship at that time, and that international event attracted up to 300,000 spectators to help, and the popularity was no less than the home game of the Guoan Football Team and the Shougang Basketball Team, which made Beijing and even the whole country boil.
In March 1981, many Beijing citizens greeted each other with greetings that were like this: "Do you want to go?" Two cents to see ice hockey at White Rock Bridge! ”
At that time, in the Capital Gymnasium, as long as there was a game of the Chinese team, the stadium was full. Tickets for ice hockey matches are hard to come by, and many Beijing ice hockey fans have to work hard to buy a ticket. On the opening night of the championship, the Chinese team won the first game against the Danish team. The Chinese national anthem was played on the spot, the bright five-star red flag was raised on the crystal white ice rink, and the 18,000 spectators stood excitedly and applauded.
March 8, 1981, Beijing Daily, 2nd edition.
Speaking of the opening, Yu Tiande, the former leader of the Chinese ice hockey team who was still a college student at the time, still remembers it vividly: "The Chinese team won like this: Wang Chunjiang's instep was swollen, the skates could not be taken off, and he still scored a goal; Chen Xiguang suffered a shoulder contusion and scored in pain; Wu Keqiang broke his nose bone, put on a plaster and reappeared; Wang Jingang was hit by a tall opponent and flew his helmet and risked scoring a goal..."
The fighting spirit of the Chinese team continued to show in the next competition with the Hungarian team and the French team for the second place: the Chinese and Hungarian players fought fiercely, many physical collisions occurred, the cheers of the audience resounded throughout the hall, and jiang Runliang, a citizen sitting in the northwest stand, shouted dumb. The match against France was a miracle, the Chinese team in the case of repeated attacks, in the case of difficulties, still maintained a tenacious fighting spirit, after the opening of the second set, in 4 minutes and 36 seconds in a row of 4 goals, so that the on-site Islamic Federation officials are even praised. With each goal, the audience erupted in a burst of warm applause and cheers.
On March 7, 1981, the World Hockey Group C Championship opened in Beijing, and the Chinese team won the victory, winning the Danish team 5-1. The picture shows the Chinese team attacking. Photo by Wang Zhenmin
When the Chinese team defeated the North Korean team 10:2 in the last game, it finally finished second with a record of 7 wins, 6 wins and 1 loss, and was promoted to the world B group, stepping into the top 16 of the world hockey. At this time, the first body staged the most moving scene in 10 days: countless candies were thrown from the stands to the ice, rewarding the team, but the team members threw the candies back to all corners of the stands to share the joy of victory with the ice fans. "The roof of the head was almost overturned by the sound." Yao Naifeng, a member of the Chinese men's ice hockey team at the time and former head coach of Chinese women's ice hockey, said.
At the 1981 World Hockey Group C Championship, spectators cheered for China's victory. Photo by Wang Zhenmin
The fighting spirit of the Chinese men's ice hockey team made people excited, and the ice fans spontaneously shouted the strongest voice of the era of "revitalizing China". This "ice hockey fever" full of fighting spirit immediately swept through Beijing and affected the whole country, and the ice hockey team also became one of the earliest teams in the Chinese sports world at that time known for its "fighting spirit".
In the men's ice hockey game of the 10th Winter Games in 2003, a player who was eager to attack the goal rushed into the opponent's goal due to his strength and fierceness, causing a laugh from the audience.
The hockey boys were honored as ambassadors for the Winter Olympics
After entering the 21st century, people's amateur life is becoming more and more abundant, the choice of winter sports is more diverse, and it is all "true love" that can still focus on ice hockey. Although ice hockey has encountered "Waterloo" in other provinces and cities, its popularity among Beijing teenagers has soared, and its athletic performance has increased rapidly. According to incomplete statistics, between 2007 and 2012, Beijing club teams won a total of 9 championships in different age groups in international, continental and national competitions. By 2014, there were nearly 100 amateur youth ice hockey teams in Beijing, and about 1,500 youth ice hockey players were registered with the Municipal Ice Hockey Association, of which 82% were children aged 4 to 11. As many as a few thousand people in the city are engaged in amateur ice hockey training. Of all winter sports, ice hockey alone has such a large mass base.
In the late winter of 2012, children practiced their basic hockey skills on the open-air ice rink in Beihai Park. Photographed by Sun Jiao
In order to help Beijing bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Highest Level Comprehensive Youth Games in Beijing, the Municipal Games, listed ice hockey as a performance event for the first time in 2014. The first public ice and snow season and the national public ice and snow season of that year also chose to take the lead in the National Junior Ice Hockey Invitational Tournament held in Beijing to promote the development of mass ice and snow sports.
December 29, 2014, Beijing Daily, 2nd edition.
What is even more proud is that in June 2015, 18-year-old Beijing boy Song Andong was selected by the New York Islanders at the NHL (North American Hockey Professional League) draft, the world's highest level of hockey league, becoming the first Chinese player in the league's nearly 100-year history. After the successful draft, Song Andong was invited by the Beijing Winter Olympic Bidding Committee to go to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as the image ambassador of the Winter Olympics, and witnessed the historical moment when Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Beijing hockey teenager Song Andong represented Beijing in the 2014-2015 National Junior Championship Group A competition, helping the team to win the championship for professional teams such as Harbin and Qiqihar.
Ice hockey is the "ace sport" with the most visits and the highest ratings at the Winter Olympics, but before that, China did not have a star figure. The emergence of Song Andong has given Chinese ice hockey its own "business card". Former basketball superstar Yao Ming specifically mentioned the little brother in his final statement, "In the 2008 Olympic Games, as a member of the Chinese men's basketball team, I participated in the competition at the Wukesong Gymnasium. In 2022, we may see Song Andong there. ”
"All children who play ice hockey dream of representing their homeland in the Olympic Arena, and it is the greatest honor to represent the national team in the Winter Olympics." Song Andong is very much looking forward to the ice and snow event of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Song Andong, Zhong Wei, Chen Zimeng, Shi Weiyuan, Nie Haolin, Liu Zicong, Li Ou, Li Lintai, Gong Xinzhi and Zhu Bowen, 10 Beijing ice hockey teenagers, represented China in the U18 (under 18 years old) World Ice Hockey Championship in March 2015 and won the 5th place in Group B of the Second Division. These Beijing hockey teenagers have a common wish, that is, "the 2022 Winter Olympics, in our big Beijing, at the doorstep, once again put on the national team uniform, defend the honor of the motherland on the court, and win glory for the country!" ”
The general secretary "bumped shoulders" to greet the ice hockey baby
The success of Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics has led to the development of ice and snow sports. On February 24, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping watched the ice hockey team exhibition match of Zhongguancun No. 2 Primary School and No. 20 Affiliated Experimental School in Wukesong Gymnasium. The general secretary took the hand of a Xiaoice team member, leaned down, and interacted with him in a greeting style unique to ice hockey players. He smiled and said that the boy was going to grow up a little bigger.
The general secretary also told the youngsters about his childhood skating. He said that at that time, he could only slide on the ice of Shichahai in winter. If you can buy a pair of 50 yuan skates, it is a luxury. His younger brother likes to play ice hockey, so he wants to buy knife shoes, and he likes skating, he wants to buy speed skates, but the family can only buy a pair of skates, and the general secretary gave the "indicator" of buying skates to his brother. The general secretary earnestly urged the children to cherish the current conditions, enhance their physique through participation in sports, exercise and cultivate a strong character.
A "bump of the shoulders" sowed the seeds of hard work in the hearts of Xiaoice team members, and a pair of "skates" made the children realize that today's such good exercise conditions are not easy to come by. General Secretary Xi Jinping's care, love and affectionate expectations have greatly encouraged and inspired many ice hockey teenagers, making the development of youth ice hockey more rapid.
In Beijing, the city of the Two Olympics, there are more and more schools and students participating in ice hockey, and there are more than 1,000 youth ice hockey matches every year, and the scale of events is also expanding. The Beijing Inter-School Ice Hockey League for Primary and Secondary School Students, which began in May 2017, attracted 95 schools and 1,500 young players, doubling in size compared with the previous edition. The Municipal Youth Ice Hockey Club League, which began in October of the same year, has developed into the largest and longest youth ice hockey event in Asia, with teams and the number of participants more than 40 times that of the first edition. At this time, Beijing already has 216 men's ice hockey teams aged 6 to 16, double that of 2016, and there are more than 3,500 registered youth ice hockey players in the city, 59.2 times that of 10 years ago.
September 29, 2017, Beijing Daily, page 19.
The "Beijing Model" Drives The Whole People to "Ice"
"Accident!" In December 2020, a "miscellaneous army" that had not undergone perennial training and was temporarily formed by different "sects" actually won the championship of the ice hockey adult group with two veteran teams, the Keqiqihar team and the Harbin team. Which "ice and snow force" is this, so powerful? The answer is: Beijing.
This starts from the unique talent training model of Beijing ice hockey. Different from the traditional professional athlete training system, diversification has always been a unique talent training model of Beijing ice hockey. Taking the beijing sports professional college team that won the championship as an example, there are professional athletes of the Beijing team who "go out" to receive high-level training in North America and participate in high-intensity local competitions; there are "returnees" who have studied overseas for many years and have become professional leagues, fighting fierce opponents and honing their skills in the arena around the world; and there are ordinary middle school students in Beijing, using the municipal youth club league and the municipal primary and secondary school students' inter-school league as a platform to make progress through actual combat. Everyone continued to improve in their respective arenas, and finally converged into an unstoppable "Beijing force". This is the "Beijing model" of ice hockey.
The "Beijing model" has given ice and snow sports a stronger mass base:
"Wow, how come this ball isn't round?" "Put on this 'armor' like a Transformer!" In the school, the children who are exposed to ice hockey for the first time are full of curiosity and excitement;
"Good ball!" "Beautiful!" On the cold days of Shujiu, the elderly ice hockey team members with an average age of nearly 60 years old were fiercely fighting on the outdoor ice rink in Shichahai;
The NHL pre-season, the world's highest level of hockey league, came to the Wukesong Gymnasium, the venue of the 2022 Winter Olympics ice hockey event in Beijing, and the fierce duel full of gunpowder made 13,000 spectators boil with blood, and did not hesitate to scream and applaud;
Every winter, people have a "date" that they never forget - the happy ice and snow season of Beijing citizens, more and more "zero foundation" citizens call friends and the whole family to go out to be happy on the ice and snow. Counting the 7 sessions, more than 31 million men, women and children have participated...
On the weekend of January 2005, the weather was sunny, and people played ice hockey at the Yuyuantan Park Ice Rink. Photo by Rao Qiang, a reporter of this newspaper
The "Beijing model" brings about the prosperity of winter sports that is "ice" for all people, and helps the dream of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports" come true.
Twenty-nine days later, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is about to open. We eagerly look forward to the Chinese men's ice hockey team with the figure of Beijing youngsters to show their skills on the field with extraordinary and outstanding fighting spirit!
Historical information: Beijing News Group graphic database