There are four pairs of sister flowers in the Japanese women's ice team, and they will challenge the Chinese team on February 6

The Japanese women's ice hockey team announced their roster for the Beijing Winter Olympics last week. Photo/Social Media

Beijing News (chief reporter Sun Haiguang) The upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's ice hockey team and the Japanese women's ice team are in Group B, and the two teams will meet on the afternoon of February 6. In the last 3 Olympic cycles, Japanese women's ice skaters have made rapid progress, and the Beijing Winter Olympics is also the first time that they do not need to participate in qualifiers and directly advance to the main winter Olympic games.

At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, The Japanese women's ice team, which participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time, finished 6th. In that Winter Olympics, Chinese women's ice won the 4th place, which is also the best result of Chinese women's ice so far in the Winter Olympics. In Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018, the Japanese women's ice team twice passed the qualifiers to advance to the main winter olympics.

Over the past decade or so, Japanese women's hockey has improved rapidly. At the 2017 Youth Olympics, the Japanese women's ice team won the gold medal in a historic way, and many players in the team were also selected for the Beijing Winter Olympics roster. At the 2019 World Championships, Japanese women's ice skaters qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics with a result of 6th place in the top group, which was also the first time that they did not need to participate in the qualifiers to directly advance to the main winter Olympic games.

Last week, the Japanese women's ice hockey team announced their roster for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Guard Akane Hosoyamada is the only player on the Japanese team who has experienced the N.A. NCAA Women's Hockey League. In 2017, Hosoyama joined women's ice league CWHL champion team Calgary Fury. At this year's World Championships, Akane Hosoyama tian delivered 3 assists, which is the defender with the most assists in the team.

In addition, there are 4 pairs of sister flowers in this Japanese team, namely Fujimoto Nacho and Fujimoto Fujikoshi, Shiga Aoi and Shiga Hongyin, Bed Yakuo and Bed Qin Ruko, Yamashita Shiori and Yamashita Hikaru, which will make them more tacit in the field.

The new Japanese women's ice coach is Yuji Iizuka, who has coached the women's ice hockey U18 team since 2007, and many of the players participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics have been brought out by him. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Yuji Iizuka made his debut as the head coach of Japanese women's ice, but the team did not win. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Yuji Iizuka became the team's assistant coach, and the Beijing Winter Olympics was his second appearance as head coach. In the 2019 and 2021 World Championships, Yuji Iizuka led the team to achieve good results, and directly qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics through the World Championships.

"Although we have had experience with the Sochi and Pingchang Winter Olympics, the Winter Olympics will always be a challenge for us." Masaho Osawa, who has been The Japanese women's ice captain for 10 years, said that at the Beijing Winter Olympics, they will strive to break through the best in history of the sixth place.

At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Japanese women's ice team was divided into Group B with The Chinese, Czech, Danish and Swedish teams. According to the format, 5 teams in Group B will play a round-robin tournament, and the top 3 teams will advance to the top 8 together with the 5 teams in Group A. Judging from the schedule, Japan welcomed its first opponent, Denmark, on the afternoon of February 5. At 16:40 on February 6, The Japanese Women's Ice Will Challenge the Chinese Women's Ice.

Sun Haiguang, chief reporter of the Beijing News

Edited by Han Shuangming Proofreader Wei Zhuo