Behind the breakthroughs made by China's two national teams in the Winter Olympics, it is inseparable from the help of "missile boosters"

Source: Global Times - Global Network

At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese cross-country skiing team made new breakthroughs in the cross-country skiing project, which is absolutely dominant among European athletes, not only achieving the goal of participating in the whole project, but also refreshing the new historical record of China's cross-country skiing. Throughout the history of the Chinese cross-country ski team, all this was done in just a few years. Behind the rapid progress, in addition to favorable policies and the athletes' own hard daily training, the application of high-tech means in training has also played a role in boosting. Among them, a training equipment "modified" according to the missile booster has attracted attention because of its unique design concept and application scenarios, and recently, the Global Times reporter went to the China Aerospace Aerodynamic Technology Research Institute to witness the magic behind this "black technology" equipment.

"Missile booster" for the daily training of Winter Olympic athletes

Cross-country skiing has always been a major gold medalist in the Winter Olympics. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, there are 12 sub-events of cross-country skiing, including 3 minor events of the Nordic biathlon and 11 minor events of the biathlon of winter, and a total of 26 minor events related to cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympic Games, accounting for nearly a quarter of the 109 sub-events of the Winter Olympic Games.

However, China's previous participation in cross-country skiing, a pivotal sport at the Winter Olympics, was low. At the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, only four athletes competed in China's cross-country skiing event. At that time, there were even less than 400 registered athletes participating in cross-country skiing events across the country. Zhang Bei, the leader of the cross-country skiing national training team, said in an interview with the media that in the order book of a certain cycle of national competitions, the number of participants is basically 20 or 30 people, and more than 50 people. "And the summer event rowing, the national championships can have more than 1,000 people if the number of people is not controlled."

In order to achieve the goal of "running a wonderful race and participating in the competition" at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, since 2017, the Chinese cross-country skiing training team has begun to select outstanding talents from long-distance running, cycling, rowing and other projects to participate in cross-country skiing projects through cross-sports selection. For example, Tsering Zhandui, a Chinese Tibetan cross-country skier who participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics for the first time, was previously a long-distance runner in the Tibet Amateur Sports School, and in 2017, Tsering Zhandui transformed into an ice and snow project, and in 2020, he was selected as a national training team for cross-country skiing in China.

In order to make these talented sports geniuses better and faster adapt to the characteristics of cross-country skiing projects, some aerospace technologies that were originally unrelated to sports have also been used by "brain-opening" astronauts to the daily training of the Chinese cross-country skiing team. The Global Times reporter learned from the third institute of the Eleventh Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology that the training equipment for ice and snow sports " transformed" by the researchers of the Institute and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics using small missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle engine technology has been successfully applied to the daily training of cross-country skiing and speed skating projects, and has helped the participating athletes achieve breakthrough results at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Zheng Liu, an engineer of the Third Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Eleventh Academy, who participated in the research and development of the equipment, said in an interview with the Global Times reporter that this set of bypass fan jet power boosters designed and developed based on the aerodynamic principle of the air discharging the air to generate reaction thrust can provide auxiliary thrust for cross-country skiing and speed skaters according to the needs of training, so that athletes can break through their own physical energy limitations in training and carry out various extreme state training activities.

According to the Global Times reporter, this booster mainly includes power, thrust control and power supply and other devices. When in use, athletes only need to wear components to fix the booster weighing about 3.5 kg on the back and assist in training under the impetus of the power unit. The booster's thrust control device has a manual control function, which can artificially control the thrust size and start and stop of the booster in real time.

Zheng Liu said that in cross-country skiing, athletes must not only have super endurance, but also require athletes to have excellent snow field adaptability, athletic ability and cornering skills. This device can use the "missile booster" technical principle to create a high-speed sports state for athletes, help athletes practice turning, lane change, jumping and other technical actions at high speed, so that athletes can break through the physical limit and form muscle memory in high-speed state, creating a new way of training in the extreme state.

It is also thanks to the application of these high-tech equipment in daily training that the Chinese cross-country skiing team has achieved a number of breakthroughs in the Beijing Winter Olympics, not only in terms of the number of participants and the number of participating projects have created a record high, to achieve the goal of participating in the whole project. In the men's individual sprint event (free technology) of cross-country skiing, China's Wang Qiang also finished second in the fourth group with a time of 2 minutes 49.64 seconds in the quarterfinals, breaking the history of cross-country skiing in China.

In addition, this equipment is also used in the daily training of the Chinese speed skating team. Zheng Liu said that the role of this set of equipment is mainly reflected in two aspects, one is to help athletes reach a certain speed before cornering, so that athletes can carry out targeted practice of cornering techniques, save athletes' physical strength in accelerating the starting of the straight stage, and improve the pertinence and efficiency of training. In addition, the equipment can also help athletes break through their own speed limits, so that athletes feel the physical state at higher speed, "in a typical speed skating training, athletes can increase their speed by 10% after 400 meters a lap." Zheng Liu introduced.

According to the schedule of the event, in the next few days, the Chinese speed skating team will also challenge the medals in a number of finals.

As a part of the "science and technology to help the Olympic Games", Zheng Liu frankly said that when he saw that the training equipment he participated in the research and development could significantly help the Chinese Winter Olympic athletes to achieve excellent results, he felt very proud: "It is a great honor to participate in the project of science and technology to help the Olympic Games, use our aerospace technology to help national athletes achieve better results, and make a little contribution to the Winter Olympics, at the same time, the athletes' fighting spirit also infects me, I believe that in my future work, I can also uphold the spirit of spaceflight and the Olympic spirit. Continue to contribute to the space industry. ”