Men's single bobsleigh won 24th place, women's single bobsleigh won 29th place, double bobsleigh won 17th place, team relay event won 12th place, this is the Chinese bobsleigh team in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics results of the answer sheet.
This young team, which was only established in 2015, gained competition experience through the tempering of this competition. The four players, whose average age is less than 23, will accelerate their growth in the next Winter Olympic cycle starting from the Beijing Winter Olympics and have already set their sights on the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.
From left to right: Wang Peixuan, Fan Duoyao, Wang Zhonglin, Huang Yebo, Peng Junyue
Record for the first time
The Bobsleigh Events of the Beijing Winter Olympics have all ended a few days ago, and the Chinese team has made breakthroughs in 4 minor events. Among them, the team relay event ranked the highest, ranking 12th out of all 14 participating teams. Wang Zhonglin, the leader of the Chinese bobsleigh team, affirmed the performance of the whole team in the Olympic Games and hoped that the players could continue to improve in the future.
The Chinese bobsleigh team qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics and completed all four events, achieving valid results. Wang Zhonglin said that it is not easy for young players to participate in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time, and they have already slid out the level of usual training, and everyone has performed very well. The players appeared more mature on the field and did not make low-level mistakes.
China's bobsleigh project started late, and the team was formed after the successful bid for the 2015 Beijing Winter Olympics, and the 2017 season officially participated. Bobsleigh crew members are selected through cross-disciplines, and they have not been exposed to this project since childhood, not only lacking the feeling of sledding and track, but also lacking practical experience.
In Wang Zhonglin's view, the current results of the bobsleigh team can not be separated from the team's hard work and dedication, which has been best confirmed by the "00" young general Wang Peixuan. According to reports, less than 50 days before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Wang Peixuan's left foot was injured in the game, there were 3 bone fractures, and he could only wear special shoes to glide during the preparation period. But she still endured the pain and insisted on training and playing. And in the Beijing Winter Olympics women's single sled must complete 3 rounds of skating, with a time of 3 minutes 01.402 ranked 29th, did not qualify for the final round. But this achievement has written a new history of the Chinese bobsleigh team.
"I feel like they're like warriors, fighting very hard to take down the hill, and I'm proud of them." Wang Zhonglin said that the strong teams in this project in the world are all selected athletes from under the age of 14, like Germany, there are many young players under the age of 8 who train on the ice. But china started this project late, most of the athletes in the team are young people in their 20s, but they are all in their teens, and the feeling on the track is certainly not as good as those athletes who were exposed to this project very early. Later exposure projects make it more difficult to form technology and lead to an increase in injuries. Almost all of the players have now experienced major injuries and surgery.
Wang Zhonglin said: "I used to be in the army, I have led soldiers, I think now our team members do not give up, do not admit it, the spirit is more and more like a warrior, even more than a warrior more eager for victory." This Winter Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many people, so everyone did their best. ”
Cross-item selection is beginning to show results
The athletes of the Chinese bobsleigh team all come from other sports, Fan Duoyao's original event is cross-country skiing, Wang Peixuan has practiced sprinting and javelin before, Huang Yebo's original event is sprinting, and Peng Junyue was previously a basketball player.
According to Fan Duoyao, the most difficult part of the transfer is 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. ”
Wang Peixuan said that Chinese athletes in the bobsleigh event is a short board, she has practiced throwing and sprinting before, the strength of the upper limbs helps her to get a higher initial speed when starting, and the explosive power of the calf also allows her to better pedal the sled head and maintain the stability of the sled, but compared with foreign high-level athletes, there are still many deficiencies.
Huang Yebo's partner, Peng Junyue, is from Guangdong and has never seen snow before he was ten years old. After only two or three years of practicing sledding, the two formed China's first pair of tandem bobsleigh sets in October 2018. After experiencing many skidding, fractures, and concussions, the two have become more mature in technology and more tacit understanding. In November 2021, during the official training before the World Cup in Sochi, Russia, the two flipped over, both had more serious concussions and prolonged amnesia, and after about 10 days of rest, together with other teammates, in the subsequent World Cup in Winterberg, Germany, achieved a good team relay result for the Chinese team (ranked 10th).
Future targets aim for medals
At the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, bobsleigh became an official sport. The German team is the team that won the most gold medals in the bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics, and this time, they won all four gold medals in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Wang Zhonglin said frankly that Germany's dominance in the bobsleigh project is inseparable from a good foundation. According to reports, bobsleigh is very widely carried out in Germany, with more than 2,000 professional athletes, as well as 4 professional tracks, and many events are organized every year. Local children are exposed to bobsleigh at a very young age and start to glide from the low starting point of the track at the age of seven or eight.
China is only a rising star in the bobsleigh project, and after the establishment of the team in 2015, it began to explore the way from material selection and training. In Wang Zhonglin's view, the bobsleigh project is very professional and difficult, and "quick success" is impossible.
Wang Zhonglin said, "An athlete who skates 1500 times can reach the level of entering the World Cup; and 5,000 taxis can become one of the top athletes." At present, the number of Chinese bobsleigh members is no more than 1300, even if they are added to the sliding from a low starting point. ”
He further said that through the experience of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the dreams of Chinese bobsleigh athletes have been ignited, and they also want to play a role for the teachers and sisters behind them in the next Or even more Winter Olympics, "One day, our Chinese bobsleigh team can also stand on the highest podium." ”