At the Beijing Winter Olympics, curling is a very special sport – it starts on February 2 and ends on February 20. The span of the game is long, the technical and tactical requirements are high, and it is difficult to win gold. After a total of 19 days and 46 rounds of 147 matches, all three gold medals ended up in Europe. In the three competitions, although the Chinese team did not reach the final four, its performance was also remarkable. Young and inexperienced, they are likely to achieve "corner overtaking" in the future.
Chinese women's curling team member in the competition Deng Wei photo
Inventory
The "three golds" all belong to Europe
The British team won the women's curling championship deng Wei photo
There are three events in curling at the Winter Olympics: mixed double curling, men's curling and women's curling. After fierce competition, the gold medals in these three events went to Italy, Sweden and The United Kingdom. This result is both reasonable and unexpected.
It is reasonable to say that it is because in the curling "jianghu", European and American countries have always been a strong team, which can be described as a gathering of masters. Not only that, but many teams also have "multi-dynasty elders" sitting in the town, so that the curling competition has the feeling of "fairy fighting". Take the Swedish men's curling as an example, the captain Edin is the "elder of the four dynasties", before the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Swedish men's curler won the fourth, third and second places in the Winter Olympics, just one Olympic gold medal. The British women's pot led by Muirhead won the gold medal at the 2002 Salt City Lake Winter Olympics, and Muirhead himself was also the "Elder of the Four Dynasties".
The Italian curling mixed doubles duo won the championship by Deng Wei
Unexpectedly, the Italian team was a mixed doubles combination of Constantini and Mosana. The group was previously unknown, and Constantini used to be a clerk at an outdoor sports brand. It is this combination that has been a "dark horse" all the way in this Winter Olympics, winning 11 consecutive victories to win the championship. In addition, Japan, the women's curling bronze medalist at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, lost to The United Kingdom 3-10 in the final. Although the silver medal record set a new Japan's best curling record at the Winter Olympics, the score was a surprise loss. The curling competition of this Winter Olympic Games has also seen that since curling returned to the Winter Olympic family in 1998, there have been no American teams in the top two of each minor event.
The three silver medalists for mixed double curling, men's curling and women's curling were Norway, Great Britain and Japan, and the bronze medalists were Sweden, Canada and Sweden. Looking at the winning teams, it can be found that in the curling project, "seniority" and more experience in the competition are very important factors. For example, the Swedish team's "Four Dynasties Elders" Edin is 36 years old, the Canadian female pot captain Jones is 47 years old, and the Canadian men's team captain Gu Hugh is 41 years old... Jones won the Sochi Winter Olympics; Gu Xiu won the Turin Winter Olympics, after 16 years, he played in the Winter Olympics for the second time; the captain of the U.S. men's team, Schuster, was the "father of the five dynasties" of the Olympic Games...
Explore
The Chinese team also has wonderful
Chinese curling mixed doubles duo Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi deng Wei
In the curling event of this Winter Olympic Games, the Chinese team did not enter the final four. The best performer was the Chinese male pot, ranking fifth; the Chinese women's pot was once expected to advance to the final four, but eventually ranked seventh; and the mixed doubles combination ranked ninth.
Mixed doubles curling sent out a combination of Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi, and the performance of this pair was somewhat "high and low". After narrowly beating Switzerland in extra time in the first match, they beat Australia. However, as the other teams entered the game state, Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi began to go straight down, and after a wave of seven consecutive defeats, they bid farewell to the Beijing Winter Olympics in advance. In the end, out of ten participating teams, he won the ninth place.
The Chinese men's curling team and women's curling team both started with two consecutive defeats, and both won 4 wins and 5 losses. After 8 days and 11 matches, the Chinese men's pot defeated the Danish team and won a victory. Since then, he has won two consecutive victories over Italy. Next, the world's top-ranked and experienced British team, American team and Canadian team gave the Chinese men's pot three consecutive defeats. But the Chinese men's pot did not give up, and in the last two matches, they defeated Norway and Switzerland respectively. For the Chinese male pot players who participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time, such results were not easy.
The situation of the Chinese women's curling team has many ups and downs. Once very promising to impact the top four, they finally dropped the chain at a critical moment, and even made a low-level mistake of shooting violations. After losing to the Danish team, the Swiss team and the United States team, the Chinese women's pot decisively changed the team to receive good results, defeating the top two Sweden and South Korea teams in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which once made people see the hope of advancing to the final four. However, the good times did not last long, and the Chinese women's pot lost 2-10 to the Japanese team, and 5-11 to the Russian Olympic Committee team, which was not strong. Just when people thought they had fallen into a trough, Wang Rui, who took over Han Yu as the captain, was in excellent shape, helping the Chinese team to defeat the British team and the Canadian team in succession.
In general, the main problem of the Chinese team in the curling project of this Winter Olympic Games is that it is young and has little experience in the competition. Ling Zhi and Fan Suyuan are standing on the Olympic field for the first time. The Chinese male pot team members are the first to start the Olympic journey, and the female pot is a young configuration, and the captain of the first few games, Han Yu, is a "post-00". As Chinese coach Lin Holm summed up, "The Chinese players are very strong, but they have less experience in international competitions." They don't know enough about their level. Such a status quo has led to the unstable state and mentality of the Chinese team - "winning strong and losing weakly", losing points in some key games.
prospect
Multiple factors will help "overtake"
Chinese men's curlers in the competition deng Wei photo
As mentioned earlier, in order to achieve good results in curling, in addition to technical and tactical choices and on-the-spot performance, it also depends on many factors such as the seniority of the team members, the experience of the competition and the "mass foundation" of ice and snow sports.
Compared with some countries in Europe and the United States, curling projects in the mainland ice and snow sports, it can be said that there is not much advantage. Under such a status quo, the performance of the young Chinese team in the Winter Olympics is still remarkable. Behind the stop-and-go game, the team members also talked about some reasons, including mentality, the epidemic restriction competition experience is relatively small, and so on. Therefore, as long as the players are given some time and space to grow, we have reason to believe that Chinese curling can go to a higher level.
At the same time, the "mass base" of curling is also worth serious consideration. With a high degree of participation and recognition among the masses, there is great hope for the exploration and selection of talents. In countries that have won medals in curling, curling follows this law, and even some team members are "office workers" themselves.
Unlike other ice and snow sports, the entertainment and popularity of curling are relatively good, and it is relatively easy to get started. The Beijing Winter Olympics achieved the goal of bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, and many shopping malls have curling experience and training venues. A better news will also help the growth of curling in the mainland - a few days ago, the World Curling Federation and the China Curling Association and Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement in the "Ice Cube", which will promote the development of curling in China and the world by setting up the first "World Curling Academy Training Center" in the "Ice Cube", holding international curling events and series of curling training.
It is expected that with the improvement and shortcomings of multiple levels, more people will participate in and enjoy curling. In addition to the growth and maturity of professional team members, when we have a more solid "mass foundation" and a more sufficient reserve talent force, the overall level of Chinese curling can be improved. Experience, qualifications, talents, professionalism and other factors combined force, China's curling sports will be able to achieve "curve overtaking" as soon as possible.