Craftsman on Ice
Our reporter Wu Hao
"It is the first time to hold the Winter Olympics at the doorstep of my home. The team members are very happy to be able to participate in the ice making." Cui Yunkai, the team leader of the ice making team from the Qiqihar Municipal Sports Bureau of Heilongjiang Province, couldn't hide his excitement.
The ice-making team, consisting of 14 people, is responsible for the ice-making work on the men's ice hockey venue in the National Stadium for the Winter Olympics.
They all have rich experience in ice making. The longest working time in ice pouring and ice making is more than 40 years, and the shortest is nearly 10 years.
They strive for perfection, pouring every piece of ice into the ice hockey field of the Winter Olympics.
Talents come together to make ice
Qiqihar is 1,000 kilometers away from Beijing. Why were Cui Yunkai and his ice-making team selected to make ice for the Winter Olympics ice hockey venue?
It turns out that Qiqihar is known as the "City of Ice Hockey in China" with a history of 68 years of ice hockey development.
During the year, there are hundreds of ice hockey games held in Qiqihar.
Ice hockey has already entered the primary and secondary schools in Qiqihar, and it is one of the favorite ice sports of the common people.
For Northeasterners who have been playing on ice since childhood, ice hockey also carries their childhood memories.
The vigorous development of ice hockey has created batches of ice-making talent teams in Qiqihar.
Cui Yunkai, 63, recalled that as early as 1979, Qiqihar was the first in China to use an artificially refrigerated ice rink.
After decades of development, Qiqihar has more talent reserves and rich ice-making experience in the field of ice-making.
Cui Yunkai's ice-making team covers three generations of old, middle-aged and young people. The oldest ice maker is 65 years old and the youngest is 30 years old.
When receiving the task of being the leader of the ice-making team, Cui Yunkai, who had retired for three years, readily agreed.
"I didn't expect to be able to make ice for the Beijing Winter Olympics after I retire. I am very honored." Cui Yunkai told reporters that he has been engaged in ice making for more than 40 years, and it is a precious gift to be able to make ice for the Beijing Winter Olympics wealth of life.
"Everyone used to work in Qiqihar dry ice making, and no one thought that they would come to the Beijing Winter Olympics to make ice. My family was very happy for us." 65-year-old Yuan Kaijie is a senior ice maker and also an ice maker. The oldest player on the ice team.
He told reporters that being able to serve the Winter Olympics makes him feel full of strength.
Li Yan, a 40-year-old driver of an ice pouring truck, said excitedly: "This time I can communicate and cooperate with international ice makers, get in touch with the use of international advanced new ice-making equipment, and learn a lot of advanced ice-making concepts. It has accumulated valuable experience for me to engage in ice-making in the future."
Lv Chao, the youngest in the ice-making team, has been working in ice-making for nearly 10 years.
He is mainly responsible for ice surface maintenance and related auxiliary work. He told reporters: "Ice making work is about teamwork, and one cannot be missing. I will try my best to do my job well and contribute to the smooth running of the competition."
Work slowly to make a living
Making ice is a delicate job.
Shaved ice, washing ice, and pouring ice are the trilogy of ice rink maintenance and the main steps in ice making.
Yuan Kaijie told reporters that 30 years ago, these all required manual operation, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Nowadays, these processes can be completed directly by operating the ice pouring truck, but they also require slow work and meticulous work.
"Ice making has strict requirements on water temperature, cleanliness, PH value and other indicators. Different competitions have different requirements on the hardness, thickness and temperature of ice. How to control these needs to be judged by the ice maker. If you want to make ice well, every ice maker has to work hard." Yuan Kaijie said.
In order to better complete the task of ice-making, ice-makers continue to learn to use new ice-making equipment.
For the parts that can't be done with equipment, they craft it little by little with their hands and gadgets.
"Two fields, 3,600 square meters of ice surface, covered with ice bottom, sprayed white, and drawn lines, all links cannot be sloppy." Cui Yunkai said that ice hockey games have high requirements on the ice rink, and the thickness of the ice layer is about 4 About centimeters, the width of the stadium marking line should also be accurate to millimeters.
"We control the flatness error to 0.1mm or 0.2mm. We must use the most exquisite ice-making skills in the Beijing Winter Olympics to create a high-standard ice surface so that athletes can perform at their best." Cui Yunkai told reporter.
Inherit the Olympic spirit
"Together to the future" is the slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
For the ice-making team, the combination of the three generations of the old, middle-aged and young is also to better "pass on and lead" to the future together.
Under the guidance of the international ice maker, Cui Yunkai led the ice-making team to continuously refine and grow, absorbing the international advanced ice-making concepts.
"In the past, we pursued speed in ice making, and we used more water each time we poured ice. But this time we were asked to reduce the amount of water used each time we poured ice, and poured it in thin layers. This made the ice more compact. After swiping, there will be no large pieces of ice balls, only ice foam like soft white sugar." Yuan Kaijie said.
Cui Yunkai said that in addition to operating as required, there are many "technical tasks" in the ice making process.
For example, although an advanced ice maker can use a computer to control the water output, it still needs to be manually controlled when the speed of the vehicle slows down at the corner, otherwise the ice may become too thick locally, which will test the experience and feel of the ice maker.
The ice-making team took about 12 days to complete the ice-making work for the two venues of the National Stadium.
But for them, the more intense work is still during the game.
Each ice hockey game is divided into three innings, and the interval between each inning is the busiest moment for the ice-making team.
"At the end of each game, the ice surface must be maintained immediately, and the ice must be poured again." Cui Yunkai said frankly that they dare not take it lightly. Ice at work.
"By participating in the work of this Winter Olympics, our team has a deeper understanding of the Olympic spirit, and will pass on the Olympic spirit to the future together," said Cui Yunkai.
The ice-making team will continue to improve the level of ice-making skills, continue to learn advanced ice-making concepts from international ice-makers, strengthen teamwork, develop team spirit, help young people grow into excellent ice-makers as soon as possible, and pass on the ice-making skills from generation to generation. .