(Beijing Winter Olympics) Telling the "Chinese Story" on the Winter Olympic Games: Revealing the Technological Elements Behind the Games

　　China News Service, Beijing, April 8th. Title: Telling the "Chinese Story" on the Winter Olympic Games: Revealing the Technological Elements Behind the Games

　　China News Agency reporter Xing Chong

　　In the current increasingly fierce competition in the international sports arena, athletes' competition clothing has long been more than just a "clothes."

Winter sports are carried out in the cold environment of ice and snow, and the technical requirements of competition clothing are undoubtedly higher: it not only needs to meet the thermal protection function, but also helps the players to perform better.

　　In the past, most of the high-level Chinese ice and snow athletes' uniforms required foreign customization. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Beijing Winter Olympics and guided by the "Technology Winter Olympics", the independent research and development of China's Winter Olympics uniforms has taken shape.

　　In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency, Liu Li, director of the National Winter Sports Apparel and Equipment Research and Development Center and professor of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, called her work "telling the'Chinese story' on the Winter Olympics clothing".

Three years ago, Liu Li, who was professionally sensitive, would often appreciate figure skating, a sport that is both competitive and artistic, from an aesthetic point of view. It was more of "a fan mentality". At the end of 2018, an occasional opportunity for Chinese flowers The skate team designs costumes, and since then began an indissoluble bond with the Winter Olympics clothing.

　　"We have a lot of experience in clothing customization, and we have also been exposed to dance clothing customization, but the figure skating suit that is closely integrated with the design and sports is indeed a leap." Liu Li said that figure skating is a typical "difficult and beautiful event group." It is not only an ice sport that pursues speed and difficult movements, but also pays attention to artistic expression. The design of the suit must reflect this "integration".

　　Figure skating costume design does not have a unified style. Each set of costumes must be tailored according to the music and movements selected by the athletes, as well as the characteristics and personality of the athletes themselves.

Performances with more technically difficult movements have higher requirements for light clothing, beautiful and eye-catching, but also require light fabrics and good stretch performance. In the double skating competitions involve throwing and jumping movements, when designing and decorating female athletes’ clothes, Avoid the key parts of the male partner's lift.

　　Liu Li said that understanding music, designing manuscripts, making nude suits, diamond-encrusted decorations, trying on on land, trying on ice... a figure skating competition requires multiple links from design to upper body.

"All of us were very nervous the first time I tried them on ice, but the result was very good in the end."

　　At the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships, the Chinese double skating team Sui Wenjing/Han Cong won the championship in a uniform designed by Liu Li's team, which added confidence to Liu Li's team.

Subsequently, Liu Li's Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology was approved for the "Technology Winter Olympics" key special "Winter sports and training competition high-performance clothing research and development key technology" project, which opened her in-depth cooperation with the Winter Olympics clothing.

　　What makes Liu Li proud is that this project "basically gathers the top domestic R&D institutions in the field of vision"-the Beifu team as the lead unit, united with 10 units including Donghua University, Shanghai Institute of Sport, Tsinghua University, etc. In tackling key problems, more than 100 scientific research workers worked together, and there are many special talents returning from the United States, Australia, and Italy.

　　In the process of technical research, the scientific research team put forward the design tenet of "fast, care, warm and beautiful".

The main focus of racing events is "fast", focusing on solving the cross-scale collaborative drag reduction mechanism of winter sports racing clothing under the condition of multi-parameter coupling; "protection" refers to the high speed of winter sports, the complex environment, and the greater risk of athletes' injury. During the training and competition, the protective performance of clothing and equipment is required to be high; "warm" is a universal demand for winter events, and "beauty" is to integrate traditional Chinese techniques into clothing to express Chinese culture.

　　Liu Li said that there are sub-categories under the four design goals.

For example, in terms of protection, the alpine skiing training protective clothing adopts a new columnar array type impact-resistant structure and a new type of energy-absorbing cushioning material, which can effectively protect athletes from slashing injuries when they pass through the flag gate; the short-track competition clothing uses cut-resistant fabrics all over, At the same time, consider muscle compression and clothing drag reduction.

　　For the "fast" research, the team prepared high-performance drag-reducing fabrics according to different sports postures and speed characteristics, collected and tested the basic properties of more than 100 kinds of fabrics around the world, and applied them to the design of clothing drag-reduction.

"From the perspective of the project's phased research and development results, in the alpine skiing project, the total resistance of the clothing we designed is 4% lower than that of the advanced clothing purchased internationally." Liu Li said.

　　In addition to technological factors, Liu Li's team pays great attention to the expression of Chinese aesthetics in the Winter Olympics clothing.

"We have a figure skating competition suit that uses Su embroidery technology. At first glance, we thought that the design and color were printed and dyed. Only when we touched it with our hands, we realized that it was embroidered with stitch by stitch." Liu Li said that the embroidering ladies spent about 250 hours. The stitch length is reduced to 1/5 of the normal. After the athlete tries on the ice, it is very dazzling under the light, showing a richer effect than the printing and dyeing process.

　　In the Winter Olympics next year, Chinese ice and snow athletes are expected to wear self-developed uniforms at home.

Jia Ronglin, president of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, said that as an important component of the visual landscape of the Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics clothing needs to demonstrate China's technological and cultural temperament on the international stage.

"We hope that through clothing design, we can help athletes perform better in terms of protection, drag reduction, and growth, while also showing the enthusiasm of the nation and the civilization of the country."

　　When the figure skating music is over or the speed skater sprints across the line, Liu Li always finds a quiet corner to think about "where else can I improve".

"The pursuit of science and technology is endless, and I hope that every Olympic cycle can continue to improve on the basis of the previous period."

　　In Liu Li’s view, the Beijing Winter Olympics is a platform for the theoretical research and development of winter sports apparel in China. The “fortress” clothing developed by the team can achieve excellent thermal insulation performance by improving fiber thermal insulation rate and using active heating technology. Can be transplanted to the civilian field.

"It is the duty given to us by the times to let Chinese people wear high-performance thermal clothing of national brands." (End)