China News Agency Qitaihe, January 22, telegram: Visiting the "Hometown of Chinese Winter Olympic Champions": "Championship" culture is deeply rooted inside and outside the stadium
China News Agency reporter Jiang Hui
Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Sun Linlin, Fan Kexin, Zhang Jie and other names that shined in the Winter Olympics and the world arena all come from the same place - Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province.
From 1991 to the present, this small town with a population of less than one million has produced 3 Winter Olympic champions, 3 Special Olympics champions, 7 world champions, and won 6 Winter Olympics gold medals and 7 Special Olympics gold medals. , 176 world-class gold medals, breaking the world record 16 times.
With the approaching of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics, recently, reporters came to this city, which has the reputation of "Hometown of Chinese Winter Olympic Champions", to explore the Winter Olympic genes and champion culture here.
Data map: On January 18, in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang, Zhang Jie (front right) taught "Special Olympics baby" skating skills.
Zhang Jie is a short track speed skating world champion, and also the initiator and public welfare coach of the Special Olympics short track speed skating team of Qitaihe Special Education School.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jiang Hui
"These are old and unusable skates used by the team members. The blades have been ground flat. We have tens of thousands of skates like this..." China Qitaihe Short School located on the bank of Taoshan Lake in Qitaihe City In the track speed skating championship hall, the instructor Guan Houyan pointed to a "skate wall" to tell the development history of Qitaihe short track speed skating.
As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics approach, more and more people come to visit, and her work is getting busier.
"Meng Qingyu is the pioneer of the Qitaihe short track speed skating event. He waters the ice rink outside at 3 am every day in the winter of minus 40 degrees Celsius. Without his hard work, there would be no championship medal in Qitaihe."
Guan Houyan said.
The championship hall with a total height of 8 floors has deeply excavated the history of Qitaihe's skating career for more than 40 years through physical objects, sculptures, pictures, etc., and systematically summarized the championship spirit of Qitaihe.
In the Qitaihe Sports Training Center, a few kilometers away from the Champion Hall, the "Special Olympics babies" who were warming up saw Zhang Jie coming, and they ran over to hug the "coach mom" and act like a spoiled child.
Zhang Jie is the first person to win the world championship of short track speed skating in Qitaihe City. After retiring due to injury, he went abroad to study sports rehabilitation.
In 2014, Zhang Jie returned to China to become the initiator and public welfare coach of the Special Olympics Short Track Speed Skating Team of Qitaihe Special Education School.
"I hope to use my years of skating and rehabilitation experience to make these disabled children have fun in sports, get rehabilitation in all aspects, and be as close as possible to able-bodied people."
Zhang Jie's eyes turned red when he mentioned the moments with the "Special Olympics". At first, the children couldn't understand her instructions. It took three months to learn even the simple action of tying skates and shoelaces.
Faced with many difficulties, Zhang Jie used love to bridge the gaps.
"Da Baozi", "Little Apple"... Zhang Jie has nicknamed the children in the team, summed up more than 1,000 training diaries with pictures and texts, and innovated a variety of training methods.
In the past 7 years, the "Special Olympics babies" have won 4 gold medals and 2 silver medals in the 11th World Winter Special Olympics, and won 3 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze in the 15th Summer Special Olympics.
For more than 40 years, Qitaihe champions have emerged one after another and have been prosperous. An important reason is that there are a group of coaches like Zhang Jie who are willing to be ladders, which is also an important manifestation of the Qitaihe champion culture.
In an outdoor "wild ice rink" in Qitaihe City, 66-year-old Fan Lu and a group of old skating-loving buddies put on their skates and went to the ice rink to teach their 6-year-old grandson how to skate.
"The air of our city is filled with the smell of ice. Winter Olympic champions who go home for vacation are often seen in the ice rink. Here, skating is the most popular way to exercise."
Fan Luhe hopes that his little grandson can also become an Olympic champion in the future and win glory for China.
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