(Beijing Winter Olympics) Beyond the Winter Olympics, China's Ice Hockey Dilemma and Hope
China News Service, Beijing, February 16 (Wang Hao) On the evening of the 15th, as the final whistle sounded, in the men's ice hockey qualifying match for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese team lost 2:7 to the Canadian team, ending the team. The first Winter Olympics tour in history.
A few days ago, the Chinese women's ice hockey team stopped in the group stage.
The Winter Olympics between the two teams has aroused heated discussions, and the development of Chinese ice hockey outside the arena is also worthy of attention.
On February 12, the men's ice hockey group match of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was held at the Beijing National Stadium.
The Chinese team (white) lost 2:3 to the German team.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Cui Nan
This is the first time that China has fully participated in the Winter Olympics ice hockey competition. Previously, the women's team has participated in the Winter Olympics three times, with the best result being the fourth place in the Nagano Winter Olympics, while the men's team has never participated in the Winter Olympics. meeting.
Shuangshuang failed to advance to the top 8, which is not an unacceptable result.
From an objective point of view, the women's team has a chance to advance to the top 8, but due to the relatively young players and lack of competition experience, they eventually fell short at critical moments.
There is a certain strength gap between the men's team and other opponents. Although this gap was expected to be smaller before the game, it still cannot be ignored.
Coupled with the lack of experience in the competition, it is not surprising that he failed to enter the top 8 in the end.
In fact, aside from the accidental factors of the game, behind the performance of the two Chinese ice hockey teams in the Winter Olympics is the current predicament of Chinese ice hockey, that is, the weak mass base and the lack of a mature and stable league system.
On February 10, the Chinese team played against the United States in the men's ice hockey group match of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the National Stadium.
The picture shows the Chinese team players and the US team players fighting in the game.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Mao Jianjun
Compared with ice hockey powerhouses, China's ice hockey started relatively late. Before Beijing successfully bid for the Winter Olympics, the sport fell into a slump for a long time, and the mass base was relatively weak, which also directly led to very little room for selection of materials.
For example, in the 2016 Winter Games, a total of 5 teams participated in the women's ice hockey competition, and 2 of them were almost amateur teams.
According to media reports, Li Xuan, the leader of the Harbin women's ice hockey team at that time, introduced that the number of registered women's ice hockey in China was only about 200.
From the perspective of the whole process of the Winter Olympics, the performance of the Chinese men's and women's teams has improved in several games, but at every critical moment, the shortcomings of lack of competition experience will be exposed.
If they can participate in high-level leagues all year round, the level is likely to be further improved.
According to Ying Rudi, a member of the Chinese men's team, the lack of a stable top league has a great impact on the development of ice hockey.
"I believe that there are many talented children who may slowly give up the sport because they have no career path."
Of course, the plight of Chinese ice hockey has improved somewhat in recent years.
Since the moment Beijing successfully bid for the Winter Olympics, the sport has ushered in an opportunity for development.
Taking Beijing as an example, in the 2021-2022 season, the number of women ice hockey players registered with the Beijing Ice Hockey Association has reached 401, from 26 clubs.
From the small to the big, it is obvious that more and more people are starting to play ice hockey.
With the advancement of the "Rolling Ice" project, ice and snow sports gradually entered the campus in the south.
Among them, many schools have set up sports courses of "wheel + ice", and children in the south can also get in touch with ice hockey.
Most of these children will not be professionally engaged in ice hockey in the future, but with a larger and larger mass base, the selection of project materials will become more and more calm.
On February 6, the Chinese team players celebrated their victory.
On the same day, the Chinese team defeated the Japanese team 2-1 in the women's ice hockey group match of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics held at the Wukesong Sports Center.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Mao Jianjun
In February this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation established national standards for 11 sports, including alpine skiing, ice hockey, and curling.
Generally speaking, this is to ensure that the development of the ice and snow industry, including ice hockey, will not go astray in the future, and to escort it from a policy level.
Although it is impossible to say where China's ice hockey will go in the future, from the perspective of competition, mass base and policy, at least it is currently on the right path. Of course, this road may be very long, very long.
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