Facing difficulties and leaping to a higher stage (Looking forward to the new cycle of the Olympic Games)
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In the 2022 season, the Chinese gymnastics team has gained a lot in international competitions. After testing the training results, they also found shortcomings in time.
Right now is winter training, the Chinese gymnastics team aims to develop difficulty, improve arrangement, and strengthen physical fitness, pay close attention to basic skills, and return to technical essentials.
In the 2023 season, the Chinese gymnastics team will play steadily and actively prepare for the 2024 Olympics.
In the just-concluded 2022 season, the Chinese gymnastics team has reaped a lot.
In the Doha Gymnastics Asian Championships, the Chinese gymnastics team won 8 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes; in the Liverpool World Gymnastics Championships, they achieved 3 golds and 2 silvers. The men's team won the gold medal in the team event and qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Right now, the Chinese gymnastics team is focusing on winter training to lay a solid foundation.
In the 2023 season, the Chinese gymnastics team will play steadily and actively prepare for the 2024 Olympics.
Adapt to change and be prepared
After entering the new Olympic cycle, the International Sports Federation adjusted the competition system, and the "4+2" competition system at the Tokyo Olympics was transferred back to the previously used "543, 533" competition system.
That is to say, in the preliminaries, each team has 5 people registered, 4 people will play in each individual event, and the 3 best results will be counted as effective points; in the final 5 formal players, 3 people will play in each event, and the 3 results will be counted as effective points.
Changes in the rules put forward higher requirements for the lineup of coaches, and the overall competitiveness of the team must be improved through the best match.
In addition, the adjustment of the new Olympic cycle in terms of equipment height, competition duration, and scoring standards has also brought new tests to athletes.
In order to adapt to the rule changes as soon as possible, the Chinese gymnastics team actively researches and learns new rules, and conducts targeted training according to the characteristics and potential of athletes.
The Asian Gymnastics Championship last June was the first international competition that the Chinese team participated in under the new rules of the new Olympic cycle. The Chinese gymnastics team won 8 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes, which tested the team's understanding and application of the new rules. Participate in the World Championships to lay the foundation.
At the Liverpool World Gymnastics Championships, the Chinese gymnastics team won 3 golds and 2 silvers.
Among them, the Chinese men's team composed of Zhang Boheng, Zou Jingyuan, You Hao, Sun Wei and Yang Jiaxing ranked fourth in the qualifying round, won the championship by 4.463 points ahead of the Japanese team in the final, and won the 2024 Olympic Games qualifications for the competition.
Compared with the performance of the men's team, the women's team did not perform well in the World Championships.
In the women's team event competition, the Chinese women's team players made mistakes in the dominant event of the balance beam, and there were also gaps with their opponents in the weaker events of vault and floor exercise, and finally ranked sixth in the team.
"Through this competition, we found that the team still has deficiencies in movement arrangement and psychological resistance, which puts forward higher requirements for our next training and preparation." Ye Zhennan, deputy director of the Gymnastics Management Center of the State Sports General Administration, said, "We must adhere to the training requirements of 'high difficulty, high quality, and high stability', and pay attention to every detail." In 2023, the World Championships will be held, which will produce the remaining 9 entries for the men's and women's team events in the 2024 Olympic Games Seats, the Chinese gymnastics team will go all out.
Build a platform and carefully select materials
The adjustment of the new rules not only puts forward requirements for team training, but also tests the talent reserve.
Ye Zhennan said: "In the face of the new rules, we must not only ensure the versatility of the contestants, but also give full play to the advantages of the players in single events, and strive to achieve the best configuration."
In order to enrich the reserves of reserve talents and strengthen the echelon construction of the national team, the Gymnastics Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China used various methods to build a platform to select players last year.
At the beginning of 2022, women's gymnastics training for the 2024 Olympic Games was held in Yunnan. A number of tests including basic physical fitness, special physical fitness, basic skills, and psychological conditions were conducted to investigate and select talents.
In the 2022 National Youth Gymnastics Championships and National Youth Gymnastics U Series Championships, in view of the relatively weak vaulting event of Chinese women's gymnastics, the event organizing committee adjusted the competition rules, requiring all players to complete two jumps in this event, and the results of the competition will be brought into the group, all-round Ranking, and all players are required to participate in the all-around competition.
Feng Yujuan, deputy director of the Gymnastics Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, said: "The National Youth Gymnastics Championship plays a connecting role in the national gymnastics competition system. Female gymnasts aged 14 or 15 are the right age athletes for the 2024 Olympics."
The National Gymnastics Team Championships held in August last year also made great efforts to reserve talents.
In the men's and women's team finals, each team needs to arrange 5 athletes from the adult group and 2 athletes from the youth group to participate. The team score will be the highest score of 3 athletes in the adult group and 2 athletes in the youth group.
Individual teams and mixed teams also require 2 young athletes and 2 young athletes for men and 2 for women.
The "big and small" competition system allows young athletes to gain experience and find a direction to work hard in the process of competing with adult players.
Accumulate strength and meet the competition
On January 13, Shoucheng Watanabe, chairman of the International Gymnastics Federation, came to the Gymnastics Gym of the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sport of China to visit the athletes of the Chinese gymnastics team who are undergoing winter training.
Shoucheng Watanabe said that the Chinese gymnastics team is a champion team and hopes that the Chinese team will train harder and achieve good results in the 2024 Olympic Games.
According to Ye Zhennan, during the winter training period, the Chinese gymnastics team aimed to develop difficulty, improve choreography, and strengthen physical fitness, pay close attention to basic skills, return to technical essentials, and pay attention to the specifications and quality of movements.
Zou Jingyuan, who is improving his technical moves, recently gained his own named moves.
Confirmed by the International Gymnastics Federation, in the preliminaries of the 2022 Liverpool World Gymnastics Championships, Zou Jingyuan's new movement of "slowly falling from the inverted cross, then hanging upside down, slowly flipping up to the acute angle cross" completed in the ring event was officially approved, named "ZOU (Zou)".
Zou Jingyuan said: "I hope to further improve myself through winter training and strive for good results in the Hangzhou Asian Games."
At the World Championships, Zhang Boheng won the silver medal in the final of the individual all-around event with a difference of 0.433 points. Regarding the problems in the competition, he said that he would use winter training to make up for the shortcomings.
Wei Xiaoyuan, who won the gold medal in the uneven bars event at the World Championships, adjusted her training plan. She said that she will resume her competitive state through winter training, enhance her physical fitness and improve her ability.
2023 will continue to be a busy year.
Ye Zhennan said that the Antwerp World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games to be held in 2023 are the focus of the team's preparations. The time of the two events almost overlaps, which brings no small test to the team.
In addition, the Chinese gymnastics team plans to participate in some sub-stations of the International Sports Federation World Cup. Gymnastics World Youth Championships, Asian Gymnastics Championships, Chengdu Universiade and other events will also test the training results and accumulate experience for the team.
Our reporter Tao Xiangan