(Fourteenth Winter) The "Fourteenth Winter" is about to begin. What are the highlights of China's largest ice and snow event?
China News Service, Hulunbuir, February 16th: Question: The "14th Winter" is about to begin. What are the highlights of China's largest ice and snow event?
China News Service reporter Xing Rui and Xing Chong
On the 17th, the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, the 14th National Winter Games (referred to as the "14th Winter") will open in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A series of China's top ice and snow competitions will be staged one after another. As the first major national winter sports event held in China after the Beijing Winter Olympics, the "14th Winter" is full of attractions.
The largest scale in the history of winter sports
The Winter Games is China's largest comprehensive winter sports event, and the upcoming "14th Winter" is the largest in the history of the Winter Games, with the most events and the highest standards, with more than 3,700 athletes expected to participate. In addition to traditional strong ice and snow teams such as Heilongjiang and Jilin, athletes from Sichuan, Guizhou, Hong Kong, Macau and other places that have recently started ice and snow sports will also appear in the "14th Winter" competition. This is also the first time in the history of the National Winter Games that provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities Participate for the unit.
Comprehensively benchmarking against the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, the "Fourteen Winters" has a total of 8 major events, 16 sub-events, and 176 minor events. Skiing and mountaineering, a new event in the Milan Winter Olympics, will also make its debut at the Winter Games. In addition to the four competition areas in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, bobsleigh, Nordic combined and other events are held in Yanqing, Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Hebei and other Winter Olympic competition venues. Event organization and other aspects are carried out in accordance with the standards of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In order to ensure the talent reserve and selection for the Milan Winter Olympics, special youth group competitions have been set up for short track speed skating, speed skating, curling, ice hockey and other projects.
The "Fourteenth Winter" officially opened on the 17th, but in fact, the competition has been held in advance since July 13 last year. Among the many events that have been completed, the southern team brought surprises. The Guangdong team won the women's ice hockey open group competition with a six-game victory record, winning the first Winter Games championship trophy in Guangdong history; the "Fourteenth Winter" also marked the first time A mass competition was set up, and the Sichuan team, which formed an independent team for the first time, won the third place in the mixed team speed skating 2000 meters. Some commentators say that the "14th Winter" will be a demonstration of the achievements of the in-depth advancement of China's ice and snow sports strategy of "expanding south, expanding west, and advancing east", and will be the "National Winter Games" in the true sense.
Winter Olympic champions and other famous players gathered
The Chinese team won 9 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 2 bronze medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics, bringing the level of China's ice and snow competition to a new level. The Winter Games are the highest-level ice and snow competition in China. Winter Olympic champions and other famous ice and snow athletes will appear on the field again after the Beijing Winter Olympics to conduct "big training" before the Milan Winter Olympics.
In the "14th Winter" snow competition, Su Yiming represented the Shanxi team and has qualified for the three individual finals of snowboarding U-shaped field, big platform, and slope obstacle skills. Compared with winning gold and silver in the big platform and slope obstacle skills at the Winter Olympics, the U-shaped track is a new event that Su Yiming only started practicing last spring. It may become another gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics. ’s Winter Games debut is worthy of attention.
After winning the gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao made a comeback again. She started restorative training in March last year and has qualified for the "14th Winter" freestyle skiing aerials individual and team events. At the last Winter Games, Xu Mengtao fell down in the final and missed the medal. In the "Fourteenth Winter", this Winter Games veteran is determined to make up for the regrets of the previous year and will also lead the Liaoning team to achieve the best results in the history of the delegation's Winter Games.
The "14th Winter" ice competition is even more crowded with experts. Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei, the Liu brothers, Lin Xiaojuan, Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu and many other short track speed skating Winter Olympic champions will all appear on the ice. Han Tianyu, a famous player who has been out of the competition for a long time, will also appear. Playing on behalf of the Jilin team, his teammate Wu Dajing is also a coach of the Jilin team. This time he will appear in the "Fourteenth Winter" in a dual capacity.
"Chinese red" and "ice and snow white" meet again
The Beijing Winter Olympics two years ago coincided with the Lunar New Year, leaving the world with a unique Winter Olympics with a unique Chinese New Year flavor. According to Chinese custom, "the first month is all about the New Year." The "Fourteenth Winter" event will once again "join hands" with the flavor of the New Year, and prosperity and ice and snow will also be reunited.
In the ancient city of Hulunbuir, 31 ice sculptures covering ice and snow sports, regional culture and New Year elements glow under the lights. The Chinese knots that embody the elements of the "Fourteenth Winter", the colorful lantern walls and string lights hanging on the trees, the bright red Spring Festival couplets, the characters "Fu", etc., give the "Fourteenth Winter" a different charm.
In addition to watching the competition, tourists from afar can also experience the Hulunbuir ice and snow culture and folk customs in depth. Explore the endless forests and snowfields, and get up close and personal with the reindeer with bells on their necks; "splash water to make ice" in the severe cold, experience intangible cultural heritage such as birch bark making; feast on the steaming hot pot in the snow...ice, snow, sports , tourism, folk customs and food are diversified and integrated.
With ice and snow as the matchmaker, the flavor of the new year hits your face, and the "heat" of the stadium collides with the "cold" of ice and snow. This Spring Festival feast in northern China is not to be missed. (over)