OlymPicks: China Vows to Become a Winter Sports Leader by 2022
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OlymPicks is an ongoing blog series wherein we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
Skiing? Scandinavia. Hockey? Canada and Russia. Snowboarding? America. Those are likely to be the locales that spring to mind, rather than China, when you start mulling over winter sports havens. But is that all about to change?
China's General Administration of Sport Gou Zhongwen certainly seems to think so. At the "two sessions" plenary in Beijing this week he pledged that China will participate in all the 109 disciplines in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, a record high for any nation, and especially one that isn't exactly famous for its winter sports successes.
It’s not only a matter of perception – China has a lot of ground to cover if it wants to live up to Gou’s proclamation. As one state media points out: “China had no presence in one-third of Winter Games disciplines by the time the country won the bid to host the 2022 Games, while one third had been competitive and one third had far lagged behind the leading countries.”
Then there's the matter of hardware. During the last Winter Games in Pyeongchang, China won nine medals in total, only one of them being gold. That's a downturn from China's Vancouver Winter Olympics performance in 2010, which included a total of five golds, a pair of silvers and four bronze medals.
Curling is one of the many sports that Chinese officials are hoping to promote before and after the games
Big dreams, or big delusions?
Nevertheless, there are plenty of promising measures in place that give Gou’s bold claims weight. Chief among them: China's huge uptick in cooperation with more established winter sports countries like Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland. A sizeable 80 foreign coaches have been recruited to work with China’s rising athletes.
Many of those athletes share Gou’s optimism and ambition, especially short track speed skating Olympic champion Wu Dajing. Set to be among the most watched athletes at the 2022 Games thanks to his star-making turn in Pyeongchang, Wu told reporters this week: "My dream is to win golds at home." More specifically, Wu wants to "make breakthroughs not only in the 500 meters, but also in the 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters relay, and 2,000 meters mixed relay."
Wu and Gou’s comments come on the heels of official announcements about Olympic infrastructure. On Mar 7, organizers pledged to kick off all reconstruction projects of the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2019. And on a lighter note, they also promised that the Games official mascot would be announced later this year. It remains to be seen, however, how that mascot will live up to the famed Fuwa creatures selected for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Photos: insidethegames.biz, news.cn (via china.org.cn)
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