beijing's figure skating talent enters a blowout era
2024-09-15
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on the evening of september 13, in the women's singles competition of the 2024-2025 isu figure skating junior grand prix in bangkok, thailand, chinese skater wang yihan won the championship with a total score of 194.71. this second-year student from beijing no. 8 middle school made chinese figure skating stand on the highest podium in this level of competition for the first time. with the ice and snow fever brought by the successful hosting of the beijing winter olympics, chinese women's figure skating is gradually coming out of the trough.
figure skating's lows hold a flame of hope
in the first ice and snow season after the beijing winter olympics, china's figure skating performance in major competitions hit a low point - the world championships pair skating ranked 17th, men's singles jin boyang ranked 22nd, and no women's singles participated. but at the same time, the new generation of skaters is growing rapidly, training themselves in youth competitions, and becoming the flame of hope for chinese figure skating.
the 2024-2025 isu junior grand prix of figure skating will have seven stages and one final. each skater/pair can participate in up to two stages and earn points based on their ranking. the top six skaters/combinations in each event will enter the grand prix final.
the 14-year-old wang yihan made a historic breakthrough in the grand prix bangkok station. she won the first place in the women's singles short program competition. in the subsequent free skating, wang yihan performed well again, with the rotation speed and strength reaching the level of the adult competition. all technical movements were completed smoothly and received extra points. in the end, wang yihan won the championship with a total score of 194.71, beating japanese and korean players.
beijing figure skating is booming
wang yihan, nicknamed "liuliu", was born in beijing in 2010. with the successful bid of beijing winter olympics in 2015, the growing popularity of ice and snow has driven wang yihan and countless other young people to the ice rinks. in the initial stage of figure skating, wang yihan kept switching between ice rinks in shijingshan, haidian and chaoyang districts in beijing and grew rapidly.
the successful hosting of the beijing winter olympics has brought the benefits of beijing's proximity to the city's ice and snow sports, especially figure skating, which has made continuous breakthroughs in recent years. at the 2023 national figure skating championships, five beijing athletes, including li ruojian and wang yihan, swept the top five places in women's singles; at the 2024 national figure skating championships, eight of the ten athletes participating in the women's singles adult group were from beijing; at the 14th national winter games, the beijing team emerged as a dark horse, sweeping all eight gold medals in the open and youth groups of figure skating, of which five of the top seven in the open group of women's singles were from beijing, and the top four in the youth group were swept.
at present, beijing figure skating is showing a trend of "the waves behind push the waves ahead". in the women's singles competition of the 2023 national figure skating championships, wang yihan won the championship with a high score of 188.59 points. she, runner-up jin shuxian, and third place gao shiqi are all twelve or thirteen years old, but they defeated a number of famous players including zhu yi and chen hongyi with difficult technical moves. the young players can not only complete difficult moves such as axel double jump, triple hook jump and triple jump and double jump, but also get higher technical grades in rotation and footwork. these talented girls have become the hope for the rise of chinese women's figure skating.
the progress of beijing figure skating is closely related to beijing's successful hosting of the summer and winter olympics. in the past, relatively unpopular ice and snow sports have received unprecedented development opportunities. in terms of hardware, the number of ice rinks in beijing has increased more than tenfold, and there are nearly 100 figure skating clubs. high-level athletes and even foreign masters have come to beijing to serve as figure skating coaches, attracting many talented children to the ice rinks.
with the growth of the number of figure skaters, the talent selection of beijing figure skating has been qualitatively improved. the national figure skating club league has been in full swing in recent years, and beijing figure skating has formed a complete competition and selection system. the top 40 skaters enter the championship hosted by the beijing sports bureau, and the top 20 of the championship enter the city championship.
this year, more than 800 people registered for the 14th winter games figure skating qualification competition, of which beijing accounts for one-third, and most of them are from social clubs. li xiaoming, director of the beijing winter sports center, said: "after all, the number of professional athletes trained by the government alone is limited. we must give full play to the power of social clubs to discover, train and reserve talents for professional teams."
the era of figure skating rookies has just arrived
wang yihan is currently studying at beijing no. 8 middle school. she has steadily improved her strength since joining the club. she is an athlete of the beijing figure skating team and was selected for the chinese national figure skating team in 2023. in july 2024, wang yihan was awarded the title of national athlete.
shen xue, president of the chinese figure skating association, said that the overall strength of domestic young women's singles has improved by leaps and bounds compared with previous years. "it's not just one or two kids. now you can see a whole echelon. in one age group, there are several very good skaters. some can be rated as level four, and every difficult move can reach the international level."
under the arrangement of the chinese figure skating association, outstanding skaters from the club began to compete in international competitions. for example, li ruojian and tong ruichen participated in the isu figure skating youth grand prix in thailand and japan last year, and gao shiqi won the 7th place in the women's singles at the 2024 gangwon province winter youth olympic games.
these 13- and 14-year-old young masters have made chinese figure skaters aware of the crisis. an xiangyi said, "maybe a few years ago, i could get the top three in the junior competition with two triple jumps and one double axel, but now all five triple jumps are standard for kids." in early september this year, in the 2024 asian open figure skating adult women's singles held in hong kong, an xiangyi successfully defended her title with a total score of 187.45, qualifying chinese women's singles for the world championships. previously, chinese women's singles had missed three consecutive world championships.
the era of chinese figure skating rookies has just arrived. next, wuxi will host the last leg of the isu figure skating junior grand prix. according to the chinese team's entry list, tian tonghe, zhao qihan and others will participate in the men's singles competition, jin shuxian, wang yihan and others will participate in the women's singles competition, and ding xinai/zheng hanchong, yin shanjie/yang shirui, yu xinyi/liu tianyi will participate in the ice dance competition.
