Why does this small northeastern city have 10 short track speed skating champions?

On February 5, Chinese short track speed skating mixed relay team members Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu, Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei got off to a good start in the Beijing Winter Olympics, bringing the first gold medal for the Chinese team and exciting countless Chinese people.

The dream of the Winter Olympics came true. For Fan Kexin from Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province, this moment has been waited for too long...

Fan Kexin

The unbeatable girl from Qitaihe

Before practicing short track speed skating, Fan Kexin studied in a dance class for a week.

At that time, Xiao Kexin had just started primary school. Because the family lost money in business, they came to Qitaihe City to live with relatives. His father made a living by repairing shoes. Because the dance class was expensive, Xiao Kexin was sensible and refused to go.

A neighbor recommended Kexin to go to the stadium, where she happened to see short track speed skating coach Ma Qingzhong training with his team. Coach Ma took a fancy to Kexin, who had good physical condition, and promised her, "If you train hard, I won't charge you!"

Hard training has been deeply engraved in Xiao Kexin's heart ever since. He gets up at 4 a.m. to train, eats breakfast and goes to school, trains from 3 to 5 p.m., and goes home to eat. After a tiring day, Xiao Kexin falls asleep. Year after year, he persists in this way.

"He doesn't need me to wake him up. He is very self-conscious. Some kids leave at 5 o'clock or even go off the ice early, but Ke Xin says, 'Mom, I want to skate a few more laps, 3, 5, 10 laps... I just want to practice a little longer.'" His mother Nie Guiling recalled the scenes of Ke Xin's training as a child as if it were yesterday, as well as those times that made her feel distressed.

"One night, when I was changing Ke Xin's underwear, I found that her arms and legs were bruised and purple, her feet had several abrasions and scabs, and some places had already festered." Nie Guiling said, "Girl, let's not practice anymore. It's too painful!" "No! No! I want to practice!" Ke Xin shouted as she got into bed and didn't want her mother to see her.

In the spring of 2003, coach Meng Qingyu returned to Qitaihe to select players and brought Kexin to the Harbin Ice Training Base. Kexin trained even harder, and the following year, she won the first place in the 500m, 1000m, and technical skating events at the National Primary School Short Track Speed ​​Skating Competition.

Ke Xin slowly understood that if he became good at skating, he could join an ice and snow school, then the provincial team and the national team, and could represent the country in world competitions. Winning a gold medal would not only bring glory to the country, but would also give him bonuses to improve his family's living conditions.

However, due to long-term malnutrition and excessive training, Kexin suffered from severe adolescent iron deficiency anemia. This made her feel dizzy and weak all over, and she couldn't even climb the stairs. The doctor repeatedly told her not to train anymore.

The body fell down, but Fan Kexin gritted her teeth and returned to the training ground. "I must keep skating. I have been skating for so many years and I can't give up halfway. The notice of joining the national youth team has been sent to the coach. I will definitely be able to join the national team in the future, and I will win a gold medal..." At this moment, the new mother cried and couldn't speak.

With the help of his first coach Ma Qingzhong, Ke Xin overcame his anemia after more than a year of recuperation, returned to the provincial team for training, and was selected for the national youth team in 2009.

The hardship of her family and her physical illness did not defeat this Qitaihe girl. Her spirit of endurance and perseverance inspired many people. Sun Ling and her colleagues in Qitaihe City voluntarily sponsored Fan Kexin, hoping that she could persist in this sport.

In 2010, Fan Kexin, who had just turned 17, was officially called into the national team.

In the same year, Fan Kexin participated in the Short Track Speed ​​Skating World Cup in Montreal, Canada. She and her teammates Zhou Yang, Liu Qiuhong and Zhang Hui won the gold medal in the women's 3000m relay and became world champions. Since then, she has continued to achieve remarkable results.

In 2011, at the World Short Track Speed ​​Skating Championships in Sheffield, England, Fan Kexin won the women's 500m gold medal with a time of 44.620 seconds, and cooperated with her teammates to win the gold medal in the women's 3000m relay, becoming famous overnight.

In 2014, Fan Kexin won the silver medal in the women's 1000m at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the gold medal in the 500m at the 2014 World Cup in Salt Lake City, and also broke the world record held by Wang Meng with 42.504 seconds.

In February 2015, Fan Kexin won the women's 500m championship at the Short Track Speed ​​Skating World Cup in Turkey.

In the 2014-2015 season, Fan Kexin won the World Cup women's 500m championship.

On March 12, 2016, Fan Kexin won the championship in the women's 500m final of the Short Track Speed ​​Skating World Championships.

On March 12, 2017, in the women's 500m final of the World Championships, Fan Kexin overcame the disadvantage of starting from the outermost lane, overtook in the latter part of the race and won the gold medal for the Chinese team with a time of 43.605 seconds. While achieving the "three consecutive championships", she also increased the total number of her personal World Championships 500m championships to 5.

"This child is not proud at all. He is humble, filial, thoughtful and low-key." Sun Ling said that Fan Kexin has not changed in their eyes over the years, and Kexin is their pride!

Qitaihe

The city with the highest density of Winter Olympic champions

In the national short track speed skating team, like Fan Kexin, there are 10 other short track speed skating Winter Olympic champions and world champions, including Zhang Jie, Yang Yang, Wang Meng, and Sun Linlin.

Data shows that athletes from Qitaihe have broken world records 16 times at different times, won 177 gold medals in world-class competitions, and 536 gold medals in various domestic ice and snow competitions. As of February 11, 7 of China's 16 Winter Olympic gold medals came from athletes trained in Qitaihe.

Qitaihe is undoubtedly the city with the highest density of Chinese Winter Olympic champions. This title cannot be separated from a name: Meng Qingyu.

"If there is a reason for the success of Qitaihe short track speed skating, it is the spirit of never giving up, and this spirit comes from a man named Meng Qingyu," said Zhao Xiaobing, coach of Qitaihe Children's Short Track Speed ​​Skating Amateur Sports School.

When Meng Qingyu became a short track speed skating coach, Qitaihe did not have a decent ice rink yet. Meng Qingyu led his students to use homemade large iron buckets to pour ice on a sled, and even rented a house in Harbin to "borrow ice for training." It was not until the Qitaihe Short Track Speed ​​Skating Hall was built in 2013 that training conditions improved significantly.

More importantly, in 1987, Meng Qingyu changed Qitaihe's key project from speed skating to short track speed skating, focusing on women's events. At that time, short track speed skating had just emerged internationally and had not yet been included in the Olympic Games. Qitaihe had already shifted its focus to short track speed skating, laying the foundation.

Short track speed skating stars such as Zhang Jie, Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Sun Linlin and Fan Kexin are all students of Meng Qingyu.

When talking about the practice back then, Zhang Jie immediately said one word: "bitter". At that time, Meng Qingyu hung an iodine tungsten lamp on a 6-meter-high wooden pole to illuminate the ice rink. The children practiced on the outdoor ice rink and lived in the sloping roof house under the stadium stands at night. There was no electric light, so they could only go to the toilet in the dark at night. Once, Zhang Jie hit his forehead on the pillar and got a big purple bump.

Speaking of that experience, Zhang Jie burst into laughter. She said that it was their most precious wealth, and that only after going through hardships that ordinary people had never experienced could they experience the joy of harvest.

Unfortunately, in 2006, Meng Qingyu died in a car accident on his way to Harbin to send his disciples for training. When he died, there was still a stopwatch hanging around his neck...

After his death, a group of outstanding coaches and athletes selected and trained by him took over his stopwatch and continued the skating career in Qitaihe.

Zhang Jie is now the head coach of the short track speed skating training center of Qitaihe Vocational College. Her team includes not only young athletes from Qitaihe, but also athletes from other provinces such as Guizhou, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia.

"We have skating skills training from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day," said Zhang Jie. "Only by practicing skating skills day after day and working hard can we truly cultivate high-level skating talents."

In 2014, Qitaihe began to explore the talent training model of "combining sports and education" and established a short track speed skating specialty school to train basic short track speed skating talents on campus. Under this model, Qitaihe has formed a mechanism for training, delivering and selecting short track speed skating talents from school to professional teams, from amateur to professional.

As of now, Qitaihe City has a total of 11 short track speed skating specialty schools, has established 15 short track speed skating training teams, has more than 20 full-time coaches, and has more than 430 athletes in training. It is the city with the most abundant reserve of reserve talents in short track speed skating in China.

It is worth mentioning that learning to skate in Qitaihe is free. Apart from purchasing the necessary equipment at your own expense, you don’t need to spend a penny on the ice rink or coach training.

Local schools have widely carried out speed skating classes, and ice training is conducted at indoor and outdoor ice rinks every week. It is reported that the local government also regularly provides helmets, clothing and other equipment and skates to short track speed skating specialty schools according to the situation.

Every school in Qitaihe has an ice rink. Since 2014, the local government has required every school to have an ice rink and provided financial support, with an additional subsidy of 30,000 yuan for each ice rink.

At the same time, in order to stimulate more children's enthusiasm for ice skating, Qitaihe City has included ice skating, a winter sport, in the high school entrance examination.

The small city of Qitaihe has been awarded the title of "National Key High-level Sports Reserve Talent Base". In the local short track speed skating championship hall, there is a shocking wall with more than 1,000 pairs of skates worn by athletes hanging on it.

The curator said that this is only a small portion of the ones that have been worn out. Over the years, at least 100,000 pairs have been worn out.

Every year when the school starts, local students are organized to visit the park. Yang Jingru, a member of the Qitaihe short track speed skating youth team, said: "My idol is my hometown girl Wang Meng. I want to be like her and win an Olympic championship!" Winning an Olympic championship is the common dream of many Qitaihe athletes since childhood.

"Now if you go to Woken River (Qitaihe's 'mother river'), you will know why Qitaihe has produced champions. The river is full of skaters." Some netizens said on social media that this is also what Qitaihe looks like today.

Qitaihe has many open-air ice rinks open to the public for free. Each rink is built and maintained by skating enthusiasts themselves and is open to the public for free. Children as young as four or five years old and seniors in their sixties and seventies can all ride on the ice and snow and enjoy the joy brought by ice and snow sports.

Source: Communist Youth League Central Committee

Editor: Jia Wencheng

Proofreading by Ge Qi

Proofread by Hou Shubing

On-duty editor: Zhang Yu