China's short-track speed skating Olympic champion Wu Dajing (center) lends a helping hand at a tree-planting activity in the Beijing Winter Olympic Park 

(Photo/China Daily)

Team China's Beijing 2022 heroes share keys to their success in bid to inspire next generation onto the ice and snow

The Beijing 2022 feel-good buzz just keeps on giving as the nation continues to build on the success of the Winter Games.

On Wednesday, a group of Team China's Winter Olympic medalists shared their stories of perseverance and glory at Beijing's Shougang Big Air venue in a bid to encourage the next generation to embrace winter sports and chase their dreams.

"I have been practicing snowboarding since I was a little kid. After I knew Beijing would host the 2022 Winter Olympics, I made the Olympics my dream, and I wanted to show the best of myself at the Games," said snowboard superstar Su Yiming, who made history at Shougang in February by becoming China's first Olympic gold medalist in men's snowboard Big Air.

"I participated in my first World Cup back in 2019 when I was 15, also at Shougang Big Air," Su added.

"Back then, I told myself my goal is to compete at Beijing 2022 and win honor for my country. For a long time, China's men's snowboarders were not among the world's elite, but, through my hard work, I want to let the world see that Chinese snowboarding is at the world's top level."

The 18-year-old Su is now a household name in China after capturing gold, as well as slopestyle silver, at Beijing 2022.

Already targeting more success at future Olympic Games and World Cup meets, Su hopes his story can inspire his young fans to aim high, too.

"Before the Beijing Winter Games, I had doubts if I could win the competition, but I achieved my dream of winning gold," Su said on Wednesday.

"I only started my professional career about four years ago, and at that time I had a huge gap to bridge to the world's top snowboarders.

"I kept my dream and I fought hard for it. I was so excited when I finally achieved it. So I want to tell the younger kids here today that you need to find the thing you love. And if you find your passion, you need to believe in yourself and give it your best effort."

Other Olympic medalists to participate in Wednesday's activity were short-track speed skating stars Wu Dajing, Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu and Ren Ziwei, who claimed the host's first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics in the inaugural 2,000m mixed team relay.

Teamwork－both on and off the ice－was key to the success, explained Wu.

"Behind us, there are many people," said Wu, who also won 500m gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. "We could not achieve all this without our team, which includes our medical staff, analysts, a technology support team and physical training crew.

"The Beijing Winter Olympics were such a great platform to showcase our skills. Many people worked extremely hard to help us."

Having reaped the rewards of the nation's investment in Team China, Fan is determined to pass on the Winter Olympic spirit to the next generation.

"We were provided with a great environment to allow us to focus solely on competing. Dajing and I will keep training and competing hard, and we hope to pass on this spirit to the younger generation," said Fan.

"Our experience is more about how to walk out of the failures, and there are so many valuable experiences. A key word in the Chinese short-track speed skating team is tradition. Each generation of skaters passes on their stories to the next.

"And right now, our generation has fantastic training and competing conditions thanks to our nation and help from countless people behind us. Athletes are simple people. All we want is to try our best so we can win a medal."

Chinese figure skating pair Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who won their first Olympic gold at the Beijing Games, also spoke at Wednesday's event. Having skated together for 15 years, they believe their disappointments and setbacks were what forged them into world-beaters.

"All these experiences made us more mature and more professional. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, we missed the gold by just 0.43 points and had to settle for silver. But after that, we were even more determined and were willing to work even harder. Through it all, we actually became more mature athletes," said Han.

"There have been so many people who have supported us, which makes us really grateful and happy."

As well as the heroics of Team China's stars, grassroots promotional efforts have also contributed greatly to the growth of winter sports.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the promotion of winter sports leading up to Beijing 2022 resulted in 346 million Chinese taking part in ice and snow activities.

A total of 654 standard ice rinks and 803 ski resorts were operating in China by the start of last year, increases of 317 percent and 41 percent respectively from 2015, when China won the bid to host the Winter Olympics.

"Thanks to the Beijing Winter Olympics, participating in winter sports has become a new trend among our citizens. Each year, about 50 percent of our population participate in winter sports," said Liu Haitao, an official of Beijing's Shijingshan district where Wednesday's activity took place.

"This is a great foundation for the future development of winter sports in our district. Today's activity will promote winter sports among more people, especially the younger generation."

Editor: Fan Wenwu