China's sliders elevate expectations

Nation eyeing fresh breakthroughs at Milano-Cortina 2026 as new agreement boosts preparations at Beijing training base

Building on the success of Beijing 2022, China's winter sports governing body is ramping up the development of sliding sports by making home-track advantage count.

With memories of the fast and furious bobsled, skeleton and luge races at the Beijing Winter Games still fresh, China's sliding sports national program has kicked off a new Olympic cycle with higher goals in sight thanks to a new deal that enhances the support structures and facilities at the National Sliding Center in northwest Beijing's Yanqing district.

The 1.9-kilometer Olympic-standard track at the center, the first of its kind in China, serves as a base camp for national teams. As well as virtually unlimited training runs, national team athletes can now also avail of equipment tests, fitness programs, technical analysis and accommodation on site, thanks to the new cooperation agreement between the National Winter Sports Administrative Center and Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau.

Having such first-rate facilities available is helping China step up a gear in its quest to catch up with the world's best sliding nations, according to Yan Wengang, bronze medalist in the men's skeleton at Beijing 2022.

"Our sport is all about repetition and accumulation of experience running down a track as many times as possible to push for perfection at every possible curve," said Yan, who became the first ever Chinese to win an Olympic skeleton medal on Feb 11.

"It's like learning to drive. The more hours you spend in the driver's seat, the better you steer.

"Now we have a huge advantage by doing it on our own track at home for as many times as we need during the season. This is going to be a game-changer for our improvement."

According to the new agreement announced on Wednesday, Beijing's sports bureau together with the track's property owner and operators will also bid for more elite international races to be held in Yanqing and host training weeks for foreign teams — as long as the pandemic situation eases.

Even with no international events scheduled yet for this winter, the center is hosting national teams as they prepare for the 2022-23 World Cup series, which will get underway next month. Chinese racers will also be able to use the center for their summer training programs.

As per plans devised before Beijing 2022, the venue cluster, which includes the National Alpine Ski Center above the sliding track, has been turned into a popular sightseeing and tourism destination. During the National Day holiday earlier this month, visitors flocked to the area to enjoy the picturesque landscape, breathtaking gondola ride along the mountain ridges and the unique Olympic flavor of the winter sports venues.

Even without snow, the Alpine skiing center offers stunning views from the start gate where the world's best skiers launched their high-speed glory bids during February's Winter Games.

A "roof walk" experience along the sliding track has also thrilled visitors with its zigzagging architecture that reminds of a mythical Chinese dragon.

"The post-Olympic use of the Beijing 2022 venues, such as the sliding track, plays a critical role in maintaining the public's enthusiasm for winter sports and will boost our athletes' attempts to reach new heights at the 2026 Winter Games," said Ni Huizhong, director of the winter sports administrative center.

Going for gold

With the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation's new World Cup season beginning next month, Chinese athletes are busy getting back into competition shape and testing domestically manufactured racing gear.

The plan is to compete in all eight Cup legs across both bobsled and skeleton.

A solid preseason training program in the "Ice Hut" at the Yanqing track, where they practiced their push-start repeatedly, has yielded encouraging results recently, according to Yan.

"In the past, we had to travel overseas early before the season to practice the starting technique, which is so important in skeleton, but now we have the facility here where we can perform hundreds of repetitions a month, even in the summer," he said.

The "Ice Hut" is an indoor gym equipped with a refrigeration system and the starting section of a frozen track, where riders practice their running starts and leaps onto the sled.

"Now we can develop a year-round training program based at the home track, using the terrain study in the summer, and then moving on to preseason preparation and training runs during the season," said Kan Yue, coach of the national luge team.

"When the best of the national teams compete overseas, our younger pilots on the reserve teams can continue on their own programs at the Yanqing track, which helps us develop the talent pool in a sport that we previously had no tradition in," said Kan.

China only began building its national program for all three sliding sports after Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Games in 2015.

Athletes have been drafted from other sports such as track and field, gymnastics and cross-country skiing for their lower-limb explosive power, body coordination, core strength and balance.

Having made the podium at the home Games after just seven years competing internationally in the sport, the Chinese national program is targeting a golden breakthrough at the next Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

"Of course I have the confidence to go for gold at Milano-Cortina 2026," said Yan, a 25-year-old former long jumper.

"This is what keeps me working hard and pushing for new targets every day. We are not on the top yet but we will go for it."