Chinese team needs to rise rapidly if it is to compete in Olympics
Prague, Nov 23 (ČTK) — Chinese sports officials have asked their Czech counterparts to teach Chinese ice hockey and biathlon for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.
“Chinese are a nation that wants to be successful,” Roman Kumpost, head of the Czech Olympic Committee (COV) foreign affairs section, is quoted as saying.
China has excellent ice skaters and freestyle skiers, but when it comes to the rest of winter disciplines, its results have been meager, MfD writes.
As Chinese want to change this, they have asked for help in the Czech Republic. The first agreement on sports cooperation was drafted during President Miloš Zeman’s trip to China in September, MfD writes.
Later this week, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and COV chairman Jiří Kejval will be in Beijing and Shanghai. Kejval will sign a memorandum on bilateral help there, it adds.
“The Chinese have expressed interest in the sports in which we have been successful in terms of results and organization,” Kejval said.
The Chinese spoke about ice hockey and biathlon, MfD writes.
“Our experts are to teach Chinese athletes and their coaches are to watch the training process in our teams,” Kumpost said.
Czech organizers from Nové Město na Moravě, a major winter sports resort that organized the 2013 Biathlon World Championships, is being mentioned in this respect, MfD writes.
Last week, President of the Chinese Olympic Committee Peng Liu attended the general assembly of European Olympic committees held in Prague, it adds.
In addition, he met the Czech biathletes and the organizers from Nové Město na Moravě, MfD writes.
“He was surprised by lots of things such as the summer training on roller skates,” organizer Vlastimil Jakeš is quoted as saying.
With regard to the population number, the Czech Republic is not a big nation, but Chinese can learn from it the winter sports, Peng Liu said.
He said ice hockey clubs were only in a single Chinese province.
Peng Liu said he was amazed at their tremendous number on such a small territory in the Czech Republic.
However, the Chinese ice hockey team can only take part in the 2022 Olympics if it is within the first 18 national teams in the world. As it now ranks 38th, it needs to rise rapidly up, MfD writes.
“In this way, we used to teach Russians in the 1950s. You know the outcome,” Kejval said.
“You may doubt whether this is a good idea. On the other hand, if we do not teach them, they will ask Canadians to do so,” he added.
