Heilongjiang nurtures top speed skaters

After enjoying a five-day holiday during Spring Festival, 10-year-old Li Xuexin stood on the skating rink at the Qitaihe Children's Amateur Short-Track Speed Skating School on Saturday along with her 22 classmates.

Also on the same day, Fan Kexin, the 28-year-old new Olympic champion from Qitaihe, together with her teammates won the mixed team relay gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Qitaihe, a city in the east of Heilongjiang province covered with snow throughout winter and where skiing and skating are very popular, has nurtured a number of world-renowned short-track speed skaters and has produced 10 world champions, including three Olympic gold medalists－China's first Winter Olympics gold medalist, Yang Yang; four-time Olympic champion Wang Meng; and skater Fan.

Athletes from the city have won 530 gold medals at national-level competitions and 170 golds at international-level competitions.

"Wang Meng and Fan Kexin are my idols," Li said. "I was really excited when I saw Fan standing on the highest podium at the Olympic rink."

"I also hope I can achieve the same performance in the future," added Li, who has trained almost every day since she was joined the school in July 2019.

Li began to learn skating during her first year at the city's Shuguang Primary School to strengthen her body. To reach her full potential in short-track speed skating, Li was sent to Qitaihe Children's Amateur Short-Track Speed Skating School a year later.

"As long as she keeps training hard, she will be able to fulfill her dream to participate in the Olympics," said her coach, Li Guofeng. "She is industrious and has a bright future."

Li Guofeng, 26, a former national speed skating champion, became a coach at the school in January 2019 after retirement related to injuries.

"I started to learn skating at age 8 and won my first national championship at 19," he said. "However, as I was striving to fulfill my Olympic dream, I retired in 2015 from the Heilongjiang provincial speed skating team.

"After retirement, most of my teammates sought opportunities in developed cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, where they could make more money," he said. "I decided to return to my hometown because of my deep love and sense of pride."

"I hope I can pass my Olympic dream on to my students," he added.

Qitaihe established its first speed skating team in 1974. Conditions were really tough at the time, according to information at the city's Short-Track Speed Skating Champion Hall, which opened in 2012.

In those early days, Meng Qingyu, the founder and coach of the team, would regularly water the outdoor playground at 3 am, the coldest time in the winter, to make the skating rink for his students.

His hard work and continuous study helped him develop many unique and effective training methods.

Led by Meng, skating became popular across the city, in which nearly all schools now have skating rinks for students.

In August 2006, Meng died in a traffic accident on his way from Qitaihe to the provincial capital, Harbin. Since then, a group of his students have continued to devote themselves to the sport.

In 2013, the city built its first indoor skating rink, providing skaters with a venue to train all year round. Qitaihe is also innovating training for skaters, increasing the number of its short-track speed skating schools and regularly holding mass ice and snow sports activities.

After decades of development, the city now has 18 short-track speed skating teams with more than 500 skaters, who can act as reserves for the national team, said Qian Hui, director of the city's sports bureau.