The 26th Winter Universiade is gradually drawing to a close, with the Chinese team temporarily securing 3 golds, 2 silvers, and 1 bronze. Although the medal tally isn’t high, the changes and breakthroughs China’s team has shown in snow and ice events are still cause for delight.
Among the six award-winning athletes, men’s singles figure skating champion Song Nan is from Beijing Sport University, while the top three women’s snowboarders all hail from Harbin and Shenyang Sports Institutes.
The three northeastern provinces are traditionally strong regions for snow and ice sports in China. Thanks to geographical advantages, children in the north have had opportunities to engage in skating, skiing, and ice hockey from a young age. Chu Pengqun, vice president of Harbin Sport University, noted that the number of youths participating in snow and ice sports across the entire northeast region is gradually increasing. Since the 1980s, Heilongjiang Province has launched the "Million Youths on Ice and Snow" campaign and introduced bonus point policies for exams.
As a key training base for China’s snow and ice sports, Harbin Sport University has also leveraged its strengths to promote and popularize these activities by opening its ice rinks to the public for free. According to Chu Pengqun, in recent years, the university has brought in a large number of high-level coaches and built snow and ice facilities capable of hosting international competitions. 70% of China’s snow and ice athletes come from Harbin.
The three northeastern provinces are undoubtedly representatives of China’s high-level snow and ice competition prowess. Compared to the northern students who won gold and silver medals at the Winter Universiade, another snow and ice team from the south has drawn extra attention—the women’s curling team from Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.
This women’s curling team attracted much attention from the start because none of the players had ever touched the sport before college. After entering university, they gradually learned about curling and were selected to form this team before the Winter Universiade. As these students also had to balance academics, they had very little time for training. Moreover, there were no large-scale curling competitions in China for them to gain experience, so their skills were noticeably weaker compared to other teams at the Winter Universiade. After several matches, they were eliminated with a record of 2 wins and 7 losses. However, this team shows that the “snow and ice sports moving southward” initiative is already starting to bear fruit.
In recent years, the Chinese University Sports Association has also been promoting the “snow and ice sports moving southward” effort nationwide, aiming to popularize and expand snow and ice sports—popular among northern youths—to the south and even the entire country, thereby increasing participation and strength in winter sports.
Yang Liguo, secretary-general of the association, stated that promoting snow and ice sports in the south currently faces some challenges, the first being funding. Due to the high requirements for venues and facilities, the first hurdle in southern promotion is addressing the lack of suitable infrastructure. Additionally, snow and ice sports equipment is relatively expensive, making widespread adoption difficult. The second issue is that southern youths lack the cultural tradition of snow and ice sports compared to their northern counterparts. Without an environment conducive to fostering early interest, it’s hard to cultivate a love for these sports.
He said: “Our ‘snow and ice sports moving southward’ plan is mainly aimed at popularizing and expanding these activities, with the goal of nurturing high-level athletes over what may be a lengthy process. Therefore, I believe that northern regions should focus on training and developing high-level competitive athletes, while southern regions should increase the popularity of snow and ice sports, getting more youths interested and even involved. Just like this women’s curling team—even though their skills are far from the international level, the mere formation of such a team is progress. It shows that snow and ice sports can indeed take root in the south.”
The three northeastern provinces have unique advantages in developing snow and ice sports, while promoting these activities in the south still faces many difficulties and bottlenecks. But enabling more youths to engage with snow and ice sports is undoubtedly a positive step. While it’s unrealistic for every province and city across the country to produce top snow and ice athletes, the north and south “playing to their strengths” will only benefit the development of China’s snow and ice sports.