Urumqi, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- From running alone to leading a group of people to "run".
Yerson Shwo has a very sporting life.
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhang Yudong, Jia Jinming, Li He.
Eight young Kazakh men chased and galloped through the snow on horseback, constantly scrambling for a piece of sheepskin, and a rider came from the side to snatch the sheepskin away, and then sprinted at great speed to throw the sheepskin into the basket. The audience burst into applause and cheers.
This is a live demonstration of the traditional sports project Diao Yang in the Nalati Tourist Scenic Area of Xinyuan County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, and the young people participating in Diao Yang are all from the Nalati Champion Horse Team Cooperative.
Many visitors here wonder why the team is named "Champion", which starts with the experience of the captain of the team, Jerson Shwo.
Born and raised in Xinyuan County, Yeerson is a native of Kazakh nationality who has been in excellent physical condition and has shown great athletic talent since he was a child. He said: "The good environment of the Nalati grassland gave me a great body, I started riding horses at the age of two, I started climbing trees at the age of three or four, and when I grew up a little more and learned to swim, until I was 12 years old, I was introduced to middle distance running, and I started a real sports career." ”
When he was in high school, Yeerson embarked on a professional physical training path under the guidance of his physical education teacher. During his studies at Xinjiang Normal University, he won the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter long-distance running championships of the Xinjiang University for four consecutive years. In addition to athletics, Yerson is also involved in a wide range of sports such as trail running, cycling, swimming, and cross-country skiing, and has won championships in dozens of domestic and international mass sports and competitive sports events.
In 2019, Yelssen was selected for the first national cross-country skiing team, and after hard training, he entered the national cross-country skiing training team in 2020 to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and served as the captain and assistant team leader of the sports team, ranking at the top of the team. Unfortunately, due to injury problems, he unfortunately failed to be selected for the final squad of the national team for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Despite this, he contributed to the Beijing Winter Olympics as a test skater at the National Cross-Country Skiing Center. "At that time, my task was to compact the slopes, test the venue, and provide timely feedback on problems before the competition, so as to help the athletes complete the competition smoothly. Remembering the scene at the Winter Olympics venue, Yelson still remembers it vividly.
After the Beijing Winter Olympics, he chose to retire and return home. "My hometown, Tayasu Village, used to be an autonomous region-level poor village, and in order to give the villagers a better life after being lifted out of poverty, I chose to return to my hometown to start a business," Yeersen said. ”
In just over a year, he founded the Narati Champion Horse Team Co-operative and became the head coach of the Narati Junior Ski Team. "Xinyuan County has a long history of horse culture, and Nalati has high-quality ice and snow resources, so I decided to find a breakthrough in entrepreneurship from these two aspects. ”
With the support of the village party branch and the Nalati Scenic Area Management Committee, the horse team cooperative provides services for tourists in Tianmutai, the Nalati Aerial Grassland Scenic Area. The surrounding herdsmen lead their own horses and take tourists to experience horseback riding according to the prescribed route. In winter, the horse team usually has about 20 horses, and the traditional Kazakh folk customs such as horse-drawn plough climbing, horse racing, sheep picking, and "girl chasing" are displayed. "During the peak season, the maximum fleet size is 200 horses. Yerson said.
The family of Tayasu villager, Selikpoli Nurlanbai, was once a poor household in the village, and joined the horse team at the invitation of Yeersen. During the peak tourist season this summer, he can earn 10,000 yuan a monthAlthough Nalati Scenic Area has less visitors in winter, he can earn 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a month.
Before I joined the horse team, I was grazing in the Nalati grassland, and my family's annual income at that time was 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. The extra income from the horse team makes life better for our family of four. Selik Poli said with joy.
After retiring, Yelson still has a "championship dream".
In December last year, in order to conduct pre-competition training for the athletes participating in the first Winter Games of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Nalati Youth Ski Team was officially established, and Ye Ersen became the head coach of the ski team. ** Ski equipment is provided free of charge for the ski team, and snow grooming equipment is also sponsored for the training venue, and the relevant expenses of the athletes going out to participate in the competition are also borne by **. According to Yersen, the children of the ski team have made rapid progress, and two of them have been selected for the Beijing team and the Xinjiang team respectively, and have become professional athletes to actively prepare for the 14th National Winter Games to be held next year.
The horse team is called 'champion', which means to do the best service and contribute to the improvement of service quality in the scenic spot. Yerson said. At the same time, he also hopes to bring more "rising stars" from the junior ski team to win championships in skiing events at all levels.
From a long-distance runner and cross-country skier to a ski instructor and a leader in increasing income and getting rich, Yeerson has completed the transformation of his identity and achieved the goal of "running" from one person to leading a group of people to "run". The winter in the Nalati steppe is long, and in the vast snowy fields covered in snow, Yerson and his horse team gallop towards a better tomorrow. (ENDS).