Hohhot, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The end means a new beginning. On the evening of the 27th, as the cauldron was slowly extinguished, the 14th National Winter Games closed in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
This is the cauldron of the 14th National Winter Games photographed at the Inner Mongolia Ice Sports Training Center on February 27. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Hua This is an unforgettable moment, since the opening on February 17, the spirit of sportsmanship has played a song of friendship, stirring in the northern Xinjiang of the motherland, witnessing the vigorous development of ice and snow sports in China. With perseverance and hard work, more than 3,000 athletes presented a wonderful winter meeting and completed a "big training" of technology and tactics.
From the beginning of taking over the flag of the Winter Games, Inner Mongolia has worked hard for many years, and finally presented a wonderful Winter Games - "14th Winter" is the largest, most projects and the highest standard in the previous Winter Games, which has engraved a brilliant stroke in the history of the Winter Games and accumulated valuable experience for the future Asian Winter Games and "15th Winter" events.
Fourteen winters' achieved 'five firsts'. Zhang Xin, director of the Department of Competitive Sports of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China and executive deputy secretary general of the "14th Winter" Organizing Committee, said, "For the first time, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government organized a group to participate in the competition; For the first time, the Winter Olympics were comprehensively benchmarked, and a youth group was added; For the first time, mass events were organized at the Winter Games; For the first time, physical fitness was used as the entry criterion for the qualification of competitive sports competitions; For the first time, the minimum score standard for entering the finals was set in speed skating, aerials and other events. ”
On February 27, the actors performed at the closing ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lian Zhen The Sports Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region concluded that the successful holding of the "14th Winter" is of far-reaching significance to Inner Mongolia: it has laid a solid foundation for the autonomous region to host high-level ice and snow events in the future, made the enthusiasm of the whole people participate in ice and snow sports unprecedentedly high, and also brightened the regional business card of Inner Mongolia, further enriched the sports consumption scene and released the potential of sports consumption.
Fourteen winters' these 'firsts' and 'firsts', impressive. Cao Yang, deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Sports Bureau, said that Liaoning Province needs to "learn from experience" from Inner Mongolia in an all-round way, and learn and learn from the successful experience of the "14th Winter" in many aspects such as the opening and closing ceremonies, venue construction, competition area layout, and event organization.
In this year's Winter Games, 26 of the 35 delegations won gold medals and 30 delegations won medals. Compared with the last Winter Games, the number of participating delegations and the coverage of medals have increased significantly. On the whole, the highlights of the "14th Winter" competition are outstanding, and the purpose of testing the level, training the team, discovering newcomers, and training for the Winter Olympics has been achieved.
On February 27, Gao Zhidan (left), Director of the Organizing Committee of the 14th National Winter Games and Director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, and Li Lecheng, Governor of Liaoning Province, the host of the 15th National Winter Games, handed over the flag at the closing ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Xinbo The competitions of the "14th Winter" project were brilliant and fiercely competitive, creating a number of excellent results. Zhang Xin introduced that most of the results of this year's speed skating and other events with record results surpassed the previous Winter Games. In snowboarding, freestyle skiing and other classified sports, more and more athletes are completing difficult movements that were previously only possible for a very small number of athletes with high quality. A group of young athletes with great development potential have emerged in many events such as short track speed skating, speed skating, figure skating, and freestyle skiing aerials.
However, we should also be soberly aware that there is still a big gap between the competitive level of China's winter sports and that of the world's ice and snow powers. Zhang Xin said, "We will take the successful holding of the '14th Winter' as an opportunity to increase policy reform, improve the accuracy of policies, and pay close attention to the introduction of policies and measures to serve the preparation of the Winter Olympics, drive the masses to widely participate in ice and snow sports, and promote the quality and efficiency of the ice and snow industry, and continue to consolidate and expand the good momentum of the development of ice and snow sports." ”
"Large-scale military training" is also a "large-scale test." The "14th Winter" undertakes important tasks such as improving the international competitiveness of China's ice and snow sports and discovering outstanding reserve talents. Judging from this competition, the Chinese players have generally maintained a strong strength and good momentum, and they are also facing new challenges, and it is necessary to check the weaknesses and make up for the shortcomings through this year's Winter Games.
This is the scene of the closing ceremony filmed on February 27. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Bo It can be seen from this year's Winter Games that the strength of Chinese players as "ice pioneers" still exists, and they have the advantage of winning gold in short track speed skating, speed skating and other events. At the same time, the "Snow Ace Army" is facing new challenges. Judging from the "14th Winter", the Chinese team is expected to continue its advantages in snowboarding men's big air, slopestyle, freestyle skiing women's halfpipe, big air and other events. Events such as the men's and women's aerials in freestyle skiing and the women's halfpipe in snowboarding are at risk of declining performance. In addition, in the "14th Winter" competition, there was also a steady rise in men's skeleton, ski mountaineering, cross-country skiing and other potential advantage events.
The continuous emergence of potential newcomers is one of the highlights of the "14th Winter Season", adding fresh blood and new force to the preparation for the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Shen Zhengang, deputy director of the Winter Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China, said that the echelon construction of traditional key projects such as short track speed skating has become increasingly complete, and young athletes have broken records many times. The new events such as big air, slopestyle, and obstacle chase developed in the cycle of the Beijing Winter Olympics are showing a situation of north-south progress and multi-point flowering. The number of athletes competing in the youth group of cross-country skiing and alpine skiing has increased significantly, and the level has also been greatly improved compared with athletes of the same age group in the past. "Overall, there are newcomers in almost every sport, which is worth focusing on in the next preparations for the Milan Winter Olympics. He said.
The "14th Winter" came to an end, and Chinese athletes set off in full gear to launch an impact on international events such as the 2026 Winter Olympics. Wang Qiang of Chongqing, who won five gold medals in the "14th Winter" cross-country skiing competition, is full of confidence in the future of China's ice and snow sports, he said: "I have always wanted to stand out in the World Cup, just to let our young generation of athletes see opportunities and hope - our Chinese cross-country skiing is not impossible in the world." Participating reporters: Zhang Yunlong, Wang Jingyu, Lu Xingji, Wang Chunyan, He Shuchen).