Winter Olympics in Beijing – China will shake Norway: Paying Russians
Norway has been the world’s best skinhead for many years, but what will happen if the world’s most populous country uses its enormous resources and sports talents to breed future ski stars ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022?
The question was asked by Dagbladet in 2017, in the wake of China launching a very ambitious project with the Olympics at home in Beijing in mind, including Norwegian help and expertise.
Five years have passed. Soon we will get the fasit. The Olympic flame is lit next week.
It has been a long time around Chinese cross-country skiing – and many may have forgotten this project. The main reason for this is that China’s best cross-country skiers have not participated in the World Cup in two years, which in turn is due to the corona pandemic.
Thus, the mystery increases about the level these Chinese cross-country skiers actually possess today, just over two years after the last time they measured forces against Norwegian, Swedish and Russian cross-country profiles.
What has Chinese cross-country skiing done in the last two years?
What level are they at today – and what can they accomplish at home on a hill and in a climate and with snow conditions that they should know better than the competitors from, for example, Norway?
Dagbladet has tried to become a little wiser about this, by looking at what Chinese cross-country skiing has done during this period, with help from the sports director of Chinese cross-country skiing.
Paid Russian help
The Norwegian Bernhard Rønning is the sports director of Chinese cross-country skiing. With him in the support apparatus for China, he has two Norwegian national team coaches, Ole Marius Bach and Kristian Bjune Sveen.
– We must be on track for the Olympics. The moment of excitement will be how it will go when we go out to compete with the very best. The goal of the Chinese Federation is to win a medal in cross-country skiing. But with the matching we have had in recent years, I think it will be difficult, but not impossible, says China’s sports manager Bernhard Rønning to Dagbladet.
– How good the project has been in recent years, we get good answers during the Olympics, but I fear that the pandemic has placed some restrictions on the good progress we saw early. The team has been in China since mid-March 2020 and has not been able to compete internationally for two years. I fear that it has limited our development.
However, the lack of matching, China has tried to do something about. The solution has been as follows: Several Russian cross-country skiers have been paid by China to live for several months in the world’s most populous nation and go cross-country skiing here. The purpose is to give the Chinese cross-country skiers matching from the next best Russians, Dagbladet is informed.
One of them is Ivan Kirillov, whom China’s biggest hope Qiang Wang beat in the 30-kilometer freestyle on January 6 and has regularly beaten in the sprints, where Wang has his greatest strength.
– May surprise
Kirillov is nobody. He is part of Russia’s golden 1996 generation, which together with Aleksandr Bolshunov, Denis Spitsov and Ivan Yakimushkin took World Cup silver in the relay in the junior WC in 2016 behind Norway’s golden 1996 generation with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the lead.
Kirillov also beat both Klæbo and Bolshunov in the 15 km freestyle in the junior WC in 2016. And in the World Cup debut in the 15 km classic in Planica in January 2018, he took a very strong 5th place, where Kirillov among the sloon classic Iivo Niskanen.
Now Kirilov gets paid by China to go cross-country skiing in China and thus give Qiang Wang and co. matching.
– Kirilov and several other Russians have been to China just to give the match we have missed by not going to the World Cup. These Russians have been paid to go cross-country skiing in China, Bernhard Rønning confirms to Dagbladet.
He adds that Kirillov is a very good benchmark in the classic distance race, but not to the same extent in freestyle and sprint. In sprint races in China, Wang has played with the Russians.
Wang finished 17th in the last individual World Cup race in Planica in December 2019.
Since then, the Chinese have not competed in the World Cup due to the pandemic – and have now had years to develop further.
– Qiang Wang is our best card individually during the Olympics. He looks good and can surprise, says Bernhard Rønning, sports manager in Chinese cross-country skiing, to Dagbladet.
– The moment of uncertainty with Wang is that he has not been challenged this year, and it will be exciting to see how it will go in a field with five others.
Tougher than Holmenkollen
The cross-country competitions in the Olympics in Beijing will take place at an altitude of 1750 meters. It is close to the limit of what is allowed in competitions. The border is 1800 meters above sea level.
In addition, the actual track profiles are tougher than what normally meets the athletes in the World Cup. And where many ski arenas have a trail where you run at high speed towards the stadium and run-up, the opposite is true in Beijing with an uphill towards the stadium, as there is also Ruka in Finland.
– It is a very tough trail here. Measured in altitude, it is just over five miles in Holmenkollen. With a little bit of snow and tough driving, there will be tough competitions. The trails are not special, but with long gentle slopes and easy descents, Rønning says.
– To what extent do Chinese cross-country skiers have the advantage of knowing the trail and the height?
– The Chinese athletes have trained a lot at the same height, which can be an advantage. They have trained and competed here somewhat, but not so much in the Olympic tracks. I do not think it’s exactly a huge advantage.
Extreme methods: This is how China will become the world’s best skin hydration. – Must be able to beat little Norway
Female relay joker
In addition to Qiang Wang in sprint cross-country skiing, the team’s sports director in Chinese cross-country skiing hopes that the Chinese woman can do well in the relay.
– We have the greatest opportunities in the sprint with Wang, and that we can get a strong women’s team in the relay if all four ladies have a good day. We have a couple of men’s skiers with very good capacity, but they have not skied long enough to fully pay for it on the ski slope, says Bernhard Rønning.
– But we will have to wait and see. At least we do everything we can for it to succeed, he concludes.
Claiming against the best Europeans in skiing is not entirely remote for the Chinese. Chunli Wang was at the top of the world in biathlon on the women’s side. Then something happened. You can read more about it here: