With the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics going on, more and more people are paying attention to and participating in ice and snow sports, of which ice-hockey is an extremely popular one. On February 10, Professor ZHOU Lijun in sports leisure, executive member of World Leisure Organization board and director of World Leisure Center of Excellence at Zhejiang University, was invited by CGTN English Channel and attended the broadcast of the China 24 column. Professor ZHOU shared her views on why more people in China are involved in ice-hockey and how to cultivate the next generation of ice-hockey talents.

Question 1

Ice-hockey is becoming more and more popular in China right now , the Winter Olympics have given it momentum. What else has made it more popular in China ?

Answer 1

Compared with other sports, ice-hockey has four characteristics:

First, it can build a good personality and form a strong will. Ice-hockey often requires participants to accept many objective challenges, such as cold environment, difficult skills, as well as subjective difficulties such as fear and fatigue. In addition, ice-hockey focuses on endurance, speed and agility, which is of great significance for cultivating the healthy and stability for the young people.

Second, improve the ability to get along with others and strengthen the awareness of teamwork. Ice-hockey is a team sport, in the process of learning ice-hockey, you will meet many friends and conduct a good relationship with each other , which strengthen the frequency and depth of  interpersonal communication.

Third, promote the intellectual development. Ice-hockey can promote the teenagers’ emotional development and thinking expansion ability. By promoting the coordination and flexibility of thinking, it improves the learning efficiency of young people.

Fourth, relax and fully motivate positive emotions. Studies have shown that participating in ice-hockey can bring positive emotions such as happiness, creativity to teenagers and alleviate negative psychology such as tension, anxiety and depression.

Question 2

Quite some years before we can catch up with some of the world’s Ice-hockey powerhouses. In the meantime, what can we do in terms of cultivating the next generation of ice hockey talents ?

Answer 2

Firstly, awaken the next generation of interest in ice-hockey. Play the role of high-quality ice and snow sports idols in attracting the next generation. For example, GU Ailing, who has become popular this year, entered Stanford by relying on cultural achievements and won the Olympic gold medal by relying on sports strength, and an Olympic champion like this is a powerful proof of breaking the stereotype of “developed limbs but simple mind” in our society for sports people. It is necessary to give full play to the attraction of high-quality ice and snow sports idols to the next generation, so that more teenagers can participate in ice and snow sports.

Secondly, improve and upgrade the professionalism talent training system. Base on all levels and types, supplemented by large, medium, and small schools and social training institutions.

Thirdly, improve the competition system. Construct a youth sports competition system at all levels, form a competition mechanism for step-by-step selection; encourage various social forces to hold or host national or international ice and snow sports events, and create more training opportunities for young reserve talents.

Lastly, strengthen the construction of talent teams. Explore the establishment of a government-led, market-participating, and socially supported funding mechanism; make full use of diversified educational resources to carry out talent cultivating, support retired athletes to receive re-employment skills training, promote cross-border cooperation, to jointly cultivate ice and snow sports talents.

Professor ZHOU Lijun put forward targeted views on the characteristics of ice-hockey and the cultivation of talents in China's ice-hockey in the program. It is believed that with the holding of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the call of “300 million people participating in ice and snow sports”, more people in China will participate in ice and snow sports, and let us look forward to the rise of the next generation of ice and snow talents in China!

Edited by LI Yijia