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March 29, 2017

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Chinese curlers feel the pressure for Beijing 2022

PEERING up at a dissipated crowd, the Chinese team waved half-heartedly after failing to reach the playoffs in the World Women’s Curling Championships, a competition it won eight years ago.

The tournament, held in Beijing last week, was the latest setback for a team that is already feeling the growing weight of expectation ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China’s capital.

The Chinese women finished 11th out of 12 teams in their first international competition at home, where the government has launched a campaign to bolster excitement around winter sports, while Canada won the title undefeated.

The team did not earn enough points at the championships to directly qualify for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. It will instead vie for a slot during December’s qualifying event in the Czech Republic.

“I think everyone was feeling the pressure of playing in our home arena,” said captain Wang Bingyu, her voice raspy from yelling commands at the sweepers. As captain during the team’s triumph at the 2009 World Championships and bronze medal win at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics — China’s first Winter Olympics team medal — Wang, 32, has orchestrated Chinese curling’s most historic moments. But this time around, she doesn’t expect history to simply repeat itself.

“I know my fitness and technique are not the same as they were before,” she told reporters, after China lost its last round-robin match to Russia on Thursday night.

“Before I chose to return (after three years out of international competition), I already considered that this would not be an easy path. But I hoped to give myself a chance.”

Curling had no professional teams in China until 2001. They have since risen rapidly: along with the women’s 2009 world title and 2010 Olympic bronze, the men’s team also finished a record fourth at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

At the Winter Asian Games in Sapporo, Japan, last month, both teams handily won gold.

“Curling in China is a high-brow sport,” said Zhang Guihai, director of the Heilongjiang Institute of Snow and Ice Industries. More so than skating and skiing, Zhang said, curling is about technique.

“I’ve always thought of curling as a confrontation with oneself,” Wang said. “There are no secrets.”

After the first hour, the crowd thinned as Russia led 5-1. Still, one Chinese flag-bearing group cheered until the end: “Go Team China, go!”

Zhang said the squad’s descent from their world championship glory is partly due to the retirement of the sport’s more seasoned athletes.

“But curling remains a gold-medal event for China,” he said.




 

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