Held in the National Speed Skating Oval, the 2022-2023 National Youth Speed Skating Championships began on Apr.5th. Guided by the Winter Sports Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, this three-day event is hosted by Chinese Skating Association with Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, Beijing National Speed Skating Oval Operation Co., Ltd. and Beijing Skating Association as organizers.
The 2022-2023 National Youth Speed Skating Championships are of the highest level in domestic youth speed skating competitions. It’s the first time for the Ice Ribbon to hold such high-level event since Beijing 2022. On the opening ceremony, the Ice Ribbon witnessed the Winter Olympic vibes again with the wonderful show of about 30 young athletes performing queue skating and short track speed skating. All athletes along with referees, guests and spectators singing rousing chorus of national anthem, the scene upsurged the excitement on site. Moreover, Gao Tingyu, the Olympic champion who broke the record and won the first Chinese men's speed skating Olympic gold medal showed up to support and encourage the contestants.
Photo of the queue skating and short track speed skating show.
A total of 167 athletes from 31 organizations over China participated in the competition which consisted of 38 events over 3 sports. The organizer, Chinese Skating Association, depicts a long-term determination of publicizing winter sports and encouraging people especially the youth to take part in skating in order to improve public fitness, enhance competitive sports level and reserve talents for winter sports. As the hosting venue, the Ice Ribbon is multi-functional, comprehensively utilized and always adhering to the concept of low-carbon development. In the National Speed Skating Oval, not only high-level sports events, but public leisure, exhibitions and social welfare events can also be witnessed. Furthermore, the Ice Ribbon has also combined elements with Chinese characteristics into its daily operation, endeavoring to become an important window to showcase the unique charm of Chinese culture and a gorgeous "name card" to demonstrate the development of ice and snow sports in China. The National Speed Skating Youth Championships help more young athletes access the Winter Olympics venue and reserve talents with competitive sports talent and development potential, while leverage the advantages of all parties to jointly promote the development of the youth, cultivate cultural confidence, and inspire the spirit of the Winter Olympics, so as to help China's speed skating develop with high-quality.
To be mentioned, the NSSO fully utilized the material, cultural, and talent heritage of the Winter Olympics, and met the requirement of comprehensively utilizing facilities and services from the Winter Olympics to support the high-level competitions. The NSSO ice management team, which participated in the Winter Olympics, devoted again to the ice making and took on maintaining the ice, as well as the NSSO operation team, which also worked during the Winter Olympics, and a professional referee team that managed the general routine of the competition. Upholding the Winter Olympic standard, these teams strictly followed the requirements and focused on the details arranged by the competition organization. All the efforts were done to help athletes performing their best.
Photo of presenting awards to the winners by Li Yan (left), President of the Chinese Skating Association, and Ye Qiaobo (right), the winner of China's first Winter Olympics medal.
Photo of presenting awards to the winners by Fan Jun (left), President of the Beijing Skating Association, and Gao Tingyu (right), Men's 500m Speed Skating Champion at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The National Speed Skating Oval fully accomplished the preparation, organization and support work during the Winter Olympics, and witnessed 13 times of Winter Olympics records broken and 1 world record broken. In the coming future, the Ice Ribbon will move on to cooperate with all parties, further explore methods of utilizing the Winter Olympic heritage in maximum, actively response to the requirement of “Driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports” and continuously consolidate the achievements.
