China's freestyle skiing aerials athletes under intense training
for the Freestyle Skiing World Championship held in Italy in
January are seeking breakthroughs.
"Few people participated in or even knew skiing before the 1990s
in China, but skiing has developed very fast in the recent years,"
said Wang Yitao, chief of Chinese Ski Association and director of
Winter Sport Administration Center of State General Administration
of Sport, on Monday.
"China's freestyle skiing aerials team has now topped the world,
by making great achievements in World Championships and World Cup
events," Wang noted.
Li Nina, who won two gold medals in the women's aerials of
2006-2007 World Cup freestyle skiing on Dec. 9 and 10 and Han
Xiaopeng, who won the silver medal of the men's freestyle aerials,
are among the top skiers in China.
However, the top skiers in foreign countries, such as Australia,
Switzerland and Belarus, are always devoted to movements of higher
difficulties, and Chinese skiers are still restricted by the degree
of difficulties as well as the stability of performances.
The main problem of Chinese men's team did not lie in the
techniques, but in the psychology, said Han Xiaopeng.
The competition in skiing aerials was very tough, since there
were about 20 skiers at his level in the world's leading group, Han
said. "So not only the techniques, but also the tactics, psychology
and experience will be tested."
"Chinese men skiers can only accumulate experience and promote
the competence through constant training," said Han.
"Chinese women's skiing team is a title favorite, but a large
room still exists for promotion," said Yan Xiaojuan, an official
from the Winter Sport Administration Center.
The women's team still had problems in techniques and the women
skiers should make more efforts to raise their skills, Yan
said.
"I'm quite clear about the current situation. New movements and
degree of difficulties must be tried if we want to achieve more in
the future," Li Nina told Xinhua.
The freestyle skiing aerials is a sport event of substantial
contingency, so Chinese aerialists must learn to overcome various
unfavorable factors to strengthen their stability of performance
and to promote the technical levels, Wang added.
(Xinhua News Agency?December 19, 2006)