Skiing in China

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese Ski Association (CSA)
sport see tasks
Founded 1981
Place of foundation Beijing , China
president Tian Xiao
Association headquarters Beijing
Official languages) English , Chinese
Homepage en.olympic.cn/sports/winter_sports
Taipei Ski Association (CT-SA)
Founded February 19, 2002
president Edmond Yue
Ski Association of Hong Kong (SA-HK)
Founded 2003
president William Louey

Skiing developed on a larger scale in the territory of China towards the end of the 20th century . Important factors for this were the organization of international ski competitions and the founding of relevant sports associations. In 1981, the Chinese Ski Sports Association CSA (traditional Chinese 中國 isch 協會) was founded in the People's Republic of China . It is based in the Haidian District of Beijing . In May 1981 the CSA was admitted to the FIS .

There are also ski sports organizations recognized by the FIS in Taiwan and Hong Kong , the Chinese Taipei Ski Association (CT-SA) based in Taipei and the Ski Association of Hong Kong , China Ltd (SA-HK), which was founded in 2003.

history

People's Republic of China

The first isolated skiing activities in the Chinese Republic were limited to distinct mountain regions, where the residents have always moved around on skis. And there were very few competitive athletes in skiing, so that the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo , the first ever in Asia, only included 5 skiers (downhill, cross-country skiing) who came from Taiwan.

The Chinese learned about these new sports opportunities through the press, radio and television. The All-Chinese Ski Association Chinese Ski Sports Association (CSA) was founded in 1981 to expand, organize and coordinate winter sports nationwide . Chinese athletes achieved their first successes in skiing at the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992 (three 12th places in women's biathlon) and at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 , to which 66 athletes were sent from the People's Republic; There were two gold medals in ice sports and in the short track . The best placement in the area of ​​skiing / snowboarding was a 5th place for Li Nina in freestyle skiing . The new ski organization had to continue to work tirelessly in the country to stimulate popular and youth sports. In 1996 there were only 11 major ski areas in the whole country. The number of skiing events increased, as the example of Vasaloppet China shows.

Winter sports fans in China have experienced and are experiencing a major boom since the IOC awarded Beijing the hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015 . Extensive construction work began for the training and competition facilities, manufacturers of winter sports equipment set up shop in China, ski schools opened and coaches from all over the world were hired, and the infrastructure in particular was gradually being improved. The northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang with the Yabuli ski resort and Jilin with the Beidahu ski area in the vicinity of Harbin were now considered to be the heart of Chinese skiing . The director of the Yabuli Club Med Resort, Henri Giscard d'Estaing , expressed this development as follows: "When we opened Yabuli, people looked at us and said, 'You're crazy, the Chinese are not skiers." ( Huffington Post , Australia )

In Yabuli a normal hill (K90) was built until 1996 , on which foreign winter sports enthusiasts set the first hill records. Soon a large hill (K140) was added and the K90 was modernized in 2008. The competitions of the Winter Universiade 2009 could take place on the ski jumps and trails of the Yabuli Resort .

In 2004, a larger skiing area opened in the southern Chinese province of Hubei .

The CSA found that around 5 million Chinese people were actively involved in skiing in 2005, compared to around 200,000 in 2000.

In other parts of the country, too, ski sports clubs were founded and suitable sports facilities were built. These include the Nanshan Ski Resort , Yanqing Shi Jing , Vanke Songhua Lake Resort , Miyun Nanshan , Wanda Changbaishan International Resort and Chongli Wanlong (as of end of 2017); more than half are in northern China from west to east, around eight percent are around Beijing ( Central China , Hebei Province ).

It is noteworthy that the Qiaobo, a ski hall, has been available since 2005 in the Beijing Shunyi district of the capital . However, snowboarding is developing even more strongly than the actual skiing sport.

In the east, near the city of Kanas in the province of Xinjiang at an altitude of around 2000 meters, construction of what was then “the largest ski area in Asia” began in 2010. In addition to the actual sports facilities, ski lifts, a golf course, accommodation and even an artificial lake are to be built by 2020. The state will have the project cost the equivalent of around 515 million euros .

In 2015 there were a total of 568 Chinese ski resorts, visited by around 12.5 million guests. Nevertheless, a report on Austrian television in 2015 said: Only a few Chinese ski, 20 million people are mentioned, i.e. one percent of all residents.

After four years of construction, the Harbin Wanda Indoor Ski and Winter Sports Resort was inaugurated in July 2017. It is even larger than the previous one and now claims to be the “largest ski area in Asia” (as of 2017).

Taiwan

In Taiwan, around 1970, a ski center was set up on Mount Acacia at an altitude of more than 3,100 meters, which initially only had military significance as a training center. From around 1978 the first civilian skiers came together in the organization ROC Youth Skiing Association and carried out their first skiing events mostly with equipment borrowed from the military. The Taiwan Provincial Forestry Bureau quickly received support , and the ROC Ski Committee and the Taiwan Province Sports Association Ski Association were formed . The spread of skiing was massively promoted, for aspiring competitive athletes the Taiwan Ski Training Camp Songxue was built on the mountain slopes of Hehuanshan with a 400 m long ski lift and training buildings. From the mid-1990s onwards, thousands of schoolchildren took part in ski courses here every year, and Taiwanese competitive athletes also use the camp.

However, parts of the training camp are used less and less because the number of snow days is too few each year; Maintenance work was not carried out. At the beginning of the 21st century, only remains have been preserved here. The Taiwanese now mostly travel to Japan for their winter sports.

Another step was the renaming of the central ski organization to the ROC Ski Association , from which the Chinese Taipei Ski Association emerged after international recognition .

Hong Kong

The association organizes extensive sporting events, for example the Hong Kong Inter-School Ski / Snowboard Championship in December 2017 as well as other winter competitions on the Chinese mainland or even in Japan. The members of this organization are also sent to international sporting events or ski congresses around the world. The most successful winter sportsmen of the SA-HK are awarded a prize once a year.

Tasks and activities of the Chinese Ski Sports Association

The National Olympic Committee and the CSA ensure that most of the skiing competitions of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games take place in the city of Zhangjiakou and its surroundings and that the necessary facilities are built according to the most modern aspects.

The CSA and the SA-HK have been working closely together since 2004.

Organizational forms

CSA in the People's Republic

The Ski Sports Association (CSA) reports to the Chinese Olympic Committee . In addition to this, there are the separate Olympic organizations from Taiwan ( Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee ) and from Hong Kong .

The top management level of the CSA consists of a president and a general secretary; in 2017 these are Tian Xiao (president) and Youhua Tian (general secretary).

The CSA is divided into commissions with the following areas of responsibility:

  • Events (alpine skiing, Nordic skiing with cross-country skiing and ski jumping, freestyle, snowboarding),
  • Trainer and training,
  • Competition,
  • Equipment,
  • Scientific Research & Medicine,
  • Junior training,
  • Public relations (press and advertising),
  • Venue,
  • Tourist development,
  • International connections.

Each commission consists of representatives of the Chinese skiing areas / ski resorts.

As of 2015, there were around 200 larger skiing areas in the country, sports organizers and even the government expect the numbers to increase fivefold by 2022. Active skiers and snowboarders are also expected to increase to 300 million during this period.

CT-SA in Taiwan

The general assembly with an executive director and a general secretary, a president and a vice-president form the governing bodies of the ski association from Taiwan. All have a four-year term of office but can be re-elected. There is also an honorary chairman, several honorary members and several advisors. There are committees or committees (selection) for individual tasks:

  • Regulation of international relations and memberships in corresponding institutions
  • Organizational K. national and international skiing and competition matters, drawing up rules and regulations, resolving disputes
  • Development of the local ski and grass ski sport
  • Training K. with 7 to 9 members: selection of athletes, coaches and referees, establishment and adaptation of regulations, training, financing issues
  • Equipment issues
  • Medical research and ensuring the health of skiers
  • Media work.

SA-HK in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Ski Association (SA-HK) is led by a President, a Vice-President, an Overseas Director, a Secretary General and a Director for Freestyle Downhill . -

Overarching

All three Chinese Ski Associations are also members of the Asia Ski Federation . In addition, the Chinese Taipei Alpine Association was founded, which also acts as a representative for the People's Republic in this sub-area. Here, mountain climbing tasks are predominantly performed, but the conflicts between the construction and operation of downhill slopes and the maintenance of the mountain regions are also discussed. Among other things, it says on the website: "... it (the CTTA) develops mountain skiing".

literature

Web links

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Brief information about the Taiwan Ski Association , accessed on November 27, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Brief information on the Hong Kong Ski Association , accessed on November 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b White Book,… , pp. 9–13.
  4. ↑ Translation of the quote: "When we inaugurated Yabuli, people looked at us and said: They are crazy, the Chinese aren't skiers."
  5. ↑ Ski jumping hill in Jabuli on skisprungschanzen.com, accessed on November 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ Dean Irvine: China's ski boom faces uphill challenges , on CNN.com, accessed November 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ Skiing in China , accessed November 26, 2017.
  8. ↑ White Book, ... , p. 33.
  9. ↑ China wants to build Asia's largest ski area , on www.welt.de; Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  10. ↑ Few Chinese people ski on news.ORF.at, May 5, 2015, accessed on November 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ The world's biggest indoor ski resort has opened in China , at www.telegraph.co.uk; Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  12. ↑ a b History : CT-SA website (content only in Chinese); Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  13. ^ Ian Bartholomew: Japan's slopes lure skiers from Taiwan , taipeitimes.com, 2008-01-16; accessed on November 28, 2017.
  14. ↑ How China will be converted in a power ski , accessed November 27, 2017.
  15. ↑ Events (preview) offered by SA-HK , accessed on November 27, 2017.
      (For the various previous statements, click on individual lines in the list, then an additional window will open.)
  16. ↑ Chinese skiers cool off at world's largest indoor ski park as government encourages participation . In: South China Morning Post, September 18, 2017.
  17. ↑ Organization
  18. ↑ Training Committee CT-SA (Chinese)
  19. ^ Website Mounteneering.org , accessed November 29, 2017.