New horizons

The national program to boost winter sports participation has yielded impressive results, highlighted by some Olympic debuts for China at the Pyeongchang Games.

The country's bobsled team, which was only established after Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Games in 2015, managed to qualify in the two-man and four-man events through a bold strategy of cross-sport talent selection and overseas training over the past two years.

Former shot put thrower Shao Yijun will now utilize his body weight to generate enough downhill speed in the four-man race－a test of speed, steering and guts.

"To be able to appear in Pyeongchang with our sled is already a success for us, given that we had to start from zero, with nothing in terms of expertise and facilities to develop this niche sport," said Shao, who was drafted in a cross-sport audition in 2015 from the Shanghai athletics team.

To make up for its weakness in knowhow, China's winter sports governing body has hired renowned sliding sports experts such as bobsledder Manuel Machata of Germany and Olympic skeleton silver medalist Jeff Pain of Canada as national team coaches.

In November, former long jumper Geng Wenqiang impressed at a skeleton World Cup race in Lake Placid, New York by finishing seventh out of a 31-strong field under Pain's guidance, heralding the rise of the sport in China.

Elsewhere, skier Chang Xinyue became the first athlete from China to qualify for an Olympic ski jumping competition after she significantly improved her ranking thanks to her results in World Cup events.

The men's and women's freestyle ski halfpipe and female snowboard parallel giant slalom in Pyeongchang will also see Chinese athletes compete for the first time at a Winter Olympics.