In Haituo Mountain, the National Sliding Centre "Xue You Long" is like a giant dragon meandering amongst mountains. From November 13th to 16th, it welcomed the official training of bobsleigh and skeleton of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF). In the "Xue You Long" track starting area, 25-year-old Su Xin has just been licensed to work as a professional national level 2 referee.
Yanqing is one of the three major competition areas for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, taking over the rich Olympic legacy. In the post-Winter Olympics era, how to undertake and utilize the Olympic legacy, and transform the ice and snow sports advantage into a long-lasting development advantage of the region, is a topic being explored in Yanqing District. Since the launch of thematic education, Yanqing District Sports Bureau has taken "the utilization of Winter Olympic Heritage" as a collective research topic of the team and has carried out 19 discussions and field researches.
The level of service and security for international events is a visual test of the effectiveness of the utilization of Winter Olympic heritage. After the official training from November 13th to 16th, from November 17th to 19th, the "Xue You Long" will welcome the first international event after the Winter Olympics: 2023-24 IBSF Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup.
In order to serve and safeguard this international event, Yanqing Sports Bureau has sent 13 domestic technical officials and staff members who have participated in the Winter Olympics, but this part of the force is not enough. To make full use of the Winter Olympic talent heritage, it is also necessary to successively cultivate ice and snow talents and introduce more young blood into the organization. To this end, Yanqing conducted a survey of young English talents in the whole region, selected outstanding talents to participate in the bobsleigh and skeleton referee training class, and issued a national level 2 referee certificate to those who passed the exam. "In the end, 21 Yanqing local referees were selected, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of referees, and basically all of them are 'post-90s' generation." Yanqing District Sports Bureau deputy director Liu Qianxun said.
The "Xue You Long" track is 1975 meters long, with a vertical drop of more than 120 meters. Depending on their location, referees perform their respective duties and assist the work of international technical officials, including the chief referee, deputy chief referee, starting chief, starter, medical docking officer, etc. Su Xin, who was selected this time, served as the starting zone referee. Temperature measurement is an important task for the starting zone referee. "The air, the ice, the standard sliding edge, the sliding edge of the athlete's bobsleigh, all have to be measured." With that, Su Xin picked up the thermometer, and the probe was perpendicular to the side of the sliding edge, stationary, waiting for the temperature displayed on the electronic screen of the thermometer to be stable, and then recorded. The usual standard is that the sliding edge temperature of the athlete's bobsleigh can not differ from the standard sliding edge by more than 4 degrees Celsius. The temperature measurement process should also be rigorous, "in the whole temperature measurement process, our equipment should not rub the sliding edge of the bobsleigh."
Before the selection, Su Xin was an ordinary section member who had just come to Yanqing District Audit Bureau for less than three years. After theoretical and practical training and an all-English assessment, Su Xin was successfully selected.
Du Cailu, 30, also made her international referee debut as a medical docking officer. The "Xue You Long" track is not only composed of 16 corners with different angles and inclines, but also includes a 360-degree roundabout track which is very rare in the world, and the risk factor is very high. "In the past international training week, there was an athlete accident, I and the medical staff arrived at the scene at the first moment for emergency treatment, and transferred him to the nearest hospital." Du Cailu's experience is that the more emergencies there are, the more important it is to remain calm to deal with them quickly and steadily.
The 2023-24 IBSF Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup is about to kick off. The referees are fully prepared, and this young team will show the professional level of Chinese referees and the style of Beijing youth.
Translator: ZHOU Huilin
Reviewer: LIU Jin
