Capital's school kids get taste of winter sports

Schoolchildren zoomed around on roller skates, passing the puck on an artificial ice rink and practicing cross-country skiing skills on roller skis on a brisk afternoon at the Yangfangdian Central Primary School in Beijing's Haidian district.

In one of the classrooms, photos commemorating the school's connection with the Olympics and trophies won at numerous competitions were on display.

Zhou Chenguang, the sports teacher for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, is one of the teachers who helped make all of this happen. He has taught at the school for 32 years and is an avid fan of the Games.

"Our physical education classes are about enjoyment and competition, and ultimately, they've taught our children about the Winter Olympics and generated a passion for winter sports," said Zhou, 52. "By knowing more about sports, our children have a greater chance of competing in the real Games in the future."

In 2016, Zhou introduced hockey lessons to the primary school's PE classes.

"Demonstrating the popularity of winter sports at schools in Beijing should not just be a slogan. We must let students play real winter sports and learn the rules," he said.

Students from the fourth grade and above can participate in winter sports classes, but Xu Hengyu, a 10-year-old fifth grader, began to learn cross-country skiing on roller skis by herself when she was in third grade.

"I saw some senior class students practicing and thought it would be fun to do," Xu said.

"When I got home, I asked my father to buy me a pair of roller skis and started to practice in our neighborhood."

Xu trained for about half an hour a day, and when she was old enough to participate in the winter sports lessons at school, she took two classes a week.

"I would really like to become a cross-country skier, but at the moment, I can only practice on roller skis and I'm not sure when I'll have the chance to learn to ski on snow," she said.

Lyu Mingyue, Xu's roller ski coach, said the young girl was physically fit and is a fast roller skier, faster even than the male students her age. "By practicing different sports, the students' health has improved, and their physical fitness test scores are much higher than a few years ago," Lyu said.

Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said in a news conference earlier that nearly 2.1 million elementary and middle school students in the capital have taken skating or skiing lessons since 2017.

On Jan 11, the city's education commission released a list of the first group of 65 winter sports schools in Beijing, including Yangfangdian Central Primary School.

Coach Zhou said that as a teacher of basic education, his goal was to instill the Olympic spirit in the minds of the students.

"We're not professional athletes, but I hope our children will be able to experience professional winter sports while they are young," he said.

"This way, students will have a wider perspective compared with their peers when they grow up, and I believe that's the real legacy the Beijing Winter Olympic Games are supposed to leave for the next generation."