WINTER SPORTS NO LONGER A CHILL TO CHINA'S ATHLETES

Olympians close gap thanks to coaching by foreign experts

With China's growing ambition to expand its winter sports prowess by 2022, a legion of foreign experts have pulled through cultural and acclimation challenges to help the country catch up with the world's best on snow and ice.

Hours before the athletes arrived on the course for the women's 10-kilometer cross-country skiing at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Feb 15, Norwegian Bjorn Kristiansen and assistant Bernhard Ronning were busy waxing and testing skis as part of a pre-race routine, which has been in the genes of the Scandinavian skiing culture but is relatively new in China.