In the absence of Russia in the upcoming international season, China could really claim the medals. In any case, one powerful sprinter has the prerequisites for big victories, who has already ruffled the nerves of the favorites at the Olympics.

Scandinavian specialists were supposed to help the Asian team prepare for the World Cup. The national team even planned to spend part of the season in Norway, but changed course at the last moment.

China unexpectedly terminated contracts with Norwegian coaches right before the start of the season. And for Russia, this may be a good sign.

Help from the Russians

The Chinese have not participated in the World Cup since 2019 due to the pandemic, so they had to look for non-trivial opportunities to get to the home Olympics. Thus, the idea was born to turn to the Russians for help: the leadership of the Asian team asked our athletes to take part in a number of competitions inside China in order to earn FIS points and get into Beijing 2022.

During the Olympic season, we sent almost a dozen skiers to the neighboring republic and, in addition, a group of our specialists. Nikita Kryukov played a significant role in this interaction. Our Olympic champion by this time was already working as a coach for the still little-known sprinter Wang Qiang.

As a result, the Chinese managed to take part in the races of the Olympics, although they did not achieve much success. However, already in Beijing it became clear that a very strong sprinter is growing in the Chinese team. Wang Qiang entered the top 5 in the Olympic qualification, and only excessive emotions prevented him from reaching the semifinals. He demolished the Norwegian Golberg, for which he received the last place in the quarterfinal race.

Wang Qiang / Photo: © Maddie Meyer / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

However, a month later, China reached the historic podium at the World Cup. The stage in Drammen brought Wang Qian silver:

– After today’s competition, I have special emotions in my heart. I would like to thank the country and the big cross country family for giving me the opportunity to compete,” the skier wrote on the social network.

Unexpected changes

I must say that after the Olympics, in addition to the second place, Wang Qiang also went to the final in Lahti and was 18th at the final stage in Falun. In general, it became obvious that in the new season the Chinese will seriously impose a fight. He has huge potential.

Chinese ski leaders, realizing the prospects, even re-signed the contract with the Norwegian coach Bernhard Renning and his assistants, who were generally not particularly eager to continue working. The reason for the change of views was the fact that during the next season the team was to be based in Scandinavia. This means less travel and more control over the program.

At the same time, the main Chinese success came to the skier Kryukov, who did not have European practice over the past two seasons. Nikita himself did not have an exact understanding with the contract, but back in July of this year he admitted that a verbal agreement had been reached to extend cooperation.

Photo: © Personal archive of Nikita Kryukov

However, right before the start of the season, the Asian team made an unexpected decision:

“China is completely changing its approach. It’s kind of a reboot. I’m very unsure if they will be racing this winter or in the future,” says Coach Renning, who has been unexpectedly terminated.

Together with Renning, Ole Marius Bach was asked from the national team headquarters, and the fate of another specialist, Lars Christian Aabol, is still in question. These mentors worked with the national team for several years, but in an instant everything changed. It took less than 7 months from agreeing on new contracts to the termination of work.

A chance for Russia?

Whether this is good or bad for our skiers is hard to say. At least the Chinese leadership does not give any comments about their plans. Probably, the Chinese team could have come to such a decision based on the current situation around the new European season: without competition, with an obvious drop in interest in skiing and potential difficulties in organizing some stages, spending a lot of money on maintaining a team in Norway could be considered inappropriate. All for the sake of fighting only with the Norwegians? You might as well train in China, save money, and consider competing with Russia.

In addition, the experience of the previous Olympic cycle showed that China can be competitive even without the World Cup. At least in the sprint. So focusing on in-country training might be a good solution. Very, by the way, similar to the situation with our skiers.

Considering that our countries recently signed a cooperation agreement and the first joint junior competitions are already planned, unexpected changes in the headquarters of the Chinese team can be very useful. The appearance of Bolshunov, Terentyev and Zealous such a powerful opponent as Wang Qiang will only benefit everyone.