Chinese Ski Team – FasterSkier

Community Feature News Olympics Racing World Cup

China spent millions on cross-country skiing in the leadup to Beijing. What happens now?

Nathaniel HerzMarch 31, 2022

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — A month ago, I met with a source close to the Chinese government in a tiny room in this mountain resort outside Beijing, which hosted the 2022 Olympic cross-country skiing events. There, the source explained how a decision by international skiing officials to disqualify a Chinese cross-country skier from a race was like killing a baby. China does not have, exactly, a long tradition of success in winter sports like cross-country skiing. But...

Community Feature News Olympics Racing

The Chinese Ski Team’s Path to Beijing (Part 3)

Pasha KahnFebruary 18, 2022

This is the final installment of a three-part series on the development of the Chinese ski program. Click here to read part 1 and part 2. Part 3: Olympic Hopes and Misgivings in Norway For the Chinese cross country ski team, the 2022 Beijing Olympics opened with a blaze when Dinigeer Yilamujiang was selected to co-light the Olympic flame. It was an enormous honor for the twenty year old cross country skier from Altai, China...

Community Feature General News

The Chinese Ski Team’s Path to Beijing (Part 2)

Pasha KahnFebruary 13, 2022

You can find the introduction to this three-part series on the development of the Chinese ski program here. Creating a Generation of Skiers China, pursuing Olympic medals on home snow, signed deals in 2018 to train Chinese skiers in Norway and Finland. The first hurdle would be filling these programs with potential skiers. To that end, a talent building program was initiated and young professional athletes in the second tier of rowing, kayaking, and running...

Community Feature General News

The Chinese Ski Team’s Path to Beijing (Part 1)

Pasha KahnFebruary 7, 2022

Salmon for Skiing Over the last four years China has undertaken perhaps the grandest experiment in cross country skiing history: can hundreds of athletes cherry picked from other sports and given seemingly unlimited resources be turned into Olympic medalists in nordic events? Chinese athletes have never medaled in any of the nordic disciplines, and their teams head into the Olympics as the darkest of dark horses. Success, in the form of medals, is key to...