China wheeling into contention

Cross-country skiing converts embracing snowless alternative

Featuring thrill without chill, roller skiing is gaining momentum in China with an increasing number of enthusiasts drawn to the snowless equivalent of cross-country skiing.

The highlands around Baiyin in Northwest China's Gansu province, extremely hot and dry in summer, might seem the least likely location for skiing, but the introduction of the roller version has turned the winter sports wilderness into a new training base for the country's emerging cross-country skiers.

During the inaugural National Roller Ski Championship in Baiyin last week, more than 500 participants, including 302 full-time athletes from home and abroad, piloted wheeled skis in competition against each other on tarmac and plastic tracks, redefining the public perception of winter sports exercise.

"Maybe it seems a little bit weird in a country where there is not a deep culture in skiing," Ragnar Andresen, a four-time world roller skiing champion from Norway, told China Daily.

"But it's important and necessary for Chinese ski sports to have an entry event like this to get more people involved on the wheels," added Andresen, who was invited to Baiyin by event sponsor SWIX, a Norwegian ski wax and equipment manufacturer.

Developed in the 1940s as a training method for cross-country skiers, roller skiing has grown into a competitive sport in its own right, with an annual World Cup series and biennial world championships held under the auspices of the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Featuring long-distance and sprint races in both classic and skate skiing styles, the Baiyin competition was the first FIS-sanctioned roller skiing ranking event in China - and its challenging course impressed international skiers.

"It was intimidating to see the steep course climbing up the mountain but it was fun to ride on it," Sweden's Maja Majback said of the women's 1.8km uphill race that wound through 22 curves on the banks of the Yellow River.

Overcoming an altitude of 1,600m, Zhang Yan won the female uphill in 9 min and 16.31 sec while Li Xuezhi finished first in the men's group in 8:12.82.

Distance skiers Wang Qiang and Li Xin, both 2018 Pyeongchang Olympians, won the men's and women's 20km classic races in 38:34.62 and 45:28.65 respectively.

A relative novice in snow events, China is pursuing an ambitious plan to involve 300 million people in winter sports leading up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The accessible and flexible nature of roller skiing makes it a perfect tool to help achieve the goal in a country that for the most part lacks natural snowfall and suitable terrain for skiing.

"It's easy to organize and it could run under almost any weather conditions," said Li Jiajun, an official from the competition department of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center.

"Its similarity to cross-country skiing, using the same skills and feasibility on any hard surfaces, caters to our desire for making skiing exercise as available as possible to the public."

Between the physically demanding 1.8km and 20km races for the pros, organizers of the Baiyin championship also staged a 3km mini race on city roads open to amateurs to give the public a sense of how roller skiing differs from roller skating.

"It's quite different in terms of how you propel your body moving forward on the wheels," said Li Huiming, a long-time roller skater and the oldest contestant in the amateurs' race at 62.

"You skate with the power of your lower limbs, but you roller ski with the strength of all your body coordinated by balance and motion. It's more challenging but fun," added Li, a member of the Snow Elves Cross-Country Skiing Club in Harbin.

To help the event engage more fans like Li, the winter sports administration has selected 11 cities across the country as pilot locations for roller skiing promotion.

The center, with support from local governments, will provide funding to these cities to support their grassroots promotion, along with training developed by a coaching crew led by Andresen.

Each of the cities is required to train at least 100 roller skiing coaches by the end of this year, according to Wu Rongtian, an official from the center's mass winter sports department.

"Our goal is to make roller skiing part of the physical education curriculum in schools in these cities," he said.

After the success in Baiyin, the center is focusing on identifying courses in urban areas of major cities to bring future races close to the public, said Wu.