Four Yunnan athletes to compete in Beijing Games

China will send 176 athletes to the coming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, four of who come from Yunnan province, said announcement on January 27.

The Yunnan athletes of Peng Qingyue, Chen Degen, Liu Rongsheng and Pu Rui, will compete in ski jumping, cross-country skiing and freestyle skiing.

The 17-year-old Peng Qingyue is one of the youngest athletes in the Chinese delegation of Winter Olympic. She will compete in ski jumping.

Peng was born in Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture, and has been trained since January 2019.

In the 2020/2021 National Ski Jumping Championships, Peng won 2 championship titles and 2 runners-up. And in the International Ski Federation (FIS) Game of 2021/2022 Season, she won another championship and a runner-up.

"I hope she can be safe and try her best this time," said Peng’s mother. “The Beijing Winter Olympic is very important to her, I hope she can get a great result,” Lei Shiwei, Peng’s coach added.

      

 

Meanwhile, Chen Degen and Liu Rongsheng will participate in cross-country skiing. 

Chen was born in Ludian, northeast Yunnan’s Zhaotong city in 2001. He joined the national cross-country skiing training team in December 2018. 

He won three champions and seven runners-up in the 2020/2021 National Cross-Country Skiing Championships, and a champion, two runners-ups and one third in the FIS Cross-Country Skiing of 2021/2022 Season.

  

Liu Rongsheng, born in 2001 as well, is from Tengchong, southwest Yunnan’s Baoshan city. He joined the National Cross-Country Skiing Training Team of China in December 2018, and won one championship, five runner-ups in the National Cross-Country Skiing Championships of 2020/2021 season, three runner-ups in the FIS Cross-Country Skiing of 2021/2022 season.

  

The 20-year-old Pu'er girl, Pu Rui, will participate in the freestyle skiing. She entered the national training team in 2018. In December of the same year, Pu won the first place in her age group in a competition held in Portland, USA. This was less than a month after she started to learn skiing.

“when I first saw athletes on the slopes, jumping, tumbling, and twisting, I was both excited and nervous.” Pu said.
After more than a year of training, she became one of the top freestyle skiers in China.

In September 2019, Pu gained the 11th place in the Australia - New Zealand Cup, and obtained 108 FIS points. And in November 2019, in the FIS youth competition held in Saas Fee, Switzerland, Pu won the 14th and 90 FIS points, which ranked 86th place around the world and second in China.

"If I have never involved myself in freestyle skiing, I would hardly have opportunities to compete with the world's best athletes, and now I am deeply in love with this sport." Pu said.  

Another 7 players from Yunnan will serve as technicians for the Beijing winter games.

Reporting: Lou Ying (Yunnan Daily), Yunnan Sports Bureau; Trans-editing by Yang Xuan