At 64, an eternal love of life on the ice

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August 12, 2021

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At 64, an eternal love of life on the ice

Source: Xinhua | 00:00 UTC+8 August 12, 2021 |

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When people gradually left the brightly lit shopping mall on a summer night, the ice rink began to embrace 64-year-old skating coach Liu Wei and his troupe of young students.

“After people leave the mall, the rent of this ice rink is lower, and this is why we always train until midnight,” said Liu, whose speed on the ice belies his greying temples.

The rink is in Yinchuan, capital of China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a drought-stricken and underdeveloped part of the country. There are few ice rinks here, but Liu dreams of cultivating a champion team.

“In terms of skating, balance and strength are the key,” Liu said. The team of over 20 children is the best in Ningxia, despite an average age of no more than 14. Apart from training on ice, Liu also takes children to open spaces to practise roller skating and running.

“It’s my daughter’s honor to have Liu as her coach, and she has made an amazing progress in the last six months,” said Wang Chao, as her daughter skates by.

Born in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, where ice and snow sports are popular due to the long winters, Liu has been skating since childhood, and his father was a professional skating coach.

But ice and snow sports could not offer much reward as a profession back then, and Liu gave up being a professional athlete, turning to another field of work.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Liu left his hometown for Yinchuan for work, but still kept up his interest. Ningxia had no ice rink then, so Liu skated on a frozen lake in the park, and his performance attracted many fans.

People’s enthusiasm rekindled Liu’s passion, and he decided to bring skating to the city. In 1993, he established the Association of Skating & Roller Skating of Ningxia, with about 500 members.

But his determination to establish a professional skating team was triggered by a national-level roller skating competition in Yinchuan near his home almost two decades ago.

“I went to see how the Yinchuan players performed, only to find they just finished one-fifth of the competition,” Liu said. “So I decided to resign and become a coach.”

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At 64, an eternal love of life on the ice

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