Chinese skating updates and reports

[kittyjake5]

Congratulations to the Happy Couple? They will be wonderful parents!

[Sylvia]

Article in English about that:
Baby joy for star pair
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/...t_16416841.htm

Thanks! Excerpt re. Zhao's coaching role:

Besides becoming a father and an artist director, Zhao will take on another role soon — a coach of the Chinese figure skating team.

Although that position still has to be approved by the Chinese Winter Sports Administrative Center, Zhao has already started laying out his plans.

"I recently went to Heilongjiang province to select young skaters and I have a rough list now," said Zhao.

"I want to select potential pair from those young singles skaters. I also plan to give them detailed training both on land and on ice. They will receive artistic performance training on land and skating skills' training on ice."
...
"Chinese figure skating is in a difficult time right now," Zhao said.

"I'm still waiting for the administrative center to approve my coaching position … I want to give the young skaters all of my experience if I'm appointed coach."

A separate, celebratory thread was started here: Shen And Zhao Will Be New Parents Soon!

[jjane45]

Article on ice dancers HUANG Xintong / ZHENG Xun

落选赛成中国冰舞黄金组合最后机会 冬奥会后退役
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-04-...46536099.shtml

Quick summary:

HUANG / ZHENG have been together for 14 years (!!) and nebelhorn trophy is their last chance to qualify for the Sochi Olympics. Because her health issues, they will certainly retire after Sochi. He is not considering to find a new partner.

They recently performed in an ice show and were quite happy with her recovery. There is certainly a lot of pressure for the team to qualify for Sochi, and the competition is way more difficult compared to four years ago.

After retiring, he wants to coach the little ones, and she just wishes to "heal and rest" first.

[DORISPULASKI]

I so hope they qualify, but I think they will be at Sochi in any case if they can regain their national championship, because China qualified for WTT this year (top 6) and the Olympic version has the top 10 teams. And I am expecting them to regain it. I hope Huang continues to heal!

[sk8dsmom]

according to the team leader's weibo(a website like twitter in chinese)
Cheng PENG/Hao ZHANG,Zijun Li, Kexin Zhang,Nan Song and Han Yan will fly to Canada and work with Lori Nichol.

So maybe my eyes were not deceiving me when I thought it was Hao ZHANG in a Toronto area skate shop on Sunday with a bunch of young asians (maybe some skaters.. wasn't really paying attention to them)?

[jjane45]

Double post

[jjane45]

Yes they are still in Canada. YAN Han just posted a picture of himself taking a dance class. Other than that, not much news.

[Sylvia]

Re-posting from the Han YAN über thread:

It's from "All Sports" April edition(No.168),written by Vivian Wei.

Since they are not going to publish the online version,I took some not so clear photos of it.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ps511cb06a.jpg

http://s28.photobucket.com/user/luoq...14705.jpg.html

http://s28.photobucket.com/user/luoq...3ee1f.jpg.html

Translation of the magazine article: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/show...=1#post3916349
Translation of the Q&A: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/show...=1#post3914473

I am looking forward to seeing what Lori Nichol can do with Yan!

[jjane45]

major change in national pairs coaching team, ZHAO Hongbo will be the main pairs coach in the Olympic season, S/H's coach LUAN Bo moves to Beijing with her teams.

can someone please post the news report link and/or share more details?

[Jeschke]

major change in national pairs coaching team, ZHAO Hongbo will be the main pairs coach in the Olympic season, S/H's coach LUAN Bo moves to Beijing with her teams.

can someone please post the news report link and/or share more details?

what's with bin yao and yu sun?
finally retired? or just additional coaches?

[Ziggy]

I am looking forward to seeing what Lori Nichol can do with Yan!

Whilst I really dislike her work (Kostner's programs being an exception), she surely can't do any worse than the crap he had last season.

[jjane45]

what's with bin yao and yu sun?
finally retired? or just additional coaches?

Coach YAO is still the head coach of the national team.

ZHAO is the 8th member of the pairs coaching team. His role is not yet finalized, but according to the report he will likely coach WANG Xuehan / WANG Lei and CHEN Xiaoxue / GUO Wenxiong.

赵宏博临危受命力拼冬奥奖牌 有望成为姚滨接班人
http://sports.cn.yahoo.com/ypen/20130515/1742095.html

[jlai]

花滑国家队名单：赵宏博双人滑主帅 庞清佟健助教
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...66567351.shtml

[Sylvia]

花滑国家队名单：赵宏博双人滑主帅 庞清佟健助教
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...66567351.shtml

The new skating national team player roster:

Pairs Group: PENG Cheng / ZHANG Hao, Sui Wenjing / HAN Cong, YU Xiaoyu / JIN Yang, WANG Xuehan / WANG Lei, CHEN Xiaoxue / GUO Wenxiong

Men's singles Group: SONG Nan, YAN Han, WANG Yi, LIU Jiaxing, GUAN Jinlin

Women's singles Group: ZHANG Kexin, LI Zijun, ZHAO Ziquan, ETA: 1 to be confirmed (according to jlai's post below)

Ice dancing group: HUANG Xintong / ZHENG Xun, YU Xiaoyang / WANG Chen

Are these names correct via Google Translate and extra checking?

[jlai]

Women's singles Group: ZHANG Kexin, LI Zijun, ZHAO Ziquan be confirmed

It's Zhang, Li, Zhao and one to be confirmed

Sorry I pasted in a rush and added the link without any explanation.

P/T will be assistant coach. Li MingZhu will be coaching ladies. Pairs and singles will be training in Beijing; Ice dancing will be elsewhere, coached by 奚鸿雁

ETA: more articles http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...96569455.shtml
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...06568581.shtml

[icellist]

It's Zhang, Li, Zhao and one to be confirmed

Sorry I pasted in a rush and added the link without any explanation.

P/T will be assistant coach. Li MingZhu will be coaching ladies. Pairs and singles will be training in Beijing; Ice dancing will be elsewhere, coached by 奚鸿雁

ETA: more articles http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...96569455.shtml
http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...06568581.shtml

So P/T retired from competitive skating?

[Sylvia]

So P/T retired from competitive skating?

This second article link posted by jlai seems to say (last section) that Pang/Tong still hope to compete in the Sochi Olympics despite his knee injury while also transitioning to a coaching role? http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2013-05-...06568581.shtml

[jlai]

I wish P/T would just retire. From the article it sounds like the injury is v hard to heal and another Olympics may not be worth it. Plus he is putting off surgery which makes it worse

[Stephanie]

I wish P/T would just retire. From the article it sounds like the injury is v hard to heal and another Olympics may not be worth it. Plus he is putting off surgery which makes it worse

Agreed, and China only has two Olympic spots, so if Pang/Tong don't retire means that either P/Z or S/H (probably the latter) won't get to go. Sadly, I think P/T might be forced to continue in the hopes of earning an Olympic medal.