After five defeats from as many games at the International Ice
Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division I tournament, China was
relegated.
Chinese ice hockey has plunged to a new crisis after the
tournament on Saturday. That's the common response from Chinese
insiders on the sport.
Lan Li, the deputy director of winter sports center in State
General Administration of Sport, said ice hockey has already been a
forgotten sport in China.
"The reason behind the poor results is that ice hockey is
forgotten in China," he said.
It's not only for the men's sport, but also for the women's.
China set a goal at winning the women's title in the sixth
Winter Asian Games last February, but they ended up with a third
place. The men's team finished fourth after Japan, Kazakhstan and
South Korea.
Chinese national team head coach Xiang Shuqing said there are
three problems facing the country's ice hockey.
"Firstly, China can not get sustainable supply of backup
players; Secondly, few teenagers like to be a professional player
for the lack of financial guarantee after retirement; Thirdly,
professional players can not earn enough money to maintain a decent
life, so the sport is losing its appeal among youngsters."
Chinese ice hockey enjoyed its best time in the 1980s but it
lasted only a very short time. Jilin province, where ice hockey
used to be one of the most popular sports, disbanded its provincial
team in 1997.
The same thing is true for the neighbouring Heilongjiang
province. During its heyday, there were ten men's and women's ice
hockey teams. Now only one left for women and three for men.
"In China, football is the No. sport. It takes away everything,
money and fans, although Chinese football failed to achieve any
good results. But no one spares any care on ice hockey," a
journalist commented at the tournament.
"China is the most populous country, but there are only 200
professional players in total. How could you count on such a small
number of people to achieve good results?" said Xiang.
"We have a good foundation in ice hockey in Poland. We set up
tiers of training program in line with the players' ages, so we can
get persistent backup in national team," Polish coach Rudolf
Rohacek said after they defeated Kazakhstan.
A French journalist revealed ice hockey is very popular in the
Alpes land, especially in Lyon and Grenoble within France. There is
a professional ice hockey league named Ligue Moquus in his country
and a few players in French team is playing the NHL in North
America.
France finished first in the group to advance to the World
Championship, while Poland edged out Kazakhstan to book the second
place in the overall rankings.
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(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)