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China snowboard takes Universiade as learning course for Olympics
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2005-01-14 11:25
Xinhuanet
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SEEFELD, Austria, Jan. 13, 2005 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese snowboard has played down the importance of a good result in the 22nd World Winter Universiade Games with an eye on the bigger event -- Winter Olympics.
China had four skiers in the parallel giant slalom of snowboardon Thursday. Li Xiaotong came out with the best result, a 38th-place finish among 48 female athletes with a time of 59.25 seconds.
Florine Valderaire, the winner of women’s event, clocked the fastest time of 43.35 seconds.
Chinese snowboard coach Li Wanze said that he was satisfied with Chinese skiers’ performance.
"They finished the competition in less than one minute, which is better than my expectation," said Li, "You know, they practicedthe parallel giant slalom for a very short time -- about two days."
According to Li, Chinese skiers didn’t have their own snowboards for the giant slalom until they arrived in Austria.
"In China, we can’t buy such snowboards particularly designed for parallel giant slalom," said Li. "We bought them after we arrived in Austria."
"We only take the Innsbruck Universiade as a learning course," said Li, a teacher at a Chinese university.
China, who is making its debut at international snowboard competition, has dispatched a 8-person team to the event.
"Although we are novices in snowboard, but I think we can catchup very soon," said Li, "The Chinese young skiers have made amazing improvement in recent days."
But he was reluctant to make any predication about the future. "I am not sure, maybe two or three years. I hope that we could perform better at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics," he said.
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