We are talking not only about figure skating and short track - disciplines in which Chinese athletes traditionally show good results, but also about sports that are less common in China, such as hockey.

According to the strategy developed by the State General Administration of Physical Education and Sports of the People's Republic of China, the main idea of ​​holding the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022 is to promote winter sports that were previously unpopular among more than 300 million Chinese citizens. The task of spreading disciplines such as alpine skiing, bobsledding and ski jumping will largely be fulfilled by the Olympic city of Zhangjiakou, located 200 km from the capital, it is already ready to host snow tracks. But with team sports, especially hockey, the situation is much more complicated.

The 2022 Olympics will feature 12 hockey teams (8 of which will take places in the IIHF rankings), as well as the winners of three qualifying groups and the host country, that is, China. The title of "capital" of the Winter Olympic Games implies the mandatory participation in the tournament of the Chinese ice hockey team, which currently occupies only 38th place in the IIHF global rankings. The indicator is by no means high, therefore, in order to increase the competitiveness of the hockey team by 2022, the Chinese authorities have taken seriously the creation of a strong team.

Today, it is too early for Chinese hockey players to brag about their success in international competitions. In the Asian Hockey League, there is the only team from China - China Dragon, which has collected all the anti-records in the AIHL. The team was formed in 2007, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association brought together the "best of the best" from the two strongest teams: "Khosa" (Harbin) and "Changchun Fuao" (Qiqihar). As a result of negotiations between the Chinese Hockey Association and the San Jose Sharks (teams from the NHL), it was decided to strengthen the Chinese national team with five players and three coaches from the NHL, the team was named China Sharks. However, all efforts went to waste: despite the fact that the team has somewhat raised its level, by the difference of goals scored / conceded, it remained at the bottom of the standings, overtaking only the Japanese club Nikko Icebags. In 2009, the China Sharks lost financial support from the West, and the team was renamed China Dragon. Last season, the Chinese club managed to win only 7 wins in 48 matches.

An important step in the development of national hockey was the entry of the Chinese club into the Continental Hockey League (KHL)

An important step in the development of national hockey was the entry of the Chinese club into the Continental Hockey League (KHL). The decision to create a Chinese team in one of the strongest hockey leagues was discussed at the level of top officials, and in October last year, a KHL working group on the “hockey” cities of the Celestial Empire visited. During the visit, the Russian delegation visited Shanghai, Harbin and Beijing, where they got acquainted with the local hockey infrastructure and visited youth competitions. The purpose of the visit was to assess the future prospects for cooperation between the League and Chinese clubs. A little later, it became known that the President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretiak, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Continental Hockey League Gennady Timchenko and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chinese Hockey Club Krasnaya Zvezda-Kunlun Yang Yun signed a protocol on China's performances in the KHL. According to the document, in order to participate in a series of games for the next KHL season, the Krasnaya Zvezda-Kunlun club must provide financial guarantees for the minimum amount of funding until the end of April 2016, as well as fulfill all conditions for participation in the League, comply with the rules and regulations stipulated by the KHL Regulations . There is no doubt about the financial guarantees of the Chinese club - the taxation system in China is quite loyal to sports, which is well evidenced by the activity of Chinese football clubs that spent more than 203 million euros in the winter transfer window and overtook the most prestigious English Premier League in this indicator. Thus, according to forecasts, the expected budget of the "Red Star-Kunlun" will be comparable to the budgets of the richest teams in the KHL, such as SKA, Ak Bars and CSKA Moscow. The Chinese club will be based in Beijing, and the home arena will be the Mastercard Center sports complex, built for the 2008 Summer Olympics and designed for 18,000 fans.

Chinese fans hope that the new Chinese club in the KHL will be able to assemble a good team. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KHL Gennady Timchenko said that the newcomer to the KHL - the Beijing "Red Star-Kunlun" - will be given special conditions for the recruitment of hockey players. And, first of all, we will talk about athletes from North America and, possibly, players from Russia. However, hockey fans believe that the Chinese club will choose the North American vector of development, the reason for this is the offer of a working contract to Canadian hockey coach Mike Keenan, who has won many trophies in his career, including the Stanley Cup and the Gagarin Cup. If the Chinese club manages to put such an experienced coach at the helm, it will significantly increase the chances of the club performing at the highest level. However, according to the regulations, in addition to foreign stars, athletes with Chinese passports must also play in the club.

Against the backdrop of a low level of play in regional hockey clubs, the problem of finding professionals is quite acute. But it is also resolvable. Every year in China there is a growing interest in getting education abroad, many young junior hockey players go to study in Canada and the USA, and after graduation they stay to play in local clubs. As an example, 19-year-old Andong Song, who moved from China to Canada at the age of 10, played for local clubs for a long time, and was later noticed by the New York Islanders hockey club. To date, Song is considered the first ethnic Chinese in the NHL. It is possible that the "Red Star-Kunlun" will be able to return young players or naturalize players with Chinese roots.

Interesting: By the way, the prices for classes and equipment in China do not differ much from Russian ones: the average price of a uniform is about $ 65, the price of one lesson in a section is $ 30, in Russia the cost of equipment is slightly lower - around $ 55, but classes cost more expensive - 30-35 dollars

The entry of Chinese clubs into the KHL is beneficial both to the League itself and to China. The performance of the national team in the KHL contributes to the popularity of hockey in the country, and will also help in creating a competitive national team that can adequately perform at the home Olympics. In turn, the KHL will get a huge market. By the way, interest in hockey in China has been constantly growing in recent years, which is proved by the TV rating data during the hockey final at the Olympic Games in Sochi: more than 120 million Chinese watched the Canada-Sweden match, while at home they were sick of Canada only 15 million viewers. It is difficult to imagine how many viewers will cling to the screens if, sooner or later, the Chinese team gets into the final.

Equally interesting will be the matches with the participation of the Chinese team in the KHL. So, about 800 thousand Chinese people watch the NHL games, and this is despite the morning broadcast. It is worth noting that the NHL has been trying to "strengthen" in China for a long time - in addition to creating sports schools and camps, NHL clubs organize tourist trips to matches in the United States. In addition, several clubs are planning to send their players to participate in the local league. Perhaps such competition will benefit the KHL. The Youth Hockey Development Program can also contribute to this. The Ministry of Sports of China and Russia, the FHR and the KHL are in constant dialogue. It is planned to create a youth team, which may play in the MHL (Youth Hockey League). And in the “youth team” preference will be given to local players rather than legionnaires.

As for junior hockey in China itself, only three teams played at the country's championship among juniors U18 in 2014-2015: Harbin, Qiqihar and Beijing. The northern teams (Harbin and Qiqihar) are significantly inferior in technique to the young Beijing hockey players. One of the key advantages of the Beijing team is the participation of 9 young hockey players who have been trained in the USA and Canada, where beginners are intensively trained. Even if we compare the number of matches played per year, then “over the hill” young people participate in more than 100 official matches, and the guys from Chinese clubs cannot earn such a practice even in 5 years. An interesting fact is that in the capital, children start playing hockey at the age of 4-5, and children from the northern regions of China enroll in the hockey section at the age of 7-8, although it is believed that children from the northern provinces are stronger and taller. As for the number of competitions at the city level, Beijing is also in the lead here. So, about 730 matches are held in the capital during the annual city junior training camp, in which 1745 young athletes take part.

Perhaps the more active development of hockey in Beijing is influenced not only by the image of the "Olympic capital", but also by other factors. Firstly, the abundance of sports infrastructure, in the near future, specifically for the promotion of hockey and figure skating in Beijing, it is planned to build 16 ice arenas and about 50 outdoor rinks, and in total there are 64 outdoor and 48 indoor rinks in China. For comparison: in Russia at the beginning of 2016, there were 2,553 open and 450 indoor ice rinks. Secondly, the capital is leading in terms of the number of the middle class, and these are people who can afford to buy expensive hockey equipment for their children and pay for classes.

Today the Youth Hockey League has 708 players. Of course, the numbers are not so impressive, but everyone knows what Chinese athletes are capable of, especially with the support of the country's top leader: Chinese President Xi Jinping recently admitted that ice hockey is his favorite winter sport.

“Canadians have salaries of $15,000 – they don’t want to leave.” Why hockey is good in China and other Asian countries

Hockey club "Sakhalin" could not take the title of champion of the Asian League, losing the final series to the Korean "Anyang Halla" with a score of 2-3 . Team leader Ruslan Bernikov conducts a tour of hockey Asia for the site,from where the Chinese club will soon come to the KHL.

The final series of the Asian League against the Korean club "Sakhalin" began with a defeat 1:6, but won the next two matches - 3:2 in overtime and 4:0. The excitement in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was crazy: the arena for 1300 spectators was cracking from people crowded into it. In order to take the first title in its history, Sakhalin had two home matches, but both teams lost: 0:1 (the goal was conceded six seconds before the end of regular time) and 3:5 (the score was 3:3 - and Sakhalin team conceded the decisive goal again at the very end of the third period).

The leader of Sakhalin is striker Ruslan Bernikov. Before going to the island, Bernikov changed 14 KHL and VHL clubs in 10 years. And now for the second year he is one of the best snipers in Asia.

- Explain to us what the Asian League is. Who is the strongest there?

– There are nine teams in the tournament. The strongest are us, of course. There is also a very good Korean team - Anyang Halla from Seoul. This is just our opponent in the final. There is goalkeeper Dalton, a link of Canadians who have taken the citizenship of Korea and will play for them at the Olympics. The coach is Jiri Weber, who played in Perm. And in this team they are trying to gather the best hockey players in Korea in order to build a national team on its basis. So, in fact, it fell to us to play a series against the Korean team.

- What can you say about the others?

– There is a Korean military team “Deimung Sangmu”: they are soldiers, they have no salaries, they just play instead of serving and go to the penultimate place. The third Korean club is “Hi1”, Canadian Swift, the captain of the Korean national team, plays for them. Four more Japanese teams. The Freeblades are very strong: they have, for example, the captain of the Danish national team. Nippon Paper Cranes is a team from the port city of Kushiro. There, the guys after the season go to the factory to work.

- What plant?

- Pulp and paper. Pretty good team: five people from the Japanese team. Who we have next. Oji Eagles is a chic palace with heated seats, always full. "Nikko Ice Bucks" - the city of Nikko is located in the middle of Japan, this is the second Switzerland: mountains, lakes, clean air, deer walk around the arena. It's really great there. I communicate with Canadians who play Nikko. They don’t want to leave: they play hockey in a good place, and the salary is around 15 thousand dollars a month.

And the weakest are the Chinese from China Dragons. With other teams, they play home matches in Shanghai, and for some reason we play with them in Qiqihar, which is not far from Harbin. You come there - smog, five-story buildings are gray, the palace is cold, the ice is ugly. Very depressing. The Chinese also have five foreigners - the best of them is Brett Pernham, who played in the VHL for Perm and Saryarka. But their emphasis is on their own, on the Chinese. They play poorly, of course. For understanding: in all Asian teams, the game is played by Canadian units. The rest get out of themselves with all their strength, play as best they can - and the main task is not to miss. Hockey is completely different.

– In what?

- Asians play strictly according to the schemes. No one even tries to throw some beautiful, hidden back pass without looking. Improvisation is zero, they play straightforwardly. What is the plus: they are efficient, physically prepared, executive. The coach told the player where to run, and he ran.

- The Chinese club in the KHL - do you believe in it?

- Well, why not? I think it will be interesting for the guys from the KHL to fly to Beijing once a season. As for the game, this new team will have a maximum of one Chinese link, which will go out twice during the period. Because the levels vary, of course. What is the point of releasing them under Mozyakin - so that he makes fools out of them? A Canadian will probably be appointed as a coach there. And the Chinese, I repeat, will be in the composition of two or five, no more.

- The Chinese are good at individual sports, but it is difficult for them to play team sports. Do you think they will succeed in hockey?

“It will be hard for them. The Chinese need to put Pyotr Ilyich Vorobyov as a coach. Here he will be able to make a team out of them, which will spoil everyone's nerves. I'm not kidding: according to his schemes and tasks, they will play normally. Cut off a player, prevent him from throwing, get under the puck - they can do it all. What else is their problem: the Chinese have few big ones, all of them are short. And I feel that sometimes in collisions they are afraid of us.

Ruslan Bernikov signed this photo on his Facebook like this: “I start it, I start it - it won’t start.”

- Two years ago you played in Voronezh and thought to finish if there were no offers. Did you immediately understand that it would be so good for you on Sakhalin?

- Of course not. When they called me in 2014, I thought whether to fly or not. It's very far away. Arrived and thought: “Where am I? Was on some island. Why am I here? He came to the team - most of the guys are unfamiliar, with whom he did not intersect either in the VHL or in the KHL. And then hockey started: at Sakhalin's home games the stadium is packed, on the road there is an unusual picture - you visit Korea, Japan. This is great.

- After trips to the major leagues, the difference is especially strongly felt?

- Yes, traveling to the VHL is the worst thing. I am calling back now with the guys who play in the big leagues: they will either spend 30 hours on the bus, then 20 on the train, then they will stand on the M-4 in a traffic jam. And here, 10 minutes to the airport, the longest flight is about three hours to Seoul, on board the plane they feed shrimp and scallops. It takes 50 minutes to fly to Sapporo. Tokyo is two hours away. Completely different conditions. Here we had a delay at Sapporo airport for a day due to snowfall. And there is a bathhouse with hotel rooms at the airport right on the roof. And the days flew by. You take a steam bath, go out, lie under the open sky in a hot pool, look at the planes (some were still allowed to take off), snow falls from above - beauty. We slept, ate, went to the steam room, slept again, ate - and already our flight is being announced.

After the bath at Sapporo Airport.

- If you were called to the VHL now, what would embarrass you besides trips?

“There are salary delays of three months. There have never been any problems in Sakhalin for two years: everything is paid clearly. Before this season, they invited me back to Buran. To be honest, I was torn. I am pleased to remember Voronezh, it's true. A very good team, four thousand fans at almost every match. But I stayed and have no regrets. The main reason is family. Why is it good in Sakhalin: three matches in four days - and free. Played on the road - immediately flew home. And I spend most of the year with my family. And in the VHL you go on trips for one and a half to two weeks.

Is your family always with you?

- Yes. When a husband and wife do not live together, it is no longer a family. How many cities I changed - probably twenty - and they were always with me: a wife, two children, and a cat and a dog. The son is engaged in hockey and boxing, the daughter is in gymnastics. School next to the house. The kids love it here.

- Your son was born when you played in Tolyatti. From Tolyatti you went to Cherepovets, Kazan, Ufa, Mytishchi, Novosibirsk, Nizhnekamsk, Chekhov, Moscow, Tyumen, Khabarovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Voronezh and finally ended up on Sakhalin. How did the son take it?

– After all, I myself changed many schools in my childhood and I remember how hard it was to get used to the team. In this regard, the son will give me a head start: he enters a new class - and in two or three days he has a lot of friends. Well done in general. And he changed so many hockey teams - he never complained.

Maybe because he's into boxing?

- Ha-ha, no, he's only been going to boxing for the second year - he went here, on Sakhalin. He's a pretty good guy. We go to training with the whole family. For example, I have a lesson in the gym, my son is on ice, my wife is in fitness, my daughter is in gymnastics. And we spend half a day at the Sports Palace. My son initially trained at our Kristall Sports Palace, but now the arena is too busy: we also have a basketball team here, they don’t have their own gym yet. So the amount of ice in children has decreased. I agreed and sent my son to study at the Sakhalin Sharks school: there is ice seven days a week in the morning and evening, even if you drive him 14 times a week. Plus, there is their training center with hockey simulators: 12 individual lessons with a coach cost nine thousand rubles there - and I see that after these trainings my son adds. It is difficult to imagine such a situation in Moscow, but here, fortunately, it is possible: the son plays for Kristall, and trains at the Sakhalin Sharks - and no one interferes. People on Sakhalin are simpler and more friendly.

- The coach, who has been working in China for eight years, says that he can no longer eat Russian food. What habits have you developed during your two years on Sakhalin?

- Well, for example, now I practically do not eat meat. I switched to fish - and I can even advise a little. A lot of friends have appeared here among the fans of the team, who take them out for fishing and treat them with seafood. Seafood contains a lot of protein. The same scallop is the healthiest food. Before the games, I ask my wife to cook halibut with rice. And we eat rice native, Japanese. I don’t know how they grow it, but it is much tastier than the one we sell in stores. Therefore, when we are in Japan, I definitely go to the supermarket and pick up there: strawberries, ten kilograms of rice ...

- I heard Japanese vitamins are very good.

– Yes, all medicines and food supplements are of very high quality. I bring vitamins from there, shark fat in capsules is a very useful thing, they drink it as a prevention of cancer. For the wife - collagen, cosmetics. From China, guys who understand, they bring tea.

- You said that there is more free time on Sakhalin. What are you spending it on?

- There is nothing like in the VHL, when we trained twice a day. Here you came in the morning, worked out in the gym and on the ice, had lunch - and are free until the next day. You can go to the sea, you can go skiing - there is a good ski resort, which people from all over Asia fly to. In the evening I go to boxing or to the wrestlers' gym.

How did you get along with the wrestlers?

- And they are similar in spirit to hockey players - the same open guys. It turned out that they somehow approached after the match: “Rus, come to our hall.” I came and realized that their training is very useful for hockey. 30 minutes warm-up: somersaults, coordination exercises. Then they start fighting, I step aside - I have nothing to do there. I work on the horizontal bar, I do exercises for the press. And then I join them in rugby, more precisely in wrestling basketball: you run around the hall, but you don’t knock the ball on the floor, but like in rugby you carry it to the ring (this game is also called “regball” - site). And at any moment you can be pushed, knocked down, start to choke. A very peculiar game - and I really got hooked on it. They last played for an hour and a half. I came out of there soaking wet. I sweat well there, I lose weight - I really like it. What is useful for hockey: jerky speed is worked out, speed-strength endurance and power struggle is very tough. I understand that all this will come in handy on the ice.

- I saw rugball in Dagestan in the hall of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Even then, the question began to occupy: will the playing qualities help or will they still quickly fill up?

- Well, the wrestlers usually play like this: they grab the ball and run. I try to be smarter: they gave me the ball, everyone ran at me, and I give it to the touch. Because if they grab my arm or leg, then there is almost no chance to save the ball. Therefore, my game: accepted - gave, showed with the body to the right - went to the left. We play nine by nine. I sometimes managed to run through the entire court with the ball, but I didn’t score. Because when you run under the ring with the ball, it is impossible to throw from there. They immediately hang on you, knock you down, start to suffocate you. The world champion in pankration Evgeny Lotin plays there, there are freestyle wrestlers of a very serious level.

Evgeny Lotin and Ruslan Bernikov at wrestling basketball.

- How often do you go to wrestlers?

– Twice a week if there are no games. This is also important: to change the picture before your eyes, to include other muscles. I am 38 years old. And for 32 years I have been training on ice. That is, young people go out on the ice to train - and they fight, cut, on emotions, and you, at your age, are more relaxed about this.

- Maxim Sushinsky said this on this topic: “It is better to play than to train.”

- Exactly. My excitement wakes up in games. And in this regard, for me, a real find in the training of wrestlers. They are perceived fresh, while you get a good load. On the same box for an hour and a half - and I'm covered in soap.

- There, after all, a famous boxing coach works for you - when I came to Sakhalin, he was presented as a local landmark.

– Yes, this is Samvel Sergeevich Abrahamyan. When he was still at CSKA, Kharlamov came to train with him. Samvel Sergeevich gives very interesting exercises for physics, for coordination. If you do something wrong, you can say: “But Kharlamov could easily complete this exercise.” A good man, he knows how to start. And all this is very useful to me. So I can run ten laps on the ice and not get tired, and if you hit a punching bag for three minutes, your hands hang. Another load. So in a week, in addition to hockey, I can have two training sessions with wrestlers, two or three in boxing, and if there is no wrestling or boxing, I just go to the gym with my wife and run along the track.

- According to the results of the regular season, you are fourth in terms of scoring in the league: 28 goals and 37 assists in 48 games. In the best season in Voronezh you had 16+20 in 53 matches. Are goals easier in the Asian League?

- Here, in general, the level of the major leagues. I just have more playing time here than I had in Buran. Head coach Aleksey Vasilyevich Tkachuk trusts me very much, I am constantly on the ice during the power play. And if before you played 14 minutes, and now you play 25 minutes, then this affects the statistics, you understand. Another plus: the Asian league is very clean. No one here will hit you on purpose, or injure you. I just watched the KHL playoffs - well, they play very dirty. They see that a man is standing near the side, and they hit him in the back. Or they try to plant an elbow in the head. Very ugly. There is no such thing here.

- I saw on Facebook how your chin was cut.

- Yes, it happened by accident: I was going through a penny to finish off, and the Japanese tried to throw the puck away and, by inertia, hit me with a hook and broke my beard. And immediately a thousand apologies, then the whole Japanese team banged on the ice with clubs when I got up. That is, in the Asian League between rivals, as a rule, there are very respectful relations. There is practically no dirt. Which is good: we have a professional doctor - and in order to sew up, he did not even shave my beard. And everything turned out clean. Then, however, on rugby with wrestlers, this wound reopened for me, but nothing - everything has already healed.

Text: Alexander Lyutikov

Have been going for a very long time. , . Where are the origins of Chinese hockey and how does this sport live today in China?

Where did it all start?

In 1963, the Chinese Ice Hockey Federation joined the IIHF. However, the origins of this sport in China date back to the 1910s, when they began to get acquainted with hockey in the Celestial Empire. In 1953, a national league appeared, uniting amateur teams, then it included 8 teams, and later their number ranged from 6 to 12.

As for the founding of the national association, the dates vary: in different sources there are 1957, 1951 and 1953. It originated as a subdivision of the Winter Sports Association.

In 1983, the Ice Hockey Association, headquartered in Beijing, received independent status. The China Ice Hockey Association has five branches: the National Committee, the Standing Committee, the Coaches Committee, the Referee Committee, and the Research Committee.

Who plays hockey and where?

According to reports, more than 20,000 people play hockey in China today, of which more than 1,200 are registered as professional hockey players. There are about 100 skating rinks in the country, 48 of them indoors. In addition, 98 hockey referees are registered in China.

National team

The Chinese team is ranked 38th among the men's national teams. The Chinese won their biggest victory in 1999 when they beat Kuwait 35:0, and the biggest defeat was the game with Latvia in 1994, when the team from the Baltics was stronger with a score of 22:0. There were years when China rose to the first division of the world championship, but it was not possible to hold out there for more than two seasons.

Chinese clubs

The China Dragon Club is the only professional club in the country and plays outside the Chinese championship - in the Asian Hockey League. This club is based in Shanghai and has never achieved any success in the AHL (only once did the Dragons manage to take not the last place, but the penultimate one - in the 2008/09 season). Leading it at the moment Jeff Hutchins, a former Canadian-British hockey player who played for the UK national team. There are also players from North America in the club. The arena in Shanghai, by the way, can accommodate 8,000 spectators.

That's what he said Wade Flaherty, a former Vancouver goaltender, on his performances in the Chinese league: “In China, no one really knows about the word “role”. Hockey players randomly run around the court. The players have positions, but they have little idea what it is.

When I came to China, it seemed to me that this was a good opportunity to be part of something new, to help them create a league from scratch. It is bad that the season there lasts from September to January. Even an 8-year-old child in Canada spends more time on the ice than Chinese hockey players. This needs to change,” Flaherty confided in an interview with The Vancouver Sun. These words were spoken in 2009. Perhaps very soon we will have the opportunity to see with our own eyes the positive developments in Chinese hockey that have taken place over the past years.

Why China?

In 2022, Beijing will host the Winter Olympics. Naturally, the Chinese side is interested in the development of winter sports, which have hitherto been in the background or even third place in this country. Therefore, the presence of a club in can become an impetus for the development of hockey in the country, including in terms of increasing spectator interest.

“There is no direct connection between the entry of the Chinese club into the 2022 Olympics. China is accustomed to planning all activities for a long period of time. We are in a hurry to a certain extent, so here we need to somehow harmonize the speed of decision-making. In any case, China will develop hockey. I know that the International Ice Hockey Federation is also actively working in this direction. The Olympic Games will be the catalyst. You place the object in a favorable environment, and everything happens faster there, ”Dmitry Chernyshenko said about the motives for the club from China to join.