Missing links in the chain
Despite the encouraging improvements in Pyeongchang, the winning formula needs more ingredients to produce expected results at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, according to foreign coaches.
"The system doesn't quite understand skeleton yet," said Pain, who was hired for the Chinese bobsled and skeleton team in 2016.
"A team wins medals in this sport, not just one pilot. There should be a doctor, a physiotherapist, a coach and a manager. Our team at the moment is very small. We have to add a lot of missing pieces, absolutely," said Pain, who won silver in the highly technical event at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics.
The relatively closed sports talent-cultivating system in China, with less all-around education offered than athletic training, also has posed a challenge for elevating to the next level, said Peter Kolder, a Dutch long-track speed skating coach hired for the Chinese youth team.
"It's not only about training," said Kolder, a former mentor of Dutch four-time Olympic champion skater Sven Kramer. "Speed skating is not an easy sport, which technically requires a lot of knowledge about biology or biomechanics. The athletes have to receive more education to understand it so they train smarter and better."
Citing examples of China's strong sports such as table tennis, which attracts foreigners to train and play in the Chinese league, experts have suggested that the Chinese skiers should likewise stay more with their counterparts in the heart of winter sports.
China's cross-country skiing coach Kristiansen said he has proposed a talent-improving plan centered on a training program in Europe to the Chinese governing body after a four-month fruitful camp in Finland leading up to the Pyeongchang Games.
The easier access to better training facilities and the exchange with world leaders in the mainstream circle of the sport will lift China quicker from a rookie to a competitor, said Kristiansen, 48.
"What is the issue in this sport is that it's breathing and living in Europe. That means we probably should spend more time there. We need to overstep some climbs on the stairs," said Kristiansen, the former national team coach of Estonia and Norway.
Although finishing 36th in the women's 10km free, Chinese skier Li Xin narrowed her time gap with the winner in Pyeongchang to about two minutes and 40 seconds from five minutes at a World Cup event in Finland in November after the Europe training camp.
"We are kind of realistically oriented with both feet on the ground. But I believe there is a hope for the future toward 2022," Kristiansen said.
