During the 1998 Winter Olympics, in Nagano, Japan, women's ice hockey became an official winter Olympic sport. China's women's ice hockey team ranked fourth during the Nagano Winter Olympics.

"Fourth place is the best result of the team (during Winter Olympics). I clearly remembered the gap between our team and the bronze winner was very small. We actually had a chance of winning the bronze medal," Wang Linuo recalls. Wang, born in 1979, is former captain of the team.

The team's heyday arrived during the 1990s. The Chinese women's team won gold medals twice during the 1990s, at the 1996 and 1999 Asia Winter Games. The team also ranked fourth twice during the world ice hockey championships during that decade.

The team ranked seventh during both the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Wang retired after the Vancouver Winter Olympics. In 2017, she became a member of the Athletes Committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

To celebrate the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics, Wang was invited to attend an activity organized by Beixiaguan Subdistrict, in Beijing's Haidian District, on October 27. She said she hoped more people, especially youth, would participate in ice and snow sports. She also said she hoped members of the national women's ice hockey team would give full play to their potential, and that they would make breakthroughs during the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

The team is currently training in Russia, to prepare for the upcoming Winter Olympics. During training camp, which lasts from early August to December, 30 team members will participate in 40 Russian Women's Hockey League (WHL) games. The team will also compete against European squads in December. The camp is expected to improve the players' technical and tactical skills, and also enrich their playing experience.

"We cherish the opportunity to train and compete abroad. We have been training and competing hard every day," Yu Baiwei, the team's captain, says. Yu, born in 1988, became a member of the national team in 2005.

"Ice hockey has become part of my life … I always believe there is hope for our team, and we can achieve a better result in 2022," Yu says.

Photo Supplied by VCG

(Women of China English Monthly November 2021 issue)