From being a novice to stepping onto the world stage! Shanghai University Rowing has truly started with two hands, in just two years, China | Rowing | Little White

On the 4th of the Chengdu Universiade, two students from Shanghai Lixin Accounting and Finance College, Gao Yuwei and Jin Hanfeng, represented China in the preliminary round of the women's lightweight double sculls event.

Although two of the eight participating teams in the project finished last and ultimately missed the final. However, compared to their rankings, the significance of the two girls being able to compete in the highest level of rowing events representing world universities is even more profound - they were not athletes within the system who received professional training from teenagers, but only started to learn rowing from scratch after entering university. In just two years, they learned to row to the world stage.

This is a new phenomenon for Chinese rowing and may also represent a new starting point.

Picture: Gao Yuwei and Jin Hanfeng compete in the Chengdu Universiade.

Amateur players can also step onto the "professional stage"

In the past, young rowing athletes who represented Chinese universities on the world rowing stage were recruited by traditional rowing universities, such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has a long history of integrating sports and education in water sports.

What impressed me the most was that in the women's 2km race at the 2018 World University Rowing Championships held in Shanghai, Zhu Yiqing and Zhang Shuxian from Shanghai Jiao Tong University represented the Chinese team to win the championship. This is the second gold medal in the history of the Chinese team. The two have been engaged in rowing since their junior high school years at the sports school. Coincidentally, the first World Championships gold medal in Chinese university student rowing was also won by the Chinese team composed of student athletes from Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the 2010 Hungarian World University Rowing Championships. Because of its prestigious position in rowing, Jiaotong University has the right to recruit outstanding young rowing athletes and focuses on professional rowing training and competition.

Nowadays, even non professional athletes can stand on such a high-level stage, which means that another development model of Chinese university rowing is slowly emerging. Universities in Shanghai are the pioneers of this model.

Gao Yuwei and Jin Hanfeng's coach, He Yi, the former runner up of the rowing World Cup, are one of the promoters and participants of this model. In 2017, retired He Yi was invited to join Lixin. With the strong support of the school, Lixin Water Sports Club was established. Where do club members come from? He Yi told reporters that almost all of them were recruited one by one under the name of sports clubs - most people had never played rowing before joining the rowing team.

If the professional team members of Jiaotong University love because of training, then the students of Lixin Water Sports Club can be seen as practicing because of love. "To be honest, you may not believe it. Before joining the club, I was a lazy person who didn't even want to walk the 200 meter distance from the dormitory to the classroom, let alone exercise." Jin Hanfeng revealed after the competition, "Later, for health and physique reasons, I applied to join the water club. I didn't expect this to happen, and I have persisted until now." Nowadays, rowing has become one of her life priorities. In order to reduce some resistance, the little girl cut off her long hair before the Universiade. "It's not a pity, hair will always grow longer, and the opportunity to participate in the Universiade may not necessarily come again."

Nowadays, in addition to Lixin, there are four universities in Shanghai that carry out rowing sports in this way, including Tongji University and Shanghai University of Science and Technology. In fact, the smooth development of this model is not easy, and it needs to meet multiple conditions at the same time.

Firstly, universities should have training channels for students to engage in rowing activities; Secondly, there must be certain economic support; Thirdly, the training river must be maintained and managed, and the environment must also meet the standards; Fourthly, it is necessary to have local university competitions to form the motivation for universities to carry out this project.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, Shanghai has used the best water resources to establish its own IP competition - the Shanghai Rowing Open. On the basis of the original university group, it has added a "University Championship" section, intending to create competition among universities. Gao Yuwei and Jin Hanfeng have twice won the bronze medal in rowing.

Rowing itself is a treasure, promoting rowing and spreading the spirit of rowing is actually nurturing a city spirit that can concentrate and forge a soul. The reason why "rowing" places so much emphasis on the popularization of rowing among young people is to plant a seed of rowing in this city.

From a national perspective, Shanghai already has certain advantages in the development environment of rowing sports. However, even so, the number of universities that can carry out rowing sports, persist in establishing and operating university rowing teams is still much smaller compared to some rowing powerhouses in cities around the world.

The annual Shanghai Rowing Open has become a top priority for several university rowing teams in Shanghai.

Not only rowing champions, but also rowing talents

This mode will definitely not provide a strong boost to Chinese rowing at the competitive level in the short term. Zhou Yinan, a former national team player and now the head coach of Tongji University's rowing team, admitted, "Foreign players start receiving professional training from teenagers, while most members of domestic university rowing teams have been exposed to rowing since college. Once they row well, this group of players should almost graduate. This cycle makes it difficult for us to reach the world's top level."

However, there is a general consensus among industry insiders that cultivating professional competitive talents who strive for gold is not the only mission of university rowing teams. The gap between Chinese universities and strong rowing countries in rowing events is not reflected in the ranking of the competition, but more in the level of participation, specialization, and scientific research level of rowing. In these aspects, the new model has more advantages.

In the UK, rowing is a traditional sport in many schools, such as the rowing competitions at the University of Oxford and Cambridge, which have a history of hundreds of years and attract a large number of students and spectators to participate every year. Famous universities in China have also followed suit, but in the end, it was short-lived and the rowing culture in Chinese universities has not been cultivated as a result;

In the United States, many universities offer specialized rowing courses, such as the Rowing Training Camp at the University of Washington, where students can receive systematic rowing training. Chinese universities can also add rowing specialties to their physical education courses, providing systematic rowing theory and practical teaching to improve students' rowing skills;

The University of Sydney in Australia has a dedicated rowing club that provides comprehensive rowing training resources, including coaching teams, training facilities, and more. Although Chinese universities are already following this model, there is still a considerable gap in resource investment and conditions for rowing training;

The University of Bochum in Germany has a research team dedicated to rowing, conducting various scientific research on rowing. Chinese universities can guide and encourage students to combine rowing with scientific research, such as studying the biomechanics of rowing and improving rowing design. Compared to traditional university rowing athletes, "non professional" rowing athletes are often more able to play with their talents. In the past few years, members of the Tongji University rowing team have successively developed scientific and technological achievements such as "rowing device assisted slide design research" and "water rowing competition independent judgment timing system". They have won one gold and three silver medals in the National Sports Industry Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Some team members also brainstormed on the propeller blades. In order to help train in still water, they used fluid dynamics algorithms to simulate the resistance of propeller blades in flowing rivers. They developed some holes on the propeller blades to reduce resistance and invented the "still water propeller blades".

"Perhaps I will have my own career in the future, but I will not give up rowing," said Gao Yuwei, a top student in the finance and insurance program at Lixin Accounting and Finance College, after the competition. I believe that with the emergence of more and more Gao Yuwei and Jin Hanfeng, universities can truly become important platforms for promoting rowing sports and culture, and nurturing rowing talents.