Four years after China's skaters broke the nation's Winter Olympic gold medal jinx in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the national biathlon skiers are brewing a new breakthrough by winning China's first ever Olympic medal in the event in the 2006 Torino Games.

China's biathlon team caught the world's attention last year with its members winning six runners-up in the 2004/05 World Cup competitions and two silver medals in the 2005 World Championships in Hochfilzne, Austria.

Although China's retired veteran Yu Shumei had some shining moments such as winning a 2000/01 World Cup title in the women's 12.5km mass start in Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway, and finishing fifth in the 7.5km sprint in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, this is the first time that Chinese skiers have been recognized as a group power at top level.

"The achievements made by the team are inspiring," said Wang Yitao, head of the national winter sports administrative centre and the China Skiing Association. "It shows that our athletes have made rapid progress and we are eager to see bigger improvements in the coming Winter Olympics."

In the past few years, the centre, encouraged by the success of Chinese skaters, has organized training sessions abroad to improve other winter sports in China.

Finnish help

The biathlon team was one of them as the China Skiing Association started co-operating in coaching, training and winter sport education two years ago with the Vuokatti Sports Institute, a top-notch institute in Finland which has a very strong focus on winter sports and has helped to produce more than 200 Olympic medallists over the past 60 years.

Since 2003, the team has travelled to Voukatti, a small city in northern Finland, every year to hone skills before the competition season opens in November.

The institute features excellent training facilities including a 1,200-metre indoor ski tunnel, the first in the world and the longest in Europe, which was built in 1997.

But for the Chinese team, it is not only the excellent facilities that help, but also the strong passion from the institute that could raise the Chinese team's level to one of the world's best.

"They treated the Chinese team as their home team," said Chinese coach Song Wenbin, who is leading the team to prepare for the Torino Games. "We felt at home."

Thanks to the services provided by the institute, which gathers dozens of national teams from around the world every season, Chinese skiers were able to take an extra two or three-month training session and more importantly, instructions from the coaching group at the institute.

"The help from the institute is obvious," said Liu Xianying, China's top female biathlon skier, ranking sixth in the World Cup standings last season.

Liu narrowly missed a gold medal in the women's 10km pursuit at the 2005 Worlds, when she fell near the end.

Apart from that silver, she displayed good form throughout last season, finishing among the top six in most events she competed in, including runner-up in the Ruhpolding World Cup in Germany and third place from the Cesana San Sicario World Cup in Italy.

That was a huge leap for the 28-year-old, who finished the 2002/03 and 2003/04 seasons at 47th and 16th in the standings.

Like Liu, who is travelling to Vuokatti for the second time, most Chinese skiers have improved in the World Cup rankings since their training in Vuokatti.

Another big rise is from 23-year-old Kong Yingchao, who leapt from last year's 43th to 28th this year thanks to her two runner-up places at the Pokljuka World Cup in Slovenia.

Coaches are also learning in the institute, which offers experienced staff with coaches from the Finnish national senior and youth teams.

"We hope we don't just help the Chinese skiers but also their coaches," said Pekka Vahasoyrinki, director of the institute and a coach who trained 32 medallists in the Olympic Games and World Championships before.

Vahasoyrinki led a group of skiing experts to attend a seminar on skiing techniques in Changchun, Jilin Province, in June.

"We have some educational programmes on coaching and we teach all of the things we know to them," Vahasoyrinki said.

"The Chinese coaches are very motivated and work really hard," said Tatu Vaananen, biathlon trainer of the institute.

Great potential

Vahasoyrinki has been watching the Chinese team closely since the squad first arrived in Vuokatti in 2003.

The coaching veteran said he has discovered a great potential in the Chinese squad.

"The Chinese team is very, very talented and the skiers have advanced a great deal in the past few years," he said.

Vahasoyrinki rates the skiing skills and physical abilities of Chinese athletes as top class, especially Liu, who he considers one of the world's best.

"They are simply very good athletes," said Vahasoyrinki.

Liu is the backbone of the six-member women's team, which comprises veterans and young hopefuls.

Sun Ribo, winning a silver in the women's 15km individual at the 2005 Worlds and Kong are other noted names in the squad. It is also hard to ignore young sensations like Dong Xue, triple gold medallist at 2002 World Junior Championships and Yin Qiao, champion team member in the women's relay at the 2002 Junior Worlds.

Chinese male skiers are not as successful as the women, but Zhang Chengye has become the only Chinese men's biathlon skier to qualify for the 2006 Winter Games, proving he is a serious medal contender by coming second in the 2004/05 Antholz-Anterselva World Cup in Italy in the men's 20km individual.

Vahasoyrinki believes the Chinese team is likely to win a medal in the Games.

"Their talents are big enough and everything is ready for success," he said.

"They have a big chance to win a gold medal in the Olympics."

A medal of any colour in Torino would be a success for the squad, whose best result in Olympics so far is Yu's fifth place in 1998.

"Our first goal in Torino is to do something better than fifth place and we are confident about it," said coach Song.

But Song and his team know they need to work harder to win a medal, in particular, in mental power.

The Chinese skiers have paid the price for their psychological weakness in past competitions by collapsing in the last few laps.

"I need to improve my mental power and learn to control my nerve in the last moment to win a world title," said Liu.

Vahasoyrinki agrees.

"There are some small things they need to improve, including technique and nerve-control," he said.

"We try to help them to get better self-confidence.

"Don't be shy and go for the win. That is a step the Chinese team has to take before the Olympics."

A group of Chinese scientific researchers and several junior skiers will join the team later, hoping to upgrade the team as much as possible in their two-month stay in Vuokatti.

"The team is on the right track," said Vahasoyrinki, showing a board with the names of all former Olympic medallists who trained at the institute. "I am sure there will be a Chinese name on it soon."

(China Daily July 20, 2005)