Man with passion for winter sports teaches youngsters

YINCHUAN－When people gradually left the brightly lit shopping mall on a summer night, the ice rink began to embrace 64-year-old skating coach Liu Wei and his troupe of young students.

"After people leave the mall, the rent of this ice rink is lower. This is why we always train until midnight," says Liu, whose speed on ice belies his graying temples.

The ice rink for commercial purpose is located in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a drought-stricken and comparatively underdeveloped part of the country. There are few ice rinks in the city, but Liu dreams to cultivate a champion team for the region.

"In terms of skating, balance and strength are the key," Liu says.

The team, constituting of over 20 children, is the best in Ningxia, despite an average age of 14. Apart from training on ice, Liu also takes children to open spaces to practice roller-skating and running.

"It's my daughter's honor to have Liu as her coach. She has made amazing progress over the last six months," says Wang Chao, her eyes following her daughter as she skates by.

Born in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, where ice and snow sports are popular due to the long winters, Liu has been skating since childhood, and his father was a professional skating coach. However, ice and snow sports did not offer much reward as a profession back then, and Liu gave up being a professional athlete, turning to another field of work.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Liu left his hometown for Yinchuan for better work opportunities, but still kept up his interest. Ningxia had no ice rink then, so Liu skated on a frozen lake in the park, and his performance attracted many fans. People's enthusiasm rekindled Liu's passion for the sport, and he decided to bring skating to the city.

In 1993, he established the Association of Skating and Roller-skating of Ningxia, taking in about 500 members. But his determination to establish a professional skating team was triggered by a national-level roller-skating competition held in Yinchuan almost two decades ago.