With just over a month left before the Milan Winter Olympics, the coaching staff of the Chinese short track speed skating team is once again in trouble after completing the trials.
At the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, the five skaters on the Chinese men's short track speed skating team are: Ren Jinwei, Lin Xiaojun, Liu Shaolin, Li Yuang and Li Wenwu.
Except for Li Yuang who replaced Liu Shaolin, the other four players were all expected by the coaching staff.
But just because of this Li Yuang, the competition plan originally prepared by the coaching staff was broken!
In the original plan, Liu Shao'ang, who is the most comprehensive, will participate in all three events; Ren Weiwei, who is good at middle and long distances, will participate in the 1000-meter and 1500-meter events; Lin Xiaojun will participate in the 500-meter and 1000-meter events.
Liu Shaolin and Li Wenwu, who came through the trials, participated in the 500m and 1500m events respectively.
The men's mixed relay team sent the strongest players Ren Zwei and Liu Shaolin, with Lin Xiaojun as substitute.
For the 5,000-meter relay, the "One Power Three Plan" lineup was sent, with Li Wenwu as substitute.
Due to Liu Shaolin's unexpected defeat and Li Yuang's strong rise, it is obviously inappropriate to just let Li Yuang replace Liu Shaolin in the 500-meter event.
Zhang Jing raised her hand to pause the playing video of Li Yuang's trial, rubbed her dry eyes and said, "Come on, let's share your opinions on Li Yuang."
"What event is he more suitable for?"
Everyone here looked at each other with the word "confused" written on their faces.
They have seen people who have accumulated a lot of experience and become stronger in a short period of time. I have also seen people taking stimulants secretly and falsifying their grades.
But I have never seen a player rise directly from the second team to the OGG level in less than a month...
Especially in the trials, Li Yuang won three individual championships in a row, but his results never led the second place by more than 0.2 seconds! Almost every time it was a narrow victory at the last moment!
Looking at this result alone, both insiders and outsiders will only think that Li Yuang's three championships have more luck.
Especially after the first 500-meter individual event, many people thought Li Yuang was just lucky.
In the later 1,000-meter race, Li Yuang still copied the 500-meter routine, finishing second in the promotion group and winning the thrilling final!
Maybe the blind coach still couldn't see Li Yuang's strength, but in the 1500-meter race the next day, Li Yuang showed off the audience!
In the men's 1,500-meter semifinals, Li Yuang started with a bad start.
Just when everyone thought that Li Yuang would directly win the first place in the last two laps like he did in the 1000 meters the day before. The first group in the lead had an unexpected incident, and one of the players fell directly into the fence due to a kick.
When Li Yuang was about to overtake the skater, he suddenly slipped out of the track and came to the side fence to pull up the skater and encourage him!
This wave of operations directly made the coaching staff on the sidelines widen their eyes!
When Li Yuang and the ice wrestlers returned to the track again, Liu Shaolin, who was in first place, was almost ready to complete the lap!
When everyone thought that Li Yuang had 200 points and his requirements for the performance of this game were not so demanding... Li Yuang immediately broke out and caught up, directly closing the gap in just five laps, and even completed the final victory at the last moment!
This show-stopping performance allowed the coaches present to see clearly Li Yuang's strength!
"I think it's better to be more cautious when using Li Yuang."
"On the one hand, there are many short-lived players. Maybe he was just in good shape in the first game. It's hard to say whether he can maintain his performance until the Winter Olympics."
"On the other hand, judging from Li Yuang's resume, he has basically never experienced the test of a major competition and has not even participated in the World Cup. It is difficult to say his mentality when he stands on the Winter Olympics..."
"So I suggest that we stick to the original plan and let Li Yuang replace Liu Shaolin in the 500m in individual events, and let him be a substitute in the 5000m relay. After all, he has not practiced with everyone, and his tacit understanding is definitely not as good as Liu Shaolin."
Assistant coach Wang Xiaobin said it first, and as soon as he finished speaking, there was a chorus of agreement.
If you look carefully, the supporting coaches are basically newcomers, members of Zhang Jing’s team.
To be fair, Li Yuang's strength in the trials was definitely OGG level. But who can guarantee that he is stronger than the three main players who got tickets in advance?
If such a player appears in another team, it will definitely be a purple star from the sky. Any competition opportunities, any individual registration...give it to him! give him! Give it all to him!
Soon, Xiao Lijun stood up and retorted: "I don't agree with Coach Wang's statement."
"First, it's hard to say what the status will be. No one can guarantee what Li Yuang's status will be during the Winter Olympics..."
"Then, can anyone guarantee Liu Shao'ang's condition?"
"Second, there is the issue of mentality. Li Yuang does lack competition experience, but his mentality, skating quotient and ability shown in the 1,500 meters are obvious to everyone."
"To be exaggerated, I even think that his behavior of pulling up the ice wrestlers was to consciously increase the difficulty of the trials and let us see his abilities!"
As soon as he finished speaking, there were echoes in the conference room.
"These are all your guesses. Compared with Li Yuang, Liu Shaoang and Ren Jewei are more trustworthy!"
"Li Yuang's strength is not inferior to the two of them! Why not give him a chance?"
"..."
Without looking carefully, Zhang Jing knew that Xiao Lijun was an old man in the coaching staff.
This is not the first time a similar situation has occurred, but it has never been as tense as it is today.
Zhang Jing knows that this is all the negative impact of planning the Liu brothers. To the members of her team, the Liu brothers are more familiar and stronger.
In addition, they have been watching the Liu brothers grow up, so it is understandable that they unconsciously favor the Liu brothers when planning training and competition opportunities.
But in the eyes of these old people, things changed... The planning of the Liu brothers made them see that the national team was in decline!
Let the two catfishes, the Liu brothers, stimulate the newcomers in the team and make them grow rapidly.
Originally, they thought that the Liu Brothers would be suspended for three years like Lin Xiaojun, which would be enough for the growth of the new players in the team.
Unexpectedly, the Liu brothers actually paid their own "buyout fee" to let the Hungarian Skating Federation release them, and they represented the Chinese team in the 2023-2024 season in the second season after changing their nationality.
As a direct result, no newcomers who performed well appeared during the entire Milan cycle.
Now, at the end of the Milan cycle, Li Yuang unexpectedly appears, and they will naturally try their best to fight for him to participate.
Zhang Jing was a little upset by their noise, and she pressed her hands fiercely on the conference table.
"Bang!" With a sound, the entire conference room fell silent instantly.
Zhang Jing looked around and said sternly: "Starting from tomorrow, there will be five rounds of assessments in fifteen days, one every three days!"
"There are only three individual events, and the top three players in each individual event's accumulated points will register for the individual events in the Winter Olympics!"
