Beijing, China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of Xu Gaohang, leader of intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes, talking to team members
2. Various of team members listening
3. Training equipment
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xu Gaohang, leader, intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes (starting with shot 3/ending with shot 5):
"Our team has 20 athletes -- 12 male athletes and eight female athletes. In reality, some of the team members are those with the previous national team, while other members have been selected from other fields or other events."
5. Various of ski jumping in progress
6. Various of team members training
7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wang Guoying, deputy leader, intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes (starting with shot 6/partially overlaid with shot 8):
"We were under heavy pressure at that time. In foreign countries, we were either in hospitals or on the way to hospitals every day, because we had athletes who fell and got injured every day. The 14 athletes who stayed on are very tough. Presently, we have three members selected from other fields or events who have suffered bone fractures in the intensified training."
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8. Various of team member training
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9. Various of foreign coach teaching team member postures of ski jumping
10. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Song Qiwu, member, intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes (starting with shot 9/partially overlaid with shot 11):
"Track and field events usually require ground-touching first with the forefeet in running, but this event requires the use of the whole sole of the foot, which means the entire soles must be exerted. If you use the forefeet (in ski jumping), your whole body will rush out, which will be dangerous. And you can't use the slide to accelerate the speed and lift yourself up in the air."
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11. Various of team member simulating ski jumping
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12. Various of ski jumping in progress
13. Team members training
14. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Xueyao, member, intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes (starting with shot 13/ending with shots 15-16):
"If I can really reach a new height, or even if I can stand on the podium, then I will win glory for the motherland and the people. This is my belief and impetus to push myself as hard as I can."
15. Various of foreign coach talking to team members
16. Various of team members training
17. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xu Gaohang, leader, intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes (starting with shot 16/partially overlaid with shot 18):
"The biggest challenge for us is that we didn't go abroad to participate in the series of competitions in order to protect the health of all athletes during the last year. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee, there are 1.6 season points used to rank in the Olympics. Then we only have a chance during this last 0.6-point season. So, we must bring into play all our training skills in the 0.6-point season to get enough points, becoming qualified to participate in the Olympics, and complete the first step of the task of completing the whole event."
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18. Team members training
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FILE: Sochi, Russia - 2014 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
19. Various of ski jumping in progress

The Chinese ski jumping team for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games have been undergoing intensified training over the past three years, in all-out preparation for the upcoming world's grandest winter sports gathering.

Ski jumping originated in Norway more than a century ago. It has been listed as an event since the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924. Then the events for female athletes started from Sochi Winter Games in 2014.

In the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, ski jumping will be held on two jumping platforms with five events. The score in each event is calculated based on the points of an athlete's two-round flight distances and postures.

The factors, including differences in venues, temperature, the wind direction and force, and the snow quality, will greatly affect the athletes' performances. Therefore, improvement of the mental quality and physical skills is essential for ski jumpers.

Li Yang is China's first ski jumper to participate in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. In 2018, another ski jumper named Chang Xinyue qualified for Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and won the 20th place.

2018 also marked the year that the national ski jumping team started the strategy of a talent reserve regardless of fields and sporting events.

Xu Gaohang, leader of the intensified training program for China's ski jumping athletes, said that unlike the powerful national team, it was hard for her to form a team with enough athletes in the summer of 2019 because there were only one female athlete and five male athletes, including some with injures, at that time.

"Our team has 20 athletes -- 12 male athletes and eight female athletes. In reality, some of the team members are those with the previous national team, while other members have been selected from other fields or other events," said Xu.

In the past two years, many young athletes from other fields or events such as martial arts, track and field, taekwondo and boxing have been selected into the ski jumping team.

After two and a half years of scientific training, many of them have not only mastered new skills of the events, but have also gradually grown into part of the main force of the team.

However, the process of becoming a qualified ski jumper is quite hard that most of the athletes do not even want to recall it.

"We were under heavy pressure at that time. In foreign countries, we were either in hospitals or on the way to hospitals every day, because we had athletes who fell and got injured every day. The 14 athletes who stayed on are very tough. Presently, we have three members selected from other fields or events who have suffered bone fractures in the intensified training," said Wang Guoying, deputy leader of the program.

An 18-year-old team member named Song Qiwu used to be an excellent athlete in hurdling. The outstanding leg explosive force is his advantage, which, however, has also become a bad habit in ski jumping.

"Track and field events usually require ground-touching first with the forefeet in running, but this event requires the use of the whole sole of the foot, which means the entire soles must be exerted. If you use the forefeet (in ski jumping), your whole body will rush out, which will be dangerous. And you can't use the slide to accelerate the speed and lift yourself up in the air," said Song.

Song has made rapid progress in just three years of special training. He achieved a score of 141.5 meters in his first jump from a 120-meter platform in training in Laiyuan County of north China's Hebei Province, breaking the record for the event for male Chinese athletes.

Another team member named Li Xueyao is the champion of a ski jumping event in the 14th Chinese National Winter Games in 2019.

As a senior member of the team, she has always insisted on making breakthroughs.

"If I can really reach a new height, or even if I can stand on the podium, then I will win glory for the motherland and the people. This is my belief and impetus to push myself as hard as I can," said Li.

"The biggest challenge for us is that we didn't go abroad to participate in the series of competitions in order to protect the health of all athletes during the last year. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee, there are 1.6 season points used to rank in the Olympics. Then we only have a chance during this last 0.6-point season. So, we must bring into play all our training skills in the 0.6-point season to get enough points, becoming qualified to participate in the Olympics, and complete the first step of the task of completing the whole event," said Xu Gaohang.