PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Team captain Han Xiaopeng said here on Friday that thinks that Chinese mogul skiers still have a long way to go to win a medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
But Han, a former Winter Olympic champion, was satisfied with the performance of two Chinese young mogul skiers in the day's competition at PyeongChang.
"The performance of the two women athletes today is better than their pre-match training. The qualifying performance and results are acceptable," said Han. "But there was still a big gap between the world top skiers and the Chinese youngsters."
Guan Ziyan, 17, and Wang Jin, 20, finished 28th and 27th respectively in the first round of women's mogul qualification at Phoenix Snow Park.
"The main difference is the gliding techniques and speed," he said. "The best foreign women athletes can now slide to about 29 seconds, but our best player clock only 34 or 35 seconds," said Han.
According to Han, in order to improve techniques and speed, Chinese mogul team has hired American coach Scott Rawles, who guided coached US skiers to three medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"We have made some progress since Rawles arrived, especially in some details in sliding, " added Han.
Han said: "We need to train harder to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Four years is not a long period of time. We need to start our preparation now. We have confidence to make some progress in 2022."
In the 2006 Turin Olympics, Han became China's first male Winter Olympic champion by winning the men's aerials event. It was also the country's first skiing gold medal.
