The most impressive thing at Lake Placid was a TV interview, talking to the American legendary figure skater Peggy Gail Fleming, the 1968 Olympic champion in ladies' singles.

"Peggy was the commentator with ABC. She asked me what I would do after the Olympics and I said I'd definitely skate all my life," said Bao.

Bao ranked at the bottom among all the competitors after free skating, short program and prescribed movements. The tour of Lake Placid showed how large the gap was between China and the strong teams. No one out of the total 28 athletes advanced to top 6.

TOUGH TRAINING ON TOUGH ICE

Born into a skiing family in Northeast China's Jilin Province, Bao had been familiar with many winter sports since childhood. But as a young girl, she couldn't tell the difference between the figure skates and speed skates.

"I just knew I needed to learn dancing in figure skating and the girls always love beautiful things, so I just picked up wearing figure skates," said Bao, "there were not big brands to choose when I was an abecedarian, the skates are hand-made by my coach who also took to mending the skates, which were easily broken at outdoor rinks."

In the late 1970s, there were no indoor skating rinks around China. The athletes were training outdoors during the winter time.

"We poured down the water onto the playground at school, and that was the rink when the water froze," said Bao, "you can imagine how tough the ice was."

【体坛英语资讯：Feature: A life on ice: The story of Chinese figure skating pioneer Bao Zhenhua】相关文章：

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