"That was another historic moment for Chinese figure skating," said Bao, "we've been waiting for this outcome for 30 years!"

After Beijing and Zhangjiakou jointly won their bid for the 2022 winter Olympics, Bao witnessed huge changes in Chinese winter sports. Many indoor rinks have been built around the nation, especially in the warm areas of Southern China.

The southerners are apparently more curious about skating, since they did not have much of a chance to try this in the past. The training market has been growing rapidly and it is in great need of good coaches.

Bao, together with Bian, came back to her motherland and devoted themselves to the development of Chinese winter sports in the new era. Bao has been coaching kids at a training agency in Southeast China's Fuzhou city for one year and she is impressed by people's enthusiasm for skating.

There had been no indoor rinks in Fuzhou until 2016, when two rinks were built inside shopping malls.

"Skating is a special experience for the southerners, many people come to try and learn at weekends and holidays," said Bao. "Sometimes there were too many skaters at a time, and the rink seems too small and the number of skates for rent is far from enough."

"The southerners, generally speaking, are not as tall and strong as the northerners, but they can be more skillful. Maybe it's a kind of advantage in figure skating that we had not discovered before," laughed Bao.

【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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