Photo: Screenshot from Xinhua News Agency

Almost every day around 3:40 in the afternoon, students passing through the training room at Tangshan Special Education School in North China's Hebei Province, are able to hear the crisp noise of young students competing in the sport of floor curling, even though the students making the noise can't hear it at all. 

This special school was built to educate children with special needs, and the school's floor curling team is made up of 12 hearing-impaired kids. After each training session, they use sign language to talk to each other about the techniques and tricks they are working to improve. 

The team, aged 13 to 18 and selected from among 178 students, is in fact a national championship team.

"The selection took over a year before we finally chose these 12 kids to form a floor curling team made up of both boys and girls," Qiang Yonghao, the team's coach, told the Xinhua News Agency.

"Ever since the team was formed, these kids have begun to show great potential in competing and training hard in all kinds of competitions."

In June, the school team selected five of its members to represent Hebei Province in the floor curling competition at the 11th National Paralympic Games and the 8th Special Olympics held in East China's Zhejiang Province, where they beat out 20 other teams from across the country to win the gold. 

As early as 2019, the team was able to compete in the floor curling at a provincial level, yet lost the game after entering the semifinals. The competition experience though, has been a treasure for the young competitors.

"I went to that competition with the children and I have to say the event has inspired everyone in the team to train harder," Shi Jinsong, vice principal of the school, told Xinhua.

The children's floor curling careers started in 2018, when the school began giving lessons to teach the sport. 

"It is not easy for a hearing-impaired child to play floor curling," said Qiang, who pointed out the two layers of difficulties the students had to deal with.

The biggest difficulty lies in comprehending the techniques. Due to the trouble listening to the verbal explanations of the techniques, we'd teach by having me physically demonstrate, according to Qiang. 

"It wasn't easy but they're fast learners."

Another is being aware of the sound the stones make when sliding over the floor is important in floor curling.

"One needs to listen carefully to the sound in order to judge the situation. Since they can't hear it, we had to train them over and over again to develop their muscle memory," added Qiang.

Now the school has opened a roller skating classes to cater to more students' interests. "In those kids' minds these sports are not only a simple interest, they are more of a good companion. It helps them to be a better person," said Zhang Xin, principal of the school.

Global Times