A roller skater passes a sculpture at the Olympic Green in Beijing on November 24, 2021. The central section of the park will be closed to visitors from November 25, 2021 to March, 20, 2022 as it will host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. Photo: VCG

Without wiping the sweat off his face, 15-year-old Wei Wujian, with pair of sticks in his hands and a pair of slender skateboards on his feet, rushed to the finish line in a standard skiing posture under the scorching sun.

Ninth grader Wei and his classmates were practicing roller skiing, which is very similar to skiing. 

With the rapid development of winter sports in China, roller skiing has become popular among students, and has gained much more attention in recent years.

"Roller skiing is a sport for skiers outside of winter, and the movements are close to those of skiing," said Wei, who began practicing roller skiing in his first year of junior high school.

Tian Jiaqi, the PE teacher who introduced Wei to roller skiing at Yucai School of Baiyin City in Northwest China's Gansu Province, said that children who had basic skills of roller skating would be quick learners with roller skiing.

"The helmet, all kinds of protective equipment and slender skateboards attracted me at first," said Wei, adding that he could slide on the playground within a week under Tian's instruction in 2019.

Tian said that students who liked to practice roller skiing would come under his instruction every Tuesday afternoon as an after-school activity. More and more students soon began to love this sport.

"Roller skiing is an effective way to practice winter sports in all seasons," said Tian, adding that children could enjoy skiing in winter after practicing roller skiing in summer.

At the beginning of 2022, the school and Tian organized several trips for students to ski at the Gansu Baiyin national snow sports training base.

"I was very happy to see the children skiing on the track," said Tian.

Wei believed that he not only became stronger after taking up roller skiing, but also improved his academic performance.

Wei competed with 58 young athletes from eight teams in the 15th Gansu Provincial Games in June, finishing ninth in roller skiing.

"In the competition, I gained a lot more confidence and made many friends at the Games," Wei said in a statement.

Hu Lanfang, vice principal of Yucai School, said that roller skiing has been carried out here for nearly three years, and other sporting activities have been available for students to take part in for the last 10 years. Over 4,300 students can participate in sports every week.

"Students gain confidence through sports, then they can focus on their studies," said Hu, adding that Yucai School was named as a Characteristic School of Winter Sports by China's Ministry of Education in 2021.

Xinhua