On the afternoon of February 12,

the finals of the men's speed skating 500m event

at the Beijing Winter Olympics came to an end

at the "Ice Ribbon", National Speed Skating Oval.

Chinese athlete Gao Tingyu won the gold medal

with a time of 34.32s,

breaking the Olympic record! ! !

Gao Tingyu is the standard-bearer of the Chinese delegation at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Born in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province in 1997, he was admitted in the Chinese speed skating team in 2016. At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu won the bronze medal in the men's 500-meter speed skating competition, becoming the first Chinese male athlete to win a medal in the speed skating event at the Winter Olympics. On September 26, 2021, Gao Tingyu broke his personal record, also the national record of speed skating men's 500m, with a time of 33.83s, in the China Cup Speed Skating Elite League Competition.

During the preparation of the national speed skating team

for the Winter Olympics,

BIT’s scientific and technological strength provided strong support

In the previous live broadcast of the speed skating project,

Wang Meng, the former head of the national speed skating team coaching team,

praised the scientific and technological achievements of BIT

Speed Skating

Speed skating is the sport with the longest history and the most extensive development in ice skating. The athlete skates on the ice surface with skates, and cuts into the ice surface with the help of the blade of the skate to form a stable support point. Through the two legs in turn, kicking the ice, retracting the legs, lowering the blade, sliding in, and coordinating the whole body, the athlete can skate forward quickly.

Competition location

The Beijing Winter Olympics speed skating competition was held at the National Speed Skating Oval in the Beijing Division. The National Speed Skating Oval, also known as the "Ice Ribbon", is the only new ice competition venue in this event. Together with the "Bird's Nest" and "Water Cube", it forms the landmark building complex of the "Double Olympics" city. The "Ice Ribbon" is the first speed skating venue in the history of the Winter Olympics to use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, where 14 gold medals will be generated, making it the single venue with the most gold medals in the Winter Olympics.

In speed skating,

the skating technique at the corners is the key to victory,

and it is also the technical difficulty in daily training.

In order to help the Chinese team

find its shortcomings more accurately and carry out targeted training

In January 2020,

the "Ice Cannon" developed by the research team of BIT

was officially used in the training of the national speed skating team.

It was well received by the coaches and athletes of the national team and quickly became the daily training subject of the national team.

Follow BIT official Wechat account to know!

BIT's "ice cannons" showing their skills

Curve skating technology is one of the key links to win in the speed skating competition. For its special technical training, athletes need to accelerate to a high speed of more than 60 kilometers per hour, which has the problems of high physical consumption and poor consistency of turning speed after repeated training. Therefore,the national team has put forward an urgent need to help athletes accelerate and improve the efficiency of technical training in corners.

In response to this problem, Hao Jiguang's team from the School of Aerospace Engineering of BIT led the development of the"human body high-speed ejection device", which is mainly used to assist speed skaters to carry out the technical training of curve skating, which can realize the precise control of the athletes' acceleration process,filling the technology gap in China.

"Human high-speed ejection device" developed under leadership of BIT

Precise control of the "ejection speed"

The "human body high-speed ejection device" applies the technical scheme of electric acceleration, and uses the motor to accelerate the athletes along a gentle speed curve, so that the entire ejection process is controllable.

The team innovatively proposed a traction acceleration scheme, and the athletes completed the acceleration process by grasping the traction rope. During acceleration, if there is any discomfort, the rope can be released at any time to ensure the safety of training. The team also proposed a high-speed ejection parameter system adapted to human body functions, which can achieve the same separation speed for athletes of different weights.

Schematic diagram of the principle of human high-speed ejection technology

After hundreds of tests such as no-load test, weight test, and human body test, the BIT scientific research team continuously collects parameters, adjusts and simplifies the operating system according to the needs of coaches and athletes, and continuously improves the convenience of front-line athletes.

In just a few seconds, enter the corner at high speed!

The "human body high-speed ejection device" has the advantages ofcontrollable process, convenient adjustment, and accurate skating speed. It only takes a few seconds for a speed skater to reach a specified speed from a static state. Then, adjusting the posture and entering the corner in one go, the efficient acceleration process helps athletes reduce physical exertion during training, improving training efficiency and exercise level, and achieving good training results.

Opening a new training mode for national team

The national speed skating team using the catapult device to carry out curve skating technical training

In April 2019, the first "human high-speed ejection device" was successfully developed. After the "human body high-speed ejection device" was put into use, it helped the national team carry out effective training 4 to 6 times a day,completely changed the Chinese speed skating curve technical training mode, broke through the bottleneck in the efficiency of special technical training, realizing the help to Winter Olympics with technology.

In 2021, the national men's speed skating team won 3 World Cup championships, and their outstanding cornering skills were evaluated as the key to victory.

Aiming at national needs and contributing BIT strength

Helping Chinese ice and snow athletes write a wonderful chapter in the Winter Olympics of science and technology!