Chinese Women’s Hockey Team Prepares for Paris Olympics with Legendary Coach – Exclusive Interview

Xinhua News Agency, Sydney, 30 April Topic: Preparing for the Paris Medal – Exclusive Interview with the “Think Tank” of the Chinese Women’s Hockey Team

Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Qi

In preparation for the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women’s hockey team went to Perth, Australia for a seven-week training camp. The training ended recently and they returned to China. The team’s Australian assistant coach Charlesworth said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters that although the road to winning Olympic medals is full of challenges, the Chinese women’s song team is a team that has the strength to stand on the podium, and the players. We are actively preparing for this goal and making steady progress.

In addition to strengthening physical fitness and receiving psychological training, the Chinese women’s song team competed with the Australian team and the Japanese team in two rounds of invitational competitions during the training period, and won 3 wins and 1 draw.

While Annan, the head coach of the Chinese team, who is also from Australia, is in charge of coaching the side, Charlesworth sits on the top level of the stands and acts as a think tank. “It’s hard to see the whole game from the sidelines, but you get a different perspective when you’re up there. When I was the head coach, people were sitting there,” Charlesworth said.

Charlesworth, 72, is a legend in Australian sporting history: he played both cricket and hockey in his athletic career, and took part in four Olympic hockey tournaments after his retirement, he coached and managed the Australian women’s and men’s national hockey teams. Annan won two Olympic gold medals as a player with the Australian women’s track, and was coached on the side by Charlesworth.

After Charlesworth accepted Annan’s invitation to be the assistant coach of the Chinese women’s music team, he found that the players had good skills, but the training time was too long and the playing style was cautious. “So the coaching staff has shortened the training time and put more emphasis on explosion and activity. We hope that the players can continue to be aggressive during the game.”

In the opinion of the coach of this competition, a good team requires that each player is physically fit, well versed in tactics, capable of skills, working together, and has the ability to overcome adverse situations that may arise at any time on the field. These are the directions that Chinese women’s music has been aiming to evolve in the past two years, and the results are obvious for all to see.

Last October, China’s women’s track team regained the Asian Games championship after 13 years, locking in qualification for the Paris Olympics. In the world ranking, Chinese female singers jumped from 14th to the last 7th place. Charlesworth believes that the real level of the Chinese team is higher than the current ranking and is expected to be among the top three in the world.

“We have enough strength to get on the podium in Paris, but we have to develop and improve ourselves as well. It is going very well at the moment,” said Charlesworth.

At the Olympics in Paris, the Chinese team will face the world’s top team and the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Netherlands team as well as veteran teams such as Belgium and Germany at the level of the group. “It’s not that easy to win an Olympic medal, but it’s possible. Our team can surprise everyone,” said Charlesworth.

According to him, the Chinese women’s song team defeated the Dutch team in a practice match last year. In the most recent game, the offensive levels of the two teams were evenly matched. In the past, the Dutch team outplayed the Chinese team in this statistic.

“Judging from the score alone, we lost to the Dutch team. But we created more and more offensive opportunities. In the previous game, we did not allow the opponent to get a short corner kick in the whole game. We have made great progress, and they have the ability to beat the Dutch team today,” said Charlesworth.

Charlesworth sees hockey as a “slow scoring” sport where conditions on the field can change quickly. A really strong team not only performs well in a particular quarter, but also laughs from start to finish. “Your goal is to be good enough to win consistently. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer.”

A total of 26 Chinese female musicians went to Australia for training this time, including veterans such as Zhang Xiaoxue and Gu Bingfeng, as well as newcomers such as Fan Yunxia and Tan Jintong. The coaching team tested different combinations on the court to determine the best lineup for the Paris Olympics.

“Some of these very good players could miss the Olympics this year. The competition for Olympic places is very strong, and it also makes our selection rates continue to improve,” said Charlesworth.

After two years of getting ahead, Charlesworth said he enjoyed the communication and interaction with the team members and hoped that all the Chinese girls would be able to perform at the best in the Olympics.