On October 29th, bearing the slogan “To carry forward Chinese canoe spirit as a legend in Paris”, the China Rowing and Canoeing Association held a national training and competition meeting at Beijing Shunyi Sports Training Base to prepare for the Paris Olympic Games and the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau National Games. Marking the official start of the Chinese kayaking year, the Chinese Rowing and Canoeing Association, Hubei Provincial Sports Bureau and Huazhong University of Science and Technology signed the "Joint Action Plan for Olympic Preparation" to contribute talents, science and technology, practice fields and other resources to ensure the high-quality development of Chinese water sports within the new period.

At the recently concluded Tokyo Olympic Games, China's rowing and kayaking team achieved the best results in Olympic history, receiving 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. However, even with this achievement, there is still a gap between China, Europe and America when it comes to the development of water sports. We are still at the starting point of realizing the dream of building a powerful nation on the water, but our success at the Olympics is a strong start. The end of the Tokyo Olympics also marked the beginning of the Chinese rowing and kayaking team's entry into the Paris Olympic cycle. During this period, China's water sports program will undergo high-quality comprehensive development with the China Rowing and Canoeing Association combining their efforts through a proposed "common action plan to prepare for the Olympics", to coordinate the country's excellent water resources and prepare for upcoming competitions.

In recent years, the Chinese rowing and kayaking teams have made continuous progress and delivered outstanding performances. A key factor that should not be ignored is the constantly improving scientific and technological capabilities at their disposal. With the signing of the "Joint Action Plan for Olympic Preparation" between the China Rowing and Canoeing Association, Hubei Provincial Sports Bureau and HUST, the national team will also include a reserve team who will join them in travelling to Hubei frequently to train for future competitions. With this, the Honglian Lake International Water Base will become the main platform for the Technology Assisted Olympic preparation and daily training for the national rowing and kayaking teams. HUST will focus on science and technology as a driving force to serve the development of Chinese rowing and kayaking by building a Chinese water sports research center to contribute to the construction of a strong sports province in Hubei, further distinguishing China as a strong sports country.

Sun Jingbo, Dean of the School of Physical Education, said: "Since its establishment, the School of Physical Education has been actively exploring the intersection and integration of 'sports and engineering', giving full play to the outstanding characteristics of HUST’s engineering field as well as our achievements in the fields of advanced intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence and automation. With this initiative we are actively seeking the integration of science-assisted, high-level sports training to contribute to the building of a ‘technology assisted sport field’ research platform. Coinciding with the golden point of the preparation cycle for the next Olympic Games, we hope to demonstrate the scientific and technological power of Huazhong University of Science and Technology during the next Olympic Games."

Professor Wu Hao from the School of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Zhou Yang Shiyu from the School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation respectively delivered thematic reports on "Precision Training, Technology Assistance" and "Multi-source and Multi-dimensional Auxiliary Training Platform for Water Sports" at the conference. Both reports received high attention and praise from the leaders and coaches from more than 20 provincial and municipal sports bureaus, showing the great potential and application scenarios for industry-university research collaboration of HUST in the field of sports science and technology.

In addition to scientific and technological assistance, the mentioned tripartite are also actively cooperating to create a China Water Sports Academy to enable deeper cooperation and promote the rapid development of water sports. Liu Aijie, the chairman of the Chinese Rowing and Canoe Association, said that the cooperation with Hubei province and Huazhong University of Science and Technology is not only an important measure to promote the country’s sports initiative and its integration with science and technology, but also a new form of sports and education. Only through the acquisition of cultural knowledge and the improvement of humanistic literacy can the pursuit of the excellence in elite universities be further improved by building a resource of reserve talent, guaranteeing the water sports industry a promising future.

After the meeting, Sun Jingbo, Zeng Hongtao, Wu Hao and others present visited our school's sports training undergraduate Li Tingting ,who is training to enter the national team in 2021, and encouraged her to train hard, study with great concentration and prepare for Paris to win future Olympic glory for HUST.

Written by：Gao Yifei

Edited by: Chen Yuan, Andrew, Peng Yumeng

Source: School of Physical Education