Interview: ISU chief hails next generation stars rising at Gangwon 2024

Finn Sonnekalb (1st L, Front) of Germany, Pan Baoshuo (C, front) of China and Eirik Andersen of Norway (1st R, Front) of Norway compete during the men's mass start final of speed skating event at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangneung, South Korea, Jan. 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

President of the International Skating Union Kim Jae-youl said many young skaters are rising at Gangwon 2024.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The next generation stars in ice skating are rising at the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games, chief of the global skating governing body has said.

"Next-generation stars can compete [at a] global level. Just like many other sports, this is an event where we get to see the rising stars, the next generation stars," Kim Jae-youl, president of the International Skating Union (ISU), said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

"We have many more young skaters that are rising. I can't tell which one would be a superstar, but I'm sure they would continue to attract many fans to come and watch," Kim noted.

Zhang Xinzhe of China competes during the men's 1500m Final A of short track speed skating event at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangneung, South Korea, Jan. 20, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yanan)

China's Zhang Xinzhe demonstrated his promising future as a prodigy as the 16-year-old picked up two gold medals and two silvers in the short-track speed skating events.

Angel Daleman of the Netherlands became the first female speed skater to clinch three golds at the Winter Youth Olympics, while Germany's Finn Sonnekalb was the second male speed skater to take three golds.

The figure skating competition began on Saturday with expectations for rising stars on the podium.

Cayla Smith (R) and Jared McPike of the United States compete during the pair skating short program of figure skating event at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangneung, South Korea, Jan. 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

"China has always been a very strong skating country in all three disciplines: figure skating, speed skating and short track. I'm sure that there will be more stars coming up from China," Kim said.

China has been a regular host of the ISU events and invested heavily in the ice-skating infrastructure, such as more than 1,500 ice rinks in the country, which means more people are skating, the ISU chief stressed.

He noted that China has been committed to leveraging the legacy of Beijing 2022 for its ice-skating development, citing it as one of the strong points for China.

With more diversity and excitement, the fourth Winter Youth Olympics saw more newcomers from winter sports underdogs and introduced fresh ice skating events.

"We had a speed skating mixed relay for the first time. We are using the Youth Olympic Games as a test bed to see how it goes, and it was successful. The spectators loved it," Kim said.

Pan Baoshuo (front) of team China competes during the mixed relay final of speed skating event at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangneung, South Korea, Jan. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

He said the ISU would continue its efforts to ensure more young people and the traditional skating fans can come and watch the events.

"What's really exciting is that we have many skaters that we usually don't see in the skating events," he said, referring to four-figure skaters from Portugal set to participate in the Winter Youth Olympics for the first time.

"We also had a short track skater for the Philippines who did really well and a short track skater from Brazil. We want to make sure that we have more participants at the top level from different countries," Kim added.