中华时报/中华新闻通讯社英国报道（赵雪湄）今天，2021年2月4日，距北京2022年冬奥会还有1周年。恰逢立春刚过（昨天），又逢小年（今天），《英伦飞鸿》通过微软视频采访了英国冬奥代表团团长乔治娜.哈兰德（Georgina Harland）。
2020年5月24日，随着英国奥委会的官宣，奥运铜牌得主乔治娜.哈兰德将出任北京2022年冬季奥运会代表团团长，英国奥运代表团有史以来首位女团长诞生了。 今年四十出头的哈兰德团长将负责英国参赛团队，参加2022年2月4日至20日举行的第二十四届冬季奥林匹克运动会的计划，筹备和执行等各项工作。
我们的谈话由此开始，乔治娜开门见山直抒胸臆：“我相信任何一名运动员都会为代表他的国家出征奥运会而感到光荣。那么同理，他们也都会为代表他的国家出征北京冬奥会感到骄傲。我们经常不断地和队员们讲述我们团队光荣的过去和留下的宝贵遗产。我也为能率领这样一支团队出征北京冬奥会而感到无比自豪。
当乔治娜.哈兰德还是一名运动员的时候，曾经去过好几次中国，到过北京也去过其他地方：“我是去参加比赛。每次在中国参赛感觉都很棒。遗憾的是我没能参加北京奥运会。我有丰富的在中国参赛的经验，每一次都感受到那里的人们的热情洋溢”。
而当2022年北京冬奥会，乔治娜再次站在中国的赛场时，已经不再是运动员，而是变换身份，成了运动员代表团团长。谈起英国团队的成员，她不无骄傲地表示：“冬奥会各国精英荟萃，高手云集，比拼异常激烈。我很自豪我们有优秀的教练和选手，我们有世界一流的教练，同样我们也有世界最棒的运动员，所以本队已经非常激动地盼望着北京冬奥会的到来”。“我们在平昌冬奥会上与索契冬奥会一样获得了5枚奖牌，有着不俗的表现， 所以运动员们期待着在北京冬奥会上大显身手， 再创佳绩。我们的团队也保持了良性循环。经验丰富的老选手和跃跃欲试的新队员都状态上佳。所以我也很兴奋能拥有这样一支潜力巨大的团队出征北京冬奥会。我们的运动员将全面参加北京，张家口，延庆三大赛区的比赛”。
说到平昌和索契，自然就聊起了丽兹.雅诺德——这2届冬奥会上英国唯一的金牌得主，冠军选手,现已退役。乔治娜赞不绝口:”她是个特别好的女孩儿，我们都非常为她骄傲。不仅为她取得的骄人成绩，同时也为她这个人。她现在挺好的，定居在新西兰”。
新冠疫情蔓延世界，给体育事业造成了重创，说起这些，哈兰德团长陷入回忆：”过去的一年新冠疫情肆虐全球， 每个人都要面对，无可藏遁，这一年我们都很艰难。选手们特别不易，训练和比赛都遭遇巨大挑战；看看英国和各国的这些运动员们，家中，车库里，后花园等等，都成了他们的训练场所；他们想尽一切办法，使出浑身解数，在疫情封锁期间不曾间断，不曾放弃，迎难而上，挺过了一年……但我们还是相信北京冬奥会一定有如期举办的机会。说真的，一年后参加冬奥会是运动员们深深的期盼，北京2022成为了他们训练和进步的动力与梦想”。
哈兰德团长告诉我，七年前，当宣布北京主办2022年冬奥会后，她们随即开始着手准备。新冠疫情爆发前，已经和北京方面多次进行接触沟通，在这期间她们也看到了北京所付出的巨大努力，以及场馆的雄伟壮观……同时冬奥团队也与英国驻华大使馆保持了紧密的联系，馆方给予了团队大力地支持和帮助，比如安排酒店等等，同时为代表团届时营造舒适良好的环境而不遗余力。
哈兰德团长认为，中国冬奥团队在北京冬奥会上一定会大展宏图，而英国队也期待着届时与中国健儿们相聚在赛场上。
乔治娜哈兰德最后表示，每位入选冬奥的英国团队选手都能到北京参赛，并享受比赛，获取冬奥经验；尽己所能取得好成绩，是她最大的心愿。
I think every british athelete has a huga amount of pride at representing their country at any Olympic Games. I feel sure every athelete going to Beijing will feel extreme pride in representing their country. We very much talk to our ateletes about the heritage of our team, the atheletes that have gone before, our ancestors. They can take I guess inspiration from the atheletes that have gone before them and I have to say that having had the honour of being in that position myself, I have to say it’s an incredible moment to step out onto the field of play at the Olympic Games to represent your country.
I’ve been to Beijing to compete myself and I did in a number of places in China. So I’ve always had a great experience of competing in China. Unfortunately I didn’t compete at the Beijing Olympics but I was there the year before for the test events. I’ve had a great experience of competeing there and being welcomed there by all the chinese people.
I think the Olympic Games is an extremely competitive competition and you know across every country in the world, it is the world’s best coming together. But of course we’re very proud to have some really amazing coaches that work with the atheletes, some of the best high performance coaches in the world. And on top of that we believe we have some of the best atheletes in the world as well. So we’re really excited to see this piece in Beijing.
Well we achieved 5 medals in Peyong chang, which was the same as Sochi. So you know we had some great performances in Pyong Chang and some atheletes had the opportunity to compete in Pyong Chang with an eye to the next Games which of course will be in Beijing. As look to the coming year, despite the current ongoing conditions aused by the golobal pandemic, we’re confident the sports will be able to get enough opportunties before Beijing. I think some sports obviously are having more opportunities than others. Those that are outside on the snow for sure are having more opportunities than those indoors, for the likes of curling and skating. But I think we’re confident in the year ahead and the atheletes we have.
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Well as soon as the host is announced our preparation starts, so with 7 years to go we start preparing for those Games. Before the pandemic, we had visited Beijing on a number of occasions and we were delighted by what we saw. We knew… now it is going to be an incredible Games. The venues are spectacular and Beijing 2022 had been really helpful in supporting the question we have. So having that relationship already, we’ve continued to have that communication with Beijing. We’ve also had the support on the ground from our embassy in Beijing. We can’t get on the ground but we canhave other people who can go and look at hotels and all th eother things we would typically be doing. Of course we’d love to be in Beijing and experiencing this ourselves and its a very important part of our preparation. But equally we’re very thank ful everyone, wheter its Beijing face to face or our embassy on the ground that’s supporting us and rally we go about the normal process of preparing ourselves the little things and creating the very best environment that we can for ur competitors.
We‘re absolutly delighted with the support we’ve had from the british embassy, becaue I would say this is an experience like no other and our relationship with them is more important than ever. Yes, I think we’ve sent them out to look at 30 hotels on our behalf and they’re supporting us in various different ways. We’re very thankful to them for the support they’re offering.
I think the Chinese team has got great opportunity in Beijing next year. They always show their strengths and we’re very much looking forward to being in Beijing and seeing how they perform as well.
I think that every athlete goes to Beijing and has the performance of a lifetime and the experience of a lifetime.