China will set up a ski jumping national team soon to groom talents for the 2022 Winter Olympics, a winter sports official said on Wednesday.
"We used to have provisional national teams before, but a formal team is important for us at the moment," said Qu Yongkai, chief of Jilin's Winter Sports Center.
"The team will take the 2018 Winter Games as a testing ground, and if everything goes well, we hope our athletes can make into the final eight in the 2022 Games on home court," Qu added.
The team may be set up after the 13th National Winter Games of China, which will take place from Jan. 20 to 30 in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
As there are currently no ski-jumping venues in the host city, the events were contested in Heilongjiang province before the official opening of the Games. Sun Jianping won the first gold last Sunday.
