Coached by an Enigmatic Russian, China Emerges as a Sled Hockey Power

BEIJING — All the Russian athletes were kicked out of the Paralympics before the Games began last week, but there is still a Russian here, and he has a chance to win a medal.

Nikolay Sharshukov, the little-known Russian coach of China’s national para ice hockey team, has transformed the fledgling squad into a contender in less than five years on the job, molding it in the image of the old Soviet hockey powerhouses.

Players like Shen Yifeng, the leading scorer in the tournament, crisscross in front of teammates as they speed up the ice, control possession, use drop-back passes in classic Russian style and play a tight, disciplined game. China’s program did not even exist before 2017, but now, and after years of secrecy and intrigue, it has exploded onto the Paralympic sled hockey scene as an instant sensation.

“I am really impressed by what they built in just five years,” goalie Dominic Larocque of Canada said after watching two of China’s games here. “We played them in 2019 in Montreal, and I hadn’t seen them since then. They are way better now.”

Ken Babey, Canada’s coach, said that watching China was so reminiscent of Soviet hockey that if you tore off China’s red, black and orange jerseys, you might find the old red C.C.C.P. sweaters underneath.

Sharshukov has made players like Shen, Wang Zhidong and Lyu Zhi look like Fedorov, Larionov and Konstantinov, and turned China into a sled reflection of the old Russia-tinged Detroit Red Wings.

“The Russian influence is definitely there,” Babey said. “It’s the old Soviet Union style of play.”

Andrea Macri, a defenseman for Italy, which was trounced by China, 6-0, in the group stage on Tuesday, said before the Paralympics began that the Chinese were a “big mystery,” in part because as hosts, they did not have to play qualifying games.

“We just did not really know what they were doing in that time,” Macri said.

Apparently, they were practicing. In its Paralympic debut, China is 4-0 and will play the United States, the three-time defending champion, in a semifinal match on Friday, hoping to pull off a reverse “Miracle on Ice,” and with a Russian coach to boot.

In China’s first game, it pounded Slovakia, 7-0, behind Shen, a speedy sharpshooter whose nickname is Little Whirlwind. Shen scored four goals in that game and has emerged as the newest wunderkind in the sport. He is 23 and has been playing only since his late teens.

“He’s Connor McDavid on a sled,” forward Martin Joppa of Slovakia said.

That comparison to McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers star, is apt because Shen is a fast, stickhandling wizard with a sizzling shot. But he also has four assists and, along with Wang, leads the tournament in points, with 10.

But Shen may remind Sharshukov more of Valeri Kharlamov, the Russian speedster who died in a car crash in 1981. Sharshukov assigned Shen to wear Kharlamov’s No. 17, which is almost a sacred jersey number in Russian hockey.

Shen is from Hebei Province, near one of the team’s training sites. According to CGTN, the state-run Chinese broadcaster, the facility is built for para athletes, and food is specially procured and inspected for them. The team practices three times a day, and the players live and train under Sharshukov.

“He is the spiritual support of this team,” Shen said in Chinese. “If he is not with us during the games, I might not play very well.”

If China’s team was a mystery to Macri, the Italian defender, then Sharshukov is the enigma it is wrapped in. Some opposing players thought Sharshukov was the head coach of Russia. He was not. One thought he coached in Russia’s professional league, the K.H.L. He did not.

And although Russia’s delegation to the Winter Paralympics was barred because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, that did not apply to Sharshukov because he is not representing Russia.

But there is scant information in English about Sharshukov on the internet, and he was not available to fill in the details. Even after China beat the Czech Republic, 4-2, on Wang’s game-winner with 1 minute 51 seconds remaining on Wednesday, it was virtually impossible for a reporter to speak to him, adding to the puzzle.

It was not the first time he breezed past reporters in the mixed zone, a setting where reporters and participants can chat. After China beat Italy, Sharshukov appeared eager to speak as the team’s manager and translator whisked him through. He stopped three times in an attempt to communicate with a reporter, but the team official said he was not allowed to talk because there was another game the next day.

That would amuse N.H.L. coaches, who are required to speak to reporters before and after all 82 regular-season games. Sharshukov finally threw up his arms apologetically, as if to say it was out of his hands. Wednesday was different. He just pointed to his watch and continued past. No time to chat, apparently, not with the mighty American team waiting for his team in two days.

Anton Politov, a project manager for Russia’s Adaptive Hockey Federation, which develops children’s sled hockey programs and other hockey events for blind and special needs athletes, was able to fill in some holes on the coach’s résumé. He worked alongside Sharshukov in junior para hockey from 2012 to 2017.

He said Sharshukov attended an institute in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and completed an advanced training degree titled, “Hockey Theory and Methods of Sports Training.” His players, Politov said, are his pupils.

In 2012, Sharshukov became the head coach of the sled hockey team Phoenix in Moscow and won championships in his first three years there. Many of his players went on to play for the national team, which he joined as an assistant in 2013.

Politov said Sharshukov was a visionary who planned years in advance and closely monitored his players’ nutrition, training and workloads.

“He believes that discipline should first be in the head and then it will definitely be on the ice,” Politov said in a text message.

He also has the advantage of the generous funding and reservoir of talent provided by China.

“It is so much about the money to find and develop players,” Joppa said. “I can only imagine what it must be like for them.”

When China began its program in 2017 there was much to learn. David Hoff, the coach of the heavily favored U.S. team, also knew very little about China in recent years. He remembered that at a tournament in South Korea, members of the China delegation were videotaping the Americans getting into their sleds.

“I think they were interested in the latest technology of the sleds,” Hoff said of his next opponent. “They put a lot of resources into their program with an eye toward hosting the Games, and it shows. I think they did that with a lot of sports. They definitely belong in the top tier of para hockey.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, they might already belong on a medal stand.

Amy Chang Chien contributed reporting.