As the Europeans took to the ice, a crowd of imperial officials and other guests gathered to watch the Dutch spin and speed around the lake as the emperor finished his breakfast. Then, as the emperor signaled that he was ready for the games to begin, the Dutch skaters returned to their seats in the audience and let the professionals take the ice.
With a loud explosion marking the beginning of the performance, the imperial skaters whizzed past the gallery, racing the length of the ice, twirling and leaping, demonstrating their martial prowess by firing arrows at targets with carefully placed shots while skating at full speed—a sport known as “Follow the Dragon Trail and Shoot (龙传射球).” Another game, “ice football (冰上蹴球),” involved two teams on skates slamming and tackling their opponents to win control of a white leather ball. The winners were rewarded with gifts and treats from the emperor.
Why “speed skate archery” and “ice rugby” have not become Winter Olympic sports is as much an IOC mystery as the color of Eileen Gu’s passport.
The scene of young Dutch and Manchu skaters trying to one-up the other on a Beijing lake is just one of many vignettes from historian Tonio Andrade’s book, The Last Embassy: The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China, published last year by Princeton University Press. Andrade argues the story of Titsingh’s delegation and their visit to the Qing court, including this bit of winter sports history, have been mostly forgotten or unfairly dismissed as a failure by historians today.