Athletes in these five sports have a shot at gold during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games
Since short-track speed skater Yang Yang won China’s first Winter Olympic gold in 2002, the country hasn’t exactly racked up the medals. The PRC made its first Winter Olympic appearance at Lake Placid in 1980 (sending 24 athletes and winning no medals of any color), and the country has amassed 13 gold medals since then. Its best showing was in Vancouver in 2010, where the team brought home five golds.
But that could change this year, as Beijing prepares to host to 2022 edition of the Winter Olympic Games, beginning February 4. As China is the host country, its athletes automatically qualify for every event at the Games, and the team is by far the biggest China have ever fielded, with 176 athletes preparing to showcase their abilities.
The youngest members of the team are the 17-year-old men’s freestyle skier He Jinbo and female aerials skier Peng Qingyue; while 37-year-old Ye Jinguang, a member of the curling team, will be the oldest. Over 100 of China’s Olympic athletes hail from the Northeast, and nine ethnic minority groups are represented on the team.
With the backing of the home crowd behind them (a hashtag related to the team’s announcement has nearly 34 million views on Weibo), a number of athletes will expect to hear the Chinese national anthem from atop the podium when their events end, though there will be few spectators due to Covid-19 restrictions on travel and gathering. Here are the Chinese athletes with a great chance of striking gold:
Sam Davies is the deputy managing editor at The World of Chinese. He writes mainly about society, sport, and culture, with his pieces touching on diverse topics from the future of China’s ski industry to efforts to prevent juvenile crime.
