China basks in glory as Beijing 2022 reaches halfway mark
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E-mail Xinhua, February 13, 2022
As the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games reaches its halfway mark on Saturday, the Chinese delegation competing on home soil has seen breakthroughs and moments of glory.
China dispatched a 388-member contingent, its largest ever, to the Beijing Winter Olympics, including 177 athletes who are set to compete in 104 of 109 events in 15 disciplines across seven sports, aiming for the country's best record at the Games.
China currently has collected four golds, three silvers and one bronze medal.
With the emergence of several prodigies, China has strong momentum in its overall strength on snow.
Gu Ailing, 18, won the women's freeski big air gold medal, becoming China's first female gold medalist on snow.
She stomped a double cork 1620 safety grab, a move she had never done in previous competitions, on her final run for an event-high score of 94.50 points, and vaulted from third place to take gold.
"That was the best moment of my life," said the emotional Gu after the race. "The happiest moment, day, whatever, of my life. I just cannot believe what just happened."
Su Yiming, 17, took a silver in the men's snowboard slopestyle to become the first Chinese male snowboarder to reach the Olympic podium. He managed a triple cork 1800 in the last section, the first time for the trick to appear at an Olympics.
Apart from the silver, what made Su appreciative is the generosity and maturity that he and his team showed toward a misjudgment that had a big say in the final results.
Iztok Sumatic, head judge of the men's snowboard slopestyle final, told the snowboarding professional website Whitelines that "it would be different scores" if the judges had seen champion Max Parrot miss a grab from the camera angle provided to them.
Su's coach Yasuhiro Sato said in an open letter on his social media that he and Su understand the difficulty of real-time scoring and call on the public to stop criticizing the judges.
"To be honest, I was disappointed when Su Yiming and I, after the awarding ceremony, knew about this and thought that we might have been in second place due to a misjudgment," he said. "However, I immediately thought that this is part of the game, and respect the score given by the judges."
According to Sato, he and Su called Sumatic after doubts of snowboarding professionals and fans flooded in on social media about the final score, telling the head judge in the phone call that they "understand grading sometimes can be really difficult."
"The culture of snowboarding is created by everyone together. All the people active in this sport are a family. People sometimes make mistakes, which is very natural, that's all," Sato noted.
Gao Tingyu, one of China's flag bearers at the opening ceremony on February 4, became the country's first ever male Olympic gold medalist in speed skating after winning the men's 500m race in a new Olympic record time.
China's short track speed skating team, which had earned 10 out of the country's total 13 gold medals in previous editions of the Games, has so far claimed two golds and one silver at Beijing 2022.
Ren Ziwei has received the baton as a leader among Chinese male skaters, winning the 2,000m mixed team relay and the men's 1,000m gold medal. Behind him, Li Wenlong, another post-2000s athlete, won a silver over the 1,000m distance.
In the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials, an added event on the Beijing Winter Olympic program, it was a story about the persistence of veterans, as Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu teamed up to bag a silver in their fourth Olympic appearances.
Jia, who conceded a Waterloo-like collapse in a landing, burst into tears and continuously apologized for his error. Xu rushed to the tearful Jia to console him.
"As long as we three stand together, we represent China. I trust in my teammates forever," said Xu.
In the men's skeleton, Yan Wengang won the country's first medal in any sliding sport with a bronze, which was notable for the fact that Chinese athletes only made their Olympic debut in the discipline at PyeongChang 2018.
Breaking through is not all about winning medals. In the 104 events China is participating in, 35 events witness the presence of Chinese athletes for the first time in history, and every step they make writes a historic chapter in China's winter sports.
Zhao Jiawen, one of torch bearers at the opening ceremony, finished 43rd in the individual Gundersen normal hill/10km event, becoming the first-ever Chinese athlete to finish a Nordic combined competition at a Winter Olympics.
"If we can compete in the next Winter Olympics, we will definitely achieve a greater breakthrough," said Zhao.
"I hope that more people get to know this sport through this Games, and support our Chinese team to go forward," commented Fan Duoyao, the first Chinese luger to appear on the Olympic stage.
For Ni Huizhong, secretary-general of the Chinese Olympic delegation, the athletes' performances at the ongoing Winter Olympics have met expectations so far.
"We are happy to see that the Chinese athletes have shown their resilience, confidence, and never-give-up spirit at the Games," said Ni. "We will continue to display sportsmanship and fight hard in the following events."
As the Beijing 2022 competition is running toward its second half from Sunday. China can expect medals in short track speed skating, figure skating, freestyle skiing and snowboard.
Beyond the playing field, Chinese athletes also showcased their hospitality toward opponents and fully practised the notion of "Together" that has been added to the Olympic motto.
Chinese curlers Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi presented their American counterparts Christopher Plys and Vicky Persinger with a set of commemorative pin badges featuring Games mascot Bing Dwen Dwen after their mixed doubles round robin.
The four competitors posed together while displaying the pin sets. The American duo later showed the sets on social media, saying that they were "honored to receive these beautiful Beijing 2022 pin sets in a wonderful display of sportsmanship by our Chinese counterparts."
Just moments after Tess Ledeux from France finished her competition in the women's freeski big air, Gu and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, the bronze medalist, came together to console the tearful Ledeux, who settled with a silver.
"We are going through the emotions at the end," said Gu. "I won because of them, because they had inspired me so much and made me who I am. I just wanted to express my gratitude. We are all out here to do this together."
