Tag Archives: Wang Meng

Olympics

China’s Olympic report card

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The Chinese delegation came away from Sochi with 3 gold medals, 4 silvers and 2 bronze, good for 12th in the medals table. China Sports Insider reviews the highs and lows…

Best performance

eca86bd9ddb41474e88406Zhang Hong, gold, 1,000 m speed skating. Starting in the 7th of 18 heats (when the top ranked skaters typically go at the end), Zhang started slowly but then turned on the burners. Her time ripped up the track record and no one even came close – her winning margin was bigger than the previous four finals combined. Best of all, it was China’s first ever long track Olympic title.

Worst performance

Continue reading China’s Olympic report card →

Olympics

China wins gold in Sochi!

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Li Jianrou celebrates after winning goldIt wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Fan Kexin was the anointed successor to China’s most decorated Winter Olympian Wang Meng, following Wang’s double ankle fracture in training last month. If Wang had been a certainty to win (at least in Chinese minds), then Fan was the next best thing, stepping into the breach as China’s short track production line all moved up one slot in the rankings.

It was all going according to plan: Fan posted the fastest time in the heats, then again in the quarterfinals. But it all went horribly wrong in the semifinals. Continue reading China wins gold in Sochi! →

Olympics

Winter Olympics preview: China’s medal hopes [UPDATED]

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China has long been known as a Summer Olympic powerhouse (3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd in last four Games), with an almost impenetrable grip on sports such as diving and table tennis, but in recent years, it has been at the Winter Olympic Games where China has made the most improvements.

China finished in 16th place in the medal table in Nagano in 1998, then posted 13th and 14th place finishes in Salt Lake City and Turin respectively, but leapt up to 7th in Vancouver four years ago and, in the process, became a genuine force to be reckoned with at the Winter Olympics. Here are the most likely contenders to win medals for the motherland in Sochi: Continue reading Winter Olympics preview: China’s medal hopes [UPDATED] →

Olympics

China begins search for a new Olympic star

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I wrote last week about speed skater Wang Meng breaking her ankle after she crashed into an as-yet-unnamed male teammate, putting a serious dent into China’s Olympic hopes. Some people have pointed out to me since that China doesn’t exactly need much sympathy when it comes to the Olympics – their last six medal tables have seen them finish 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

But that is the Summer Games, and the Winter Games is a different story, Continue reading China begins search for a new Olympic star →

Olympics

China’s star skater out of Sochi Games

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Wang Meng, China’s most decorated Winter Olympian (4G, 1S, 1B), is out of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi after fracturing her ankle on Thursday. The short track speed skater won three of China’s five gold medals at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 (500m, 1000m, 3000m relay), which won her CCTV’s Sports Personality of the Year award, and she was hotly tipped to add to that tally in Sochi.

Wang Meng in Vancouver 2010 Continue reading China’s star skater out of Sochi Games →