Well that was unexpected.
China won the 500 m women’s short track title for the fourth consecutive time – but no one would have guessed that Li Jianrou would be the one to do it – and then Zhang Hong (left) won China’s first ever (long track) speed skating Olympic title in an even more stunning result. It was also the first time China has won two gold medals on the same day at a Winter Olympics.
Barely three hours after winning its first gold in Sochi, China has another one. Zhang Hong surprised the field by posting a sensational time early in the women’s 1000 m (long track) speed skating event, that was simply too good for the rest. Her winning time of 1:14.02, set in the 7th of 18 heats (the best skaters typically go towards the end), was a massive 0.67 ahead of second place.
Continue reading China wins first two Olympic golds three hours apart
It 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!
Day 5 review
It wasn’t to be for China’s veteran figure skater duo Tong Jian and Pang Qing, who made their competitive swansong on Wednesday evening in the free program of the pairs competition. They started in 4th place after their short program, and that’s where they finished, despite a free program that was third best overall. Consolation prize for retiring? They now have time to get married. Russia finished 1-2, matching China’s finish from four years ago, and the Germans were third. China’s other pair – Cheng Peng and Zhang Hao – finished in 8th.
Continue reading China’s Olympics: Day 5 review, Day 6 preview
Day 4 review
Tuesday February 11 was a solid – but ultimately disappointing – day for China. Speed skater Zhang Hong (pictured left) pulled out the performance of the day in the first run of the women’s 2 x 500 m. Her time of 37.58 was a new track record at the time, though two competitors later went faster, placing Zhang in bronze medal position at the half way point. Her second race was considerably slower at 37.99 for a 4th place finish – 0.1 seconds out of bronze – but she’ll have another chance in the 1,000 m.
Continue reading China’s Olympics: Day 4 review, Day 5 preview
With several high prominent western leaders boycotting the Sochi Olympics, it was of even more importance to Russia and the IOC that Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony. In an official press release about the first ever IOC President’s dinner, Xi was mentioned in the same breath as Russian President Vladimir Putin, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Karolos Papoulias, President of Greece (home of the Olympics). All other attendees were listed further down the release, showing the importance of Xi’s presence.
Continue reading China, Russia in mutual backscratching at Sochi Olympics
Day 3 review
As predicted, things got better for China on Monday Feb 10. Much better.
Continue reading China’s Olympics: Day 3 review, Day 4 preview
As expected, Sunday February 9 provided little in the way of Chinese cheer: in cross-country, Xu Wenlong finished 59th (out of 68) in the men’s skiathlon,
while biathletes Zhang Yan, Tang Jialin, Song Chaoqing and Song Na finished 49th, 55th, 63rd and 83rd (out of 84) respectively. Song Na missed a team-high four targets in total, and, at 18, clearly hasn’t realized that if you’re going to have rock star hairstyle, you’d better be ready to play in the big leagues.
Continue reading China’s Olympics: Day 2 review, Day 3 preview
Despite starting the second day of the figure skating team event in bronze medal position, a disastrous ice dance by Huang Xintong and Zheng Xun in the team competition saw China ranked last out of the ten teams, gaining just a single point. Zhang Kexin didn’t do much better in the ladies short program, ranking 7th and earning four points, meaning that China finished qualification in 7th overall and missed out on a place in the final by three points. Continue reading China’s Olympics: Day 1 review, Day 2 preview
在4年前的温哥华冬奥会上，18岁的中国短道速滑运动员周洋打破1500米奥运会纪录，为中国代表队夺得了温哥华奥运会第三块金牌。随后，周洋又帮助中国队以打破世界纪录的成绩夺得3000米接力桂冠。她还进入到短道速滑1000米决赛，并且在半决赛上创下新的世界纪录。 Continue reading 运动员获奖后首先该感谢谁？