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China’s Olympics: Day 5 review, Day 6 preview

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Day 5 review

Pang and Tong bow out in SochiIt 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.

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China’s Olympics: Day 4 review, Day 5 preview

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Day 4 review

Zhang HongTuesday 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.

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Olympics

China, Russia in mutual backscratching at Sochi Olympics

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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.

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Chinese language

中国参加冬奥会不应紧盯金牌

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2008年北京奥运会，中国在比赛第一天拿下2枚金牌，第二天又将4枚金牌收入囊中。2012年伦敦奥运会，同样的故事继续上演，中国在比赛前两天内平均每天拿下6枚奖牌，其中一半是金牌。

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China’s Olympics: Day 2 review, Day 3 preview

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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,

Song Na: blue hair, grey hair or just bad lighting?
Song Na: blue hair, grey hair or just bad lighting?

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.

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China’s Olympics: Day 1 review, Day 2 preview

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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 →

Chinese language, Olympics

运动员获奖后首先该感谢谁？

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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？ →

Olympics

China’s Olympics: Day 0 review, Day 1 preview

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There was no actual sport on Friday February 7 in Sochi, but there was plenty of action, not least the opening ceremony, which kicked off at 20:14 local time. The Chinese team, led by figure skater Tong Jian, was described by one website as “reliably pleasant peppermint candies“. Here’s why:

2014-Olympic-Opening-Ceremony-China

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China’s Olympics: Day -1 review, Day 0 preview

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The Sochi Olympics haven’t officially started yet, but three of the sports have already begun, with four Chinese athletes in action on Thursday February 6.

Ning Qin in action at the Sochi Olympics Photo credit: Reuters
Ning Qin in action at the Sochi Olympics
Photo credit: Reuters

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