Beijing Winter Olympics: Six athletes from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to watch – BBC News

We take a look at some of the most noteworthy Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan athletes.

Eileen Gu, who was born in California and whose mother is Chinese, is destined to be a calling card for this Winter Olympics.

The 18-year-old freestyle skier once represented the United States and officially transferred to China in 2019. According to Chinese media reports, she has won 11 championships in various events in just two years after her naturalization in China – including gold at the 2021 Winter X Games and the World Freestyle Skiing Championships – quickly here. It has entered the world‘s leading position in one project and has become a golden point for the Chinese delegation in the Beijing Winter Olympics.

She is also a registered model with top agency IMG. When not on the slopes, she is often seen on the covers of fashion magazines and Paris Fashion Week, and will be enrolled at Stanford University after the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Fluent in Chinese and English, an international face, a healthy and sunny image, and a very different upbringing experience from most Chinese athletes, Gu Ailing’s popularity in China has grown rapidly. Because she once wore a frog-shaped helmet when she was a child, the affectionate nickname of “Princess Qingwa” also spread among the Chinese media and the public.

Her decision to naturalize to represent China once shook the American sports world. She, who claims to have dual identities as an American and a Chinese, expressed her hope to build a bridge between the two countries and to promote the development of ice and snow sports in China.

“This is an extremely difficult decision for me,” Gu Ailing wrote on her Instagram post at the time. She expressed her desire to “inspire millions of people where my mother was born”, especially young girls. She said that through the sport of skiing, she hopes to “unite people between the two countries, promote consensus, create communication and build friendship”.

Gu Ailing’s achievements in this Winter Olympics and whether she will bear the narrative of the Sino-American culture and identity game is still unknown, but she may be one of the few players in the Beijing arena who will be cheered by both Chinese and American audiences. Will be one of the most watched faces in the entire tournament.

Pair skating in figure skating has always been a popular winter sport in China. In the history of the Chinese figure skating team, there have been well-known combinations such as Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo, Pang Qing/Tong Jian – they won gold and silver medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010; At the meeting, a scene recorded in history was achieved – Zhang Dan fell on the ice after failing a quad jump, and then reluctantly and Zhang Hao completed the rest of the action perfectly to win the silver, which was described as one of the bravest moments in the history of Winter Olympics figure skating. one.

In Beijing, the flag of China’s pair skating fell to Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the runner-up at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the world championships with two golds and three silvers.

Sui Wenjing, 26, and Han Cong, 29, are both from Harbin, an ice city in northeastern China. Since partnering in 2007, the pair has won numerous honors from the youth group to the adult group in 14 years, including three consecutive Junior World Championships, 6 Four Continents Championships, and multiple Figure Skating Grand Prix medals. The current world record holder for the pair skating short program.

Unlike the common golden boy and jade girl combination in the double event of figure skating, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong often impress people with their lively interactions. The outspoken Sui Wenjing did not hesitate to make fun of his “bucket” nickname, while the steady but spiritual Han Cong happily accepted the “Second Dad” nickname given to him by his partner. For this reason, the two were dubbed the “scallion bucket combination” by ice fans.

In the words of their choreographer Lori Nicol (Lori Nicol), the two are not in a relationship, but “you can basically give people psychological counseling for partners now.”

“Ice skating is such a tough sport, the training is unimaginable, but they learned that it doesn’t have to be drudgery,” Nicole described the Chinese pair to NBC last year. “When you’ve been together for so long, you have your own dark jokes, and a way of doing things that is very pleasing to each other, they chose to focus on these.”

In fact, the duo were by no means less hit by injuries and defeats. Sui Wenjing suffered multiple injuries from 2012 to 2018, including multiple ankle and foot surgeries, and Han Cong also underwent hip surgery in 2020. In the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, they missed the gold medal by a narrow margin of 0.43 points.

But it is fortunate for Chinese ice fans that they have shown a fiery state in the new season before the Winter Olympics, winning championships in the 2021 Asian Figure Skating Open, the Canadian Station of the Figure Skating Awards and the Italian Station.

When it comes to each other’s partners on the field and common pursuits, the two will become very serious. In an interview, Han Cong told China’s state media CCTV that Sui Wenjing was an “angel” on the ice rink, “I’m not alone, she’s right next to me. Everything we do is two people. together.”

Sui Wenjing said to the official website of the International Olympic Committee before the Winter Olympics: “We definitely hope to show the best of ourselves on every ice surface and every field, and hope that there will be more people, because We’re on the ice rink.”

In Beijing, they expect to continue to “be a bridge to each other”.

Short track speed skating has always been an advantageous event for China at the Winter Olympics. Not only the first Winter Olympic gold medal in Chinese history was won by Yang Yang in Salt Lake City in 2002, but so far China has won a total of 33 medals in this event at the Winter Olympics, including 10 gold and 15 silver. 8 bronze, far surpassing other Winter Olympic events, and second only to South Korea in this event’s Winter Olympics history rankings.

Wu Dajing is China’s most influential athlete in this event in recent years. Four years ago at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing won the only gold medal for the Chinese delegation whose overall performance was declining, but he won the men’s 500m event by breaking the world record twice.

Later in the same year, the Salt Lake City Station of the Short Track Speed ​​Skating World Cup broke the record again with a time of 39.505 seconds, completing the feat of breaking the world record three times in one year, and currently holds the world record and Olympic record for this event.

In Beijing, the Chinese short track speed skating team won the full quota of 5 men and 5 women, and will still carry the banner for the Chinese delegation’s Winter Olympics gold medal.

However, short-track speed skating is a somewhat chaotic competition event. Players must constantly compete for the leading position on the crowded track every moment, and the variables are very large. In the past two Winter Olympics, with the exception of the South Korean team, which won the gold medal in the women’s 3000-meter relay, no other athletes have successfully defended their titles.

“I don’t see myself as an Olympic champion at any time, I have to give 120 percent of my efforts to fight for it,” Wu Dajing told China’s state media CCTV last year about his preparations. “For me, I It’s not to defend, maybe I’m also going to fight for the championship, because there are too many people who can win the championship.”

As the captain of China’s short track speed skating team, Wu Dajing has the experience of winning gold four years ago, and together with his teammate Ren Ziwei, he directly qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics with the gold medal in the World Cup individual event. With these advantages and the advantage of the home court, Wu Dajing expressed his hope that the Chinese national anthem will be played in the “especially cordial” venues in Beijing.

Huang Yuting from Kaohsiung used to be a speed roller skater who won gold at the Asian Games and also won medals at the Asian Championships, World Championships and World Games. According to the Chinese Olympic Committee, she is also the world record holder for the 1,000 meters in this event.

After switching to ice skating in 2015, she reached the World Cup seconds mark in less than a year, and has since competed in the women’s 500, 1000 and 1500 meters, and made her first Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

33-year-old Huang Yuting was born in a skating family, and her parents also met through figure skating. Her father Huang Jinlong was her enlightenment coach and is still in charge of Huang Yuting’s training guidance.

At the end of last year, she qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics 500, 1000 and 1500 meters at the Dao Speed ​​Skating World Cup (Beijing Winter Olympics Qualifying Tournament).

During the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics, Huang Yuting seemed to be in good shape. Not only did she create her best results, but she also won the gold medal in the women’s 1000m and silver in the 500m at the ISU Avenue Speed ​​Skating Four Continents Championships. Later, she said on social networking sites that her result was because “the strongest players didn’t come.”

At the beginning of this year, Huang Yuting was shocked to learn that a teammate who was training in the United States was infected with the new crown virus. After the nucleic acid test confirmed negative, it was determined that it would be OK to go to Beijing to compete.

Taiwan has participated in the Winter Olympics under the name of “Chinese Taipei” 10 times before and has not won a medal, but Huang Yuting, who has participated in the Winter Olympics for two consecutive times, will be a contestant that Taiwanese people are very concerned about during the Beijing Winter Olympics. In addition to her, Taiwan has three other athletes – Lin Xinrong in sledding and Coco Lee and Ho Bingrui in skiing – confirmed to qualify for the Winter Olympics.

If there are not many ice and snow sports venues in Hong Kong, it is necessary to overcome additional difficulties to generate representatives to participate in the Winter Olympics. For 21-year-old Zhu Dingwen, this ticket to the Beijing Winter Olympics must be accompanied by the help of his teammates and victory over himself. Injury persistence.

At the short track speed skating World Cup event held in the Netherlands last November, Hong Kong athlete Sui Xin finished 12th in the men’s 500m race, securing a qualification for the Beijing Winter Olympics for the Hong Kong team. According to the technical rules of the International Skating Federation, the Hong Kong Skating Federation will rank the top three stations of the same event in the four World Cups, and finally select Zhu Dingwen, who has the best overall score, to represent the Hong Kong team.

Due to the lack of ice sports training venues in Hong Kong, Zhu Dingwen used to travel to and from Hong Kong and mainland China every week for training, and then went to the United States to train while attending school. He won five consecutive short track speed skating titles at the Hong Kong Championships as a teenager and won the 1000m silver medal at the Asian Championships in 2019.

He once aimed to represent Hong Kong in the Winter Olympics at the age of 18, but unfortunately was seriously injured on the eve of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and three calf bones on the right were broken.

He knew that this opportunity to compete was not easy to come by. After obtaining the representative qualification at the end of last year, Zhu Dingwen said on social media: “I am very grateful to have the opportunity to represent Hong Kong in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. I still do not feel that I am 100% worthy of this qualification, but I will definitely train hard for the rest of the month. “

Regarding the goal, the young Zhu Dingwen unabashedly expressed “hope to step on the podium”.

In addition to Zhu Dingwen, the Hong Kong team also includes alpine skiers Jin Hexiao and Weng Houquan. A total of three people have been confirmed to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is the most in the history of the Hong Kong team.