Prospects for China's future Winter Olympics success
- By Mark Dreyer
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 25, 2014
After finishing seventh overall at the 2010 Olympics, a 12th place finish for China's Olympians in Sochi might seem disappointing, but numbers can be misleading. As Xiao Tian, China's deputy chef de mission, pointed out, China was still the top country in Asia and has made some significant improvements.
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With the obvious exception of the aerials competition, Sochi saw some very promising developments for China. |
Let's look at the historical context. Four years ago, figure skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were very highly regarded, but their gold medal in Vancouver was still a shock. The other four gold medals came in short track speed skating, as China swept the women's events. The team was undoubtedly strong, but short track is so unpredictable that only the most optimistic of supporters could confidently have predicted a sweep. In short, China's Olympians overachieved in 2010.
This time around, China had to deal with an injury to star short track athlete and team leader Wang Meng just weeks before the Olympics, but even so, the short track team still achieved its target of two gold medals in Sochi. Elsewhere, an unexpected gold came from Zhang Hong in the long form version of speed skating.
But if that gold came from nowhere, China had certainly expected more from the aerials competitions. The team won a medal in each of the men's and women's event, but with China having both of the reigning world champions in the sport, it had been hoped - and, indeed, expected - that at least one of those medals would be golden. Overall, though, three gold medals was a fair result.
Officials have said they want to move away from the previous focus on gold medals, and the choice of Liu Qiuhong - the only member of the women's short track team not to win a medal in Sochi - as China's flagbearer at Sunday's closing ceremony can be seen as symbolic of this. But winning gold is so ingrained in the Chinese psyche that this is still how many judge the team.
With the obvious exception of the aerials competition, Sochi saw some very promising developments for China. Firstly, the men's curling squad's historic run to the semifinals showed - following the women's bronze medal in Vancouver - that China has two teams capable of winning medals in the future. If the men improve as much in the next four years as they have done in the past four, officials in Pyeongchang may as well start gift wrapping the gold medal now.
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