Sport-by-sport breakdown of China's 2010 Winter Olympics performance
Monday, 1st March 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China finished the 2010 Winter Olympics with a total of 11 medals, the same overall tally it reached in Turin, but with more gold medals (5 compared to 2). That leaves China in 8th place if you count by combined medals, 6th if you measure in golds. In the previous seven Winter Olympics, China had only won 4 gold medals altogether (China in the Winter Olympics: Facts and figures. China's winter sports officials are congratulating themselves and looking toward the future, reports Reuters. Below is a sport-by-sport breakdown of China's performance in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.Pairs figure skating: 1 gold, 1 silver
The highlight of these games for China came right at the beginning, when Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo ended the Russian domination of pairs figure skating, and their own 20-year hunt for Olympic gold. The married couple won on Valentine's Day, which was also the first day of this year's Lunar New Year. Tong Jian and Pang Qing won silver, and another Chinese pair came in fourth, a good indication for China's future in this sport.
Skating: Short track 4 golds, speed skating 1 bronze
China's female short track speed skaters made an unprecedented sweep, taking all four gold medals. Wang Meng followed up her 500-meter gold medal with a win in the 1,000-meter event, and skated on the gold medal-winning 3,000-meter relay winning team. With four golds, a silver and a bronze over her career, Wang is China's most decorated winter Olympian. The 3,000-meter gold came at the expense of a disqualification of the South Korean women, on a close judgment call that went in China's favor (China's team: Wang Meng, Zhou Yang, Sun Linlin and Zhang Hui). China's top two skaters—Wang and Zhou—were both disqualified in the semifinals of events that the other eventually won gold in. Zhou won the 1,500-meter event. In speed skating (not short track), Wang Beixin won a bronze.
Skiing aerials: 1 silver, 2 bronzes
Another event China had several hopes in was skiing aerials, and going into the women's final, all seemed to be going perfectly, with four Chinese skiers making the cut. But Australia's Lydia Lassila won out over the field, leaving Li Nina with silver and Guo Xinxin with bronze. The men's team was strong as well, but only Liu Zhongqing managed to medal (a bronze), while two others came in 6th and 7th.
Curling: Bronze medal
China's hopes for its world champion women's curling team to win gold came up short, ending in a bronze. China's curlers—Wang Bingyu, Liu Yin, Yue Qingshuang, Zhou Yan, and Liu Jinli—have an average of 25, much younger than any of the rest of the world's elite, so Chinese curling is sure to be a force in Sochi.
Tags: 2010 Winter Olympics, China's 2010 Winter Olympians, curling, figure skating, Olympics, skiing aerials, speed skating, Vancouver Olympics, Wang Meng, Zhou Yang
Double double: Figure skating pairs bag China's first two medals
Tuesday, 16th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Shen and Zhao
Shen/Zhao snagged the gold that has eluded them in their previous three bronze medal performances, with a score of 216.57. Taking silver were Tong/Pang, with 213.31 overall. German world champions got the bronze, at 210.6.
The third Chinese pair, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, ended up in fifth place. The day's results no doubt indicate that China has a strong figure skating program, but most of the media attention focuses on Shen and Zhao--married, retired, unretired, and now Olympic champions. In his report on the couple, The Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson quotes Zhao as saying, "When I hold her in my arms, I don't have to pretend to love her. I do."
Links:
Chinese Skating Pair Breaks the Mold
Related:
China's 2010 Winter Olympians: Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, pairs figure skating
Figure skating: Shen and Zhao on top heading into pairs final
Shen/Zhao image: Xinmin.cn
Tags: figure skating, Shen and Xue, Winter Olympics
Figure Skating: Shen and Zhao on top heading into pairs final
Tuesday, 16th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
After breaking their own world record Sunday, Chinese figure skating pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have a good chance of becoming China's first medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics.The veteran couple posted a score of 76.66, beating out the world champions from Germany, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, who weren't far behind at 75.96. Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "In their 2 minutes, 50 seconds of captivating power and effortless beauty, the Chinese set the bar where no pair ever had been." The score beat Shen and Zhao's previous world record, set just a couple of months ago.
Shen, 31, and Zhao, 36, face a tough field in the final, which takes place at 5:00 p.m. PST on February 15 (9 a.m. Beijing time, Feburary 16). The Two other Chinese pairs are still in contention—Pang Qing and Tong Jian finished Sunday in fourth place, and Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao came in at fifth. Russians Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov are in third place with a score of 74.16.
Other Chinese athletes competing for medals on February 15 are free cross country skiers Li Hongxue (women) and Xu Wenlong (men), both long shots; and men's speed skaters Yu Fengtong, Zhang Zhongqi, Liu Fangyi and Wang Nan (all men). Yu is China's record holder in the 500 and 1,000 meters, but his best result is a 13th-place finish in the 2005 World Championships.
Related: Shen-Zhao lead pairs figure skating
Tags: 2010 Winter Olympics, figure skating, Shen and Zhao, speed skating, Winter Olympics, world record
China's 2010 winter Olympians: Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, pairs figure skating
Tuesday, 9th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Zhao and Shen on the cover of SI China's 2010 Olympic issue, with the headline "Skating toward Vancouver"
The couple who, like many of China's winter Olympians, grew up in Harbin, came out of retirement last May. They proceeded to win three Grand Prix titles in the past year.
In a recent Reuters story, Shen says, "This is not our best chance. It is just our last chance, a last chance at the Olympics."
Olympic experience
Nagano, 1998: Fifth place
Salt Lake City 2002: bronze
Turin 2006: bronze
Other international experience: World champions in 2002, 2003, 2007
When to watch them compete: 4:30 p.m. EST (5:30 a.m. Beijing time), Sunday February 14--Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year and Day 1 of the pairs figure skating competition
Reuters: Last chance for Chinese figure skating pair
NBCOlympics.com: Figure skating schedule and results
Tags: China's 2010 winter Olympians, figure skating, Shen and Zhao, winter Olympics
China in the Winter Olympics: Facts and figures
Friday, 11th December 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Although China—like the rest of the world—care a lot less about the Winter Olympics than they do about the summer games, there is indeed an Olympics coming up. Olympic gold medals are a huge source of national pride in China, so the Vancouver 2010 Olympics will be watched more closely here than in most countries.Here's a rundown of some facts and figures on China's Winter Olympic history:
China's Winter Olympic debut: Lake Placid, 1980. China's best result was an 18th place finish in women's slalom ski. In 1984, matters only got worse, as China's top finish was 19 in the women's slalom ski.
China's first Olympic medal: 1992, Albertville, 2 silvers in women's speed skating, 500 meters and 1,000 meters, for Ye Qiaobao (was the first year in the program for speed skating)
First Winter Olympic gold: 2002, Yang Yang won the women's 500 m and 1,000 m in short track skating.
China's rank in medals from Torino 2006: 11 (2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze). All were in speed skating except for one gold in men's freestyle skiing aerials (Han Xiaopeng) and silver in women's freestyle skiing aerials (Li Nina)
China's historical Winter Olympic medals: 4 gold, 16 silver, 13 bronze, 33 total
China has historically been very strong in short track/speed skating, which account for 25, or almost 80 percent, of China's winter Olympic medals. Its other Olympic medals have come in figure skating (5) and skiing (3).
China's best shot at the elusive team sports gold is in curling. The Chinese women's team became national heroes when they brought home the world championship earlier this year. The women's ice hockey team has also improved rapidly, but despite their number 7 world ranking, they have very little hope of medaling this time around. Powerhouses USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia are too dominant.
Tags: China, figure skating, ice hockey, skiing, speed skating, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics