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
China's fifth medal, first controversy: Zhou Yang, short track speedskating
Tuesday, 23rd February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
Zhou Yang celebrates her gold medal in the 500-meter short track speedskating
Going into the race's final turn, Wang lost her second place position to the United States' Katherine Reutter, and then caused a collision that put herself, Reutter and South Korean frontrunner Cho Ha-ri into the boards and out of the race. Officials disqualified Wang, and invoked a special rule to allow Reutter and Cho to advance.
In the final, South Korea's Lee Eun-Byul and Park Seung-Hi finished second and third behind Zhou.
Wang has been one of the most prominent faces in the Chinese media during these games. She is China's winningest winter Olympian, having won gold, silver and bronze medals in the 2006 Olympics, followed by her 500-meter gold this year. Mainstream media reports in China—in outlets including Xinhua, China Daily and Titan Sports Newspaper—have glossed over Wang's disqualification, focusing almost solely on Zhou's win. But in more open online forums, Wang is a hot topic of debate—with some Internet users arguing she was wrongly disqualified and others suggesting she may have been instructed by coaches to skate dirty and give Zhou a better chance at winning.
Both Zhou and Wang skate for the last time in the 1,000-meter event, with preliminaries Feb. 24 at 5:00 p.m. PST (9:00 a.m. Beijing time on Feb. 25). Finals are Friday, Feb. 26 at 7:24 PST (11:24 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday, Feb. 27).
Zhou Yang image: blog.163.com
Tags: 2010 Winter Olympics, speedskating, Wang Meng, Zhou Yang
Third 2010 Winter Olympics Medal: Wang Beixing, speed skating
Wednesday, 17th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Wang skates again on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 1:00 PST (5:00 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 19, Beijing time), in the 1,000-meter event. She is currently 4th in the world rankings for the 1,000.
China finished the day at 7th overall in the medal rankings. In related news, the city of Harbin is also ranked 7th.
Wang Beixing image: Sports.mop.com
Tags: 2010 Winter Olympics, Olympics, speedskating, Wang Beixing
Figure Skating: Shen and Zhao on top heading into pairs final
Tuesday, 16th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
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