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
China's 2010 Winter Olympians: Wang Meng and Zhou Yang, short track speedskating
Thursday, 18th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
UPDATE: Wang Meng won gold, making her China's most decorated Winter Olympian, with two golds, one silver and one bronze. Zhou Yang finished 5th. Medal number 4 for China puts it in 9th place in the medal count. Wang competes next in the 1,500, with heats at 9:45 a.m. Beijing time, on Sunday Feb. 21, and finals two hours later.
Wang (right) celebrates a 1-2 finish in the 3,000 meters in Turin, with gold medallist Yang Yang
Wang Meng (王濛) is the most dominant athlete in China's 2010 Olympic delegation. The 24-year-old won three medals in Torino in 2006--gold in the 500m event, silver in the 1,000 and bronze in the 1,500. She is also the reigning world champion in the 500 and 1,000, with back-to-back 500 titles. In the preliminaries at Vancouver, she skated to an Olympic record of 43.926 seconds. Wang is more outspoken and outwardly competitive than many Chinese athletes. She has had a rocky history with her sport's officials in China, and left the national team for part of 2007 over a training dispute.
Chasing Wang and her first Olympic medal is 18-year-old Zhou Yang (周洋), who also moved on to the next stage, posting the second fastest qualifying time at 44.115 seconds.
Short track speedskating is China's top source of Winter Olympics medals, accounting for five of its 11 medals in Turin. China's first gold medalist in the winter games was Yang Yang (pictured above), in the 2002 games. The Chinese women won last year's world team championship in the Netherlands, and 2008 world championships in Harbin.
As China's program rapidly improves, its rivalry with Korea is heating up. Korea's head coach, Choi Gong-Bok, threw water bottles at a Chinese official who was taping a Korean training session, according to this report
The 500m short track final takes place Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7:07 p.m. PST, or Thursday, Feb. 18 at 11:00 a.m. Beijing time.
The top threats to Wang and Zhou (Saturday heat times in parentheses) are Katherine Reutter, USA (44.187); Park Seung-Hi, Korea (44.221); Kalyna Roberge, Canada (44.254); and Cho Ha-Ri, Korea (44.313).
Related: Chinese speed skaters will medal at Vancouver Olympics, Canadian team coach says
Wang/Yang image: Baidu
Tags: China's 2010 Winter Olympians, speedskating, Wang Meng, Winter Olympics, Zhou Yang