On February 16, 2002, in Salt Lake City, USA, China's Yang Yang won the championship in the short track speed skating 500 meters final, becoming China's first Winter Olympic champion.
Since then, short-track speed skating has become the pinnacle of China's ice and snow sports. Before the Winter Olympics, China won a total of 13 gold medals, short track speed skating alone 10 gold medals, plus two gold medals in this Winter Olympics, China short track speed skating won a total of 12 gold medals.
On the evening of February 16, 2022, the last race day of short track speed skating, the Chinese short track speed skating team that retained the hope of winning gold was ranked fifth in the men's 5000 meters relay due to mistakes, and seventh in the women's 1500 meters race.
For 20 years, China's short track speed skating has been up and down, always standing at the forefront of China's ice and snow sports, even at the lowest point, like a warrior, never yielding.
In 2006, Li Yan became the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team, and it was under her leadership that China's short track speed skating entered a period of rapid development.
Turin Winter Olympics, Wang Meng turned out to be born, opening a new era, 4 years later in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's team won 4 gold medals, Wang Meng and Zhou Yang double stars shine, making Zhu Qiang afraid.
In those years, The Chinese women's short track speed skating talents emerged, followed by Zhou Yang and Fan Kexin, the Sochi Winter Olympics, even if Wang Meng fractured before the game, the Chinese women's team still won the championship in the women's 500 meters and 1500 meters.
The most unfortunate thing is Fan Kexin, who slipped in the women's 500m semi-final and missed the final, lost to the talented girl Shen Shixi in the 1000m competition and won the second place, and the 3000m relay China team was again judged to be fouled. At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Fan Kexin missed the final in her 500 competitions in her strengths, and the gold medal dream was not realized until this year, of course, not her main event 500 meters, but the mixed relay.
At this Winter Olympics, the Chinese team won the gold medal in the mixed team and the men's 1000 meters, which was a breakthrough for the men's team. In the past 20 years, the competitiveness of Chinese men's short track speed skating has been continuously enhanced, and at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing won the gold medal in the men's 500 meters by absolute advantage, which was also the only gold medal of the Chinese delegation. The men's 5000m relay was also overtaken by Hungary at the last moment, and the strength of the Chinese men's team was recognized.
An undeniable fact is that the Chinese short track speed skating team has experienced too many twists and turns in this cycle, Li Yan and Wang Meng have left their posts successively, and there has been controversy over the selection of personnel.
This Winter Olympics won 9 gold medals, China, South Korea, the Netherlands won two golds each, Italy, Hungary, Canada each won one gold, the Chinese team is still the gold pioneer.
But the difficulties are obvious.
On the men's side, Han Tianyu's injury damaged China's overall strength, and the relay team failed to win the medal, and it cannot be completely blamed on Sun Long's mistakes, which is indeed due to strength. In the next Olympic Games, Wu Dajing is 32 years old, whether he can persist is still unknown, 29-year-old Ren Ziwei can fight, Lin Xiaowei can also represent the Chinese team, but the progress of several post-00s is the key.
Among the opponents of the Chinese team, the overall strength of the Korean team is strong, and Huang Daxian is only 23 years old, and the future can be expected. As the holder of the men's 5,000-meter relay world record and Olympic record, the Hungarian team failed to reach the final of the Olympic Games, mainly because the other two athletes declined in form, but the competitiveness of Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang is still there, and it is also the big enemy of the Chinese team in the single event.
The 38-year-old veteran Hamelin, who has played five games in the Winter Olympics, still led the Canadian team to win the gold medal in the men's 5000 meters relay, 4 golds retired, Dubois took over the baton strongly, winning a gold, a silver and a bronze, which cannot be ignored.
Compared with the men's team, the Chinese women's team is more difficult.
Fan Kexin is 29 years old, Han Yutong is 28 years old, participating in the next Winter Olympics, just a good wish, Qu Chunyu, Zhang Chutong, Zhang Yuting are expected to participate, but there is little room for progress.
Italian veteran Fang Tana participated in the 5th Winter Olympic Games, holding 11 Olympic medals, and this Winter Olympics is still one gold and two silver. After her, the Dutch team Shultin won two gold, one silver and one bronze, a record, and she was not yet 25 years old, and South Korea's Choi Min-jing was 1 year younger than Shultin, winning one gold and two silver.
On February 16, the night of the full moon, Chinese short track speed skating bid farewell to an era, there are surprises, regrets, looking back on the struggle process of the past twenty years, no matter how difficult it is, the road to come is still clear.
At that time, the bright moon was there, and the clouds had returned.