The short track speed skating events of the Beijing Winter Olympics have all been completed recently. Since the Chinese team won the gold medal in the short track speed skating mixed relay and won the first gold for the Chinese delegation, many netizens followed the short track speed skating Olympic champion Wang Mao to see the rules of the competition. Wang Meng guessed the first gold of the Chinese short track speed skating team, but did not expect that the last day of the grain was not harvested, and even the most confident men's 5000 meter relay was "dropped".
The last day of the short track speed skating race day is February 16. In the history of the Winter Olympics, February 16 has a special significance for China's ice and snow projects.
On February 16, 2002, Yang Yang won the gold medal in the women's short track speed skating 500 meters at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA, which was also the first gold in the history of the Chinese team in the Winter Olympics.
Yang Yang
On February 16, 2006, Wang Meng won the gold medal in the women's short track speed skating 500 meters at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
On February 16, 2010, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the gold medal in double figure skating at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the first Olympic figure skating gold medal won by the Chinese team and the first Olympic gold medal in pair skating in Asia.
On February 16, 2014, Zhou Yang won the women's short track speed skating 1500 meters championship at the Sochi Winter Olympics, successfully defending the title.
On February 16, 2022, Wang Meng looked forward to the Chinese men's team to stand on the podium. At the last Winter Olympics, the Chinese team won the silver medal in the short track speed skating men's 5000 meters relay, and the champion Hungary did not reach the Final of Group A this year, which is a favorable opportunity for the Chinese team. However, during the game, Sun Long accidentally fell, which made the Chinese team's four years of hard work fall short.
Wang Meng said after the game, "In fact, as long as you don't make mistakes, you can get a medal, and as a result, hey, didn't let me say the classic phrase 'you can always trust the Chinese short track speed skating team'." ”
Take stock of the distribution of medals in the short track speed skating event at the Beijing Winter Olympics. With 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze, the Chinese team tied for second place with the Dutch team, second only to the South Korean team with 2 gold and 3 silver. Compared with the 1 gold and 1 silver of the previous PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the Chinese team has definitely improved. However, short track speed skating has always been the ace sport of the Chinese team at the Winter Olympics, and there is still a gap compared with the historical record.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Chinese delegation achieved a breakthrough of zero gold medals in the Winter Olympics for the first time, of which short track speed skating contributed 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Since then, the Chinese short track speed skating team has won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics; 4 gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, of which Wang Meng alone won 3 gold; and at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, it won 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze, which can be described as high production and multi-point blossoming in the project.
Looking back at the two gold medals of this Winter Olympics, the two gold medals won thrillingly. In the mixed team relay event, the Chinese team was chaotic in the semi-finals, and the performance ranked only third in the group. In the end, because of the fouls of the United States team and the Russian Olympic Committee team, the two teams were cancelled, and the Chinese team advanced to the final in a thrilling way, otherwise there was no chance to compete for the gold medal.
In the men's 1000m event, the previous quarter-finals and semi-finals were all variable, and several players of the Chinese team mostly experienced fouls by their opponents and were finally sentenced to promotion. In the final, China's Ren Ziwei and the slightly leading Hungarian player Liu Shaolin collided almost at the same time, the two had some contact with each other, and finally the referee ruled that the opponent was fouled, and Ren Ziwei won the championship. To be fair, Ren Ziwei did not absolutely suppress the strength of his opponents.
Two gold medals could not hide the embarrassment of the short track speed skating team's lack of follow-up. After the retirement of Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Zhou Yang and other famous players, the original strongest women's team of the Chinese short track speed skating team has declined significantly in the cycle of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics, not to mention who has the absolute strength to compete for the championship. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's team had no gold; at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese women's players and top players such as Cui Minjing, Fang Tana, and Kim Buting could not compete.
For the audience, watching the Chinese team feels like a "pity"; but for professionals like Wang Meng, it may be more of a grievance, hating not being able to change into an ice knife to play on their own. In the women's 1500m final, China's Han Yutong struggled to lead from the third lap to the third round of the highlight, and then the speed was overtaken by the opponent, and finally ranked last among the 7 players in the Group A final, so the tactics made the Winter Olympic 4 gold winner Wang Mao also confused. Sun Long's low-level mistake in the Olympic final also exposed certain problems in the coaching team in daily training and employment.
A total of 9 small events were set up in the short track speed skating event of this Winter Olympic Games, resulting in 9 gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze medals with a total of 27 medals. In the end, the 27 medals were divided among 8 countries: in addition to the 5 medals in South Korea, China, the Netherlands, Italy and Canada all had 4 medals. The wide distribution of medals in short track events at this Winter Olympic Games also shows that competition is becoming increasingly fierce. At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, I am afraid that the competitive landscape will change.
Can Wu Dajing hold out until the next Winter Olympics? How did the Chinese short track speed skating team face the situation of being in a state of inactivity? Is the coaching team composed of Korean foreign teachers and other coaches in the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle suitable? A series of question marks to be solved.
Wang Meng has been enthusiastically hailed as the "king of short track speed skating commentary", and some people even say that Wang Meng should be allowed to return to the coaching position of national short track speed skating. Whether she can be a coach needs to be considered comprehensively, but it must be admitted that Wang Meng's professional ability is excellent, and fortunately there are "professional" audiences brought out by her "knocking on the small blackboard to draw the key points".
Looking ahead, everyone will still pay attention to and support the Chinese short track speed skating team.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Chen Hua Text Editor: Qin Dongying Caption Source: Xinhua News Agency
Source: Author: Qin Dongying