Source: Sports Weekly
9 gold medals, 4 silver medals, 2 bronze medals, the third place in the gold medal list, this is the result of the Chinese delegation at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and it is also the best record of the mainland since it participated in the Winter Olympics. Proud of the fact that it has nine gold medals, the third in the gold medal list, and the best record in the history of Asian countries in a single Winter Olympics.
Like the Summer Olympics, Japan was the first Asian country to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. At the 7th Winter Olympics, Japanese athletes won a silver medal in alpine skiing. Of course, at that time, the overall strength of Japan's ice and snow projects lagged far behind the traditional ice and snow countries in Europe and the United States, and the Japanese won only 6 medals in the 8 winter Olympics since then, including 1 gold medal. It should be noted that 30 years ago, the Ice and Snow Sports of Asian countries were almost uncompetitive, and there was no second delegation other than Japanese athletes to enter the Winter Olympic medal table.
Gold medal winnings became the norm for Asian athletes, starting with the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. At that Winter Olympics, South Korea and Japan won 2 gold and 1 gold respectively. In the past 30 years, the Japanese delegation has missed the gold medal in the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2010, and the other seven Winter Olympic Games have won gold medals, during which the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics set a record of five gold medals for asian countries at that time. It is worth mentioning that the relatively deep ice and snow sports heritage has gradually improved the performance of Japanese ice and snow sports in the past two Winter Olympic Games, winning 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze in the last session, and winning 3 gold medals and 18 medals this year, setting a new high for the number of medals won by Asian countries in a single session, ranking 7th in the total number of medals of various delegations, and is the only Asian country and region delegation to enter the top ten.
In 1992, short track speed skating entered the Winter Olympic Games, and with the superior strength of the project, the Korean delegation entered the medal table and gold medal list for the first time in that competition, and so far created the highest record for the Asian country to win gold in nine consecutive Winter Olympic Games. During this period, the South Korean delegation won six gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, breaking the Asian record of five gold medals in a single session set by the Japanese at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Unlike the relatively scattered characteristics of Japanese ice and snow medals, the gold medals of Koreans mainly come from ice, and are mainly concentrated in short track speed skating. In recent years, the overall strength and individual ability of European short track speed skating have improved significantly, coupled with some turmoil within the South Korean team, resulting in a significant weakening of the combat effectiveness of Koreans, and the Beijing Winter Olympics have only won 2 gold medals, falling to the lowest level since 2002.
China, Japan, and South Korea are the traditional top three in The Asian Winter Olympics, and for many years only these three countries and regions in Asia have made gold grabbing a norm for every Winter Olympics. China's first gold in the Winter Olympics is 10 years later than South Korea, although it has achieved 5 gold medals in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, but it still can't change the situation of catching up with the South Korean team for a long time, and the Chinese team only won 1 gold medal at the last Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea 4 years ago. The 2022 Winter Olympics settled in China, bringing opportunities to the development of Ice and Snow Sports in China, in just a few years, China's ice and snow sports have filled a lot of participation gaps, emerging Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, Yan Wengang and other world's top masters, in recent years in the short track speed skating, speed skating, freestyle skiing aerial skills, figure skating and other traditional strengths to maintain the momentum of gold rushing, the emergence of freestyle skiing women's U-shaped track skills, big jumping, slope obstacle skills and snowboarding men's big jump, A number of new gold rushing points such as slope obstacle skills and steel frame snowmobiles have greatly enhanced the overall competitiveness of the Chinese team at the Beijing Winter Olympics, laying a solid foundation for creating two asian historical bests that won 9 gold medals and ranked third in the gold medal list in a single Winter Olympics.
Of course, ranking third in the Beijing Winter Olympics gold medal list does not mean that China has become an ice and snow power. Compared with Norway, Germany, Russia, the United States and other first-class ice and snow sports countries, we have fewer points to win, and most sports, especially snow sports, are at the middle and even the bottom level of the world's top competitions, which is an undeniable fact. Even compared with our neighbor Japan, our ice and snow projects have the disadvantage of narrow and fewer winning points.
To achieve the next take-off, there is still a long way to go. I wish Chinese ice and snow athletes full of confidence and work together towards the future.