On April 11, Beijing time, the 2022 Short Track Speed Skating World Championships came to an end, and in the end, the veteran South Korean team and the European upstart Hungary team became the two major winners. South Korea's first sister Choi Min-jing won the gold medal in the women's all-around, 1000 meters, 1500 meters and 3000 meters relay, and her super dominance was humiliating. Hungary's Liu Shaoang also won four gold medals in the men's 500m, 1000m, 1500m and individual all-around, and the Beijing Winter Olympic champion won six individual world championship gold medals. With the rise of Cui Minjing and Liu Shaoang, the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, the Chinese short track speed skating team will face unprecedented challenges, and some people even worry that the Chinese team may be difficult to find.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese short track speed skating team did its best to win the men's and women's 2000 meters mixed relay and the men's 1000 meters in the case of occupying the favorable situation. South Korea and Hungary won gold medals in the women's 1500m and men's 500m events respectively. From the overall performance point of view, the Chinese team is above South Korea and Hungary. But just a few months later, at the World Championships, the Korean and Hungarian teams made a comeback, relying on the insoluble play of their respective core figures to win all the gold medals.
Cui Minjing and Liu Shaoang have entered the peak of their professional stages, and as long as they stay healthy, they will both be the favorites to win the Milan Winter Olympics. With such a strong dominance of the two, it is self-evidently difficult for Chinese athletes to win gold at the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Many domestic netizens said that the Chinese short track speed skating team needs to experience a new and old replacement, even if the head coach Jin Shantai chooses to renew his contract, the team is difficult to compete with the South Korean team and the Hungarian team. In the men's event, the 500 meters have become Liu Shaoang's world, the Chinese team's Li Wenlong and Ren Ziwei cannot be compared, and Wu Dajing's strength has plummeted, and whether he can persist until the next Winter Olympics is still unknown.
In the 1000m and 1500m events, China's Lin Xiaoxiao was pinned on high hopes, and he won the men's 1500m gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. After joining the Chinese short track speed skating team, the naturalized player has not officially represented the Chinese team in international competitions. In the 5000-meter relay event, the Chinese team, the Korean team, the Netherlands team, and the Hungarian team are on an equal footing, and who wins and who loses mainly depends on the on-the-spot play and some luck components. Judging from the comprehensive strength of the main players of each team, the Milan cycle, Liu Shaoang and Liu Shaolin of the Hungarian team are more prominent.
In the women's event, the lack of talent in the Chinese team is already an indisputable fact. Even if the Beijing Winter Olympics won the relay gold medal, the women's team's individual results were very bad. At this World Championship, The South Korean team's Choi Min-jin is the only one, in addition to losing the gold medal in the 500-meter event, several other individual events have won the championship. Her position in the middle and long distance can be compared with Wang Meng at the peak of the Chinese team. Some people predict that at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, the Chinese short track speed skating women's team will not only be difficult to win the gold medal, but even stand on the podium to play a question mark!
(Luo Treasurer)