China forges ahead in Winter Olympic sports

China has remoulded itself from a winter sport minnow to a competitive force since its Winter Olympics debut in 1980.

Claiming its first-ever Winter Olympic medal (a sliver) in Albertville 1992 and its first-ever gold at Salt Lake City 2002, China has collected 12 gold, 22 sliver and 19 bronze medals in the past 10 winter games.

Two years after its historic haul of 51 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics, China reached its peak in winter sports with 11 medals, of which five are gold, in Vancouver 2010. For the first time China finished top 10 of the medals table at Winter Olympics.

So far, China has ever qualified to compete in 11 sports of the past Winter Olympics, namely short track speed skating, speed skating, figure skating, curling, ice hockey, freestyle skiing, Alpine skiing, Biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding.

MILESTONES

Ye Qiaobo, born in 1964, ended China's medal drought in the Winter Olympics when she clinched a silver double in the women's 500m and 1,000m speed skating at Albertville 1992. Li Yan added a third silver in the women's 500m short-track speed skating as China finished 15th in the medals table of those Games.

Yang Yang (A), born in 1976, became China's first-ever Winter Olympic champion when she won the women's 500m short track speed skating title in Salt Lak City 2002. She added a second gold in the 1,000m short track at the same Games. One of the most accomplished short-track speed skaters of all time, Yang is now an IOC member.

Han Xiaopeng, born in 1982, was the first Chinese male athlete to ever win a gold medal at Winter Olympics. The freestyle skier was crowned in the men's aerials event in Turin 2006. It was also the county's first Olympic title in snow events.

Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo gifted China its first-ever figure skating Olympic gold in Vancouver 2010, breaking Russia's perennial dominance. Shen/Zhao was also the first Chinese pair to win a World Championship.

Wang Meng, born in 1985, swept women's 500m, 1,000m and 3,000m relay short track speed skating titles in Vancouver 2010 to become the most decorated Winter Olympian in China. She also won a gold, a sliver and a bronze in Turin 2006. Unfortunately, she missed out on the Sochi 2014 due to foot injury.

Zhang Hong, born in 1988, stunned the world with the women's 1,000m speed skating title in Sochi 2014. It is China's first-ever Winter Olympic gold in long track.

China's Winter Olympic medals by Games:

Games Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank

Lake Placid 1980 0 0 0 0 -

Sarajevo 1984 0 0 0 0 -

Calgary 1988 0 0 0 0 -

Albertville 1992 0 3 0 3 15

Lillehammer 1994 0 1 2 3 19

Nagano 1998 0 6 2 8 16

Salt Lake City 2002 2 2 4 8 13

Turin 2006 2 4 5 11 14

Vancouver 2010 5 2 4 11 7

Sochi 2014 3 4 2 9 12

The table shows that China's tour of Winter Olympics can be divided into three stages:

Empty-handed: from Lake Placid 1980 to Calgary 1988

Medals without gold: from Albertville 1992 to Nagano 1998

Medals with full colors: from Salt Lake City 2002 to Sochi 2014

Ace short track speed skater Wang Meng was forced out of the Sochi 2014 due to foot injury just before the Games, which had an impact on the Chinese team.

In Calgary 1988, Li Yan captured the women's 1,000m gold in the short track speed skating which was then a demonstration event.

China's Winter Olympic medals by sport:

Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total

Short track speed skating 9 13 8 30

Freestyle skiing 1 4 3 8

Speed skating 1 3 3 7

Figure skating 1 2 4 7

Curling 0 0 1 1

Total 12 22 19 53

The statistics show that China's Winter Olympic medals come from only five sports, golds from four.

Imbalance is apparent in China's winter sport development - ice sports are much stronger than snow. Eleven of the 12 golds and 45 of the 53 total medals came from ice competitions.

The richest medal mine is the short track speed skating which has contributed 30 of the total medals and nine of the 12 golds. And the nine short track golds were all won by women.

As 10.5 of the 12 gold medals were won by women, the gender imbalance in the winter sport development is also in the spotlight.

It is worth mentioning that in Nagano 1998, the Chinese women's ice hockey team made its debut in Winter Olympics. They crushed hosts Japan 6-1 and beat Sweden 3-1 in the group stage, before eventually losing to Finland 4-1 in the bronze medal match.

In Vancouver 2010, the Chinese women's curling team debuted in Winter Olympics and took the bronze.

All in all, China is strong in some ice events and women's events, which need to be consolidated. Meanwhile, China needs to invest more in snow events and men's events. Endi