Figure skating has long been a popular sport in China, whose national team has won eight Olympic medals, including one gold, three silver and four bronze. The only gold came at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, when Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo topped the podium in the pairs event. At that same Games, teammates Pang Qing and Tong Jian won silver. China will have eight figure skaters in four competitions at Beijing 2022: one in the men’s singles, one in the women’s singles, two duos in the pairs, and one duo in ice dancing. While they may be small in number, the Chinese team has a nice mix of seasoned veterans and young up and comers, with enough world-ranked talent to challenge once again for places on the podium in February. Men’s singles: Jin Boyang Jin placed fourth at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics and has won bronze at the 2016 and 2017 World Championships. He is known for his technical prowess, particularly in landing the quadruple jump, which has solidified him as one of the world’s top male figure skaters. Like many athletes, the 24-year-old has had a difficult time adjusting to training during the pandemic. His lack of consistency in landing jumps at recent competitions has regularly kept a podium finish out of reach. However competing on home turf may give Jin the support he needs to nail his routine and reach a gold-medal comeback. The widely popular Jin is the highest-ranked Chinese skater in the world at No 18. Women’s singles: Zhu Yi Zhu was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. The 19-year-old, who is dubbed the “goddess” of Chinese figure skating, was first introduced to the sport at the age of seven after her parents took her to watch a figure skating competition. At 16 she won the women’s singles rookie category at the National Figure Skating Championships, in 2018. The following year she was naturalised as a Chinese citizen and joined the national team. Pairs: Sui Wenjing and Han Cong Sui, 26, and Han, 29, are both from Harbin, the “Ice City” in northeastern China. They have been skating together since 2007 and have won numerous awards in youth and adult competitions, including two world championships. Most recently the duo took the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series in Canada and Italy during the 2021-22 season, with fellow Chinese figure skating pairs team Peng Cheng and Jin Yang finishing second in Italy. The pair will expect to build on their silver medal win from Pyeongchang, where they were just 0.43 points from taking gold. Pairs: Peng Cheng and Jin Yang Peng and Jin have been partners since 2016. In their first season together they won two silver medals at the 2016 Cup of China and the 2016 NHK Trophy, earning a place in the Grand Prix Final, where they finished sixth. At the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Cup in China in 2020 the pair took home gold. Alongside their teammates Sui and Han they are expected to deliver a strong performance at the Beijing Games. Ice Dance: Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu Wang and Liu have been performing in the ice dance event for 16 years. When it comes to free dance, the pair are fond of paying tribute to Chinese culture, from performing kung fu moves to wearing traditional costumes. While they show a clear love for the sport, they disappointed at Pyeongchang, finishing 22nd out of 24 pairs. This forced them to go back to the drawing board and spend the past four years refining every single movement of their dance. When the pandemic took hold, Wang and Liu had to leave their training base in Canada, and move to virtual coaching sessions from China. Years of hard work and improvement paid off as the pair gave a strong performance at the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix last year, which bumped jup their world ranking to No 4.