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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
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Silver medalists Wu Dajing (right) Han Tianyu (second left) Chen Dequan (left) and Xu Hongzhi of China react after the men’s short-track speedskating 5,000m relay final at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games. Photo: EPA-EFE

Winter Olympics: who are the members of China’s stacked short-track speedskating team?

  • Squad features some of China’s major medal hopes for its first home Winter Games, and several debutants
  • National team has won 33 medals at Olympics, and is ranked second in the world, with hopes high they can top the podium again

If there’s one winter sport the Chinese Olympic team are good at, it’s short-track speedskating.

The national team has won 33 medals in the Winter Olympics, including 10 golds, 15 silvers and 8 bronzes. They are ranked second in the world after the South Korean team who have 48 medals, 24 gold, 23 silver and 11 bronze.

Unsurprisingly, China’s men’s and women’s team have secured a full seat at the upcoming Beijing 2022 games after qualifying at trials in January.

World champions Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei will lead the men’s team, and veteran short track champion Fan Kexin will lead the women.

They will represent China in nine events with the first Olympic short-track speedskating event taking place on Saturday. The first gold medals will be up for grabs in the mixed 2,000 metres relay, where the Chinese teams are hot favourites.

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Who are they? China’s women’s team:

Fan Kexin

The 29-year-old Fan has been on the Chinese national team since 2010. She won her first two silver medals in the 500m and 3000m relay at the 2010 International Skating Union (ISU) World Junior Championships.

She won her first gold medals in the 500m and 3,000m relay the following year at the 2011 World Championships.

Fan was the hot favourite to win gold in the 500m race at the 2014 Winter Olympics but she fell during the second lap of the semi-finals and finished fifth. A few days after the event she won her first Olympic medal, taking home silver in the 1,000m race.

Zhang Yuting in action. Photo: Handout

Zhang Yuting

The 22-year-old Zhang was named an elite athlete of the national class by the general administration of sport in 2017.

She has won seven gold medals at World Cups in the past three years, all in the 3,000m women’s relay, mixed relay and 2,000m relay events.

This will be Zhang’s first time competing at the Winter Olympics.

Qu Chunyu

The 25-year-old Qu competed at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in the 500m, 1,000m and 3,000m relay.

She has yet to win an Olympic medal but previously won 500m bronze at the 2018 World Championships in Montreal.

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Zhang Chutong

Zhang is 19, making her China’s youngest team member. Like her teammate Zhang Yuting, this will be her first Winter Olympics.

She was also named an elite athlete of the national class in 2018. Zhang hopes to take home gold at the Beijing Olympics and previously was a gold-medal winner in the 3,000m relay at the 2019 Salt Lake City World Cup, and a two-time gold medallist at the 2020 World Cup in Montreal in the 3,000m and 2,000m relay.

Han Yutong

Han, 26, has been representing China since 2012 where she started at the World Junior Championships, winning one medal in the 3,000m relay. In recent years she has been a strong competitor, finishing ninth in the 1,500m race in Pyeongchang, and seventh in the 3,000m relay.

At the Salt Lake City World Cup in 2019 she brought home silver in the mixed relay and 1,000m, and gold in the 3,000m relay.

Wu Dajing celebrates with his gold medal after the men’s 500m short track event at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea. Photo: EPA-EFE

Who are they? China’s men’s team:

Wu Dajing

The 27-year-old Wu is China’s most influential athlete in short-track speedskating in recent years. He took home China’s only gold at the last Winter Olympics, which he won in the 5,00m race. During the 500m heats he set an Olympic record, and broke the world record twice, in the quarter-final and final.

He also won a silver medal with the men’s 5,000m relay team. The Olympic champion beat his own world record in the 500m race months later at the ISU World Cup in Salt Lake City with a time of 39.5 seconds.

Wu came first in the 500m event at last year’s World Cup in the Netherlands. He will be leading China’s men’s team and is a strong contender for a podium finish.

China’s Ren Ziwei on his way to winning the men’s 1,500m final at the World Cup short-track speedskating championship in Dresden on February 8, 2020. Photo: AP

Ren Ziwei

Ren, 24, is the team’s rising star who is a formidable opponent in the longer distance events. He has won three individual golds in the 1,000m event and two 1,500m events across two World Cup series.

At Pyeongchang 2018 he won silver with his teammates in the 5,000m relay.

Sun Long

Sun 21, first began making waves at the 2019 China Cup where he won his first individual gold medal in the 1,500m and earned his first chance to compete at the World Cup. He won the gold medal in the 1,000m event at the World Youth Championships in Italy in 2020.

At the World Cup in Hungary in 2021 he and his team took gold in the 3,000m relay. This will be his first time competing at the Winter Olympics.

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Li Wenlong

The 21-year-old Li first competed in the World Junior Championships in 2019 where he won gold in the 3,000m relay and finished fifth in the 500m race.

He and his teammates have won silver medals in the 5,000m relay at the Salt Lake City World Cup in 2019 and last year’s World Cup in Japan.

Zhang Tianyi

Zhang is the team’s youngest member at only 17. While he may not have competed in as many competitions as his teammates, he has already won the bronze medal at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in men’s 500m and bronze in the 1,500m at the 2020 World Junior Championships.

Last year at the World Cup in the Netherlands he and his team placed fourth in the men’s 5,000m.

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