“I didn’t show any emotions because I still needed some time to realise what happened,” Liu said. “I think that when I go back home, my life will change. It’s going to be crazy. We are here to make history.”

The brothers have tangled with the Chinese skaters throughout their careers in a number of high-profile events. In Beijing, it was the 1,000m short-track speedskating competition where they first clashed. Both brothers qualified for the final alongside Ren Ziwei, Wu Dajing and Li Wenlong.

And they put on quite the show. Sandor and Ren crossed the line with a fraction of a second between them but the Hungarian was disqualified for incurring a penalty after he pushed Ren.

The Chinese skater ended up with gold with Li taking silver and Shaoang the bronze. While there was a measure of sporting aggression on the track, off the ice there was nothing but friendship and support between the two teams.

Despite feeling devastated, Sandor later congratulated Ren and the Chinese team and showed complete pride in his younger brother. On Instagram he shared a photo from race day with the caption: “Congratulations to my friend Ren Ziwei. And I will keep training harder and smarter. Love you all and I will keep fighting so you only have to cheer for me.”

Chinese fans have gushed over the friendship between the Liu boys and Team China. The pair each have a huge following of more than 1 million on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform and have been trending whenever they are competing. There is certainly no bad blood at all between the two teams or among their fans.

In an interview with Qilu Evening News, a Chinese newspaper from Jinan, Shandong, Shaolin said he felt down after failing to perform in the 1,000m final, which was why he did not face Hungarian reporters at the time, let alone Chinese media.

He goes on to express his support for the Chinese team and to his mainland fans, saying before he came to Beijing he hoped Chinese crowds would “cheer for them”.

The brothers bond with China and short-track speedskating runs deep. A huge credit to their success comes down to their coach, Lina Zhang Jing.

Zhang is a Chinese former short-track speedskating athlete and coach. She has been with the Hungarian team since 2012 and as the head coach, has helped the team win more than 150 short-track medals.

This includes Hungary’s first ever Winter Games gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in the 5000m men’s relay, which was spearheaded by the Liu brothers. The Hungarian team still hold the Olympic and world record in this event.

This came as the team landed in Shanghai for the World Cup. Zhang immediately said she would resign from her position, showing that she had zero tolerance for racism in her team.

The coach told Chinese television company CGTN that she “can’t tolerate that a Hungarian speed skater, who is also an Olympic champion, making racist comments about China”.

Zhang’s resignation was refused, however, and she agreed to stay after disciplinary action was taken against Burján – who was banned from the sport for a year.

Her action was applauded by mainland online fans, who said her behaviour had defended the integrity of the country. The brothers have a close relationship with Zhang, who they often communicate to in Chinese.

Their father, originally from Tianjin, spoke Chinese to the pair growing up. When the boys were nine and 11 years old they spent more than a year training in Changchun in a short-track speedskating programme.

The brothers still have a strong north-eastern Chinese accent that they picked up as kids living in the region, a trait fans on Chinese social media often point out with admiration.

In a podcast with IOC, the pair spoke about how their father instilled within them the determination to “be the best they could be at what they did” and this fighting attitude has stayed with them throughout their career.

The brothers shared in the podcast the appreciation they felt for having being sent to China to train, which they described as a “life-changing moment”.