China confirms a record 96 athletes for Beijing Winter Paralympic Games, as final preparations for venues are completed
- Veteran Zhang Haiyuan, the oldest Paralympian in the hosts’ delegation at 45, returns to compete in alpine skiing
- Female snowboarder Geng Yanhong, 17, will be China’s youngest athlete, making her debut along with 86 others
China has confirmed its biggest-ever squad for a Paralympic Games, with a record 96 athletes looking to mirror the success of the hosts’ Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics delegation.
Beijing marks China’s sixth appearance at a Winter Paralympics, which run from March 4 to 13. The Chinese delegation includes 68 male and 28 female athletes, with an average age of 25.
At 45 years old, alpine skier Zhang Haiyuan is the oldest Paralympian in the delegation. She is also one of the most accomplished, having represented China in Para athletics and Para alpine skiing.
In athletics, she won gold in the T42 long jump at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, and competed in the same discipline at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Should she make the podium at Beijing 2022, Zhang – who was the final torch bearer at the 2010 Asian Para Games opening ceremony in Guangzhou, will go down as one of China’s most successful Paralympic athletes.
On the opposite side of the age bracket is 17-year-old female snowboarder Geng Yanhong – the youngest athlete on China’s team. She placed fourth in the women’s slalom event at the World Para Snowboard Championships last November.
Geng will be joined by 85 other athletes making their Paralympic debuts for China at Beijing 2022. The delegation will compete in 73 events across all six sports – compared with two sports and six events at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics.
Despite having competed at every Winter Paralympic Games since Salt Lake City in 2002, China did not win a medal until Pyeongchang 2018, when it won gold in wheelchair curling.
As Beijing 2022 approaches, a large number of delegations have already arrived in Beijing, with several teams immediately starting adaptive training on the snow and ice.
According to Beijing customs, inbound flights for the Paralympic Winter Games reached a peak on Sunday, with 13 Olympic-related arrivals, carrying around 700 passengers.
All athletes and delegation officials were being tested for Covid-19 at the airport, and four positive cases were reported on Saturday.
Paralympic officials said that as of Sunday, changes to the Olympic venues in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou to better serve the Paralympic Winter Games had been completed, and all three locations have been opened for training.
Team USA arrives in Beijing after one of its best performances at a Winter Paralympics four years ago in Pyeongchang, where the Americans led the overall medal table with 36 medals.
Many of the United States’ biggest stars from 2018 will be back, including sled hockey gold medallist Declan Farmer, alpine skiing gold medallist Andrew Kurka, and Brenna Huckaby, who bagged gold medals in Pyeongchang for snowboard cross and banked slalom.
