Asian Games 2023: from swim star Qin Haiyang to 13-year-old Cui Chenxi, 10 Chinese athletes to watch in Hangzhou
- The hosts are sending their largest-ever squad to Hangzhou with 886 athletes, including 36 Olympic champions, competing
- Olympic diving gold medallist Wang Zongyuan among those expected to dominate their sports
The Asian Games officially open in Hangzhou on Saturday, and the hosts will again be expecting to top the medal table when the curtain is brought down on the 19th Asiad on October 8.
From the pool to the table tennis court and everywhere in between, a squad boasting 36 Olympic champions among its 886 entrants should add a considerable number of medals to the 3,189 won since the country first entered the Games in Tehran in 1974.
Swimmer Qin Haiyang will certainly be among those expected to walk away with multiple gold medals, having won every breaststroke event at the World Championships, setting a world record in the 200m in the process.
Gold in table tennis is almost assured, and the only question is whether with men’s and women’s doubles added this time around China will win all seven up for grabs, after claiming the five available in Jakarta in 2018.
Listing those expected to succeed over the next two weeks would take too long, so here are 10 Chinese athletes we think should shine in front of their home fans.
Xu Yujia
Sport: Swimming – backstroke
Who: The 28-year-old Xu learned how to swim at just four years old through the guidance of mother Yu Zhenzhen, a female swimmer who specialised in the butterfly.
Why: The Olympic silver medallist and two-time 100 metre backstroke world champion will be returning to his home province Zhengzhou to compete in this year’s Asian Games.
Qin Haiyang
Sport: Swimming – breaststroke and medley
Who: Qin, whose given name is the Chinese word for ocean, rose to prominence when he broke world junior records in the 200 metres breaststroke in both the preliminary and semi-final of the 2017 FINA World Championships.
Why: The 24-year-old cleaned up at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, becoming the first person to win gold in all three breaststroke events. He also broke the world record for the 200m, clocking a time of 2 mins, 05.48 seconds.
Zhang Yufei
Sport: Swimming – freestyle and butterfly
Who: At the age of three, Zhang learned to swim with her mother as coach, and began professionally training at the Jiangsu Swimming Team just two years later.
Why: The 25-year-old has already accumulated 31 medals in her career. At the Tokyo Olympics she won gold in both the women’s 200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay.
Zou Jingyuan
Sport: Gymnastics – parallel bars and rings
Who: Hailing from Yibin, Sichuan province, Zou took up gymnastics at three years old after being scouted because of his good physical condition.
Why: One of China’s 36 Olympic champions competing at the Asian Games, Zou is a three-time world champion on the parallel bars.
Sun Yingsha
Sport: Table tennis
Who: The 22-year-old from Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, first competed on the international stage at the Japan Open in 2017, winning both the women’s singles and doubles.
Why: Quite simply, she is the current women’s world No 1, and won the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, South Africa in May.
Cui Chenxi
Sport: Skateboarding
Who: At just 13 years old, Cui is China’s youngest athlete competing at the Asian Games.
Why: On September 14, the youngster scored 51.32 to make it to the quarter-finals of the WST Lausanne Street 2023, an Olympic qualifying event. Cui’s score even beat Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Nakayama Funa.
Wang Zongyuan
Sport: Diving
Who: The 21-year-old Olympic champion will make his Asian Games debut this year.
Why: With six world titles to his name, Zang burst onto the world stage in 2021 when he took home Olympic gold in the men’s 3m synchronised and silver in the 3m springboard event.
Huang Yuting
Sport: Shooting
Who: Branded a “rising star” by Chinese social media, the 17-year-old Huang is from Zhejiang province, where the Asian Games is taking place.
Why: At her international debut at the 2022 ISSF World Championships in Egypt, Huang won two golds and one silver, along with a spot at the Paris Olympics next year.
Yin Ruoning
Sport: Golf
Who: Born in Kunming, Yunnan province, Yin was only 10 years old when she first picked up clubs.
Why: Earlier this year she won the 2023 Women’s PGA Championship, becoming only the second woman from China to do so.
Zheng Qinwen
Sport: Tennis
Who: Zheng began learning tennis at eight years old and has since received coaching from former world No 2 Li Na’s old trainer, Carlos Rodriguez.
Why: Zheng was the 23rd seed going into the 2023 US Open but defied the odds by upsetting fifth seed Ons Jabeur to reach her first grand slam quarter-final, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka.
