WITH one month to go until the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Chinese athletes are making their final push to strive for glory at the quadrennial winter sports extravaganza. Over 400 Chinese athletes from 29 teams are sweating on their final preparations with the aim of achieving the country’s best ever result at a Winter Olympics on home soil. Twelve of China’s 13 Winter Olympic gold medals have come from short track speed skating, figure skating and speed skating. These three disciplines are expected to once again play a key role in contributing to the country’s medal haul in Beijing. Despite changing their head coach twice in recent years, China’s short track speed skating team has lived up to its status as one of the powerhouses in the 2021/22 World Cup season. Ren Ziwei has shown great form in the leadup to the Olympics, and secured his berth at Beijing 2022 together with 2018 champion Wu Dajing through their World Cup victories. Those two will play a key role as China seeks to go for gold in the men’s and relay events. China has racked up at least one gold medal in short track speed skating at every Olympics since Salt Lake City in 2002, and the country’s aces in ice sports are expected to continue their gold rush at Beijing 2022. In speed skating, Ning Zhongyan and Gao Tingyu also secured their places in China’s Olympic roster with World Cup titles. Ning claimed two gold and two silver medals over 1,000m and 1,500m at the World Cup, and clocked a personal best in the 1,000m in Calgary, underscoring his status as a leading figure in China’s speed skating team. After missing some World Cup races, Gao won one gold and one silver in the 500m event, and the 2018 PyeongChang bronze medalist is striving for even better four years on. China also has a medal hope in the women’s team pursuit event. After missing out on the gold medal by 0.43 points in PyeongChang and overcoming injuries, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong will once again strive for glory in figure skating. The two-time world champions won the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series in Canada and Italy during the 2021/22 season, with compatriots Peng Cheng and Jin Yang finishing runners-up in Italy. The top five pairs in the latest world rankings all belong to China and Russia, and insiders say that both countries will dominate the figure skating pairs at Beijing 2022. Jin Boyang, who finished fourth in the men’s singles in PyeongChang, is eager to go one better on home ice this time. China’s women’s curling team claimed a bronze medal in its Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010. But China disappointed at PyeongChang, with the men’s team failing to qualify and neither the women’s nor mixed doubles teams showing well. Han Xiaopeng has won China’s sole Olympic gold in snow sports so far with his freestyle aerials victory at Turin 2006, but the country can expect a different story at Beijing 2022, thanks in part to the rapid rise of teenage sensation Gu Ailing. Gu has been in the limelight since the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne in 2020, and won multiple gold medals at the X Games Aspen 2021 and the Freeski World Championships. Snowboard veterans Liu Jiayu and Cai Xuetong are poised for their fourth Olympic appearance, with Cai winning the halfpipe World Cup title in Colorado on Dec.11, 2021. Breakthroughs have also been made on the men’s side. Su Yiming, 17, became the first Chinese men’s snowboarder to win a big air World Cup title, and Yang Wenlong was the world’s first snowboarder to have landed a quad cork 1980. (Xinhua) | 