Winter Olympics: China fans joke that wait for gold medal is like ‘passing the parcel’
Sun Long’s speedskating silver was just the fourth medal of the Games for Chinese delegation, with gold still remaining out of reach
Sun Long rebounded from his earlier disappointment to claim Winter Olympics silver in the men’s 1,000m short-track speedskating on Thursday, earning China just its fourth medal of this year’s Milano Cortina Games.
The 25-year-old’s silver, days after an error cost any hope of a medal in the mixed team relay, was the second for the delegation, following on from Eileen Gu’s in the freeski slopestyle event on Tuesday.
Snowboarder Su Yiming was the first Chinese athlete to get on the board, but he failed to defend his big air title and could only manage bronze last weekend. Ning Zhongyan, meanwhile, was third in the men’s 1,000m speedskating on Wednesday, marking China’s best finish in that event.
That tally lies in stark contrast to Beijing four years ago, when the country’s athletes had already racked up three golds and three silvers by the end of the first week.
The 2022 Games was China’s most successful Winter Olympics, with the squad winning 15 medals overall, comprising nine gold, four silver and two bronze. That was significantly better than the one gold, six silver and two bronze medals won in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Sun’s achievement, in which his time of one minute, 24.565 seconds was just 0.028 seconds adrift of gold medallist Jens Van’t Wout, left him on the verge of tears after his mistake two days earlier consigned China to fourth.