appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Ada Li

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.
“I told myself to stay steady and take it round by round,” Sun said. “I wasn’t thinking about a specific medal, just keeping a good position and avoiding mistakes.
“It’s not easy to recover in such a short time. But the team supported me. Once a race is over, you move on and focus on the next one.”
The wait for a first gold has sparked intense discussion in Chinese media and among fans.
Every day, the media raises the prospect of the team or a particular athlete winning the country’s “first gold today”.
Fans said that places unnecessary pressure on the team and have taken to social media to say that “China’s first gold is like passing the parcel”.
Many have also echoed fears that, as in 2018, hope will build day after day only for the sole gold – Wu Dajing’s 500m short-track speedskating title – to arrive in the final days of the Games.
“The parcel passes from the ice to the snow, then back to the ice and then to the snow again,” a fan said. “It is invisible pressure for the athletes. I just hope the media do not stress it so much before the first gold appears.”
“If this keeps up, the parcel will pass to 2028 [Summer Olympics],” joked another.
The pressure is especially acute for short track, where foreign-born skaters Lin Xiaojun and Liu Shaoang, who have previously won Olympic gold for South Korea and Hungary respectively, failed to reach the men’s 1,000m final.
Asked when the country might finally claim its first win of the Games, Tong Lixin, deputy head of the Chinese delegation, believed “gold will naturally come”.
“Winter Olympic events have a certain level of uncertainty,” Tong said. “Everyone is fighting and, without absolute dominance, it is hard to say which gold belongs to which athlete.”
However, Tong also suggested the country’s athletes needed to shut out the noise in the media.
“The key in Olympic competition is who can relax, who can compete lightly,” he said. “The Olympics is not a purely technical contest; it is about who dares to go all out and who dares to compete as freely as in training.”
But that pressure is unlikely to lessen in the days ahead. Gu will defend her big air and halfpipe titles next week, while China still has several Olympic champions on the race schedule.
Short-track Olympic champions Lin Xiaojun and Liu Shaoang will compete at the men’s 1,500m alongside Sun Long.
Snowboarder Su will aim for another podium in slopestyle on his 22nd birthday next Wednesday.
Five-time Olympian aerial skier Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu will begin their campaigns on Tuesday, adding to China’s hopes of finally breaking the “golden parcel” deadlock.


Why you should wear a white ceramic watch – and how to do so, not just in summer

Meet Lindsey Vonn’s rumoured new boyfriend, Matthieu Bailet – a French alpine ski racer

Meet Liu Shaoang and Shaolin Sándor Liu, the Olympic gold skaters who made their runway debut

American skiing star Lindsey Vonn says she has ‘no regrets’ after Winter Olympic crash

Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games

Winter Olympics: China fans joke that wait for gold medal is like ‘passing the parcel’

China’s Sun Long (left) holds his silver medal alongside champion Jens Van’t Wout and bronze medallist Rim Jong-un. Photo: Reuters

Su Yiming won China’s first medal of the Games, taking bronze in the big air event. Photo: dpa

Winter sports world body apologises after ‘karma’ comment on Eileen Gu’s Olympic silver

From left, silver medallist Eileen Gu of China, gold medallist Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud and bronze medalist Canada’s Megan Oldham after the freestyle skiing slopestyle final on Monday. Photo: AP

FIS described Eileen Gu’s failure to win gold as “karma”. Photo: TikTok screenshot

Eileen Gu wrote to deny that she had stolen her rival’s coach. Photo: TikTok screenshot

China’s Eileen Gu says she’s skiing better than ever ahead of Winter Olympic golds defence

Eileen Gu celebrates winning silver in women’s freeski slopestyle at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Photo: Reuters

Canada’s Megan Oldham (right) takes a selfie with Mathilde Gremaud (centre) and Eileen Gu. Photo: Reuters

Sport

China

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’s speedskating silver was just the fourth medal of the Games for Chinese delegation, with gold still remaining out of reach.


Eileen Gu

Winter Olympics: China fans joke that wait for gold medal is like ‘passing the parcel’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}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’s speedskating silver was just the fourth medal of the Games for Chinese delegation, with gold still remaining out of reach