As the Snow Settles: How China Performed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

With Beijing poised to be the first ever city to stage both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games, all eyes were on the Chinese athletes in South Korea's mountain resort of Pyeongchang over the past two weeks for a glimpse at how China's hopefuls would fair in four years time.

The Games wrapped on Sunday after a decent showing by China's 82-athlete team – the biggest among all the other competing countries in the Games – who competed in 55 events across 12 disciples, including first-time participation in events like bobsleigh, skeleton, and ski jumping.

Unfortunately, the athletes were unable to match their previous 12th-place showing at the 2014 Winter Olympics tally in Sochi, dropping four places to 16th overall and claiming only a single gold (compared to three in 2014). That moment of glory came from short track speed skater Wu Dajing (read more on that below) who sat alongside China's six silver medals and two bronzes.

Overall, the event was a showcase for a slew of up and coming Chinese athletes, most notably 15-year-old halfpipe skier Wu Meng, the youngest participant at Pyeongchang, who had already shown great promise and who will surely be a top contender when the Games comes to China's own backyard in 2022.

Until then, let's look back on some of the highs, lows, and controversies of Pyeongchang over the past two weeks of heated competition.

Golden Moment
After a long 12 gold-less days, and following a bizarre and disappointing disqualification of the Chinese women’s short track 3,000m relay team who would have otherwise finished second, a sensational Wu Dajing powered through and made it a lucky 13 medals for China. Wu won the coveted gold medal in the men’s 500m short track speed skating event, becoming the first-ever Chinese to do so, and bolstering his win with a new world record time of 39.548 seconds. The darling of the Chinese Winter Olympic's fans also added a silver to his Pyeongchang tally with a second-place finish in the men’s 5000m relay.

In the women's events, despite colliding with Elise Christie of Great Britain during the semi-final of women’s 1500m short track speed skating, China's Li Jinyu managed to glide into second place in the final, capping off a memorable Winter Games for the Chinese short track speed skaters.

High-Flying Silver
Aptly nicknamed ‘Birdie’, Liu Jiayu switched from martial arts to pursue a career in snowboarding at the age of 11, the change is paying off this Winter Games with the 26-year-old winning silver in the Women’s halfpipe event and the first-ever Olympic medal in snowboarding for China.

Second by a Whisker
In the southeast South Korean city of Gangneung, ice skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong (pictured above) had opted out of the team competition so as to rest up ahead of the individual competitions and the pairs skating competition. That almost paid them dividends as a spectacular short program in the individual competition catapulted the skaters to the top of the table going into the pair's free skate. However, two minor mistakes in the long program cost the World Champion pair from Harbin the gold medal by just 0.43 of a point.

Almost Gold Standard
If we were to discuss consistency alone, Jia Zongyang was the clear winner from the talented pool of Chinese aerialists. In his final jump, Jia nailed a back full-full double full, making it an almost perfect flight and was looking well-set for a gold before missing out by a whisker to Ukraine's Oleksandr Abrammenko.

Distinct Debutant
Making his Olympic debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, 20-year-old Gao Tingyu nabbed a bronze medal in the men’s 500m speed skating. It was indeed a proud moment for China, Gao becoming the first male speedskater to win a medal for his country, and therefore making him a top contender for the gold medal at the Beijing 2022.

Heartbreaking Bronze
One of the major shocks in the Games came in the women’s skiing aerial when one of China's most accomplished athletes and gold medal favorite Xu Mengtao (pictured above) had a disastrous second round with a ninth-place finish. However, China's Zhang Xin was able to salvage that poor placement with a silver medal of her own. Sadly, in the freestyle skiing competition, Kong Fanyu fell on her final jump and had to settle for the bronze medal.

Despite the slightly disappointing result for China at this year's Pyeongchang Olympic Games, the eight-minute Zhang Yimou-masterminded handover ceremony made every opportunity to showcase China's aspirations to hold a successful Games of its own come 2022, in its own inimitable way.

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Images: nbcnewyork.com, spox.com, jpost.com, chinadailyhk.com, chinadailyhk.com, thenational.ae