Gold efforts fail, but there's a silver lining

Five skaters, including medal favorites Fan Kexin and Wu Dajing, suffered a total of six disqualifications for controversial penalties before the finals in the women's 500m and men's 1,000m and 1,500m races.

Head coach Li Yan stressed that her skaters should focus more on perfecting their skills and tactics than on questioning the officiating.

However, breakthroughs such as Gao Tingyu's bronze medal won in the men's 500m long-track speed skating and female snowboarder Liu Jiayu's silver medal in the halfpipe, offered plenty of encouragement.

In Liu's case, it was China's first Olympic medal in the event, and in Gao's case, the country's first ever medal in men's speed skating,

Teenage short-track skater Li Jinyu's runner-up finish in the women's 1,500m, following veteran teammate Zhou Yang's disqualification in the semifinals, also demonstrated the surging youth force on Chinese delegation.

The seven medals China won in Pyeongchang, surpassing its medal haul at this point in any previous Winter Games, are an encouraging sign despite the no-gold turnout, said Fang Xuefeng, a winter sports commentator and secretary-general of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association.