Raising the stakes in winter sports medal quest

Team China urged to build on Beijing 2022 breakthroughs as 1,000-day countdown to Milan Games kicks off

Fresh from delivering the nation's best-ever Winter Olympic campaign at home, China's winter sports teams are refusing to rest on their laurels as they target more glory at the 2026 Games.

A mobilization meeting in Beijing on Saturday kicked off the 1,000-day countdown to the Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo Games, with motivational speeches from Olympic champions, coaches and sports officials underlining China's ambitions for more breakthroughs across a wider range of events in Italy.

Despite achieving a best-ever medal haul at the home Games last year, China still has a long way to go to become an all-around powerhouse in winter sports, stressed sports minister Gao Zhidan.

"Our overall competitiveness in winter sports is not strong enough, and the same can be said for the depth of our reserve talent in many sports. It's a big challenge for us to improve our performances in 2026," said Gao, who was appointed minister of the General Administration of Sport of China in August last year.

"We have to prove to the world that the success of Beijing 2022 wasn't a one-off, that we remain committed to the sustainable development of winter sports and have changed the landscape of international ice and snow sports."

Maintaining China's traditional strength in skating events and making solid progress in snow sports such as snowboarding and freestyle skiing, the host delegation bagged 15 medals, including nine gold, at Beijing 2022. That was China's best result since making its Winter Olympic debut at the 1980 edition in Lake Placid, New York.

Beijing 2022's success triggered massive public interest in winter sports nationwide. Over 346 million Chinese people participating in ice and snow activities in the build-up to the Games, earning high praise from the International Olympic Committee.

Now it's time to build on that legacy even further, urged Ni Huizhong, director of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center.

"We cannot dwell on the success of Beijing 2022 and past glories," said Ni.

"There is still so much untapped potential, more events to improve and invest in, and more problems to solve concerning the further development of our winter sports.

"The progress of youth development in some of our strength events remains slow. We still rely heavily on foreign coaching in most of the snow sports and we are far from being competitive on the world stage in more mainstream events such as cross-country, biathlon and Alpine skiing.

"There are gaps between us and the world's winter sports powers which we need to keep working on with consistent effort and unwavering commitment."

With a number of veteran athletes taking a break from competition this past season, the lackluster performances of China's figure skating and freestyle skiing aerials teams — two of the host's much successful programs at Beijing 2022 — highlighted the lack of youth development in these sports, Ni stressed.