Champions lead Winter Olympics quest

Led by a glittering cast of champions, China's 126-strong contingent is ready to prove its athletic prowess on ice and snow at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, which kicks off on Feb 6 in northern Italy.

Four years after making the country proud by winning a record nine gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese sports delegation is determined to maintain the momentum by competing for its best-ever medal haul at an overseas edition of the Games.

The 286-member Chinese delegation, including 126 athletes whose average age is 25, was officially launched on Tuesday. The team will compete in 91 of the total 116 medal events across 16 sports disciplines at the Games, which will be held for more than two weeks next month across three Italian regions — Lombardia, which includes Milan; Trentino; and Veneto, which includes Cortina d'Ampezzo.

The Chinese delegation also includes 32 foreign coaches, trainers and technical staff from 21 countries and regions, such as the United States, Canada and Finland, who have been hired to help hone the competitive skills of Chinese athletes in Western-dominated events such as freestyle skiing, snowboarding and bobsleigh.

The contingent of athletes is led by nine Olympic champions, including women's freestyle skiing superstar Gu Ailing, men's snowboarding prodigy Su Yi-ming and five-time Olympian in women's freestyle skiing aerials Xu Mengtao. It also includes 67 young athletes who will make their Winter Olympic debuts.

Sixteen athletes on the team are from China's ethnic minority groups, with young talent born and developed in the high-altitude areas of the Xizang and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions expected to challenge the world's best in endurance disciplines, such as cross-country skiing and ski mountaineering, which will debut on the Olympic program this year.

This will be the largest delegation China has ever assembled for an overseas Winter Olympics since the country debuted in the Games at Lake Placid, New York, in 1980.

Speaking at the delegation launching ceremony, Gao Zhidan, director of the General Administration of Sport of China, said that Milano-Cortina 2026 is "a significant window to showcase the achievements of China's winter sports development and the positive image of Chinese athletes".

The Chinese delegation's goal is to achieve excellence in both athletic performance and sportsmanship, Gao added.

During the Beijing Games, 176 Chinese athletes competed in 104 events, winning nine gold, four silver and two bronze medals to finish fourth on the overall medal tally and achieve the team's best-ever Winter Olympics result at home.

China's previous best at overseas Winter Games was achieved in 2010, when the team claimed five gold medals in Vancouver, Canada.

Boasting a blend of youth and experience, the Chinese delegation for Milano-Cortina is relying on its strength in multiple events, such as freestyle skiing aerials, freestyle skiing halfpipe, snowboarding big air and short-track speed skating, to power its medal ambitions.

However, tougher international challenges are expected, according to delegation secretary-general Wang Lei, who urged both fans and the media to take the team's "Olympic prospect without home advantage" into perspective.

"The fact that we have qualified in over 70 percent of the events, compared with about 50 percent the last time we competed at an overseas Games (in 2018), serves as a strong testament to our overall improvement at the elite level," said Wang, who is also director of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center.

Speaking of events in which impressive breakthroughs are anticipated, Wang highlighted the sliding sport of skeleton, the ice game of curling and the Nordic-discipline ski jumping, among others.

"We will make the best out of the final stretch of preparations and strive for the best possible outcome to build on the festive vibe for Chinese people during the holiday," he added.

The Games are scheduled to close on Feb 22 in Verona, a historical city in the Veneto region, with the second-week program overlapping with the Spring Festival holiday in China.