OlymPicks: Beijing's Final Push for Snowpremacy, 2021's Top 10 Chinese Athletes, and a List of All Dem Sports

Drew Pittock, Contributing Editor | Dec 31, 2021 10:49 am | Add a comment | 127 reads

In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beijing’s Municipal Sports Bureau reveals public winter sports statistics

Ever since Beijing won its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics back in 2015, the capital – as well as the country at large – has been on a relentless drive to popularize ice and snow sports. In fact, as outlined in 2016’s National Winter Sports Facilities Construction Plan, China intended to boast some 800 skiing facilities nationwide by next year. Now, with a mere 40 days until the Olympics begin, it’s time to see if they’ve made good on those promises.

For this, we turn our attention to the 2020 Ski Industry White Book, which was released earlier this year. Not surprisingly, the pace at which this country whips together its infrastructure is nothing short of astounding. They came pretty damn close to meeting that 800 threshold, having reached a total of 770 ski resorts by the end of 2019. As for 2020, the number actually dropped to 715 given that more than a few resorts have been inoperable since the pandemic took hold, and the white book was modest enough to adjust for this.

But what of our fair capital? Where does it fall in the greater saga of China’s winter sports infrastructure frenzy? This is where things get interesting, because according to the white book, which only accounts for data up to 2020, Beijing ranks 12th for the number of ski resorts nationwide, with 25 in 2019 and 20 in 2020. However, according to a recent article from China Daily, between 2015 and 2021, Beijing’s ski resorts jumped from 22 to 32, meaning the capital has built an additional seven facilities in just the last two years alone. Of course, there are plenty more ice and snow facilities than ski resorts, and to that end, Beijing’s ice rinks and ice surfaces went from 42 and 44 in 2015 to 82 and 97 in 2021.

While the quality and size of these ski resorts are up for debate, one thing is for sure: when compared to the EU’s top country Germany with its 498 ski areas as of 2020 and the US’s 470 operating ski resorts as of the same year, it would seem as though China can comfortably lay claim to its title of snowpremacy.

2021’s Top 10 Chinese athletes according to Xinhua

While the Beijinger is busy hammering away at our own Year in Review articles, we’ve decided to let Xinhua do the heavy lifting with their Top 10 Chinese Athletes of 2021. It’s unclear whether their rankings are in any particular order, but without further ado, here are the Top 10 Chinese Athletes of 2021, as told by Xinhua:

1. Yang Qian was given the number one spot – again, totally unsure if her rank in the rankings has any significance, but whatever – after having won the first gold medal during the Summer Tokyo Olympics for her performance in the women’s 10m air rifle event. Yang went on to claim gold in the mixed-team event, making her China’s first double gold winner born after 2000.

2. You might remember our next athlete, Su Bingtian, who made history when his 9.83-second finish in the men’s 100-meter dash at the Tokyo Olympics set a new record for Asian athletes. What’s more, he was the first Chinese sprinter to make the finals, took home a fourth-place finish in the men’s 4x100 meter relay, and was “crowned fastest man at the National Games in 9.95 seconds.”

3. Between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, 30-year-old diver Shi Tingmao snagged four gold medals across a number of events and was subsequently named 2021’s Female Diver of the Year at the FINA World Aquatics Gala.

4. China is no stranger to sweeping the table tennis competitions, thus it’s no surprise that number four on Xinhua’s list is the venerable ping-pong champ, Ma Long, who stands as history’s most decorated table tennis star with 26 world and Olympic titles.

5. Gong Lijiao may have participated in four Olympics, however, it wasn’t until Tokyo 2020 that she finally won a gold medal for her 20.58m finish in the shot put. Incidentally, this medal also became the first Olympic gold for China in field events.

6. Chinese-American Eileen Gu has been turning heads all year long, from her two gold medals and one bronze at the FIS Freeski World Championship to her Freeski big air World Cup title, not to mention the fact that she solidified her place in history as the first woman to successfully land a right double cork 1440 in any ski competition.

7. At 18 years old, Gu is doubtlessly one of the younger athletes to be competing for China. Conversely, however, Xinhua’s number seven athlete, 37-year-old Lyu Xiaojun, was actually the oldest man to win an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting when he smashed the competition at Tokyo 2020. That Olympic medal was Lyu’s third, which also made him the country’s first weightlifter to claim more than two medals.

8. Swimmer Zhang Yufei sits in the number eight spot after winning gold in the women’s 200-meter butterfly as well as the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, followed by a silver medal finish in the 100m butterfly and mixed 4x100m medley relay at Tokyo’s Summer Games.

9. Meanwhile, over in the men’s section of the swimming pool, Wang Shun is being recognized for his own incredible, history-defining year which includes setting a new Asian record in the men’s 200m individual medley at the Summer Olympics, plus boosting his gold totals at the 14th Chinese National Games to 15.

10. Number 10 on this list goes to Chen Yufei, who usurped the world’s number one title in women’s badminton singles from reigning champ Tai Tzu-ying at the Tokyo Games, while also defending her own National Games crown.

What even are winter sports?

And now we end with a brief list of all the events and sports you can expect to catch at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and the number of gold medals that will be up for grabs in each event.