CHINA'S TOUGH REALITY

The Russia's success can be a good lesson for China, which is to host the Beijing Games four years later and is struggling to improve the unbalanced development of figure skating.

China's history in the sport doesn't stretch back very far and it's figure skaters did not appear at Olympics until 1980. Among four Olympic disciplines, only pair skating won China some credits with established pair skaters like Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who won gold at Vancouver 2010, and Sui Wenjing and Han Cong who pocketed a silver here this time.

In Pyeongchang, Chinese ice dancers Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu were held back from reaching the free dance and Yan Han survived the men's single short program but finished 23rd out 24 qualifiers. Jin Boyang, 20, ranked the fourth and gave hope for China to make a breakthrough in Beijing.