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Efforts promised for China's winter sports
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-28 06:07
TURIN: Winning its first ever snow event Winter Olympic gold medal at the
Turin Games, China has vowed to put more efforts into developing winter sports.
"Compared with summer Olympic sports, winter sports in China is much weaker,"
said Xiao Tian, deputy chef-de-mission of the Chinese delegation. "Our
achievements in the Turin Games are a big encouragement. We will strengthen the
disciplines we are traditionally strong at and try to make breakthroughs in the
weak ones."
China won a total of 11 medals with two golds, four silvers and five bronzes
- recording its best ever results since its debut at the Winter Olympics in 1980
- ranking 14th in the medals tally.
German led the medals tally with 11 golds, 12 silvers and six bronzes,
followed by the United States and Austria.
Although the number of gold medals equalled those won at the last Games in
2002, China, considered strong only on ice, made a great breakthrough in the
snow events by clinching one gold and one silver in the men's and women's
freestyle skiing aerials respectively.
Han Xiaopeng, with no previous international title, took the gold in the
men's event, while Li Nina, the reigning world champion and world cup leader,
won the silver in the women's event.
"The gold medal in the men's aerials is not only the first gold in snow
events for China, but also the first gold from Chinese male athletes at the
Winter Games," Xiao said. "It strengthens the confidence of all Chinese athletes
who are doing snow sports."
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, China took its first ever Winter
Olympic gold medal with Yang Yang (A) winning it for short track speed skating.
Before the Turin Games, the only medal in a snow event was a silver won by Xu
Nannan in the women's freestyle skiing aerials at the 1998 Nagano Games.
With the uptrend in China's winter sports, said Xiao, more money would come
in from the private sector to further support the athletes.
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