Another six athletes, after three days of competitions that ended on Friday, qualified to join Team China for the speed skating event in the coming 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The new entrants comprise of two males and four females.
Xu Fu and Yang Tao will join Gao Tingyu, Ning Zhongyan, Lian Ziwen and Wang Haotian in the men’s team. Ahenar Adake, Tian Ruining, Pei Chong and Guo Dan will become teammates of Han Mei, Li Qishi, Jin Jingzhu and Yinqi.
There will be 14 speed skating events during the 2022 Winter Games. Chinese athletes are competing in three of them: men’s 500-meter, 1000m and 1500m. Of the nine medals – four golds, three silvers and two bronzes – China won in the four stops of the Speed Skating World Cup in 2021; four golds and three silvers came from Gao and Ning.
Twenty-year-old Ning contributed three golds and two silvers himself, including one gold and two silvers in his favorite event of the men’s 1500m. Moreover, he won the men’s 1000m title in Calgary, setting a new personal best record and a new national record of Chinese skaters.
In the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Gao won the men’s 500m speed skating bronze, becoming the first male Chinese speed skater to pocket a medal at the Winter Games. He and Ning will be Team China’s biggest hope to target at top 3, even top 1 during Beijing 2022.
Fifty-nine years ago, Luo Zhihuan won the men’s 1500m speed skating title in Japan’s World Speed ​​Skating Championships. He’s the first Chinese world champion in winter sports. In the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Zhang Hong made history in the women’s 1000m race by winning the first speed skating Olympic gold medal for team China.
All speed skating events for Beijing 2022 will take place at the National Speed Skating Oval, which is also named “Ice Ribbon” in Beijing between February 5 and 19. Schedule comes the following:
500m, men’s final on February 12, women’s final on February 13
1000m, women’s final on February 17, men’s final on February 18
1500m, women’s final on February 7, men’s final on February 8
3000m, women’s final on February 5
5000m, men’s final on February 6, women’s final on February 10
10000m, men’s final on February 11
Mass start. Men’s and women’s semifinal and final on February 19
Team pursuit, women’s quarterfinal on February 12, men’s quarterfinal on February 13, men’s and women’s semifinal and final on February 15.
