[Editor's note]
In 2024, Chinese sports will face the Paris Olympics. On April 17, the Paris Olympics entered the 100-day countdown.
Against the backdrop of strong enemies around us, how can China's various sports break through? What are our strengths, what are our recent tournament results, what are the quality of our opponents?
With these questions, The Paper Olympic Channel launched the "Olympic Tour" column to refine the preparations of the Chinese Olympic team, objectively present the status of each team, and gain insight into the challenges and problems that may be encountered in the Paris Olympics.
Wu Peng is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in men's speed climbing.
Competitive climbing, surfing, skateboarding and BMX were added to the Olympic family for the first time at the Tokyo Games, and these stylish extreme sports have injected new blood into the Olympic Games.
At the upcoming Paris Olympics, the Chinese delegation is also looking forward to a breakthrough in these events.
Long Jinbao.
Rock climbing: Aim for Olympic qualification
The Tokyo Olympics was the first time that rock climbing entered the Olympics, with only one gold medal each for the men's and women's all-around (speed, difficulty, and rock climbing), but Chinese players Pan Yufei and Song Yiling failed to enter the finals.
The climbing programme at the Paris Olympics has been adjusted, with the all-around event including difficulty and bouldering, while the speed event will be a separate event.
There are three ways to qualify: first, the World Climbing Championships in Switzerland in August 2023; the second is the Continental Olympic Qualifying Tournament; The third is the two Olympic qualification series to be held in Shanghai, China and Budapest, Hungary in May and June 2024, respectively.
In the men's speed competition at last year's World Climbing Championships, Hunan athlete Long Jinbao won the silver medal, improving his personal best from 5.05 seconds to 5.03 seconds and qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
At the Wujiang Station of the Rock Climbing World Cup in April this year, the world's No. 1 Chinese player Wu Peng won the men's speed event and set a new Asian record with a time of 4.86 seconds, which is also highly anticipated. He then finished second in Shanghai at the Olympic Qualification Series, equalled the latest Asian record in Budapest with a time of 4.83 seconds, and won the final in 4.90 seconds.
In the women's speed climbing competition, the young Zhou Yafei also locked the ticket to Paris with the Olympic qualification series winning in Shanghai and the silver in Budapest.
From November 9 to 12 last year, the 2023 International Climbing Federation Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament was held in Jakarta, Indonesia - in the women's speed race, China's Deng Lijuan also qualified for the Paris Olympics with a gold medal.
At present, China ranks among the top 10 in the world in speed climbing, with many men and women ranking in the world, and has formed a group advantage, and will go all out to hit the medals and even gold medals in Paris.
Teresa Teng in the game.
In the women's all-around event, in last year's Asian Olympic qualifying tournament, Zhang Yuetong won both rock climbing and difficulty, defeating Japan's Ikumo Nonaka by a narrow margin of 1.4 points, winning the women's biathlon championship and qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
At the Wujiang Station of the Rock Climbing World Cup in April this year, Chinese teenager Luo Zhilu won the silver medal in the final of the women's difficulty event.
From May to June 2024, the two Paris Olympic qualifying events held in Shanghai and Budapest respectively produced 5 quota places for men and women in the speed and 10 quotas for each in the men's and women's all-around.
In the men's biathlon, China's Pan Yufei reached the semi-finals of the Olympic Qualification Series in Budapest, where he ranked 13th out of all competitors in the two races. According to the rules, the top 12 players in the qualifying round will go straight to Paris, but each team will only be able to get a maximum of two quota places in one event, and since three of the top 12 players in the overall ranking are from host France – which means that one French athlete will inevitably miss the Olympics, Pan Yufei will be substituted into the top 12 to qualify for the Olympics. This is also Pan Yufei's second time on the stage of the Olympic Games.
The Chinese climbing team won a total of 7 tickets to the Paris Olympic Games, including the women's biathlon, women's speed, and men's speed, and one place in the men's biathlon.
Women's biathlon: Zhang Yuetong, Luo Zhilu
Men's biathlon: Pan Yufei
Women's speed: Deng Lijuan, Zhou Yafei
Men's speed: Long Jinbao, Wu Peng
Yang Siqi (right).
Surfing: 15-year-olds make history
Surfing made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, when the Chinese team did not qualify.
There are 48 tickets for surfing at the Paris Olympics, with 24 men and 24 women, an increase of 8 compared to the Tokyo Olympics, and the Chinese team has also made a breakthrough in the new cycle.
On March 1, 2024, in Puerto Rico, 15-year-old Chinese player Yang Siqi performed well and won the first place in her group - she not only qualified for the Paris Olympics, but also secured a place for the Paris Olympics, the first time the Chinese team has qualified for the Olympic surfing event.
Yang Siqi began to represent the Chinese surfing team in the world competition at the age of 13 - at the 2022 World Surfing Games, she finished 29th, which is the best result achieved by the Chinese surfing team in this event since its establishment in 2018.
Now that she has successfully obtained the Olympic ticket, Yang Siqi said: "After the competition, the staff told me to wait, I didn't expect to get the [Olympic] qualification, I was very excited when I knew the result, I felt my hands were shaking, because the goal I set in 2022 was finally completed." ”
Zhou Changcheng, the leader of the Chinese surfing team, also said: "Our main task this year (Paris Olympics) is to strive for qualification. ”
At present, Yang Siqi, Jin Shuhan and Wu Qimei are the best Chinese women's athletes, all of whom are only 15 years old, but except for Yang Siqi, Jin Shuhan and Wu Qimei ultimately failed to qualify for the Olympics.
On the men's side, due to the large gap in strength, they also missed the Olympics.
Zeng Wenhui.
Skateboarding: Young players take the lead
At the Tokyo Olympics, Chinese women's Zeng Wenhui finished sixth in the women's skateboarding street event, which was the best ranking of the Chinese skateboarding team in the Tokyo Olympics and also refreshed the best result of Chinese athletes in the world competition.
Looking ahead to Paris, the Chinese skateboarding team is making a group charge towards Olympic qualification.
There are 88 quota places for skateboarding at Paris 2024, with 22 athletes competing in the women's and men's street and women's pools.
According to the Olympic qualification system for skateboarding, except for the host French skaters and wild card skaters, other skaters will compete in the first stage of the Olympic points competition and the second stage of the Olympic qualification series to compete for a quota place in Paris.
The 2024 Paris Olympic Points Race (Dubai) street event ended on March 10 - 14-year-old Cui Chenxi finished seventh in the final, creating the best result of the Chinese team skaters in the women's street style event at the Olympic points race.
14-year-old Cui Chenxi.
In addition, in the Wanchi competition, Li Yujuan, the runner-up of the women's bowl pool of the Hangzhou Asian Games, entered the quarterfinals with the eighth place in the qualifying round, and finally ranked 17th, which also created the best result of Chinese players in the women's bowl pool event of the Olympic points competition.
On the men's side, the athletes of the Chinese team all stopped qualifying.
The Chinese team has nine skaters, Cui Chenxi, Zeng Wenhui, Zhang Yan, Zhu Yuanling, Lan Junyi, Zhang Jie, Li Yujuan, Zheng Haohao and Chen Ye, who have entered the Olympic Qualification Series held in Shanghai and Budapest.
Finally, after the end of the two-stop Olympic qualification series, the young Chinese skateboarding team also received a surprise.
In addition to Cui Chenxi, Zeng Wenhui and Zhu Yuanling, the three "little flowers" helped the Chinese team get the full qualification for the women's street event, and the 11-year-old Zheng Haohao won the Olympic qualification for the women's bowl event.
Interestingly, after completing all the competitions in the bowl event, although Zheng Haohao is ranked 27th in the world, according to the rule that each country/regional association skaters can only qualify for the Olympic Games with a maximum of three Olympic qualifications, she "pressed" the whistle and advanced to Paris, thus becoming the youngest athlete of the Chinese skateboarding team at the Paris Olympics.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Zheng Haohao will celebrate her 12th birthday on August 11, the closing day of the Paris Olympics, so she will be the youngest athlete in the Chinese Legion to participate in this Olympic Games.
Deng Yawen in the game.
BMX: Group advantage to hit the gold medal
Of the five Olympic cycling events, BMX freestyle is a new face that only joined the Olympic family in 2021.
However, it is worth mentioning that since the preparation for the establishment of the team began in 2018, after five years of development, the Chinese team has continued to make breakthroughs in the women's freestyle BMX event, ranking among the top in the world.
In the 2022 season of the International Cycling Union BMX Freestyle World Cup in Australia, Sun Jiaqi and Zhou Huimin won the women's championship and runner-up.
In the 2023 season of the International Cycling Union Freestyle BMX World Cup in Saudi Arabia, Sun Jiaqi won the second place, Sun Sibei won the fourth place, and Zheng Qian won the fifth place.
In addition, in the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup (and Paris Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament) held at the end of 2023, the Chinese team once again showed the strength of the group, with Deng Yawen and Sun Sibei winning the first and third places respectively.
Deng Yawen amazed four people in the competition, with a score of 93.84 to create the highest score in the history of the project - as a "post-00" Deng Yawen was a track and field athlete before, and he has only been training freestyle BMX for about 6 years.
In addition, according to China Sports News, the event was linked to the qualification for the Paris Olympics, gathering nearly 200 athletes from more than 20 countries and regions including China, France and the United States, including Tokyo Olympic silver medallist and multi-time world champion Hannah Roberts.
In the Shanghai leg of the Olympic Qualification Series in May, Sun Sibei ranked first, followed by Sun Jiaqi and Deng Yawen in second and third place. The three women stood on the podium together.
In Budapest not long ago, Sun Jiaqi missed the final because of a mistake, while Sun Jiaqi ranked third and Deng Yawen also won fourth. In the end, Sun Jiaqi and Deng Yawen locked in two full Olympic tickets for Chinese BMX freestyle.
"At present, many female athletes in China have their own characteristics and are very competitive in international competitions." Wu Dan, head coach of the Chinese BMX freestyle team, revealed in an interview that the Chinese team will go all out to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
From missing the Tokyo Olympics to achieving full participation in the women's park race at the Paris Olympics, the strength of the Chinese women's freestyle BMX team has increased rapidly in the Paris cycle, and it has shown the advantages of the group. Sun Jiaqi and Deng Yawen will show themselves on the stage of the Olympic Games, and compete fiercely with strong players such as American star Hannah and British star Charlotte.