Chinese athletes reaffirmed their home-grown dominance on the second day at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, winning four gold medals in cross-country skiing and alpine competitions.
The host nation has now topped the medals list with 16 medals and is now taking over the crown from Ukraine, who’s athletes won seven awards, including three golds from Saturday’s biathlon contests.
The local crowd erupted with joy when Zhang Mengqiu, who is 19, was awarded China’s first silver medal for para-alpine ski during the Super G standing event Sunday, just a day after being in the top spot with a silver medal in the women’s downhill competition.
Liang Jingyi, also 19, who was 19 years old, raced across to the Yanqing mountain to win the standing men’s Super G event.
At Zhangjiakou Zheng, Peng 29, and Yang Hongqiong 32, they were clean in the women’s and men’s long-distance cross-country sitting categories.
“I felt exhausted during the second part of the race, and then I heard the crowd cheering. As the cheers echoed in the background when I skied more, it was more intense,” Yang said.
“We’ve shown that Team China has unlimited potential for winter sports.”
In the para-snowboarding qualification, Chinese athletes claimed the top four times in the category for men’s SB-UL for competitors who have upper limb impairments.
The crowd’s favorite, Wang Pingyao, 21, is set to start Monday’s final third.
“Today, I pushed myself and achieved significant progress,” he said.
Winter sports remain at the beginning of their development within China. However, they are growing in popularity following the construction of 800 and 650 skating rinks ski resorts in the past few years.
China has made its Winter Paralympic debut at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games, but they only took home their first prize in 2018 in PyeongChang, winning the gold medal in wheelchair curling.
They are on the home turf does not help China’s wheelchair curling team defend their title.
They lost their second match in succession on Sunday, falling 5-1 to Sweden following a 7-3 loss against Canada the previous day.
Coach Yue Qingshuang told reporters that they felt the pressure of unrealistic expectations on the ice at home.
“It’s likely to have something to do with the fact that we’re in the same place,” she said.
“There’s more pressure, and everyone is trying to be successful over and above.”
The team hopes for better luck in their match on Sunday evening against Estonia.
