The sporting success of the Middle Kingdom has been the subject of many entries on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Many users not only drew attention to the fact that their players won as many as nine gold medals, but also put themselves ahead of their great political rival, the United States of America. Americans have 25 medals, but only eight of them are the most valuable metals.
One Weibo user wrote on Sunday: – At the Summer Games last year, the USA was one gold medal ahead of China, and now they’re behind us.
A young woman in Beijing, who was skipping the countdown clock for the Olympics on February 4, said winter sports in China is still at an early stage of development.
– 3rd place in the medal table, ahead of countries like the USA and Canada, a real achievement! – She enthusiastically confirmed in an interview with an AFP journalist.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the government congratulated the athletes on the “best performance ever” at the Winter Games. The statement stressed that “the nation and the sons of the nation are proud of your achievement.”
While China has enjoyed longstanding success at the Summer Olympics, it has had more modest achievements at the Winter Olympics. For the first time in the last edition, they took part in 1980, and before the event that ended on Sunday, they received a total of 62 medals, including 13 zlotys. They did their best of the period in 2010 in Vancouver, when they stood on the podium 11 times, including five times for the highest score.
US-born Elaine Jo, who has won three medals in free skating, including gold, was greatly aided by the achievements of this year’s event.
