Well that was unexpected.

China won the 500 m women’s short track title for the fourth consecutive time – but no one would have guessed that Li Jianrou would be the one to do it – and then Zhang Hong (pictured above) won China’s first ever (long track) speed skating Olympic title in an even more stunning result. It was also the first time China has won two gold medals on the same day at...

Barely three hours after winning its first gold in Sochi, China has another one. Zhang Hong surprised the field by posting a sensational time early in the women's 1000 m (long track) speed skating event, that was simply too good for the rest. Her winning time of 1:14.02, set in the 7th of 18 heats (the best skaters typically go towards the end), was a massive 0.67 ahead of second place.

Day 5 review

It wasn’t to be for China’s veteran figure skater duo Tong Jian and Pang Qing, who made their competitive swansong on Wednesday evening in the free program of the pairs competition. They started in 4th place after their short program, and that’s where they finished, despite a free program that was third best overall. Consolation prize for retiring? They now have time to get ...

With several high prominent western leaders boycotting the Sochi Olympics, it was of even more importance to Russia and the IOC that Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony. In an official press release about the first ever IOC President’s dinner, Xi was mentioned in the same breath as Russian President Vladimir Putin, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Karolos Papoulias, Pr...

Day 4 review

Tuesday February 11 was a solid – but ultimately disappointing – day for China. Speed skater Zhang Hong (pictured above) pulled out the performance of the day in the first run of the women’s 2 x 500 m. Her time of 37.58 was a new track record at the time, though two competitors later went faster, placing Zhang in bronze medal position at the half way point. Her second race was ...

Day 3 review

As predicted, things got better for China on Monday Feb 10. Much better.

Han Tianyu – previously tipped in these pages – won China’s first medal: a silver in the men’s 1,500 m short track speed skating. Canadian favorite Charles Hamelin won but the 17-year-old Han edged out Russian (and former Korean) star Victor An by seven 1/1000ths of a second for the silver medal, and g...

2008年北京奥运会，中国在比赛第一天拿下2枚金牌，第二天又将4枚金牌收入囊中。2012年伦敦奥运会，同样的故事继续上演，中国在比赛前两天内平均每天拿下6枚奖牌，其中一半是金牌。

　　但冬奥会是一项不一样的挑战。中国尚未“劳驾”索契记分员。目前中国在本届冬奥会上最出色的表现，是在开幕式运动员进入菲什特奥林匹克体育场时，花样滑冰运动员佟健挥旗入场的一幕。

　　至今为止，中国代表队出师不利，在已经结束的比赛...

As expected, Sunday February 9 provided little in the way of Chinese cheer: in cross-country, Xu Wenlong finished 59th (out of 68) in the men’s skiathlon, while biathletes Zhang Yan, Tang Jialin,  Song Chaoqing and Song Na (see picture below) finished 49th, 55th, 63rd and 83rd (out of 84) respectively. Song Na missed  a team-high four targets in total, and, at 18, clearly hasn’t realized that i...

Despite starting the second day of the figure skating team event in bronze medal position, a disastrous ice dance by Huang Xintong and Zheng Xun in the team competition saw China ranked last out of the ten teams, gaining just a single point. Zhang Kexin didn’t do much better in the ladies short program, ranking 7th and earning four points, meaning that China finished qualification in 7th overall...

在4年前的温哥华冬奥会上，18岁的中国短道速滑运动员周洋打破1500米奥运会纪录，为中国代表队夺得了温哥华奥运会第三块金牌。随后，周洋又帮助中国队以打破世界纪录的成绩夺得3000米接力桂冠。她还进入到短道速滑1000米决赛，并且在半决赛上创下新的世界纪录。

　　在获得第一块金牌后，周洋在接受中国中央电视台(CCTV)采访时表示，她的生活会发生显著的变化，她希望自己夺金的表现能够改善父母的生活，因为她的父母身患残疾。她...

There was no actual sport on Friday February 7 in Sochi, but there was plenty of action, not least the opening ceremony, which kicked off at 20:14 local time. The Chinese team, led by figure skater Tong Jian, was described by one website as “reliably pleasant peppermint candies“. Here’s why:

Plenty of Russian flags on show in the above picture, with Chinese President Xi Jinping also in atte...

The Sochi Olympics haven’t officially started yet, but three of the sports have already begun, with four Chinese athletes in action on Thursday February 6.

22-year-old Ning Qin, China’s only moguls competitor, finished 21st in the first round of qualification out of 27 who started (plus another 3 who pulled out). With the first ten qualifying straight to the first round of the three-legge...

China has long been known as a Summer Olympic powerhouse (3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd in last four Games), with an almost impenetrable grip on sports such as diving and table tennis, but in recent years, it has been at the Winter Olympic Games where China has made the most improvements.

China finished in 16th place in the medal table in Nagano in 1998, then posted 13th and 14th place finishes in Salt L...

A couple more Li Na items before we get into Olympic season… A video has been doing the rounds online that shows Li being slapped by a local sports official back at the National Games in 2001. Link to Youtube video here.

Li’s crime? Only winning a bronze medal. The clip was first showcased by national broadcaster CCTV after her French Open win in 2011, but appears to have surfaced as evidenc...

Any fan of snooker will be familiar with Stephen Hendry and Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White, two of the greatest players in history. Well, add Chinese player Ding Junhui to that list.

With a win on Sunday in the German Masters in Berlin, Ding has become the first player to win four ranking tournaments in a season since Hendry in the 1990-91. After winning three in a row at the end of last year, ...

    李娜在周六获得澳网桂冠的时候，其实她的状态并不是最好的。幸运的是，她不需要达到最佳状态就足以击败紧张的齐布尔科娃，在第三次杀入澳网决赛后终于首次获得这一大满贯头衔。

　　大满贯赛事如同专业网球领域的马拉松比赛。当其他种子选手，例如小威廉姆斯、莎拉波娃等都没能够坚持的时候，李娜在过去的两周成为了最后一个站到终点处的运动员。毫无疑问，李娜具有极高的天赋，但正是依靠自己的坚持和刻苦，她才获得了自己...

As the country celebrates Li Na's latest achievement, here are some photos doing the rounds on the internet of China's sports darling in her (very) formative years.

First up, here's Li Na at 100 days old:

Li Na, aged 2, with her great-grandmother and her uncle (apparently):

Li Na, aged 4, in a park in her hometown Wuhan:

Showing some of her famous personality aged 5, a year befor...

Will it be third time lucky for Li Na at the Australian Open? A dominant semifinal performance saw Li put Canada’s rising star Genie Bouchard firmly in her place, racing to a 5-0 first set lead in just 14 minutes, before cruising to a 6-2, 6-4 win.

Li will play Dominika Cibulkova – Slovakia’s first Grand Slam finalist – on Saturday evening in Melbourne and will start as the heavy favorit...

经过一段短暂而奇迹的复出后，中国著名短道速滑运动员王濛却无法参加索契冬奥会的比赛。在上周训练时，王濛因为和一名男队友在滑行中发生碰撞，造成右脚踝两根腓骨骨折，随后她在上海一家医院接受了手术，对破碎的踝关节进行了固定。

　　虽然医生表示手术很成功，但是同时也承认这种伤势一般需要6周才能愈合，而且还要加上额外的康复期。即使王濛在2月10日能够站在起跑线上，观众们想必也可以想到她不可能恢复到自己最好的状态...

Wang Meng (王濛), China's most decorated Winter Olympian (4G, 1S, 1B), is out of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi after fracturing her ankle on Thursday. The short track speed skater won three of China's five gold medals at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 (500m, 1000m, 3000m relay), which won her CCTV's Sports Personality of the Year award, and she was hotly tipped to add to that tally in Sochi.

Bu...