UFC’s Zhang Weili and Beijing 2022 Olympics hope Eileen Gu lead big year for Chinese women
- Volleyball team led by star Zhu Ting and coach Lang Ping lead medal charge at delayed Summer Olympics
- Pioneers such as tennis hall of famer Li Na made history but there is more to make for current generation of female athletes
This year, like any other, China’s women will lead the way to the country’s sporting success. That has been the case for some time, across both team sports and individual.
Even in sports such as table tennis where China’s men are among the best in the world, the women are stood right alongside them.
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Zhang Weili – MMA
Eileen Gu – skiing
The 17-year-old is expected to be the face of the Beijing Winter Olympics next year and one of China’s brightest medal hopes. Born in the US to a Chinese mother and American father, Gu Ailing – as she is known in China – naturalised to compete for the hosts.
Other Chinese hopes on the slopes include snowboarders Liu Jiayu, who won silver at Pyeongchang in 2018, and Cai Xuetong, a three-time Olympic veteran who won the Beijing 2022 half-pipe test event last month.
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Wang Shuang & China’s women football team
While men’s football has been a source of disappointment, the women led by Sun Wen finished runners-up at the 1999 Fifa Women’s World Cup and they will expect to make it to Tokyo.
Zhu Ting & China’s women’s volleyball team
At one time the best paid volleyball player in the world at Vakifbank Istanbul, Zhu was another who left Europe to return home ahead of the Olympics. She was MVP as China won gold at Rio in 2016, one of a raft of individual awards, and also guided them to the 2019 World Cup.
Coached by the legendary Lang Ping, who won Olympic gold as a player in 1984 and as coach in 2016, the team has been praised by Xi Jinping. Lang’s life was turned into a film, Leap, last year. Another Olympic gold and Zhu can expect similar in the future.
Fu Yuanhui – swimmer
The star swimmer shot to fame at Rio 2016 where she took bronze in the backstroke and won fans with her personality, not realising she had finished third, and taboo-breaking talk of menstruation. Five years on Fu is one of the big names on a swimming programme that continues to produce talent.
Last Friday at the China Swim Series in Zhaoqing, Yang Junxua recorded the fastest 200m time this year, while Zhang Yufei did that for the 200m fly.
Olympic champion Ye Shiwen, young Yu Jingyao and Asian Games gold medal winning teenager Wang Jianjiahe are among the other stars set to shine this Olympic year.
Table tennis
China has said that they will not send any players overseas before the Tokyo Games in the summer despite table tennis tournaments resuming.
No matter, six of the top seven women’s singles players are Chinese, led by world No 1 Chen Meng, with Rio 2016 champion Ding Ning still around. Elsewhere, 2019 women’s singles world champion Liu Shiwen is only the sixth best ranked Chinese woman as she makes her comeback from injury.
Countries are limited to two players per Olympic event but China are expected to challenge again whoever they pick.
Diving
Stronger than Chinese table tennis is its diving, with double Olympic champion Shi Tingmao leading the way ahead of rival and synchro partner Wang Han.
There are world champions elsewhere in the form of Zhang Jiaqi, Lu Wei and Chen Yuxi (who won it at 13 in 2019) plus another Olympic champion Ren Qian.
Chinese dominance has been constant since the days of Fu Mingxia back in the early 1990s, and the future looks bright too with Quan Hongchan, 13, winning the 10m at last year’s National Games.
Li Na’s French Open win opened the door for Chinese and Asian tennis
Since the 1990s China has produced some incredible female athletes such as tennis hall of famer Li Na, who became the first Asian singles grand slam champion when she won the French Open in 2011.
Former skater Yang Yang starred on the ice and is now part of the planning for Beijing 2022, where figure skater Sui Wenjing is a medal hope with partner Han Cong.
Before then there are hopes for world champion shot putter Gong Lijiao and weightlifter Deng Wei in Tokyo, while Feng Shanshan – who took bronze in Rio – is eyeing gold in the golf this summer.
“The Bronze medal was a breakthrough for Chinese golf, but China has won so many gold medals in other sports, so I think Chinese golf needs a gold medal,” she told Xinhua last year of her hopes to make history.
