Skeleton

Despite having barely seven years' experience on the sliding track, China's young riders have taken the skeleton world by storm at Beijing 2022.

China's biggest sliding success story was Yan Wengang, who fended off elite opponents to claim bronze in the men's skeleton and earn the host its first Olympic medal in any sliding sport.

The 24-year-old clocked 4 min 01.77 sec at the National Sliding Centre in Yanqing, and another young Chinese star Yin Zheng also delighted the home fans with a fifth-place finish.

The bronze marked only the second time that someone not from Europe or North America has stood on the Olympic skeleton podium.

"This medal should make China very confident in its skeleton future. We do have the ability to be competitive," said Yan at a news conference on Feb 13.

In the women's skeleton on Feb 12, Zhao Dan was the best-placed Chinese finisher in ninth, with Li Yuxi 14th — results that left their legendary Austrian coach Andreas Schmid more than pleased.

"We should never forget the great performance of the Chinese girls. What they have achieved is huge. People tend to focus on the boys. What I have observed from the girls is that they have huge potential and room for improvement," Schmid told reporters.

"Looking at their performances right now, we are surprised at their high level, " Schmid said, adding that "I think it's a great opportunity to say it loud and clear that they have given a strong message to the young generation and also women in this country to succeed in sports."

The country's skeleton squad was only established in 2015, and the country's previous Olympic best in the sport was Geng Wenqiang's 13th-place finish at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

"Our team is very young. We only started to build our team in 2015 when we barely had any idea what skeleton is actually about," said team leader Sun Fan.

"We have experienced fast growth over the past few years, especially after the 2018 Winter Olympics. With the help of our head coach, the strength of our athletes has been developing fast, and that's why we can show our Chinese speed at the Beijing Winter Olympics."

Xinhua, SHI FUTIAN, SUN XIAOCHEN, and Global Times contributed to the story.