A watershed period in China’s sporting ascent, last year was notable for many thrilling events

Having bid farewell to a remarkable year of action-packed thrills, China Daily looks back at the nation’s biggest sport achievements in 2022.

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1. Exceptional Beijing 2022

A defining moment of the year, the 2022 Winter Olympics closed on Feb 20 in Beijing to international acclaim for the stunning action, safe and smooth organization amid the pandemic, and the Games’ rich legacy for the host areas. Beijing went down in history as the world’s first city to host both the summer and winter editions of the Games, while China is expected to benefit from the facility upgrades and an increasing number of over 346 million winter sports fans to build itself into a world power on ice and snow.

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2. Sensational Gu

As a face of Beijing 2022, women’s freestyle skier Gu Ailing shot to international stardom in Beijing after winning two gold medals (half-pipe, big air) and a silver (slopestyle) at her Olympic debut representing China, her mother’s home country. The California-born prodigy has drawn massive interest from across the sports and fashion worlds for her inspiring feats and bi-cultural background.

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3. Rise of a Su-per star

A fine product of China’s own winter sports program, young snowboarder Su Yiming etched himself into history at Beijing 2022 after claiming the host’s first ever Olympic gold in the sport in men’s big air at the age of 17. He built on a silver from slopestyle to become one of the brightest stars of a Chinese delegation that won a record nine gold medals to finish at its highest ever position at third on the Winter Games’ medal table.

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4. Hoops heroics

Counting on its resilient and tenacious team play, the Chinese squad battled past Olympic bronze medalist France and host Australia to return to the final of the FIBA Women’s World Cup on Oct 1 after its last appearance in 1994. Despite an 83-61 final loss to 11-time winner United States, a silver medal had tied the best outcome of China’s women’s program at the showpiece tournament while delivering a huge inspiration on the National Day holiday.

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5. Reblooming Steel Roses

Unexpected yet urgently needed, Team China beat South Korea, 3-2. They recovered from two goals down in the final of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Feb 6 to bring home its ninth crown from the continental football tournament after a 16-year title drought. The resurgence of the female squad, known as the “Steel Roses”, on the world stage had resulted in several key players landing contracts to ply their trade in overseas leagues, raising hopes for a strong campaign at the 2023 World Cup.

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6. Courting breakthroughs

The year was a progressive one for Chinese tennis on both the men’s and women’s professional circuits. Teen star Zheng Qinwen made international headlines after reaching the fourth round at the French Open in May, joined by youngster Wang Xiyu and veteran Zhang Shuai to bolster the revival of the female contingent. Men’s top ace Zhang Zhizhen became the first Chinese mainland player to crack the world’s top-100 ranking in October while former US Open junior winner Wu Yibing finally proved his potential by advancing into the third round of the US Open main draw to become the first Chinese mainlander to do so in the Open era.

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7. Historic leap

With his 8.36-meter leap in the sixth and final round, Chinese long jumper Wang Jianan claimed the country’s first gold medal in any horizontal jumping event at the world championships, on July 17, in the United States. He delivered another boost to China’s track and field community following sprinter Su Bingtian’s 100m final appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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8. Dominance consolidated

China won all eight matches to claim its fifth consecutive women’s team title at the 2022 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships held in Chengdu on Oct 8, before the all-conquering Chinese men’s side swept aside Germany 3-0 in the final one day later to lift the men’s team trophy for the 10th time in a row.

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9. Going beyond the bar

With near-perfect displays of strength, balance and composure, the Chinese men’s artistic gymnastic squad cemented its return to top of the sport by reclaiming the world team title on Nov 2 in Liverpool, England. A total of 257.858 points in the final saw China fend off longtime rival Japan by 4.463 points — the biggest winning margin since the 2007 worlds — to collect a record-extending 13th gold and 10th consecutive medal in the team showpiece.

(PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

10. Legal support reinforced

A revision to China’s sports law was passed in June at the session of the country’s top legislature, and has taken effect since Jan 1. This was the first comprehensive and systematic revision since the law’s initial enforcement in 1995. The revised Law on Physical Culture and Sports added four new chapters, aimed at providing stronger legal support and protection in areas, such as anti-doping, sports arbitration, sports industry and supervision and management of sporting events, to facilitate China’s ambition of building a world-class sporting powerhouse.