Golds Proving Harder to Find for China at Milano Cortina 2026
China’s Winter Olympic campaign has fallen short of the heights reached on home snow four years ago, with gold medals proving far harder to come by at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Snowboarder Su Yiming ended a 12-day wait for a Chinese gold this week, punching the air after finally putting his country back on top of the podium.
But with just four gold medals by the final weekend of competition, China’s tally remains well below the nine secured when it hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Return to Reality
China has grown into a Summer Games powerhouse since topping the table at the 2008 Summer Olympics, part of a state-backed effort to project national strength through elite sport. Winter competition, however, has always posed a different challenge.
Despite sending its largest-ever overseas Winter Olympic squad, results in Italy suggest a rebalancing rather than continued ascent. It’s thought that Beijing gave them an important home advantage and momentum that’s difficult to replicate abroad.
President Xi Jinping has championed winter sports participation, setting ambitious targets to engage hundreds of millions of citizens.
Stars Miss the Top Step
Much attention surrounded freestyle skier Eileen Gu, one of the faces of Beijing 2022. The US-born athlete added two silvers in Italy but did not repeat her double-gold performance from four years ago.
When asked whether those silvers represented missed opportunities, she dismissed the idea, pointing instead to her broader record in the sport.
Elsewhere, China narrowly missed gold in events where it has previously excelled, including speed skating. The margins were small, but at this level small margins matter.
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