Winter Olympics: Hungarian-Chinese Liu Shaoang takes men’s 500m short track gold as home favourites Wu Dajin and Ren Ziwei fail to reach podium
- World champion Liu becomes Hungary’s first-ever individual gold medallist at the Winter Olympics after a dominant win in the final
- China’s women skaters take bronze in the short track 3,000m relay behind the Netherlands and South Korea
China went into Sunday’s men’s 500-metre short-track speedskating event with high hopes of dominating the podium. In the end, it was a man who shares allegiance with Hungary and China who struck gold as defending champion and world record holder Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei and Sun Long all failed to even reach the final.
World champion Liu Shaoang, whose father is Chinese and mother Hungarian, held off Russia’s Konstantin Ivliev to clock 40.33 seconds and give Hungary their first-ever Winter Olympics individual gold medal. Ivliev timed 40.45 for his silver and Canada’s Steven Dubois finished with the bronze in 40.68.
“I’m still speechless. When I crossed the line, I didn’t show any emotions because I still need some time to realise what happened,” Liu said in his post-final press conference. “I think that when I go back home, my life will change. It’s going to be crazy. We are here to make history.”
Before the Olympics, Liu’s brother Sandor Liu Shaolin – who was knocked out early on Sunday – said their mother had stitched a special Hungary-China flag to be waved if he had won gold in Beijing.
China’s only medal at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Sunday came from the women’s 3,000m relay team of Qu Chunyu, Zhang Chutong, Fan Kexin and Zhang Yuting, who earned bronze behind gold winners the Netherlands, who set an Olympic record, and second-placed South Korea.
