Most successful Beijing Winter Paralympics athlete Pedersen fears China has wasted legacy of 2022 Games
- Norwegian Jesper Pedersen won 4 golds and a silver in alpine skiing at the Games last year, while China’s athletes won 61 and topped the medal table
- Pedersen says there were no Chinese competitors involved in this season’s World Cup circuit, and fears the country’s athletes will go backwards
The most successful athlete at the Beijing Winter Paralympics has questioned whether its legacy has been wasted when it comes to China’s skiers.
Norwegian Jesper Saltvik Pedersen, who won four golds and a silver at the 2022 event, said he had not seen a single Chinese competitor on the World Para Alpine Skiing World Cup circuit this year.
On Saturday, the country reported it had achieved a surplus of 350 million yuan (US$52 million) from its organisational budget for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
And Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said the IOC would put its US$10.4 million share of the surplus towards supporting the development of sport in China.
“Young people engaging in winter sports will greatly benefit from this contribution of the IOC,” Bach said.
But Pedersen is not convinced the gains China made last year, when the likes of Zhang Mengqiu and Liang Jingyi were winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the country’s table-topping tally of 61 four years after leaving Pyeongchang with one medal, has carried over.
