Speed skater Wu Dajing sets new world record, wins China’s first gold of 2018
The 23-year-old skater has become the pride of the nation
China is going gaga over star skater Wu Dajing (武大靖), who broke his own world record on Thursday, en-route to winning China its first gold of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
The 23-year-old Wu finished with a time of 39.584 seconds in the men’s 500m short track speed skating final, besting the record of 39.8 seconds that he had set earlier in the quarterfinals.
One post on Weibo from CCTV5 announcing Wu’s gold medal run has more than 520,000 likes, 250,000 shares, and 68,000 comments with netizens calling him the “pride of the nation.”
Wu won a silver medal in the event at the 2014 Sochi Olympics where he also picked up a bronze in the men’s 5000m relay race. On Weibo, he writes that he’s looking forward to the 2022 competition in Beijing.
So far, China has racked up 9 medals at this year’s Winter Olympics (1 gold, 6 silvers, 2 bronzes). In Sochi, the country also won 9 medals, including 3 golds.
Meanwhile, Hungary, led by Chinese-Hungarian speed skating heartthrob Sándor Liu Shaolin and his also devilishly handsome brother edged out China in the men’s 5,000m relay to win gold.
While China has been giddy about Wu and Sandor’s accomplishments, they’ve been less enthused by the decision to disqualify the Chinese women’s team in the 3,000m relay final.
“During China’s final relay exchange, the activate Chinese skater (Fan Kexin) drastically changed lane from the outside to the inside, impeding the active (South) Korean skater (Choi Min-jeong),” reads a statement from the International Skating Union explaining the disqualification.
The disqualification has provoked outrage across the Chinese internet. China tried to file a protest against the disqualification, but the petition was dismissed being filed after the deadline, which is 30 minutes after the competition ends.
In the race, the Chinese team crossed the finish line second, followed by the Canadian team, who were also shocked to be disqualified.
Korea won gold in the event, while Italy was elevated to silver and Netherlands to bronze.
