If they are taking their home Winter Asiad as a critical test for next year's Olympics as seriously as they claimed, China's short-track speed skaters should leave Harbin with alarm bells ringing loudly in their heads.
Ignoring some unexpected, tiny errors, due to the not-so-ideal track conditions at the venue and body contact that is part of the sport, Team China has no excuses at all for its poorer-than-expected campaign at Harbin 2025, where it was totally outperformed on home ice by its close neighbor the Republic of Korea, arguably the world's most decorated program in the sport.
Roared on by a boisterous home crowd at the Heilongjiang Ice Training Center, the Chinese women's squad overtook a surging Korean quartet in the final lap in the 3,000m relay Final A on Sunday to snatch the host's only team gold in Harbin, offering fans cold comfort after it failed to deliver on its hefty pre-Games ambitions.
The Chinese men capped off the Games' short-track program with a bronze medal in the 5,000m relay, where it originally finished bottom in the four-team final A, but was promoted to the podium following a penalty that disqualified the second-placed Koreans for an illegal obstruction.
Despite that blip, ROK's speedsters dominated the short-track medal standings with six golds among its total haul of 13 from nine events, while Team China settled for a distant second place, with two gold medals among a total eight, putting it ahead of Kazakhstan with its sole gold medal.
The thin harvest from Harbin, the cradle of China's skating world champions, has provided a sobering reality check for the Chinese squad that, perhaps, has to reevaluate its goals for Milano-Cortina 2026, where mighty Western powers, such as the Netherlands, Canada and the host Italy, will undoubtedly make the hunt for gold extremely hard.
"I got quite emotional after the final race. This is definitely my last Asian Winter Games and I felt like we could've done better," women's veteran Fan Kexin said after steering her team to victory in the 3,000m relay on Sunday.
"We did our best, though. My teammates performed really well today so that we could secure a final gold (in women's events).
"The encouragement from winning a team event is bigger than from individual races. It reflected our team's coherence and collective energy.
"We have a lot of catching-up to do, though, to prepare ourselves for the Winter Olympics in a year's time. Everyone needs to be better for sure, so that we can make it a strong enough team for the Olympics," said the 31-year-old sprint specialist, who's won five world championships titles in 500m.
With Fan no longer in her prime, China's women have been outshone by their Korean counterparts on the international stage over the past seven years, without winning a single gold at the past two Olympics in Pyeongchang and Beijing.
The progress of the next-generation stars, such as distance runner Gong Li, frequent World-Tour medalist Zhang Chutong and 2016 Youth Winter Olympics champion Zang Yize, appears too slow to keep up with the rise of their peers from ROK and Europe.
The pandemic did take a toll on their development, but it was up to them to better manage their training and lives, to be more disciplined and battle more aggressively on the international stage to deliver on their promises, according to Team China's head coach Zhang Jing.
"This relay win really provides us with huge motivation, and is a great confidence boost for our next competitions," Gong, who also won a silver medal in the 1,500m in Harbin, said of her strong showing in the 3,000m win.
"Yet, we should focus on where we have room for improvement, from details in our individual training to our team chemistry."
On the men's side, the lack of roster depth has appeared to be an equally pressing issue, with no youngsters having emerged strong enough at the Harbin Games, where the host squad's only individual gold medal was won by Lin Xiaojun in the men's 500m on Saturday.
Lin, who was born in ROK, but chose to represent Team China as a naturalized athlete in 2021, did his best by battling in both individual and relay events in Harbin, but still saw his effort fall short in delivering the results he'd expected.
Still, the 2018 Winter Olympics 1,500m champion said he won't give up pushing to deliver a gold-laden campaign at his second Olympics next year.
"I've known him since we were at primary school. We competed fiercely on the track, but we are actually still friends off the ice," Lin, known as Lim Hyo-jun in his native country, said of Korean star Park Ji-won, despite being fouled by Park in the men's relay.
"I thought that maybe I am getting old, and no longer strong enough to go the distance (trying to win another 1,500m Olympic gold medal), but watching him achieve good results one after another, I feel motivated to try to do it again," Lin said in Korean after Sunday's relay final.
Both Team China and their Korean counterparts have had to move on quickly, as the 2024-25 ISU World Tour's final leg will kick off at the 2026 Olympic rink in Milan on Feb 14.
Both teams have already boarded their respective flights, setting out for a serious "dress rehearsal" on the actual ice that will host the Olympic races next year.
"We cannot wait to prove that we are a better team (than we were in Harbin) at the next World Tour event and the home world championships (in Beijing) next month," said men's reigning 1,500m world champion Sun Long.
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