Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

With just one month to go before the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, Chinese athletes are chasing new breakthroughs despite facing stern challenges.

In the already-concluded ice-event qualification competitions for the Milan-Cortina Olympics, China has secured 41 Olympic berths - 20 men and 21 women - across 29 events in four disciplines. Qualification races for snow sports and sliding events will conclude on January 18. At the Milan Olympics, the Chinese delegation is expected to achieve a new record in terms of the scale of overseas participation, according to the Winter Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China (GAS).

Though reaching a historic height at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, the overall strength of China's winter sports has not undergone a fundamental shift, with core competitiveness still being concentrated in events such as short track speed skating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. Replicating the brilliance of the previous Winter Games will therefore be a formidable challenge, Liu Yu, a Beijing-based sports commentator, told the Global Times.

At the Beijing 2022 Games, the Chinese delegation delivered its best-ever Winter Olympic performance, collecting nine gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

At present, Chinese athletes have entered the final stretch of their Olympic preparations. Officials from the GAS center told reporters that national teams across ice and snow disciplines will strive to deliver strong performances at the Games, which are set to open in Milan, Italy on February 6.

In the ice event, short track speed skating remains the backbone of ­China's winter Olympic strategy. The team has qualified and will field a complete lineup of five men and five women in Milan. 

Results from the 2025-26 World Tour suggest that China still holds a degree of relay strength, highlighted by gold in the 2,000-meter mixed relay and three silvers in the men's 5,000-meter relay. Individual medals across the men's 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m further underline depth.

Another sports commentator Wang Dazhao told the Global Times that short track speed skating is marked by a high degree of unpredictability, which adds to the uncertainty of winning medals. Relay events, in particular, demand seamless coordination and the resolute execution of race strategies.

The speed skating and figure skating teams both claimed gold medals at the Beijing Games, but have faced varying degrees of challenge in the Milan cycle. Overall gains in speed skating competitiveness have been limited, while figure skating is constrained by a shortage of emerging talent. At the Milan Games, targeting podium finishes might be a more realistic objective for both disciplines, Wang noted. 

Perhaps the possible breakthroughs could be made in the snow events. For years, China's winter sports profile was defined by a simple formula - strong on ice, weak on snow. That narrative has been quietly rewritten. 

At the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, China topped both the gold and overall medal tables with a record-breaking 32 golds, 27 silvers and 26 bronzes. Notably, 19 of those gold medals came from snow events, signaling a structural shift in the making.

In snow events, China's strongest collective advantage lies in the women's freestyle skiing halfpipe and the freestyle skiing aerials discipline. In aerials, the Chinese team ranks among the world's top tier in the men's and women's individual events as well as the mixed team event, giving it gold-medal potential.

Olympic champion Gu Ailing made a statement to her counterparts by winning the first halfpipe event of the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup 2025-26 season on December 13 in Chongli, where she claimed her gold at Beijing 2022.

Young freestyle skiing talents such as Liu Mengting, Zhang Kexin and Li ­Fanghui have translated domestic progress into credible World Cup performances, boosting hopes of a podium finish. 

In snowboarding, Olympic champion Su Yiming remains a strong contender in the big air and slopestyle events. Su is also backed by the emergence of riders such as Ge Chunyu. 

The Chinese skeleton squad eyes another breakthrough following Yan Wengang's historic bronze in Beijing. Yin Zheng has shown promising form by winning two bronzes at the recent World Cup, including setting a track record on the Olympic course in Cortina.

Wang told the Global Times that China still plays the role of a chaser in the global landscape of winter sports, especially in events such as Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and skeleton. 

"Beijing 2022 was only the beginning for China's winter sports. To maintain the momentum and achieve future success, we must continue to expand grassroots participation, nurture emerging talent, and build a sustainable pipeline that turns national ambition into long-term competitiveness on the world stage," said Wang. 

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn