A 0.09-second last-second victory! The Chinese team pulls off a historic upset & the men's speed skating team pursuit wins bronze & outperforms the silver medalist

On February 18 Beijing time, the 11th day of the Milan Winter Olympics ended. In a much-watched highlight event, the men's speed skating team pursuit was contested. After a tough fight, the Chinese team achieved a time of 3 minutes 41.38 seconds in the bronze medal race, narrowly defeating the Dutch team by 0.09 seconds in a thrilling finish to claim this precious bronze medal, marking a major upset and the first-ever medal for China in this event — a historic achievement that is truly cause for celebration!

This Winter Olympics has been a low point for the Chinese delegation, with many events yielding no medals at all. Not to mention golds, even bronze medals have been very hard to come by. This reflects our lack of competitiveness at the Winter Games. On this competition day, the speed skating events continued with the men's team pursuit. Since we lost to the USA in the final, we missed the gold medal final in Group A and had to compete in Group B for bronze. Our opponent was the Netherlands, the top powerhouse in speed skating, so expectations for us were low, especially since speed skating is the Dutch team's absolute strength!

Once the race started, we skated steadily, with an aggressive sprint upfront, maintaining a lead over the Dutch team, at one point ahead by as much as 2 seconds. However, in the final lap, we ran low on energy while the Dutch launched a furious sprint. Fortunately, we held on and narrowly defeated them by 0.09 seconds in a dramatic finish, winning the bronze with a time of 3 minutes 41.38 seconds — our best ever and significantly better than the silver medalist USA's 3 minutes 43.71 seconds!

Congratulations to the Chinese team for winning the bronze medal in this event, a tremendous breakthrough. This is our sixth medal of the current Games. Although the total medal count has increased, it has not improved our ranking on the gold medal table — we still stand at 19th place. Only gold medals can boost our ranking. With few competition days left in the Winter Olympics, we hope the Chinese team will rise to the challenge and strive for the top, aiming to win at least one gold medal. Keep fighting!

Written by / Sports Fiction

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