Su Yiming clinches the first gold! Reliving Zheng Qinwen’s gold-winning moment in Paris 2024

At the highly anticipated Milan Winter Olympics, the Chinese delegation finally secured their precious first gold in the latter half of the competition. Just turned 22 today, Su Yiming delivered outstanding performances in all three runs of the men’s snowboard slopestyle final, ultimately winning the gold with a score of 82.41 on his first jump.

Raising the national flag and hearing the anthem at the Olympics is truly a rare achievement. Competitive sports are not only intense and harsh but also full of uncertainties and chance. Su Yiming’s gold-winning performance inevitably brings to mind the heroic display of China’s tennis star Zheng Qinwen in the women’s singles at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

On her path to gold, she consecutively defeated top players including Navarro, Kvitová, top seed Świątek, and Vekić, setting a new best result for Chinese tennis in the Olympic women’s singles event. Previously, the best performance was Li Na’s fourth place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As the undisputed leader of China’s tennis team, Zheng Qinwen was born on October 8, 2002. Back in 2014, she won two gold medals at the 14th Hubei Provincial Games. In 2020, the young Zheng made a breakthrough in ITF tournaments, capturing four ITF singles titles that season and rising into the world’s top 300 rankings.

In the following seasons, Zheng steadily progressed. In 2022, she made her mark in the Grand Slams, reaching the second round of the Australian Open and then defeating Sonevska, Halep, and Cornet to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros. Additionally, Zheng reached the third round at both Wimbledon and the US Open that year.

Undoubtedly, Zheng Qinwen delivered an impressive debut full adult season, attracting significant attention with her consistent highlights. Her performance has become even more stable in recent years. However, last year she underwent surgery on her right elbow and only made her comeback at this season’s WTA1000 tournament in Doha, where she defeated Kenin in the first round, Parker in the second, before being eliminated by this year’s Australian Open champion, Rybakina, in the third round.

Judging from her overall comeback performance, Zheng’s surgical area shows no major issues. In interviews, she mentioned that playing continuously did not cause any discomfort in her right elbow. However, she withdrew from this week’s WTA1000 Dubai Tennis Championships—not due to the old injury, but because she unexpectedly felt unwell, forcing her to pull out despite originally planning to compete.

Actually, during the Doha tournament, Zheng appeared to have a cold and frequently used tissues to blow her nose during matches. We hope she recovers quickly. According to her personal schedule, Zheng’s next tournament is expected to be the Sunshine Double in North America, held in March.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)