China's short track speed skating team concluded a triumphant weekend at the ISU World Tour in Dordrecht, Netherlands, with Liu Shaoang claiming two silver medals ahead of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
In Sunday's men's 1,000m final, Liu engaged in a nail-biting duel with Italy's Pietro Sighel and the Republic of Korea's Rim Jong-un. After temporarily leading in the seventh lap, the 27-year-old Chinese athlete secured second place with a time of 1:26.023, just 0.146 seconds behind Rim's gold-winning performance.
Liu later teamed up with brother Liu Shaolin, Zhang Bohao, and Lin Xiaojun in the 5,000m relay. A dramatic final push by Lin Xiaojun propelled China past Italy to claim silver in 6:48.724, with the Netherlands taking gold by a razor-thin 0.045-second margin.
These results helped China secure full quotas across all nine short track events for the 2026 Winter Olympics. 'This demonstrates our team's depth ahead of Milano Cortina,' said national team coach Zhang Jing during post-event interviews.
While Canada's Steven Dubois and Kim Boutin claimed individual Crystal Globe trophies, all eyes remain on China's rising momentum as Olympic preparations intensify.
