Hangzhou, China, September 24, 2023: China’s long-standing push to get wushu into the Olympic Games has received strong support from top Asian sports leaders.
The wushu competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games began on Sunday and host nation China opened with two gold medals at Xiaoshan Guali Sports Centre.
The opening day attracted a number of senior Asian sports officials, including His Royal Highness Prince Sufri Bolkiah, Executive Board member of the Olympic Council of Asia, who gave the thumbs up for the ancient Chinese martial art to be a medal sport at the Olympics.
“China deserves to have wushu in the Olympics. They have done so much for the Olympic Movement by hosting both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, and in return the IOC should strongly consider accepting wushu as a medal sport,” said HRH Prince Sufri Bolkiah, who is also the President of Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council.
Dato Chong Kim Fatt, Vice President of Wushu Federation of Asia and Chef de Mission of Malaysia in Hangzhou, noted that wushu would be a medal sport at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal in 2026, and was hopeful it will be considered at subsequent Olympics.
“We will have four events in Dakar and this is a start. The sport has become universally popular and there are presently 158 national federations who are members of the International Wushu Federation. We are a big family, and we deserve Olympic recognition,” Dato Chong said as he watched the opening action.
On the mat, Sun Peiyuan underlined China’s supremacy in the sport as he completed an Asian Games golden hat-trick winning the men’s Changquan, or long boxing final, a feat he had also accomplished five years ago at the 2018 Jakarta Games. In 2014 Incheon, Sun shone in the Daoshu and Gunshu all-around event to win gold.
“This was the hardest one,” the 34-year-old Sun commented. “This time the competition was really intense but I was really moved by the support from the crowd. These Asian Games are different from past ones as my home town is close to Hangzhou and my friends and relatives were here to cheer me on.”
In the other wushu final on Sunday morning, China’s Tong Xin grabbed the gold in the women’s Taijiquan, or Taichi, with a score of 9.843. There are 15 gold medals up for grabs in the wushu competition.
China first applied for wushu’s entry into the Olympics in 2001 when the IOC was under the leadership of Jacques Rogge. This approach was inspired by Beijing’s success in bidding for the 2008 Olympics.
At the time, the International Wushu Federation had 86 members in five continents, surpassing the IOC’s requirement that a sport must be practised in at least 75 countries across four continents. Today this number has grown to 158.
“Wushu is a world sport. I hope the IOC will include it in the Olympics soon,” added HRH Prince Sufri Bolkiah.
