Lausanne, Switzerland, January 5, 2025: A remarkable short track speed skating final at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 has been selected by the International Olympic Committee as one of the highlights of the year.
In a review on Olympics.com, Chinese short tracker Yang Jingru makes headlines again following her “rabbit tactics” super skate at the Winter YOG.
“Some big events took place in January, including the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024,” reports Olympics.com.
“And, from those Games, a viral moment: short track speed skater Yang Jingru of People's Republic of China gained a lap on the field in the early stages of the women's 1500m race without her opponents realising, with Yang slotting in at the back of the pack.
“When she took the last-lap bell, the rest of the field thought they, too, were on their last lap, but had actually completed one lap fewer; Yang easily won the race by over eight seconds.
“The TikTok video of the race shared by the official Olympics account racked up over 20 million views, with the YouTube replay of the race receiving nearly three million views.”
Elsewhere in the review, Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle was the toast of the World Aquatics Championships 2024 in Doha when he broke the 100m freestyle world record on the first leg of the 4x100m relay.
“The Chinese star wrote history by breaking David Popovici's men's 100m freestyle world record. Pan did so leading off the 4x100m freestyle relay for China, lowering the mark from 46.86 to 46.80.
“And he would go on to take another whopping four-tenths off his own record later in the year en route to winning Olympic gold in Paris.”
Another IOC highlight in 2024 was the first ever Olympic Qualifier Series, held in Shanghai in May and Budapest in June, with athletes in four different sports – breaking, BMX freestyle cycling, skateboarding and sport climbing – coming together in a multi-sport event doubling as qualifier events for Paris 2024.
At Paris itself, there was an unforgettably touching moment during the women's badminton victory ceremony when He Bingjiao of China paid tribute to her semi-final opponent, Carolina Marín, by bringing a Spanish Olympic pin on to the medal podium with her.
Marín led their clash before being forced to retire with a serious knee injury, and He showed the best of the Olympic values by sharing her moment with the Rio 2016 gold medallist.