At the Winter Olympics that open tomorrow, the Chinese team arrives with a record delegation and the desire to confirm its status as a new power in winter sports, earned in 2022 at Xi Jinping's Games. Among athletes, women outnumber men. The growing popularity of winter sports is also used as a model for the sinicisation of minorities.

Milan (AsiaNews) – Never before China has fielded so many athletes nor in so many disciplines, followed by a massive deployment of state media to report their exploits. This is how the People's Republic of China (PRC) is presenting itself at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, which officially open tomorrow in Italy.

China’s Olympic delegation includes 126 athletes, the largest ever at a Winter Olympics, except for the edition held in Beijing four years ago, where, as the host country, the People's Republic was automatically entitled to compete in all events.

This time, the Chinese will be at the starting gate in 91 of the 116 medal events, with women outnumbering the men by 68 to 58.

Another interesting fact: the Chinese team will be very young, with an average age of around 25, with more than half of the athletes participating in their first Olympics.

These numbers, taken together, reveal the rapid growth of winter sports in China. The 2022 Beijing Games were Xi Jinping's Olympics, since he likes to say that as a young man, he skated on the frozen lakes around Beijing.

On that occasion, the Chinese president also publicly celebrated the milestone of 300 million winter sports enthusiasts, a driving force behind China's rapidly expanding tourism sector.

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games represent the testing ground for the People's Republic's ambitions in this sporting arena as well.

Four years ago in Beijing, Chinese athletes achieved the feat (unthinkable until a few years ago) of reaching fourth place in the medal table, with nine gold medals in freestyle, snowboarding, short track, speed skating, and figure skating.

Above all, the event also presented the world with iconic figures representing a new, global China, such as Eileen Gu, the freestyle champion raised in San Francisco by a Chinese mother and an American father, who won two gold medals competing for China (as Gu Ailing). Or snowboarder Su Yiming, whom the Chinese had known on the snowboard as a local child actor. Both will also be present on the slopes at the Milano Cortina Games.

There is also another reason why China places such importance on the Winter Olympics.  Since they are practised in the country’s peripheral regions, they are an extraordinary tool for sinicisation, the powerful idea of ​​nationhood that underpins Xi Jinping's policies.

At the Opening Ceremony in Milan, the PRC’s flag bearers will be figure skater Ning Zonghyan, born in Heilongjiang Province in far northeastern China, and short-track athlete Zhang Chutong, originally from Jilin Province.

The official press releases issued by the Xinhua news agency on the Olympic team stress that 16 athletes belong to ethnic minorities (seven from Xinjiang, the mountainous western province where the local Uyghur culture is harshly repressed in the name of sinicisation).

From a political standpoint, State Councillor Shen Yiqin, who was present at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, will officially represent the Chinese government at tomorrow's Opening Ceremony in Milan’s San Siro Stadium.

Since 2023, Shen also chairs the All-China Women's Federation, an historic organisation that operates within the Chinese Communist Party, a fact that underscores the regime’s view of sport as a means of promoting women in society.

The Milano Cortina Games will be followed minute-by-minute in China thanks to the impressive coverage by the China Media Group (the state television company), which has sent a staff of 500 to Italy and will be the only television network to broadcast images in 8K technology, the most advanced high-definition technology today.

The heart of China’s presence at the 2026 Winter Olympics will be “Casa Cina” (China House), which has already opened its doors at Villa Clerici, in Milan’s Niguarda neighbourhood.

At this location, visitors will be able to encounter the country’s many faces during the Games, with the inevitable showcase of advanced technology, complete with little robots competing against each other in a dedicated curling area.

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• china
• italy
• milano cortina
• 2026
• winter olympic games
• xi jining