To make up for its weakness in knowhow, China's winter sports governing body has hired renowned sliding sports experts such as bobsledder Manuel Machata of Germany and Olympic skeleton silver medalist Jeff Pain of Canada as national team coaches.
In November, former long jumper Geng Wenqiang impressed at a skeleton World Cup race in Lake Placid, New York by finishing seventh out of a 31-strong field under Pain's guidance, heralding the rise of the sport in China.
Elsewhere, skier Chang Xinyue became the first athlete from China to qualify for an Olympic ski jumping competition after she significantly improved her ranking thanks to her results in World Cup events.
The men's and women's freestyle ski halfpipe and female snowboard parallel giant slalom in Pyeongchang will also see Chinese athletes compete for the first time at a Winter Olympics.
Eyes on the ice
Although those new events should trigger curiosity back home, the eyes of China's die-hard winter sports fans will still likely be focused on our escapdes on the ice－especially in short-track speed skating and figure skating.
Facing stiff competition from the host, China's short-track squad has prioritized relay events－the women's 3,000m and men's 5,000m－at the Gangneung Ice Arena. The team's pre-race training at the competition venue has become a hot topic in South Korean media, but China's head coach, Li Yan, has tried to play down the rivalry with the host.
"It's never been easy preparing for an Olympic Games with so much at stake. No matter how many medals won before, we have to start from zero every time and we just want to be the best we can when the time comes," said Li. Out of China's 12 gold medals won at Winter Olympics since 2002, nine were contributed by the short-track speed skating team, which used to boast veteran stars Yang Yang and Wang Meng.
