{"id":44,"date":"2010-02-16T14:22:50","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T14:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html"},"modified":"2010-02-16T14:22:50","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T14:22:50","slug":"winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" height=\"222\" alt=\"photo-zhaoandshen.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg\" width=\"350\" \/>The figure skating couple, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhao_Hongbo\">Zhao Hongbo<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shen_Xue\">Shen Xue<\/a>, set a new Olympic record when they became the first Chinese couple in history to win the gold medal.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>At 36 (Zhao) and 31 (Shen), the couple are considered to be on the older side of pairs ice skating.&nbsp; Zhao is the second oldest male to win an Olympic gold since 1920 while Shen is the tenth oldest female to win a medal.&nbsp; Still,&nbsp;age didn&#8217;t stop either of them from giving a near-flawless short ice skating program on Valentine&#8217;s Day and a beautiful freestyle long program on Monday night, complete&nbsp;with big jumps and smooth spins.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>For 40 years, the Russians have dominated the podium for pairs figure skating, but&nbsp;after the long program on Monday night,&nbsp;the Chinese claimed the gold and the silver medal and&nbsp;the Germans claimed the bronze.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Also husband and wife, Zhao and Shen have won three bronze medals in the past Winter Olympics, but retired after marrying each other&nbsp;in 2007.&nbsp; &#8220;When I hold her in my arms, I don&#8217;t have to pretend I love her.&nbsp; I do,&#8221; Zhao said&nbsp;before arriving in Vancouver (<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704804204575069253717166906.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines\">WSJ.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Still, despite&nbsp;world recognition from appearing on Chinese Sports Illustrated and&nbsp;multiple medals from other&nbsp;competitions such as the World Championships,&nbsp;the couple decided to come out of retirement and pursue the one medal that eluded them.&nbsp; &#8220;So many years have been devoted to this dream,&#8221; Zhao&nbsp;said (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=123764843&amp;amp;ft=1&amp;amp;f=1004\">NPR.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Despite the small mistakes they made in the long program, the couple showed how determination, diligence, and devotion can pay off, beating younger couples in technical and artistic scores.&nbsp;&nbsp;As for the&nbsp;silver&nbsp;medalists,&nbsp;Tong Jian and Pang Qing, they were in fourth place after the short program but skated into second after giving a near-perfect long program.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s next&nbsp;for Zhao and Shen?&nbsp; Zhao revealed, &#8220;I think it is hard to continue skating, so maybe it is time to have a baby.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704804204575069253717166906.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines\">WSJ.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>For&nbsp;the two sets of Chinese&nbsp;figure skating partners, the consecutive win was a great way to&nbsp;start off the Chinese New&nbsp;Year.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>More on Zhao and Shen:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcolympics.com\/video\/assetid=2586c1f2-2916-4921-bb5c-273b73328843.html\">Video: NBCOlympics.com<\/a>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=123764843&amp;ft=1&amp;f=1004\">NPR.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/WORLD\/asiapcf\/02\/15\/china.olympic.skating.memories\/\">CNNWorld.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704804204575069253717166906.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines\">WallStreetJournal.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704804204575069253717166906.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines\">VancouverSun.com<\/a>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The figure skating couple, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue, set a new Olympic record when they became the first Chinese couple in history to win the gold medal.&nbsp; At 36 (Zhao) and 31 (Shen), the couple are considered to be on the older side of pairs ice skating.&nbsp; Zhao is the second oldest male to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiring-people"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The figure skating couple, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue, set a new Olympic record when they became the first Chinese couple in history to win the gold medal.&nbsp; At 36 (Zhao) and 31 (Shen), the couple are considered to be on the older side of pairs ice skating.&nbsp; Zhao is the second oldest male to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-16T14:22:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shuang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold","og_description":"The figure skating couple, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue, set a new Olympic record when they became the first Chinese couple in history to win the gold medal.&nbsp; At 36 (Zhao) and 31 (Shen), the couple are considered to be on the older side of pairs ice skating.&nbsp; Zhao is the second oldest male to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2010-02-16T14:22:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg"}],"author":"shuang","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html","name":"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg","datePublished":"2010-02-16T14:22:50+00:00","dateModified":"2010-02-16T14:22:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/import\/imgs\/photo-zhaoandshen.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/02\/winter-olympics-chinese-figure-skaters-win-gold.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Winter Olympics: Chinese Figure Skaters Win Gold"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5","name":"shuang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","caption":"shuang"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/shuang"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}