Keeping the Winter Olympic spirit alive

Other Olympic medalists to participate in Wednesday's activity were short-track speed skating stars Wu Dajing, Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu and Ren Ziwei, who claimed the host's first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics in the inaugural 2,000m mixed team relay.

Teamwork－both on and off the ice－was key to the success, explained Wu.

"Behind us, there are many people," said Wu, who also won 500m gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. "We could not achieve all this without our team, which includes our medical staff, analysts, a technology support team and physical training crew.

"The Beijing Winter Olympics were such a great platform to showcase our skills. Many people worked extremely hard to help us."

Having reaped the rewards of the nation's investment in Team China, Fan is determined to pass on the Winter Olympic spirit to the next generation.

"We were provided with a great environment to allow us to focus solely on competing. Dajing and I will keep training and competing hard, and we hope to pass on this spirit to the younger generation," said Fan.

"Our experience is more about how to walk out of the failures, and there are so many valuable experiences. A key word in the Chinese short-track speed skating team is tradition. Each generation of skaters passes on their stories to the next.

"And right now, our generation has fantastic training and competing conditions thanks to our nation and help from countless people behind us. Athletes are simple people. All we want is to try our best so we can win a medal."

Chinese figure skating pair Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who won their first Olympic gold at the Beijing Games, also spoke at Wednesday's event. Having skated together for 15 years, they believe their disappointments and setbacks were what forged them into world-beaters.

"All these experiences made us more mature and more professional. At the 2018 Winter Olympics we missed the gold by just 0.43 points and had to settle for silver. But after that, we were even more determined and were willing to work even harder. Through it all, we actually became more mature athletes," said Han.

"There have been so many people who have supported us, which makes us really grateful and happy."

As well as the heroics of Team China's stars, grassroots promotional efforts have also contributed greatly to the growth of winter sports.