Looking to lift their game

As China's young figure skating national team struggles to make its way to Milano-Cortina 2026, the return of an Olympic champion pair is expected to help facilitate the program's rebuild with finesse, grit and a fresh dynamic.

Less than six months out from the 2026 Winter Olympics, China's figure skating squad, once a proud contributor to the medal count of the country's winter sports delegation, is still fighting for tickets to the Olympic showpiece in Italy, having secured only one qualification berth in men's singles from the ISU world championships in March.

The Olympic qualifying tournament, to be held in Beijing from Sept 17-21, will offer five more quota places in each of the men's and women's singles events, three more in pairs skating and four more in ice dance in what will be the final opportunity for Olympic aspirants to book their flight to Milan.

Although the majority of international powerhouses, such as Japan and the United States, will skip the qualifying meet in Beijing, having filled up their quota places via the worlds, the competition for the remaining berths is guaranteed to be a fierce dogfight, and will be a tough challenge for China's current crop of fresh-faced skaters.

The magnitude of the task in the jostle for qualification spots in women's singles, ice dance and pairs skating on home ice was laid bare at this week's national trials, where Chinese skaters' error-laden performances underscored their seemingly bleak prospects for the Beijing tournament.

As the only women's singles skater with Olympic experience on the current team, Zhu Yi, who represented the host at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, wrapped up her free skate at the trials on Wednesday with a costly fall on her final triple jump, allowing teen contender Zhang Ruiyang, who finished Tuesday's short program in 2nd behind Zhu, to leapfrog her senior teammate to top of the final standings.

The 17-year-old Zhang will make her high-stakes international debut at the Beijing qualifying meet, carrying the weight of the nation's Olympic hopes on her young shoulders.

"I got nervous during the free skate, made some mistakes here and there," said Zhang, a high-school student at Beijing No 10 Middle School.

"If I can make it to the qualifying meet next month, I hope to show greater consistency and try to skate to the best of my ability. After all, it's almost impossible to significantly raise the difficulty level of my routines in such a short time."