Olympic giants China face tough medal fight at home Games

BEIJING: China topped the medals table at its 2008 Summer Olympics but expectations are much lower for next month's Beijing Games as the country attempts to build a winter sports industry nearly from scratch.

China did not appear at a Winter Olympics until 1980 at Lake Placid and has hardly sparkled since, winning one gold medal - in short track speed skating - at the last Games, in South Korea's Pyeongchang, in 2018.

Cold weather sports have not historically been popular in the country, where the prohibitive cost and relative lack of infrastructure had kept the pool of athletes small.

But a huge government-led push to promote snow and ice activities and a soaring middle class looks set to yield some results when the Games begin on Feb 4 and home athletes always tend to overperform at their own Olympics.

With foreign coaches drafted in to boost expertise, forecasters Gracenote expect China to win six golds at Beijing 2022 and enjoy its "best-ever Winter Olympics".

Norway, who topped the medals table in 2018, are predicted to do so again, ahead of the Russians and Germany.

China set itself the goal of competing in all 109 events at Beijing 2022 - nearly double the number the country qualified for at Pyeongchang.

The country has "no experience" in one-third of them, state media said.

Underlining the challenge, winter sports official Ni Huizhong admitted to Xinhua news agency last year in unusually stark terms that the country had "clear weaknesses and disadvantages" and was facing "a big crisis" in some sports.

China will compete in at least 96 events in the Chinese capital. In some, such as men's ice hockey, avoiding embarrassment on home soil will count as a small win.

China has had to be creative in its search to grow its small