BEIJING: The 9th Asian Winter Games, which ran from Feb 7 to 15 in Harbin, the capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, were not only a venue to showcase the performance of athletes, but displayed the overall development of the winter sports sector in China.
Shanxi, a province in North China, used the event to showcase its high-quality development of the winter sports sector, in terms of athletic sports, grassroots sports, the snow and ice economy and winter sports-related industries.
On Feb 10, Shanxi athlete Jiang Xinjie won silver in the final of the men’s snowboarding big air event at the Games. It marked his first individual medal at the Asian Winter Games and the first for Shanxi.
In the first round of the competition, Jiang executed a flawless 1,440-degree rotation, landing smoothly to earn 83.25 points and temporarily placing him in second. After three rounds, Jiang secured the silver medal with a total score of 160.25 points.
The young talent from Shanxi has been making a name for himself over the past two years. In February 2023, he claimed second place at the X Games China 2022 Skiing Tour Finals. In 2024, he won silver in the youth group’s snowboarding slopestyle event at the 14th National Winter Games. In January 2025, Jiang was selected to represent China at the Asian Winter Games.
He was not the first Shanxi athlete to garner a medal at international winter sports events.
Shanxi athlete Su Yiming was champion in the men’s snowboard big air final at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb 15 that year, securing Shanxi province’s first Winter Olympic gold.
The rise of Shanxi’s winter sports athletes is testimony to the province’s growing popularity and rapid development of snow and ice sports. –Agencies
