Great haul of China: how table-topping nation rose to be a Winter Paralympic power
With two days of competition left at the Winter Paralympics there is no doubt who will finish top of the medal table.At close of play on Friday, China had a total of 33 medals, the same as their nearest rivals the USA and Italy combined.They have won gold in four of the Games’ six sports – cross-country skiing, curling, snowboarding and biathlon – and are in line for a medal in para-ice hockey too.This sporting dominance is all the more striking because, only eight years ago, China was nowhere.At the Pyeongchang Games, the Chinese won a solitary medal, gold in the mixed team curling.
Three of that team are competing here at Milano Cortina and a fourth, Wang Meng, already has a gold medal around her neck after winning the inaugural mixed doubles alongside her partner Yang Jinqiao.“I’m very, very proud, very, very honoured, and also very grateful,” she said after beating the Korean pair 9-6 following a tie-break end.“I’m so grateful to so many people who have helped us along the way, and [to be] finally standing on this podium”.Meng’s reference to the support she has received will be directed in part to the staff of the National Ice Sports Arena for People with Impairments in Beijing.Covering more than 13,000 sq meters, the centre was opened in 2020 and is a hub not only for the development of elite athletes in curling and other winter sports, but for ordinary people with disabilities who wish to try out and learn about para-sport.
A striking building that resembles a pair of wings, it was a central venue at the Beijing games four years ago,It was also just one part of a network of 40 similar venues that had been built across the country,One Paralympic executive talks of their shock at seeing China “come from nowhere” to finish top of the medal table in Beijing,Again, it wasn’t close, as the hosts won 61 medals, more than a quarter of the entire total,But while the Chinese success was stunning, it was not necessarily a surprise.
A similar transformation had taken place in the summer Paralympics some 16 years previously, when the Chinese stepped to the top of the table at the Athens games; a place they have remained ever since.The approach that built and sustained athletic success in the summer had been effectively transferred to winter too.The process involves building infrastructure of the kind described above, but also outreach, with the China Disabled People’s Federation launching a grassroots ‘winter sports season’ in 2016.By the time of the Beijing Games this season was reaching people in 31 different regions of the country and, by Chinese official estimates, a total of 300 million people.That meant the Chinese National Paralympic Committee was able to select from a pool of more than 1000 para-athletes in 2021, up from only 50 when the programme began.
This all costs money, of course, and by all accounts it has been no object as China sought to level up its winter programme.Alongside all the structural development, there was also a recruiting spree ahead of the Beijing games, with leading winter parasport coaches from around the world brought into the country.One European coach recalled being taken to a mountain, presented with 200 young people and told to teach them to ski.But while there had been no programme previously, there was now the budget to create a world-leading one.Anyone who has had experience of the Chinese parasport system raves about its sophistication and depth.
But the country also has one natural advantage over its global competition: the size of its population.The Paralympic movement uses the statistic that 15% of people across the world have some form of disability.If you apply that calculation to China’s 1.4 billion people, the total is more than 200m.One experienced parasport official says 65m is more like the number that could possibly have parasport ability, and even a hundredth of that would still be a huge base from which to develop talent.
As the Chinese sport expert Mark Dreyer puts it: “China’s population means it can field many elite athletes, and that only the most competitive Chinese athletes get selected.If there’s a Chinese athlete in your race, there’s a good chance they will finish on the podium.”Perhaps the best illustration of China’s winter parasport progress this year has come in the shape of Wang Meng’s partner, Yang Jinqiao.The 24-year-old was by some distance the youngest curler in the mixed doubles competition, and was arguably its best by a similar measure.His cool draws in clutch moments, knocking two stones from the gate in late ends, proved decisive against both Great Britain in the round robin stage and Korea in the final.
He started his curling career at a regional level in 2018, the same year Meng won her first medal.“When I saw China won the gold of wheelchair curling in Pyeongchang, I was so excited and proud of them,” Yang said after the pair’s success.“So you were inspired by me? You took me as a role model?” joked Wang in response.Yang smiled, nodded and said: “Yes.For sure.
”
Hundreds of thousands of NHS staff in England attacked and harassed, survey shows
Hundreds of thousands of NHS staff have been attacked, harassed, bullied, or subject to racism, latest NHS figures show.The health service’s 2025 staff survey found that one in seven had experienced violence from patients or the public, while more than a quarter reported harassment, bullying and abuse, the highest levels in three years.Given that the NHS in England employs 1.5 million people, this would equate to about 217,000 experiencing violence and more than 380,000 reporting harassment and bullying in 2025 alone.Sexual harassment has also reached record levels, the figures show
‘Nowhere near enough’ being done to tackle misogyny among young boys
Not enough is being done to tackle misogyny among young boys and the toxic online influences on them, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for domestic abuse in response to data showing an estimated 18% of 16- to 19-year-old girls are victims of abuse.Louisa Rolfe said: “That’s a huge proportion of young people. And we work very hard in this space to look at where we apply justice outcomes, but we don’t want to criminalise a whole cohort of young people. We absolutely must identify the most harmful behaviour, but also our preference would be to prevent it.”She added: “This kind of offending needs a whole society response in terms of increasing understanding [of] the dynamics of abuse, particularly
Threats against female MPs having ‘chilling effect’ on women in public life, minister says
Threats against female MPs are having a “chilling effect” on talented women thinking of going into public life but deciding not to, security minister Dan Jarvis has said.Warning that there was an “unprecedented” volume of threats against elected representatives – including assaults, vandalism, stalking and a “blizzard of online abuse” – Jarvis announced new security measures ahead of the local elections.“Women and ethnic minority representatives report the highest volumes of abuse, including overtly sexualised and racially charged threats, which has a chilling effect on who feels able to stand for public office,” he told MPs.The government announced the appointment of a deputy chief constable from Cambridgeshire police, Chris Balmer, as the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for defending democracy.Other measures announced include the creation of a new threat assessment centre – modelled on an existing one for MPs – staffed by a specialist team based in counter-terrorism policing who will monitor and respond to threats against councillors and candidates in the upcoming local elections
Sussex therapist who claimed he could heal trauma with sex jailed for 11 years
A therapist who claimed he could heal birth trauma through sexual touching and oral sex has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.Gerald Peck, who has live profiles promoting his work as a bodywork psychotherapist, was convicted of five sexual offences on 2 February, after being charged in October 2024.Handing down the sentence at Lewes cown court on Thursday, Judge Mooney said: “The young woman who came to see you believed you could help her at a particularly difficult time in her life. She had every reason to believe she could trust you.“All the information you provided to her led her to believe you were a qualified bioenergetics practitioner
Life with my autistic sons: ‘How do you explain all the worries, the sleepless nights?’
When James Hunt began posting about his boys online, it was a way to describe the emotions and experiences of their extraordinary lives. In sharing his family’s joy and struggles, he realised they weren’t aloneMy conversation with James Hunt begins the usual way: an exchange of hellos, followed by the most mundane of questions. “How are you?” I ask.Although he responds predictably – “I’m all right … I’m good” – we both know that underneath this answer lurks a whole world of experience, and the plain fact that some people’s everyday lives are lived in extraordinary circumstances.Six months ago, this fortysomething father was leading the kind of life that might have caused plenty of people to break into small emotional pieces
Proposed law change will protect abusive men who push women to suicide, campaigners warn
Men whose abusive behaviour drives women to take their own lives are more likely to get away with their crimes because of proposed law changes, justice campaigners say.Ministers want to make it harder for inquests to pass verdicts of unlawful killing, which have been crucial in getting justice for women who killed themselves after suffering abuse.In October last year, Georgia Barter was found to have been unlawfully killed after suffering a decade of domestic violence and abuse. In 2023, an inquest found that Kellie Sutton, whose death was classed originally as a suicide, was unlawfully killed after suffering domestic abuse.The unlawful killing verdicts followed campaigns by the families of the women
Judge blocks justice department from subpoenaing Fed chair Jerome Powell
Oil price shock likely to ‘push the UK economy into recession’; US growth revised down – as it happened
Apple cuts China App Store commission fees after government pressure
Anthropic-Pentagon battle shows how big tech has reversed course on AI and war
Borthwick and Itoje fight for their futures as England seek redemption in Paris
Keegan Bradley ‘still heartbroken’ by Ryder Cup loss but open to returning as USA captain