Gold medalist Liu Shaolin (R) of Hungary and his brother silver medalist Liu Shaoang of Hungary celebrate after the men's 500m final at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series in Debrecen, Hungary, Nov. 20, 2021. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
Chinese-Hungarian brothers Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang, who grabbed Hungary's first Winter Olympic gold in PyeongChang 2018, are working hard to defend their title in Beijing 2022.
By Geza Molnar
BUDAPEST, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese-Hungarian brothers Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang, who grabbed Hungary's first Winter Olympic gold in short track speed skating 5,000m relay in PyeongChang, are working hard to defend their title in China, the homeland of their father.
In an interview with Xinhua over Zoom, The Liu brothers wish Beijing 2022 a great success and hope for gold in the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.
"We had a pretty good summer for the trainings, a lot of training camps, especially in Italy. I think we are both ready for Beijing now," Shaoang said.
Shaolin said, "We train six days a week, and five to six hours a day, sometimes we have two trainings a day. I would say in average we train 36 hours a week."
The Liu brothers were born in Budapest - Shaolin in 1995 and Shaoang in 1998. Their father is from China, while their mother is Hungarian. Both boys learned Chinese and still speak it to this day, and they also celebrate Chinese New Year with family each year.
They have a Chinese coach, Zhang Jin, who, despite giving "really hard training," is "satisfied" with the performance of the brothers, according to them.
Gold medalist Liu Shaolin of Hungary celebrates during the awarding ceremony after the men's 500m final at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series in Debrecen, Hungary, Nov. 20, 2021. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
Their goals and expectations for the Beijing Winter Games can be summarized shortly: to defend their title!
"When we went to PyeongChang, we wanted to get Hungary's first gold medal, and we got it. In Beijing, we want to defend our gold medal and get good results in the individual races as well," Shaolin explained.
Shaoang added that he hoped to play Queen's legendary "We Are The Champions" following the good results.
Winning the first Winter Olympic gold for Hungary was a "Life changing" moment for the Liu brothers. Since then, four years have passed, meaning a big amount of experiences.
"Sport is changing you so much, you can have big success or big failure and you can learn from it all the time. We are still humble, and we are still looking for win in Beijing. As I said in the beginning, it's a huge opportunity for us, we are half Hungarian and half Chinese, to be able to race in Beijing is a big thing for us," said Shaolin.
The Liu brothers are not only linked to China by their father and coach, but also by a network of relationships with Chinese athletes.
"The whole Chinese skating team, the Chinese skaters are really good friends. We used to train in China when we were little, so we know Wu Dajing, Han Tianyu, Ren Ziwei and other skaters before we started skating world cups. We grew up together, we are one generation, so we are good friends with the men's team and with the ladies' team as well," Shaolin said.
The Liu brothers concluded the interview by sending their blessings to the Beijing Winter Olympics, and by encouraging their Chinese friends to keep supporting them.
Liu Shaoang of Hungary competes during the men's 1000m heats at the ISU Short Track World Cup 2021/22 in Nagoya, Japan, Oct. 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)
"I know this Olympic Games is really important to Beijing, or the Chinese people, and it's also really important for us. We are really going to have good memories, and I really hope that we are going to come home with big smiles, and we are looking forward to all of these," Shaoang said.
Shaolin expressed his hope of support from Chinese fans: "I would like to tell our fans to keep supporting us, we are trying our best, I know we are not there for them everyday, we have our Weibo, and try to keep them updated, and I know the Chinese fan are going to support us the same way, as they support the Chinese skaters!" ■
