Asian Games 2023: Ten athletes to watch from hosts People's Republic of China
As the Asian Games begin in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, Olympics.com takes a closer look at 10 athletes or teams from the hosts to watch in the eastern Chinese city.
The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou are set to be one of the People's Republic of China's biggest sporting events in recent times, matched only by the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
To ensure a roaring success on the sporting fields and courts on home soil, China has selected strong teams for the Games, even where there are clashing global events in some sports.
Olympics.com has picked out 10 of the top athletes or teams representing the hosts to watch in Hangzhou – five men, five women. This list is presented in alphabetical order by family name.
Chen Lijun – weightlifting men's 67kg
Chen is easily favoured to win gold in the men's 67kg category, a weight class he has dominated since moving to it in 2018. He is a three-time world champion (2018, 2019, 2023), two-time Asian champion (2019, 2020), and current Olympic champion in the event.
However, the competition at the home Asian Games may prove to be bittersweet for Chen. The 67kg class will not be an Olympic event at Paris 2024, which saw him switch down to the 61kg class for the Asian Championships back in May. There he took silver behind teammate Li Fabin, who is competing at that weight level in Hangzhou.
While Chen moved back up to 67kg for the Worlds and the Asian Games, his future in this category will not last much longer.
Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan – badminton women's doubles
Chen and Jia are, rightly, the women's doubles world No.1. The pair have dominated the category since 2017, when they first reached the top of the rankings, including winning the last three world titles, together with the one in 2017, as well as the last Asian Games gold medal in 2018.
This season, they have won four BWF World Tour titles in addition to their world championships gold. Given their near-total control in the event – they have only failed to reach the final in two of their World Tour events this season – they are surely favourites to repeat as gold medallists.
Fan Zhendong – table tennis men's singles, men's team
Fan continues to be at the top of the table tennis world rankings, a position he has held for all but one week since the International Table Tennis Federation switched to weekly rankings in March 2021 (he had been top of the old monthly rankings since April 2020, and first reached world No.1 in April 2018).
Given China's hegemony over table tennis, Fan is expected to once more win singles and team double gold, just as he did five years ago in Indonesia.
Standing in the world champion's way this time is teammate Wang Chuqin, the world No.2 and the only other man to have been ranked top of the world since 2021, during that single week back in July 2023.
Gong Lijiao – athletics women's shot put
The 19th edition in Hangzhou looks set to be Gong's final Asian Games, and she will hope to go out with a third consecutive shot put title.
The 34-year-old, current Olympic champion and two-time world champion, is making her fourth Asian Games appearance and seems unlikely to be in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in three years when she will be 37.
However, in Hangzhou with home fans cheering her on and the next-closest Asian athlete, her teammate Song Jiayuan, being more than half a metre behind her this year, there seems very little standing between Gong and the gold medal.
Li Yingying – volleyball women's team
At just 23, Li is the second-youngest member of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Yet she is not a newcomer as she was also on the side that won gold five years ago in Indonesia.
After a disappointing Tokyo 2020 where the Chinese side – which won the World Cup in 2019 – finished ninth, the team has recovered somewhat, securing Volleyball Nations League silver earlier this year.
Another gold medal from the Asian Games would help Li and the team bury their Tokyo Games performance for good.
Wang Zongyuan – diving men's 1m springboard, men's 3m springboard
A six-time world champion, Wang is making his Asian Games debut for China. He is no stranger to creating history, becoming the first diver to win three golds at a single world championships when he did so in 2022, doubling his career tally in a single edition.
He is entered in both the non-Olympic 1m and the 3m springboard events. In the latter, Wang is a Tokyo 2020 silver medallist and two-time world champion.
Given China's near-complete stranglehold on diving, he is an easy pick to win both of his events.
Xiao Ruoteng – artistic gymnastics men's event
Xiao is perhaps the one athlete on this list who isn't the favourite to win gold in his event. The 27-year-old will compete in the men's artistic gymnastics event as part of the Chinese team while also hoping to qualify for the individual all-around and apparatus finals.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallist in the all-around, Xiao had a 2022 to forget after undergoing surgery at the end of 2021. He was not selected to the Chinese team for the 2021 or 2022 World Championships, which saw fellow Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng shine in his absence.
While Zhang is once more favoured for gold in Hangzhou, a lot of eyes will be on Xiao to see if he has regained his top form.
Yin Ruoning – golf women's individual, women's team
Yin – who turns 21 next week – has been having an incredible season, which has seen her move to world No.1 in the women's golf rankings.
A team bronze medallist from five years ago, Yin has registered seven Top 10 finishes on the LPGA Tour circuit in the United States this year, including two wins, as well as finishing third at a Ladies' European Tour event.
Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Feng Shanshan is one of her inspirations, and she could follow in her hero's footsteps by winning an individual medal at a major Games in Hangzhou.
Zheng Qinwen – tennis women's singles, women's doubles
Tennis sensation Zheng Qinwen rounds out our list of 10 Chinese athletes to watch. The 20-year-old made waves at the US Open earlier this month, reaching the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows to add to her last-16 achievement at the 2022 French Open.
The Spanish-based player who was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2022, has her sights set on singles gold in Hangzhou, with a Paris 2024 Olympic quota up for grabs at the tournament.
Currently No.22 in the world, she is the top Asian woman on the circuit, and thus the favourite to win at the home Games.