Big in China: Hungary's short track speed skating Liu brothers the talk of the town at Beijing 2022

Shaoang Liu and Shaolin Sandor Liu are Hungary's short-track speed skating heroes.

Their men’s 5,000m relay victory four years ago at PyeongChang 2018 was Hungary's first ever Olympic Winter Games title, and now they are doubling down in Beijing.

Shaoang claimed his and the country's first individual Olympic gold medal in the 500m, a bronze medal in the 1000m, and shared the podium with his brother Shaolin Sandor once more as Hungary claimed bronze in the 2,000m mixed relay.

Massive stars back home in Hungary, the brothers are big in China too.

Born in Budapest to a Chinese father and a Hungarian mother, they spent a lot of time in China growing up and speak fluent Mandarin with a pronounced northeast China accent - something that the Chinese love.

As kids they trained in Jilin Province for a long time, sharpening their skating skills and picking up the accent.

There they trained and struck up relationships with future famous Chinese blade runners like Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei.

“Hopefully, even if there are Chinese skaters, they will cheer for us the same way they’d be cheering for Chinese skaters. We love our Chinese fans,” Shaoang said before the Games.

The brothers Liu and Eileen Gu

China's 1.4 billion people have been glued to their home Games and have taken other athletes with Chinese parents into their hearts.

Ailing (Eileen) Gu is the perfect example, born in California to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu chose to represent China in Beijing and the country has already celebrated freestyle skiing gold and silver with her.

Raised by her Chinese mother and grandmother, Gu spent a lot of time in Beijing, she speaks her Mandarin with a heavy 北京话 (Beijing hua) accent and talks about 'sessioning' Chinese dumplings.

The Chinese take great pride in their national cuisine, and showing appreciation is a sure-fire way to win people over there.

"We go [to China] every year, so it's not new ground for us," Shaoang told CGTN before the Beijing Games.

"We love the food, we love the culture, we can speak the language, there's nothing that can surprise us. So we are ready for it.”

Speed skating brothers Shaoang and Shaolin Sandor Liu: Personality

These two short-track bros have personality too.

Shaolin's signature entrance to the ice is famous: When his name is announced before the race he touches his eyebrows and winks to the camera, it sends fans swooning around the world.

“I just did a little wink in the camera and everybody loved it! It gives me good luck. I win a lot of races with my luck,” he told Olympics.com.

When Hungary claimed bronze in the mixed team relay Shaolin was awarded with a Bing Dwen Dwen mascot teddy and said he would try to get a second one for his younger sister.

China's Sina Weibo (Similar to Twitter) lit up, praising him for his family values, for being responsible and considerate.

Hungary's Liu brothers: "We are the champions"

When Shaoang won his 500m gold, only his country's second-ever Olympic Winter Games gold medal, and a first individual title, he said:

“I feel exhausted. I am still speechless. I don’t know what to say, but maybe that’s what all the champions feel.

"Obviously, I am very happy with what I have achieved. I am very proud of my team. I am very proud of my country. This is the first individual medal in winter sports for Hungary. I hope this will bring people together.”

And he did it even without his traditional pre-race warm-up locker room song, Queen's popular celebration song.

“I didn’t have time to play it this time because the breaks during the heats were so short. When I get back to the village, I will play 'We are the Champions' song together with a team.”

Shaoang and Shaolin Sandor Liu: Talk of the town in Beijing

After the men’s 5,000m relay victory in PyeongChang four years ago things got a little crazy.

Shaolin Liu, Shaoang Liu, Viktor Knoch, and Csaba Burjan became heroes for their home country.

"In Korea, people started recognising us, then at the airport, too," Shaoang continued to CGTN.

"I went out to Pyeongchang with 5,000 Instagram followers and came back with 100,000. It was massive. Back home, people wanted to party with us and then people started recognising us in China. We want to be even bigger in Beijing, that's our dream,”

After their stunning performances, it's safe to say they are even bigger in Beijing.