On Friday, all three FTC skaters, Liu Shaolin Sándor, Liu Shaoang and John-Henry Krueger advanced from the men’s 500-meter preliminaries, making our competitors face quarter-finals at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sunday at noon. We had a good chance, as the current 2021 world champion of the track is Liu Shaoang, and his brother, Liu Shaolin Sándor, also won a gold medal in the 500 meters in 2016 in Seoul. 

Liu Shaolin Sándor was the first on the ice in the second quarterfinals. The skater took third place right after the start, but fell back to fourth place before the finish, so he didn’t make it any further. Then came John-Henry Krueger, he started off being fourth among the five skaters, but ended up finishing last, so he didn't qualify for the semifinals either. Thirdly, Liu Shaoang (above in our cover photo) skated, he came first, and made it to the semi-finals, and then proceeded to get into the finals as well. 

The A-final was held from 13.16 Hungarian time. Liu Shaoang started from track no. 1  and was able to hold his lead over his Russian rival. He reached the finish line first!

Liu Shaoang wrote sports history on Sunday in several ways, as his victory was the first individual winter Olympic gold medal in the history of Hungarian short track speed skating, as well as of Hungarian sports and Ferencvárosi Torna Club.  The FTC athlete won gold medal for the second time at the Winter Games, as in 2018 he was also a member of the 5,000-meter winning relay, just like his brother, Liu Shaolin Sándor. The FTC athletes thus will leave the Beijing Winter Olympics with one gold and two bronze medals, along with Liu Shaoang’s 500-meter victory and third place finish in the 1,000-meter, the mixed relay won bronze too.