China's debutant luger Wang eyes breakthrough at next Winter Olympics

Wang Peixuan of China competes during women's singles run of the luge event at the Yanqing National Sliding Center in Yanqing district of Beijing, Feb. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Wang Peixuan became the first Chinese female luger to feature at Winter Olympics and has set her sights on future Games.

YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's young luger Wang Peixuan didn't enter the last run of women's singles event on Tuesday but received a hero's welcome by home audience at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

She finished 29th in the third run on Tuesday, missing out on the final run where Natalie Geisenberger from Germany became the first luger to win three consecutive women's singles Olympic gold medal.

"I set my personal best on the track in the third run. If I didn't suffer fractures on my left foot, I may be able to achieve a better result," 21-year-old Wang said.

Wang picked up fractures in three places in her left foot in a competition just before Christmas, which took her two weeks to resume training.

"It still hurts when I walk or stand for too long. In run two yesterday, I got hurt around curves 14 and 15," she disclosed.

On Monday, Wang had her Olympic debut and drew lessons from this valuable experience. "I was a little nervous because the Olympic Games is the biggest stage for winter sports," she noted.

"In Olympic Winter Games, when you are relaxed and calm, you can have better results."

Wang Peixuan of China competes during women's singles run of luge event at the Yanqing National Sliding Center in Yanqing district of Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

Wang showed her sporting talent at 11. Starting with the javelin at the Shaanxi Sports School, she impressed her coach with smartness and dedication.

Her persistence worked out as an opportunity to be recruited into the national luge camp in 2015, the first-ever luge national squad for China. Since then, Wang had a new goal - to become the ground-breaking Chinese female luger competing on the Olympic stage.

Wang won the women's singles event at the 2017 Chinese national luge championships and was crowned at the 14th National Winter Games.

In order to qualify for Beijing 2022, Wang only spent three days with her family last year. Despite her distant finish, Wang's appearance on the Olympic stage was already a breakthrough for China, a late starter in the sport, and the young luger was confident of better development of the sport in the country in the coming years.

"By the next Games, there will be new breakthroughs. The Chinese team would have improved a lot more by then," Wang said.  ■