As the Asian Games return to China for the first time in 13 years, the country’s sporting heroes are out in full force to raise the roof.

The opening ceremony of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Wednesday began with the appearance of female swimmer Yes One.

She won two women’s individual medley titles (200 meters and 400 meters) at the 2012 London Olympics.

Waving and slowly running through the stadium, she high-fived table tennis player Pan Jeon-dong before handing him the flame.

A gold medalist in the men’s team event at Tokyo 2020, Fan is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in men’s singles and is considered one of the greatest players in table tennis in “Great Wall” China.

Fan, who carried the flame with a lighthearted gait, was followed by Xu Mengtao, who won the women’s freestyle skiing aerial event at last year’s Beijing Winter Olympics in her home country, and Su Zhiyun, who won gold in the men’s 69kg weightlifting event at Rio de Janeiro 2016 and the 73kg event at Tokyo 2020.

Li Lingwei, a former badminton world champion and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Wang Sun, a gold medalist in the men’s 200-meter individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics, then lit the flame together with a “digital igniter.

Eight people carried the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) flag.

Zhang Longfang, a gold medalist in volleyball at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, led the way with Sun Haiping, a renowned track and field coach who led China to the top of the world in the 1980s, including the World Championships (1982) and the Olympics.

He was followed by Xu Haifeng, who won China’s first ever Summer Olympics gold in the 50-meter pistol at the LA Games, and Ye Chaobo, China’s first Winter Olympics medalist, who won silver in the women’s 500-meter and 1,000-meter speedskating at Albertville in 1992.

Liu Yun, the men’s artistic gymnastics vault gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Guo Jingjing, who has four Olympic diving gold medals and a record five consecutive world championships, also entered to loud cheers.

Zhong Man, China’s first Olympic fencing gold medalist who won the men’s sabre individual event in Beijing in 2008, and Luo Xuejuan, the women’s 100-meter breaststroke gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a bid ambassador for the Games, were also present. 안전놀이터