The opening ceremony of the 14th National Games to be held in Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province on the evening of September 15.

Photo: Xinhua

Tang Muhan, an 18-year-old Olympic swimming champion from Shenzhen, will be the flag bearer of Guangdong, together with Olympic divers Xie Siyi and Quan Hongchan to carry the flag for Guangdong’s delegation. Veteran sprinter Su Bingtian, known as "Asian flier", will carry the torch at the opening ceremony.

Tang got the Olympic gold medal in Women's 4x200m freestyle relay in Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Guangdong athlete to win the Olympic swimming gold medal. In the National Games, Tang will participate in the women's 200m freestyle, women's 400m freestyle, women's 800m freestyle and women's 4x200m freestyle relay.

Xie Siyi and Quan Hongchan, also the Olympic diving champions., have received 3 gold medals and 2 championships respectively for Team Guangdong in earlier diving competitions at the National Games.

Sprinter Su Bingtian became the first Chinese athlete to qualify for the men's 100-meter sprint final at an Olympics, setting a new Asian record of 9.98 seconds in Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Before being appointed to be the torchbearer in the upcoming National Games, Su is expected to be the flag bearer of Team Guangdong.

It should be noticed that rock climbing, surfing, skateboarding and break dancing have been added in this year's National Games to benchmark the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. The National Games also feature a non-Olympic sport, martial arts.

Auhtor | Emma(intern)