Su Yiming believes the two Olympic medals he earned at the Beijing Winter Games were the best gifts on his 18th birthday on Friday.

“The gold medal is for sure the best gift for my birthday. The gold and silver medals mean a lot to me. People can see how hard I’ve been working to achieve them,” Su said in an interview in Beijing on Thursday.

Su won China’s first Olympic gold in the men’s snowboard Big Air(单板滑雪大跳台) competition on Feb.15, after winning a slopestyle(单板滑雪自由式) competition on Feb.7. His excellent performance, including the gold-winning 1800 tricks, has made him a well-known name in China. He said that before he was 14 years old, snowboarding was just a sport for fun during vacations. But after he knew about the Beijing Winter Games, he realized this could be a life-changing opportunity(机会). He was still part of the TV audience(观众) during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, but he told his parents that one day he wanted to compete at the Olympic Games.

“I told myself that I was going to try to reach the Olympic Games, and I would never give up trying to win medals. The reason why I’m doing all this training, and taking part in competitions and the Olympic Games is because of love. I started to practice snowboarding when I was 4 because my parents both love snowboarding,” said Su.

The first time when Su competed at a World Cup, the Shougang Big Air venue(体育场) hosted its first international event. Su, who was just 15 years old, failed for the finals. “I still remember over three years ago at Shougang, the same place and the same jump, it was my first Big Air World Cup. That was a great contest for me as I had never taken part in a World Cup before,” Su said.

“I missed the final by just one spot at that time at 11th place. So from that time, I saw the difference between me and those top riders. That has pushed me harder in the past three years. Now finally I got my best birthday gift.”

Hi, friends! Nice to meet you! I’m the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. And I’m a black and white panda. My name is Bing DwenDwen. “Bing” is the Chinese word “ice”. And “DwenDwen” means health and liveliness(活泼). What is it on my left hand? Haha, it is the shape of a heart to welcome guests from all over the world to come to China.

Who is that next to me? It is my good friend Shuey RhonRhon. It is the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. And it looks like a red lantern(灯笼). It stands for harvest, warmth(温暖) and light.

Do you like us?

The mascots (吉祥物) for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics have shown up in front of us. They are the Phryges, two Phrygian caps (帽子). The red Phrygian cap is also known as liberty (自由) cap. In old times, it was worn in Phrygia, a place in Türkiye now. That was how it got its name. During the French revolution (革命), it became a symbol of liberty. Today it is a common symbol for French people. In the Smurfs (《蓝精灵》), a popular French cartoon, every smurf wears a Phrygian cap. An officer of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics said they didn’t want to choose an animal or other characters. They wanted something that could stand for an “ideal (理想)”. The Paralympic Phryge has a prosthetic leg (假肢) that goes to the knee. Michael Jeremiasz, a gold winner at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, says the prosthetic leg sends an encouraging (鼓舞人心的) message to disabled people around the world. The two mascots share a motto of “Alone we go faster, but together we go further.” They will help people from all over the world know more about the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics.