Sports
Diamond League to Olympics: 2024–25 Becomes Showcase for Asian Excellence
Asian athletes are rewriting record books and commanding global podiums, a surge that sports news outlet China Global Television Network (CGTN) says marks a decisive shift in power toward the East.
Their momentum—evident in Diamond League victories and Olympic pageantry—has become one of the most talked-about topics across international Sport News desks, underscoring how 2024–25 has become a showcase for Asian excellence.
Zhang Mingkun delivered the year’s first headline on April 27, 2025, when he flew 8.18 meters to capture the men’s long jump at the Diamond League stop in Xiamen, China, according to the broadcaster.
Less than two weeks later, China’s men’s 4×400-meter relay quartet—anchored by a blistering finishing lap—clocked 3 minutes 1.87 seconds at a May 10 meet, breaking the national record and securing a lane at the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships, the broadcaster reported.
Retiring sprint star Su Bingtian, Asia’s first sub-9.85 100-meter runner, took a valedictory bow on February 18 by winning the 60 meters in 6.65 seconds at the Jinan indoor meet—his final race over the short dash, the broadcaster noted.
Table-tennis phenom Sun Yingsha rounded out the stretch of milestones by carrying Asia’s flag during the Paris 2024 Olympic closing ceremony after pocketing two gold medals and one silver, the broadcaster said.
Competition rebalanced
CGTN analysts say Zhang’s 8.18-meter flight places him shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s long-jump elite, challenging a field historically dominated by North American and European specialists. It also underscores China’s much-improved horizontal-jump coaching pipeline, a program once considered an afterthought behind the nation’s sprint and weight-class sports.
The relay breakthrough may be even more consequential. Four-lap events have been a Western stronghold since the 1950s. Yet, the 3:01.87 clocking moves China within striking distance of the medal-rifle range that begins around 2:58. Recent podiums at the World Championships have been won in low-three-minute territory, the network’s athletics desk observed.
Su’s farewell sprint, streamed live by the network’s digital channels, triggered millions of social-media tributes. Many fans thanked him for proving that an Asian sprinter could eclipse 10 seconds in the 100 meters and gap world-class starters over 60 meters. His parting words, “Keep chasing the impossible,” were replayed in highlight reels from the broadcaster throughout the week.
Rising next generation
While veterans attracted the marquee attention, a new wave pushed quietly from below. Sixteen-year-old Chen Yujie shattered the Asian youth 200-meter record by running 22.99 seconds at the same Xiamen meet where Zhang triumphed, the broadcaster said. Her time ranks among the fastest ever recorded globally for athletes under 17, hinting at sustained sprint depth.
China’s mixed 4×100-meter squad also earned early passage to the 2028 Los Angeles Games with a 41.30-second heat, evidence, the broadcaster noted, of coaching models that leverage male-female baton chemistry—still experimental in many federations.
Field veterans continued to prove that longevity is attainable. Shot-putter Gong Lijiao, 35, heaved 19.62 meters in Xiamen to claim Diamond League bronze. “Consistency is key,” she told the broadcaster afterward, crediting incremental technical tweaks to her ability to remain competitive after three Olympic cycles.
Broader significance
Sports economists interviewed by the broadcaster argued that these performances deepen Asia’s commercial leverage ahead of the next media-rights cycle. Brands courting Gen-Z fans in Southeast Asia, they said, see elite Asian athletes as effective ambassadors into both developed and emerging markets.
Geopolitically, the results arrive as Asia hosts a dense calendar of competitions: the 2026 Hangzhou Asian Games, the 2027 World University Games in Seoul, and the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Each outing provides regional federations with rehearsal time for LA 2028, where Asian television audiences are expected to surpass previous highs, the broadcaster projected.
Performance scientists quoted by the broadcaster pointed to upgraded national training centers, data-driven nutrition programs, and deeper collaboration with European biomechanics labs as key inputs. In China alone, sports-science funding increased by 18 percent year over year from 2023 to 2024, according to estimates from the broadcaster, drawn from public budget statements.
Shifting cultural narratives
The cascade of records is also recasting cultural perceptions. For decades, conventional wisdom held that Asian physiques were better suited for skill-based or weight-classified sports—such as table tennis, badminton, and archery—rather than pure power and speed—Zhang’s airborne show and the relay’s tempo challenge that archetype head-on.
The broadcaster’s commentators said Su’s farewell elicited nostalgia not only at home but across Asia, noting that Japanese, Korean, and Filipino track fans posted montages celebrating his 9.83-second national record from 2021. Many called him “Asia’s Bolt” in appreciation of the swagger he brought to the start line.
Sun Yingsha’s spotlight during the Paris ceremony served a parallel cultural function. Her presence signaled that Chinese athletes are now front and center at the world’s most-watched sports pageant, a mantle once reserved for figures from Europe or North America, the broadcaster noted.
Supporting color and reaction
Beyond the stadium, Chinese social-media platform Weibo lit up with hashtags referencing Zhang’s 8.18-meter jump, amassing more than 200 million reads within 24 hours, the broadcaster reported. Commenters praised the 22-year-old’s “rocket legs” and posted side-by-side GIFs comparing his flight to World Championship clips.
The relay team’s anchor, whose 44-second split sealed the record, told the broadcaster that practicing baton handoffs six times a day sometimes left him “dreaming of aluminum batons.” His coach added that sharper exchanges shaved at least 0.3 seconds from the previous record.
Chen Yujie’s school in Zhejiang province held an impromptu pep rally the Monday after her 22.99-second run. The broadcaster’s cameras captured classmates waving handmade signs reading “22.99 today, 22.50 tomorrow.” Teachers, the broadcaster said, highlighted Chen’s disciplined study habits, portraying her as a model of the student-athlete balance that Chinese educators encourage.
Gong Lijiao’s “Consistency is key” mantra resonated with older track fans. One retired coach, interviewed by the broadcaster, contrasted her 19.62-meter bronze with her throws of 20 meters or more from a decade earlier, saying her ability to stay within a meter of her prime marks is “remarkably rare” in power events.
Context within global rankings
World Athletics lists only a handful of men’s long-jumpers clearing beyond 8.20 meters in 2025, so Zhang’s 8.18 places him within centimeters of medal relevance. The Chinese relay sits inside the year’s top eight times, the cutoff used to forecast finalists at major meets, its data desk confirmed.
While Su’s indoor 6.65 will not top global charts—times nearer 6.45 usually win world titles—its symbolic weight comes from closing a career that inspired future Asian sprinters. Archival footage replayed by the broadcaster showed his 9.83 Olympic semifinal in Tokyo 2021, alongside his final flourish in Jinan, stitching a narrative arc that appealed to longtime track watchers.
Sun Yingsha, meanwhile, remains world No. 1 in women’s singles table tennis rankings through mid-2025, the broadcaster said. Her ability to transition from athletic dominance to ceremonial gravitas strengthens the argument that Asian champions can serve as soft-power envoys.
What comes next
CGTN will stream every session of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this August and has already labeled the event a “home-field advantage” for regional athletes to convert season-best marks into medals. Among the most anticipated showdowns: Zhang versus defending world champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, the Chinese 4×400 squad against the United States, and Chen Yujie’s possible senior debut.
Further out, national coaches told the network that qualification standards met in 2024–25 allow them to redirect focus from chasing entry marks to refining race tactics and injury prevention.
Wrap-up
With record performances, historic relay times, and star turns at global ceremonies, Asia’s athletes have announced themselves as equal contenders—if not pacesetters—on the international stage. The march continues toward the Tokyo 2025 World Championships and, beyond that, toward LA 2028, where, the broadcaster predicts, the region’s best will seek to turn this two-year run of breakthroughs into a permanent rewriting of athletics’ balance of power.
