Viktor Orbán Speaks out on the Change of Country of our Olympic Champions
Hungarian Olympic champion Shaolin Sándor Liu and Shaoang Liu, who now compete in Chinese colors, also attended the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was visiting Hungary last week, reports Nemzeti Sport.
As a video posted by Viktor Orbán on Facebook on Sunday reveals, the two short track speed skaters, who used to compete in Hungarian colors, did indeed attend the dinner hosted by the Prime Minister on Thursday.
In the video, the Hungarian Prime Minister expressed his views on the Liu brothers’ change of country:
We have two athletes here who won two Olympic gold medals in Hungarian colors, but now compete in Chinese colors. But our hearts are not broken, because few nations can claim to have given Olympic champions to China.”
Nemzeti Sport has learned that at the event, the Chinese President treated both athletes with the understanding that he was fully aware of who they were and what they had achieved. As he reportedly have said in his toast, the Liu brothers are the two countries’ joint successes on the ice.
Fact
Born to a Chinese father and a Hungarian mother in Budapest, Shaolin Sándor Liu and Shaoang Liu have long competed in Hungarian colors. In 2018, they won Hungary’s first ever Winter Olympic gold medal in a relay team with Viktor Knoch and Csaba Burján. At the 2022 Olympics, Shaoang Liu made history by winning Hungary’s first individual gold in the 500 meters.
In the summer of 2022, however, the brothers announced that they would follow their Chinese coach back to China and continue their training there. In November 2022, it was revealed that they would also change countries and represent their father’s country, China. They won a gold medal at this year’s World Championships as part of the Chinese relay team.
Via Nemzeti Sport, Featured image: Facebook/Orbán Viktor
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