The Paris Olympics ended on Sunday, with a closing ceremony that saw a skydiving Tom Cruise, an athlete mosh pit, and messages of unity and peace. China claimed 91 medals, 40 of which were gold.

Along with continuing their dominance in fields such as diving and table tennis, Chinese athletes also won in unexpected disciplines, such as BMX freestyle and tennis. TWOC editors have rounded up some of these golden moments, in case you missed them.

A golden sweep in diving

The Chinese diving team made history by claiming all eight of the gold medals for diving. Men’s 10-meter Olympic champion Cao Yuan defended his title on Saturday, becoming the first back-to-back gold medalist in the event since Greg Louganis of the United States, who won in 1984 and 1988. With four gold medals, Cao is now tied with Louganis for the most golds ever won by a male diver. He beat silver medalist Rikuto Tamai of Japan by a whopping 40 points.

Cao’s teammate, 17-year-old Quan Hongchan, also defended her title in the 10-meter women’s event. She received a perfect score for her first dive in Paris. “I believe scoring 10 [a perfect score] is unbelievable,” Quan told AP News. “The feeling was super.” A three-time World Champion, Quan made global headlines after winning the gold medal in Tokyo at only 14 years old. She uses her winnings to pay for her mother’s medical bills and her siblings’ tuition. She also claimed gold in the 10-meter synchronized event with teammate Chen Yuxi.

Since 2000, China has won 46 of the 56 Olympic gold medals in diving.

First gold in artistic swimming

China captured its first team gold medal in artistic swimming on August 7, finishing 82 points ahead of the US (silver) and Spain (bronze), after placing silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In an interview with Global Times, head coach Zhang Xiaohuan thanked the Chinese diving team for “provid[ing] significant support to our takeoff and water entry training,” resulting in much-improved acrobatic scores. “I’m very proud of the team,” she said. “We have completed a perfect work.”

A few days later, twin sisters Wang Qianyi and Wang Liuyi won China’s first gold in the duet competition. ”We both hope that we will be able to talk with these younger generations and share our experiences with them so that they have an example to follow and a goal,” Wang Liuyi said. The twins previously claimed the 2022 and 2024 World Championships for their free and technical routines.

Zheng Qinwen makes history in tennis

Zheng Qinwen claimed China’s first gold medal in women’s singles tennis by winning 6-2, 6-3 against Croatia’s Donna Vekic. The 21-year-old, who cited stars such as tennis legend Li Na and hurdler Liu Xiang as her inspirations, is the first Asian tennis player to win an Olympic gold. “Winning a Grand Slam is my dream,” she told AP News. Still, she acknowledged how her hard-earned victory has lessened the need to prove herself. “After this gold medal, I feel, finally, that I can play tennis more relaxed.” A native of Hubei province, Zheng began playing tennis at age six. She moved to Beijing to train with Carlos Rodriguez, Li Na’s former coach, before relocating to Barcelona in 2019. At the beginning of 2024, she reached her first Grand Slam final, and climbed to seventh place in the women’s singles rankings.

Another race-walking win

With a time of 1:25:54, Yang Jiayu easily captured the women’s 20-kilometer race-walking gold, securing China’s fourth Olympic win in the event. Yang pulled away from the other racers early on, maintaining a lead of almost 30 seconds for the first half of the race. She had been favored to win the Tokyo Olympics, having set a world record in March 2021, but she finished in 12th place. “I worked very hard to come back and get the best results in Paris,” she told Reuters. She dedicated her victory to her late father, who passed in 2015 while she was competing in the World University Games.

A gold and a diamond

Mixed doubles badminton team Huang Yaqiong and Zheng Siwei claimed the gold on August 2, following a second-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The duo defeated South Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun in 41 minutes, with scores of 21-8 and 21-11. “We didn’t expect such a massive point difference,” Zheng Siwei said in the post-match press conference. “We knew [the South Korean team] could catch up quickly, so we kept telling ourselves to think of the score as 0-0, and to take it point by point.”

But Huang didn’t just walk away with a gold medal. Her boyfriend Liu Yuchen—a badminton player himself who won silver in Tokyo—awaited her after the ceremony with a bouquet of flowers and an engagement ring. She said yes.

Li Qian’s historic triple crown

With a bronze medal at Rio 2016, a silver at Tokyo 2020, and now a gold in Paris, middleweight boxer Li Qian is the first woman in history to reach the boxing podium at three consecutive Olympic games. A native of Henan province, Li studied at the Inner Mongolia Vocational College of Physical Education, where she caught the attention of boxing coach Ha Dabater. She joined the Inner Mongolian Boxing Team in 2007, and has since claimed gold medals at both the Asian Games and World Championships. At Paris, Li defeated Panama’s Atheyna Bibeichi Bylon 4-1 to become the third Chinese woman to win Olympic gold. “I took the fights step by step,” she said. “It has always been a dream to get a gold medal.”

China continues its table tennis dominance

For the sixth time in Olympics history, China has claimed all gold medals—men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles (inaugurated in Tokyo) —in table tennis. The powerhouse team was headed by the legendary Ma Long, the most decorated athlete in Olympic table tennis history, and one of China’s two flag bearers for the Opening Ceremony.

On August 9, Ma partnered with teammate Wang Chuqin to defeat Sweden’s Anton Källberg and Kristian Karlsson, claiming his sixth gold medal to become China’s most decorated Olympic athlete. Ma has now won at least one gold medal at every single Olympic Games since the 2012 Games in London, with four consecutive gold medals in the men’s team event, and two individual gold medals from Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. “I’ve played many different roles in each Olympics,” he told AP News. “This gold medal is a great way to conclude my Olympic journey.”

Though Ma is retiring from Olympic competition, his teammates—Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, and Sun Yingsha—have etched their names in history. Chen Meng and Wang Manyu won in women’s doubles after a hard-fought final round, despite losing their first match to Japan’s Hina Hayata and Miwa Harimoto. “Today’s doubles match was incredibly difficult for both of us,” Chen said in an interview with ESPN. “But no matter how tough it was, we both had great faith in each other.”

Deng Yawen’s fearless freestyle gold

Eighteen-year-old Deng Yawen has brought home China’s first gold medal in freestyle BMX. The sport, which is still relatively unknown in China, requires athletes to perform stunts on BMX bikes in a variety of terrains, including ramps, compact dirt, and tarmac. This was the first time Chinese athletes qualified for the Olympic competition after the sport was inaugurated in Tokyo. Deng defeated crowd favorite and five-time world champion Hannah Roberts to claim the gold. She was the only athlete to score over 90 points in all four of her runs.

“Freestyle is really new in the Olympic world, and China saw the opportunity,” coach Daniel Dhers told Reuters. A Venezuelan BMX athlete who narrowly missed qualifying for Paris himself, Dhers trains Deng and her teammate Sun Jiaqi. He is optimistic that the sport will only continue to gain traction in Asia.

China launched the 119 Project—an initiative to bolster performances in new and unfamiliar sports—following the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Deng is undoubtedly a beneficiary. Which future athletes will follow in her footsteps? Crowds will have to wait four more years to see, when the Summer Olympics heads to Los Angeles.