Old Chinese Sports
Photo Credit: VCG
HISTORY

Four Olympic-Worthy Sports from Ancient China

Could China take the gold in pot-tossing and horn-clashing?

China has had an impressive showing at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, getting off to an early lead in the medals table and staying at (or near) the top ever since. Today's Chinese athletes may be celebrated for their prowess in diving, table tennis, and weightlifting, but had they competed a few millennia ago, they might have excelled at completely different sports.

With thousands of years of history and many inventions to its name, China has been celebrated (sometimes dubiously) as the birthplace of various modern sports like football (cuju, 蹴鞠) and golf (chuiwan, 锤丸). Here are a few more sports from ancient China that might be due for a renaissance in the modern day:

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author Yang Tingting (杨婷婷)

Yang Tingting is a Chinese editor at The World of Chinese. Interested in telling Chinese stories, she writes mainly about culture, language, and society.

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