The 20th Jiangsu Provincial Games, which had its final day of competition on September 4, featured a total of 36 sports and 60 events for the youth division and 22,000 contestants, the largest part of the provincial games. 

Participants in this division came from primary and secondary schools in Jiangsu, and, at young age, they tried their best in the competition. On August 29, Tu Yichen from Wuxi City defeated Zheng Weigang from Nanjing City in the final of badminton 14-year-old boy’s singles. The two players are known in the junior team of badminton. Tu rose to fame quite quickly and has won seven national and provincial titles in his age group in just three years. 

The games also helped find young talent as provincial team coaches were on site of many sports competitions. A group of professionals was organized to scout talent for rock climbing, a new sport added to the provincial games. The program’s head Sun Qian said experts in sports medicine and scientific training were invited to take physical measurements of all participants in the competition and support their training in the future.  

Jiangsu is the first province in China to pilot a program to train athletes ready for both roller speed skating and speed skating. The team’s most-known player Guo Dan won the silver medal in the women’s 20-kilometer road race of roller skating at the Asian Games in 2018, and then joined Team China in the speed skating of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.  

Yao Li, an international-level roller skating judge, said teams in Nanjing, Yancheng and Xuzhou have found promising players in addition to Suzhou, which is the first to start roller skating training.  

Among the 13 teams on behalf of 13 cities with subordinate districts in Jiangsu, many members are from sports schools and some are youngsters who stood out in their school's programs. This achievement comes after the province has promoted the integration of sports and education in schools.  

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