Donghua student wins an Olympic spot at qualifier

Donghua University student Deng Lijuan waves to the audience after securing an Olympic spot in climbing. — Ti Gong

Success at the Olympic Qualifier Se-ries in Shanghai has secured the national climbing team three pre-cious Olympic spots in advance, one of which was claimed by Donghua University undergraduate student Deng Lijuan.

Deng has won four gold medals in the women’s speed climbing events at Interna-tional Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup stops in 2022 and 2023, as well as a gold medal in the women’s speed relay and a silver medal in the individual speed climbing event at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Filled with confidence for the upcoming Paris Olympics, Deng said: “Standing on the highest podium of the Olympic Games is the dream of every athlete. I am currently actively preparing for the Olympics!”

Climbing is a representative sport of Don-ghua University’s campus culture. On April 17, the 100-day countdown to the opening of the Paris Olympics, the national climbing team arrived at Donghua University to start their one-month pre-Olympic qualification training.

The person in charge of sports at Donghua said that in addition to cultivating sports stars, Donghua University places a special emphasis on physical education.

The school has established 42 school-level sports teams, 37 student sports clubs and 17 faculty sports associations, achieving excel-lent results in sports such as football, pole vault, handball, shooting and climbing.