Zhao Hongbo

Zhao Hongbo
Zhao Hongbo
Height	177 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Figure skating career
Country	People's Republic of China
Partner	Shen Xue
Coach	Yao Bin
Skating club	Harbin SC

Olympic medal record
Figure skating

Zhao Hongbo (simplified Chinese: 赵宏博; traditional Chinese: 趙宏博; pinyin: Zhào Hóngbó; born September 22, 1973) is a Chinese pair skater. With his partner Shen Xue, they won three World Championship titles, five Grand Prix Final championships and two Olympic medals.

Personal life

At the end of their free skate at the 2007 Worlds, Zhao attempted to propose to Shen, but did not manage to get the question across until some time afterwards. They have since married.

They currently live and coach in Shenzhen.

Early career

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo began skating together in 1992, under the tutelage of Yao Bin. They competed at their first Olympics in 1998, in Nagano, Japan and finished a respectable fifth. They went on to the World Championships a year later with improved choreography and expression, and won the silver medal, becoming the first Chinese team to ever win a World Championship medal.

Shen and Zhao improved each year, and were considered to be one of the top teams in the world. They won another silver medal at the Worlds in 2000, and a bronze in 2001. They were considered strong medal contenders in the 2002 Winter Olympics. They won the bronze with a strong performance, missing a throw quadruple salchow attempt. They became the first Chinese pair to win a medal at the Olympics for figure skating.

Shen and Zhao won their first World Championship in 2002. They repeated this win the following year in Washington D.C. While practing their throw quadruple salchow, Shen landed badly and severely injured her landing foot and ankle. She required several treatments to numb the foot entirely so that she should compete. The pair performed a brilliant long program that earned them several perfect 6.0's for both technical merits and presentation.

Their attempt to win a third straight World title in 2004 was thwarted when Zhao fell during their short program. They rebounded to win the free program with a string of 6.0s, but it was only good enough for second overall behind their new rivals Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia. Their problems escalated in 2005 when Zhao's achilles injury forced them to withdraw from the World Championships, and weeks later, he ruptured the tendon during practice. They missed the entire competitive season and were unable to return to the ice until weeks before the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Their lack of adequate preparation was obvious, but they managed to win a second Olympic bronze medal.

The 2006-07 proved to be a very strong season for the pairs by winning the Grand Prix Final, the 2007 Asian Winter Games, the 2007 Four Continents Championship, and most importantly, the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships. On March 21, 2007 they won their third World Championship title, and announced their plan to retire and marry.^[1]

Competitive highlights

(With Shen)

Post-2001

Event	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007
Winter Olympic Games	3rd				3rd
World Championships	1st	1st	2nd	WD		1st
Four Continents Championships		1st				1st
Chinese Championships	1st
Asian Winter Games		1st				1st
Grand Prix Final	3rd	2nd	1st	1st		1st
NHK Trophy	1st	1st				1st
Cup of China			1st	1st		1st
Skate Canada			2nd	1st
Trophee Eric Bompard				1st
Bofrost Cup	1st	1st
Cup of Russia		1st

WD = Withdrew

Pre-2001

Event	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999	1999-2000	2000-2001
Winter Olympic Games			5th
World Championships	15th	11th	4th	2nd	2nd	3rd
Four Continents Championships				1st		2nd
Chinese Championships			1st	1st		1st
Asian Winter Games	1st			1st
Grand Prix Final			4th	1st	1st	3rd
NHK Trophy		4th	1st	2nd	4th	1st
Cup of Russia				2nd	2nd	2nd
Skate America						2nd
Bofrost Cup					3rd
Skate Canada				1st
Trophee Lalique			3rd
Winter Universiade		1st