At the 20th Asian Games, held in Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya, Japan, China's sports delegation delivered an all-round, eye-catching performance, excelling across several of its traditional strongholds — table tennis, athletics relays and artistic swimming. The standout was 21-year-old table tennis prodigy Lin Shidong: competing in four events at this year's Games — men's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles and the men's team — he reached the final in every one of them, finishing with three gold medals and a silver. That made him the top gold-medal winner on the Chinese table tennis team at these Games, a striking result for what was his first-ever Asian Games appearance. China's delegation also swept the men's and women's 4x100m relay golds, while its artistic swimming team extended its long-standing dominance of the sport.

Lin Shidong was born on 18 April 2005 in Danzhou, Hainan province, and is now 21 years old, one of the leading figures on today's Chinese table tennis team. He briefly held the world No. 1 ranking in men's singles on the ITTF world rankings in February 2025, making him one of the fastest-rising members of the new generation of Chinese men's players. In the men's singles final on 28 September, Lin swept teammate and defending champion Wang Chuqin 4-0 to win his first-ever Asian Games men's singles gold. 'I didn't expect to win 4-0. I was able to attack well and connect my shots effectively,' he said afterward. He added: 'This is my first Asian Games, so there was a lot of uncertainty. The intensity was very high, the pressure was huge, and every opponent was strong. All I could do was focus on myself and take it one point at a time. Getting through such difficult matches means a lot to me. I hope I can build on this and take another step forward after the Asiad.'

Beyond the singles title, Lin also excelled in the doubles events. In the mixed doubles final, he partnered Kuai Man to beat the pairing of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha 4-0 for gold. In the men's doubles final, he teamed up with Huang Youzheng; after dropping the first two games, the pair rallied to win four straight and beat Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Hiroto Shinozuka 4-2 for the men's doubles title. Lin's only disappointment came in the men's team event: China lost a hard-fought, five-match final 2-3 to Japan, missing out on defending the title, leaving Lin with a silver medal in what was his fourth event of the Games.

Overall, table tennis at these Asian Games contested seven individual gold medals, and China won six of them — the only one it missed was the men's team title. The women's singles final was an all-Chinese affair, with Wang Manyu beating Sun Yingsha 4-2 for gold. In the women's doubles final, the pairing of Wang Manyu and Kuai Man beat Japan's Miwa Harimoto and Hina Hayata 4-0 to defend the title, and China's women's team beat Japan 3-0 in the final to retain that gold as well. The result that drew the most attention was the men's team final, where Japan came back to beat China 3-2, ending China's run of eight consecutive Asian Games titles in the event. Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto said afterward that the win marked the dawn of a 'new era' for Japanese table tennis. China men's head coach Wang Hao said after the match that the lineup fielded in the final was a considered decision by the coaching staff aimed at giving younger players experience at a major international event, while China's women's head coach Ma Lin admitted she had not expected the men's team to lose. Despite the upset, China's table tennis team still won six golds and a silver across the seven events, underscoring its continued dominance of the sport in Asia.

On the athletics track, China continued its strong run in its traditional sprint strongholds. In the men's 4x100m relay final on 28 September, the Chinese team of Chen Jinfeng, Zeng Keli, Wang Shengjie and Xie Zhenye won gold in 38.17 seconds, successfully defending the title, with Chinese Taipei taking silver and South Korea bronze — the third straight Asian Games at which Xie Zhenye has been part of a winning relay team. Aside from Xie, the other three legs were run by athletes born after 2000, reflecting a blend of youth and experience. In the women's 4x100m relay final held the same day, the Chinese team of Liang Xiaojing, Liu Guoyi, Liu Xiajun and Chen Yujie won gold in 42.96 seconds, also defending their title, with Thailand taking silver and Japan bronze. Seventeen-year-old Chen Yujie had already won gold in the women's 100m and silver in the 200m at these Games; the relay gold was her second gold medal and third individual medal of the competition. China's sweep of both the men's and women's 4x100m relay golds reflected the country's broader improvement in sprinting in recent years. For Thai fans, the women's relay silver was also a notable result for the Thai athletics team at these Games, pointing to rising sprint standards across the region.

In artistic swimming, China continued its firm grip on the discipline at the Asian Games. This year's team event comprised three components — technical, free and acrobatic team routines — and China scored 246.0977, 312.1990 and 299.2117 points respectively across them for a total of 857.5084, winning the team gold by 35.7680 points over second-placed Japan. That made it the sixth consecutive Asian Games at which China has won the team gold in artistic swimming: since the 2006 Doha Asian Games, when China first broke Japan's long-standing dominance of the sport by sweeping both the duet and team golds, China has held the Asian Games titles in the event for twenty years running. China's head coach Zhang Xiaohuan said afterward: 'I am very pleased — the athletes truly showed what they had built up in training on the Asian Games stage. The rise of Chinese artistic swimming owes everything to the tireless efforts of generation after generation of athletes and coaches; that legacy must be carried forward.' Also notable was the Chinese duet pairing of Lin Yanjun and Xu Huiyan, who won the duet final with a total score of 640.3576 points, giving China a matching sixth consecutive Asian Games title in the duet event as well.

Taken together, China's delegation maintained its position as Asia's leading sporting power at these Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, finishing atop both the gold-medal and overall medal tables with 119 gold, 48 silver and 38 bronze medals for 205 medals in total; host nation Japan finished second with 37 golds. Steady performances in traditional strongholds such as table tennis, relay athletics and artistic swimming were central to China's overall showing, while Lin Shidong's breakout performance and the men's table tennis team's surprise loss to Japan were the two storylines that drew the most attention around the Chinese table tennis team at these Games — both pointing to a team in the midst of a generational transition.

The men's team defeat also served as a wake-up call for the Chinese table tennis program. Reports noted that China fielded a lineup of 'one veteran and four newcomers' in the final, with Wang Chuqin the only player who had previous experience in an Asian Games final; the rest of the squad were competing at that level for the first time, exposing a lack of depth further down the roster. Analysts say that with young players such as Lin Shidong emerging, the Chinese table tennis team is at a critical juncture of generational change, and how it balances maintaining its overall dominance with speeding up the development of newcomers will be an important question as it prepares for future major tournaments.

For a young player like Lin Shidong, coming away from his first Asian Games with three golds and a silver is both a significant personal career milestone and, in the eyes of many, a positive sign for the generational transition under way in Chinese table tennis. At the same time, the continued dominance shown by China's relay squads and its artistic swimming team demonstrates that the country's deep bench in its traditional strongholds has not diminished over time. Several Chinese coaches said in post-competition interviews that the experience and confidence gained at these Asian Games would serve as an important reference as their teams prepare for future international competitions.