With just a month to go until the Asian Winter Games, excitement is building among athletes and fans alike

Led by a strong field of Olympic and world champions, China's ice and snow sports contingent is primed to do the country proud, while testing its Olympic medal credentials at the Asian Winter Games.

Fast approaching, and expected to be a "dress rehearsal" for the next Winter Olympics, the 9th Asian Winter Games will open in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, on Feb 7. They are expected to bear witness to heated battles for continental supremacy on ice and snow, as Chinese athletes rev up their preparations for Milan-Cortina 2026.

The Games in Harbin will mark the biggest representation of Asian countries and regions, with 34 National Olympic Committees — the most in history — having confirmed their entries.

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A total of 64 medal events across six sports will be competed at five ice sports venues in downtown Harbin, and eight other venues for all the snow events in Yabuli, a ski resort cluster about 200 kilometers to the southeast of the city.

Among the events making their debut on the continental gala's official medal program will be mixed doubles curling, ski mountaineering and the freestyle skiing discipline of synchronized aerials, according to the latest Olympic program for the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.

Leading the host's charge on ice will be its highly decorated short-track speed skating squad, which has contributed 12 Olympic gold medals to China's all-time haul of 22 since 1980, with the sport's other world powerhouse — the Republic of Korea — raring to spoil the host's party and deliver a fruitful campaign of its own.

After completing the first four stops on the 2024-25 Short-Track World Tour, the Chinese squad — bolstered by men's Olympic gold medalists Liu Shaoang and Lin Xiaojun, and women's veteran Fan Kexin — has recovered physically and mentally from the demanding races on the ISU circuit, and is primed to help get the entire host delegation off to a scintillating start in Harbin.

According to the latest schedule, the first gold medal to be awarded at the Games is expected to be either in the short-track speed skating 2,000m mixed relay in Harbin, or in the women's freestyle skiing halfpipe in Yabuli on the morning of Feb 8.

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"For short-track speed skating, the Asian Winter Games already represent the highest-level of international competition, even without other strong teams from Europe and North America," said head coach Zhang Jing, who, over the past two months, has led China's short-track squad to collect 10 medals, including three golds, from the first four legs of this season's World Tour.

"We will treat it as seriously as we should, and try to achieve the best possible results as a crucial test prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics."

Stealing the show from the skaters, should she keep her promise, will be freeski superstar Gu Ailing. She openly expressed her desire, following last month's World Cup event in China, to make time in her busy schedule of academic study and international competitions to make her Asian Winter Games debut on home snow.

"For sure, I will continue to compete at a series of international events and hope to see you all in February in Harbin," Gu said last month after winning the 2024-25 World Cup season's second halfpipe event, and her 16th career title on the elite circuit, in Chongli, Hebei province.

If Gu appears on top of the pipe in Yabuli as expected, with the official Chinese delegation yet to be announced, no one seems a legitimate threat against the reigning Olympic champion in her attempt to potentially claim the first gold at the Games.

Standing alongside Gu in aiming for a podium finish in freeski will be emerging contender Liu Mengting, who just won her first career World Cup title in another discipline — big air — in Klagenfurt, Austria, on Saturday, with the 20-year-old stomping two solid runs to edge out Italian star Flora Tabanelli and Germany's Muriel Mohr in the final.

"I'm so happy. My first World Cup win, it's so cool. I can't wait for more," said an elated Liu, who became China's second women's big air World Cup winner after Gu's victory in the 2020-21 season.

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China will also bid for dominance in freestyle skiing aerials, its traditional strength event, with Olympic champions Xu Mengtao and her male counterpart Qi Guangpu both expected to star in Yabuli.

As a long-time world-class winter sports contender on the international stage, China's East Asian neighbor Japan is likely to flex its muscles in a variety of events, such as speed skating, figure skating and snowboarding, and offer Chinese hopefuls an invaluable opportunity to test their mettle against the world's best.

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It will be Harbin's second time staging the continental gala event, following its maiden outing as host in 1996, and the third edition to be held in China after the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, Jilin province.

All the competition venues are existing facilities, and all the refurbishment and equipment upgrades needed to meet international standards were completed by the end of last year.