Exclusive with Sun Peiyuan – the first gold medalist in 18th Asian Games

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After taking the championship in men’s Changquan Wushu at the 2018 Asian Games on Sunday morning, Chinese athlete Sun Peiyuan talked about his family influences as well as his plan to bring the martial art to the Olympics in a Chinese sports television interview.

Sun started learning martial arts at six due to a father who loved the discipline. Now a father himself, Sun hopes his child can inherit his talent.

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Sun, 29, confessed that he wants to remain competitive, but he’s not an up-and-comer who wants to keep rising in the sport.

“Unlike other champions, my goal is not to defend the title of a certain category, but to challenge another title of another one amid the sport.”

Next year, he will focus on Gunshu (the art of the staff) at the 2019 World Wushu Championships in Shanghai.

Not surprisingly, Sun is into China’s Wuxia culture, or fictional martial arts adventures. He said that his favorite character was Qiao Feng, the chief of beggars in the story “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” by Louis Cha.

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He expects to devote himself to promoting Wushu on a bigger stage.

“I will promote Chinese martial arts to the world and hope it will become an Olympic event soon.”

Wushu failed to be included in the official program of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, though attempts have been made.