Today Oldest Olympians is returning to its look into mystery competitors from the 1948 London Olympics for whom we lack both a date of birth and confirmation as to whether they are alive or deceased. Given the time that has passed, nearly all of these Olympians would be at least 90 years old, but there is a possibility that some are still alive. Today we wanted to look at four Chinese participants who meet the criteria:
(The Chinese 1948 Olympic basketball team, pictured at Chinaqw.com)
Three of the four who we are looking at today were members of the basketball team the placed 18th out of 23 nations. Two of the team members moved to other countries after the Games, which may be why their subsequent activities have been difficult to trace. Cai Zhongqiang of Shanghai’s Dagong Basketball Team moved to Malaysia, while Yu Jin of the Philippine Overseas Chinese Team returned to his home nation after the Olympics. A third, Songyuan “John” Pao, was the leading scorer for the team, yet we still know almost nothing about him. This lineup, incidentally, also featured Wu Chengzhang, who is now 100 and the oldest living Chinese Olympian.
The fourth, Li Dahui, was part of the football squad that was eliminated in round one. We know more about him because, in addition to participating in the Olympic tournament, he also won a gold medal with Taiwan at the 1954 Asian Games. He was still playing in 1956, but after this information on him becomes scarce.