Chinese paddler Chen Meng, 30, defended her gold medal at the Paris Olympics when she defeated her teammate and world number one Sun Yingsha 4-2 in the women’s table tennis singles final on Aug 3.
One person who couldn’t be more thrilled was Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, who immediately took to Weibo to congratulate Chen Meng after the match.
“Thank you to both athletes for bringing us such an exciting match. I could hardly breathe watching it!” he wrote.
“Congratulations, Meng Meng! You did it! You withstood all the pressure and once again proved yourself with your strength! You will always be our pride! All the effort and sweat were worth it! Keep up the good work in the upcoming competitions!”
In case you didn’t know, Xiaoming is Chen Meng’s cousin, and he would often cheer for her on social media.
In celebration of her gold medal victory, the generous actor gave out 100 digital ang pows to various contacts on Wechat. This quickly became a trending topic on social media.
When asked about Chen Meng’s win, Xiaoming quipped: “There are more people congratulating me on my little sister winning a gold medal than when I won Best Actor.”
In an interview after the match, Chen Meng said that Xiaoming watches her matches every day and thanked him for his support.