Bao and her teammate Zhong Tianshi broke Team China's own world record previously set at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics by Zhong Tianshi and former team sprint teammate Gong Jinjie, with a new WR time of 31.804 seconds. While being awarded their gold medals at the podium ceremony, Bao and Zhong were seen with Mao Zedong pin-badges affixed to their team sporting jackets, alluding to symbollic patriotism, however, according to Graham Dunbar and Joe McDonald at Associated Press, this symbolism may be in breach of Olympic Charter Rule 50 (which prohibits political statements on the podium), and that this "incident came one day after silver medalist Raven Saunders (standing below gold medalist Gong Lijiao of China) crossed the wrists of her raised arms on the podium", to which Dunbar and McDonald remarked that it "was unclear" if it was "a response to the (Gong/Saunders) women's shot-put medal ceremony".