China's 2010 Winter Olympians: Wang Meng and Zhou Yang, short track speedskating
Thursday, 18th February 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
UPDATE: Wang Meng won gold, making her China's most decorated Winter Olympian, with two golds, one silver and one bronze. Zhou Yang finished 5th. Medal number 4 for China puts it in 9th place in the medal count. Wang competes next in the 1,500, with heats at 9:45 a.m. Beijing time, on Sunday Feb. 21, and finals two hours later.
Wang (right) celebrates a 1-2 finish in the 3,000 meters in Turin, with gold medallist Yang Yang
Wang Meng (王濛) is the most dominant athlete in China's 2010 Olympic delegation. The 24-year-old won three medals in Torino in 2006--gold in the 500m event, silver in the 1,000 and bronze in the 1,500. She is also the reigning world champion in the 500 and 1,000, with back-to-back 500 titles. In the preliminaries at Vancouver, she skated to an Olympic record of 43.926 seconds. Wang is more outspoken and outwardly competitive than many Chinese athletes. She has had a rocky history with her sport's officials in China, and left the national team for part of 2007 over a training dispute.
Chasing Wang and her first Olympic medal is 18-year-old Zhou Yang (周洋), who also moved on to the next stage, posting the second fastest qualifying time at 44.115 seconds.
Short track speedskating is China's top source of Winter Olympics medals, accounting for five of its 11 medals in Turin. China's first gold medalist in the winter games was Yang Yang (pictured above), in the 2002 games. The Chinese women won last year's world team championship in the Netherlands, and 2008 world championships in Harbin.
As China's program rapidly improves, its rivalry with Korea is heating up. Korea's head coach, Choi Gong-Bok, threw water bottles at a Chinese official who was taping a Korean training session, according to this report
The 500m short track final takes place Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7:07 p.m. PST, or Thursday, Feb. 18 at 11:00 a.m. Beijing time.
The top threats to Wang and Zhou (Saturday heat times in parentheses) are Katherine Reutter, USA (44.187); Park Seung-Hi, Korea (44.221); Kalyna Roberge, Canada (44.254); and Cho Ha-Ri, Korea (44.313).
Related: Chinese speed skaters will medal at Vancouver Olympics, Canadian team coach says
Wang/Yang image: Baidu
Tags: China's 2010 Winter Olympians, speedskating, Wang Meng, Winter Olympics, Zhou Yang
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