When it comes to the Winter Olympics, it is necessary to mention short track speed skating, which is a popular sport for China to win gold, and as China's first athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, Li Yan has won a lot of honors in China.
Young age: Li Yan was born in Dalian in 1968, when he was 2 years old, he came to Heilongjiang with his military father, and began to learn skating there, at the age of 13, he received professional training from Jiamusi Hejiang Sports School, in 1982, at the age of 14, Li Yan achieved the second place in the national junior group, and then was transferred to mudanjiang City Sports School for training, and officially joined the short track speed skating national team at the age of 19 to start his short track speed skating career.
Emerging: In 1988, Li Yan represented China for the first time in the 15th Winter Olympic Games, this short track speed skating as a performance event debuted on the stage of the Olympic Games, in this competition Li Yan won the women's 1000 meters gold medal and 500 meters, 1500 meters bronze medals, Li Yan's performance shocked the world, was rated by the Canadian media as "shenlong soaring".
Subsequently, at the 1992 Winter Olympics, short track speed skating became an official event, and Li Yan won the first medal at the Winter Olympics for China, although it was only a silver medal, which was also a major breakthrough in the Chinese Winter Olympics.
In 1994, Li Yan chose to retire and chose a seemingly more stable path, she chose to enter Dongbei University of Finance and Economics to study finance, and after graduation, she worked and married at the Dalian Municipal Taxation Bureau.
Rekindling the feeling of short track speed skating: "If I hadn't returned to the field, I might have been at the level of section chief," Li Yan said in a conversation. In a youth competition, Li Yan found that she still loved the sport of short track speed skating, would be excited about every success of the athletes, but also chagrined by a mistake, she still wanted to do something for the sport she loved, which began her coaching career.
Coaching career: Perhaps by chance, in 2001, Li Yan was fortunate to be sent by the state to Slovakia to aid teaching. In just two years, Slovakia has become a major player in the European short track speed skating industry. In 2003, he was invited to the United States as the head coach of short track speed skating, and his disciple Apollo Anton Ojeno won the gold medal in the men's 500 meters at the Turin Olympic Games.
Returned to China to coach for one Olympic Games Four gold medals: Although the disciple Apollo tried his best to retain Li Yan, Li Yan still refused the request to renew his contract, and resolutely chose to return to China to coach, thus starting the "godmother" career of China's short track speed skating.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Li Yan led Wang Meng to win the short track speed skating 500 meters championship, making Wang Meng the first champion in China to successfully defend his title at the Winter Olympics. Zhou Yang won the short track speed skating 1500 meters championship. Broke the monopoly of Korean short track speed skating in this event, becoming the first non-Korean athlete to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics event. The Chinese women's team composed of Wang Meng, Zhou Yang, Zhang Hui and Sun Linlin broke the world record in the women's 3,000m relay with a time of 4:06.610 and won the Winter Olympics crown, winning the fourth gold medal for the Chinese team. Wang Meng and Zhou Yang competed for the championship in the women's 1000m final.
In 2014, Li Yan led the team to the Sochi Winter Olympics as the head coach of China, and the Chinese team reached the final in all 8 male and female events, winning an excellent record of 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze!
On February 22, 2018, in the men's 500m final of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics short track speed skating, Wu Dajing won the first gold medal for China with a time of 39.584 seconds.
Now that the Beijing Winter Olympics have officially entered the countdown, Li Yan has also started a new round of conquest as the head coach of short track speed skating, hoping that she can lead China to more honors.