Yang Yang of China celebrates with the gold medal she wins in women's 500-meter short track speed skating race in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 16, 2002. /CFP
If you intend to dedicate the song "Let it go" from the movie "Frozen" to a Chinese winter sports athlete, no one can be a better choice than Yang Yang, the winner of the first Winter Olympic gold medal for the country during the Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. in February 2002.
Chinese athletes were already at the top of their game in the 1990s. For example, Yang had won double-digit titles in multiple world championships. However, the country was still enduring a deafening Winter Olympic gold silence before 2002 and Yang was China's biggest hope to change this silence into roars of cheer.
And she did it. She finished women's 500-meter short track speed skating final at 44.187 on February 16, 2002, defeating world record holder Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria and her compatriot Wang Chunlu to win that valuable gold medal. One week later, Yang pocketed her second championship in women's 1,000-meter race.
Yang Yang (L) and Wang Chunlu (R) of China celebrate after winning gold and bronze medals of women's 500-meter short track speed skating race in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., February 16, 2002. /CFP
Team China won a total of seven medals – two golds, two silvers and three bronzes – in Salt Lake City in 2002, and Yang contributed two golds and one silver (3,000-meter relay) to the tally.
Yang's outstanding career continued after that. In the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal, Canada in April, she claimed four golds in women's 500-meter, 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter and overall competitions. In the following two editions of world championships, Yang added another three titles to her honor list. During her 23-year skating career, Yang has won 59 world championships, more than any other Chinese skater.
Having won women's 1,000-meter bronze medal in the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy in 2006, Yang hung up her skates but she did not stay away from sports.
Yang Yang of China carries the Olympic torch for the Beijing Summer Olympics in Sanya, Hainan Province, south China, May 4, 2008. /CFP
In May 2008, Yang carried the Olympic Torch in south China's Hainan Province as the first torchbearer from the Chinese mainland for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In February 2010, Yang was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In November 2017, she was appointed as the chairperson of Athlete Commission of 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee.
And in November 2019, she became the first Chinese to be elected as the vice president of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Newly elected WADA President Witold Banka (L) and Vice President Yang Yang (R) pose during a conference of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Katowice, Poland, November 7, 2019. /CFP
Though she's not an athlete anymore, Yang is still working in the sports world and has been switching different roles.
"When I was an athlete, I worked in different committees of the IOC. These experiences made me feel that I'm still improving. As a Chinese, I'm given an incredible say to contribute wisdom to the world. It matters more to be able to attend the rule-making process than questioning the consequence," said Yang, according to Sohu Sports.
Yang was a brilliant athlete. After that, she became an even greater sports figure who speaks for all athletes.
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