Speed skater Gao Tingyu of Team China set a new Winter Olympic record of 34.32 seconds when he won the men's 500-meter final at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Saturday.

Cha Min-kyu of South Korea (in 34.39 seconds) and Japan's Wataru Morishige (34.49) took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

It's China's first men's speed skating Olympic gold in history.

Gao, Team China's flag bearer at Beijing 2022's opening ceremony, won the bronze in the same event in Pyeongchang 2018. 

Gao, who was 20 years old at the time, shouted "Believe in yourself!" in front of the camera.

This year, he yelled, "We are the champions!" after winning the gold in Beijing. 

Gao thanked his coach Li Yan for her support during the past few months. 

"She helped me to relieve pressure mentally," he said. "Everyone is different, so she learns about us individually to treat us accordingly."

Legendary speed skater Li, 56, was appointed head coach of the national speed skating team last November.

She has coached nine gold medalists at Winter Olympics so far, including Wang Meng, Zhou Yang and Wu Dajing.

Li served as the head coach of China's short-track speed skating team from 2006 to 2019, when the team won seven gold medals at the three Winter Olympics. Li is a decorated Olympian herself, winning the silver in women's 500m event, in short-track speed skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics. It was China's first ever Olympic Games medal in short-track speeding skating.

Before Gao, China's best result in Olympic speed skating competitions was in 2014 in Sochi, where Zhang Hong won the women's 1000m gold.