It's extremely easy to identify who the heroes were for China's skeleton team at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Yan Wengang blazed a trail by securing the country's first-ever Olympic medal in sliding sports by winning bronze in the men's skeleton. Yin Zheng almost joined Yan on the podium with a fifth-place finish, just behind Sochi 2014 skeleton champion Aleksandr Tretiakov.

Zhao Dan handled her Olympic debut with aplomb and managed an impressive ninth place in the women's skeleton. As one of the flag bearers for Team China at the opening ceremony, Zhao is blessed with a level of maturity that belies her 19 years of age.

But behind the scenes there is a name that only few recognize, someone who was every bit as instrumental in helping China display stunning competitiveness in skeleton despite having little history of Olympic success.

Meet Andreas Schmid. A former world champion slider himself, Schmid is among a number of prominent coaches China has brought over from overseas to bring out their athletes' full potential at home. The Austrian veteran was at the heart of Great Britain's success in skeleton, guiding the nation to seven medals in the last five Olympics.

So often in modern sports, an ambitious team will hire a distinguished maestro but either not give them enough time to implement their vision, or the two parties do not see eye to eye on how to reach their eventual goal in the most efficient way. In the case of Schmid and China's skeleton team, the two have a perfectly aligned philosophy and patience that they both understand is required.

Since joining China's skeleton program in 2019, Schmid has received praise for his world class coaching, exceptional communication skills and a keen eye for detail in training sessions.

With Schmid at the helm, a comprehensive sports science program and all-round medical support were also put in place by Team China to ensure their sliders were at the cutting edge of the sport. Schmid was also given greater leeway in making decisions, signaling that there was complete faith and trust in the process.

It is a message hammered home daily by Schmid. "There's no secret to success in skeleton. You need to have the best athletes in the world and you need a program that supports these athletes to develop. You need a support team around it to help them in the details," he told reporters on Sunday.

"To develop Asian athletes in that short period of time hugely depends on the quality of the athlete, and the quality is high. My experience, in my career as a coach, is it's highly dependent on ice time, quality coaching and equipment knowledge."

"It's a complex system. It's not easy to tell an athlete, 'here's the ice you slide down.' You need to go into all the details and now is a great opportunity for China to see what winter sports are able to do and what these athletes are able to do in a short period of time."

"I have the experience and athletes need seven to eight years to win medals on the international circuit. When I look at them to achieve top 10 in that time, I'm very proud of these athletes. It's a huge team effort," he beamed.

When asked how to close the gap with Germany, who made six sliding golds out of six at Beijing 2022, Schmid admitted China still has a long way to go despite making huge progress.

"You saw that we closed the gap – we won a medal," he gushed. "These nations have traditions in winter sports. Germany has four tracks in the country. They start the sport at 12, 16 years old and they move on. For our guys, it was a new experience to do something they're not used to."

"You need ice time, ice time, ice time, experience, experience, experience. This is what China doesn't have yet. But now, with this venue, everything is here, you just need to do it and build up a program that has an opportunity to move on to the next Games. The foundation is set with these athletes."

"It takes some time. These athletes – it's already a huge achievement. This is a great team. Don't think you can copy other nations. That's not how it works. You learn and you develop and you bring things into the mix, which makes them strong," he added.

"They just need to continue the process, to go into the details from the athlete development, coaching development, equipment development and give them ice time around the world. What was a little bit of a disadvantage is when you're on this track and you get into the routine. When the track changes overnight, they need to adapt."

"That's what they learn when they go to Europe to other tracks. That's what is missing at the moment. But it can be picked up if the sport supports these athletes, coaches, to do this job. It's just getting the experience to be successful," he opined.

Zhao Dan revealed earlier that she hopes she can inspire more people to pick up skeleton in their spare time after delivering admirable performance at Beijing 2022. It was a stance echoed by Schmid, who held the view that it was wrong to think the only thing that matters is the end result.

"What they achieved here was huge and it's a chance to give a strong message to women in this country to do this sport and I think that's what it should be," he said. "You speak about the medal. The medal is the end goal, but there is a process. There is huge potential and there's another generation coming as well."

(Reporting from the Yanqing competition zone)

Read more:

Unlikely hero: Sensational Yan Wengang blazes a trail for Chinese sliders at Beijing 2022

Zhao Dan impresses under glaring spotlight as China makes headway in women's skeleton