VICTORY LAP: Zhou Yang celebrates her victory after winning the 1500-meter speed-skating race at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games on February 20 (WU WEI)

China is not expected to sweep the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games the way it dominated the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. However, it has made Chinese Olympic history after winning three gold medals when the Games passed the halfway point of scheduled competition on February 20. On that day, 18-year-old Zhou Yang overcame three South Korean rivals to win the women's short track speed skating 1,500-meter final.

At the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, the Chinese team grabbed 11 medals, including two golds, marking its best ever results since its debut at the Winter Olympics in 1980.

Legendary skating pairs

Three-time Olympians 36-year-old Zhao Hongbo and his 31-year-old wife Shen Xue offered a near flawless show in free skating to win the gold on February 15.

Since 1992 when they teamed up, the husband-wife duo have spent 18 years together chasing their dreams, despite numerous ebbs and lingering injuries. The three-time (2002, 2003 and 2007) world champions were also the first Chinese figure skaters to stand on the Olympic podium, winning the bronze medals in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006. They retired after winning the 2007 Four Continents Championships but returned to the rink last year to add another accomplishment to their long list of awards--an Olympic gold.

"This may not be the best chance for us, but it's definitely the last," said Shen to the media before leaving China for Vancouver.

In the Pacific Coliseum, the Chinese couple--world record holders for pairs' score in the short program and also in the combined total--grabbed the title with a mesmerizing interpretation to Adagio by Italian composer Albinon Tommaso, scoring a personal best of 139.91 points in free skating with a total of 216.57 (combining short program). They became the first non-European duo to win the pairs gold medal at a Winter Olympics, which has been dominated by Russian and former Soviet Union pairs for 46 years.

"This is a dream come true," said Zhao. "We've had this dream for many years. Every time we heard the anthem or saw the flag, we wished it was at the Olympic Games."

Another Chinese pair, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, scored a personal-best 213.31 to win the silver medal.

Veteran skater

Two days after the Chinese team pocketed its first gold in Vancouver, Wang Meng defended her women's 500-meter short track speed skating title, becoming the first Chinese speed skater to win back-to-back titles in two separate Olympics.

Recognized as one of the fastest female skaters in the world, Wang established her dominance in the 500 short-track speed skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She has won almost all major world championship events in the last four years and maintained the world record at 42.609 seconds.

"Nobody is capable of beating me unless I make mistakes," she said before competing in Vancouver.

Victory for the 25-year-old seemed inevitable. Wang broke the Olympic record in the preliminary, quarterfinal and semi-final rounds. In the final, she placed herself firmly in the lead position after dashing out of the starting line, never giving her opponents a chance to catch up.

Breezing across the finish line in 43.048 seconds, with a clear advantage of seven tenths of a second ahead of silver medalist Marianne St-Gelais of Canada, Wang knelt down twice to show her thanks to all her coaches and teammates, especially to Li Yan, head coach of China's short track speed skating team, who guided Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States to win the men's 500-meter title at the Turin Winter Games four years ago.

Skating prodigy

On February 20, China's dominance in women's short track fell through a hole in the ice when gold-medal favorite of the 1,500 speed-skating event Wang and American Katherine Reutter collided in the semifinal. Wang was disqualified for causing the spill.

Another Chinese competitor Sun Linlin was also disqualified in the semi-finals, leaving Zhou Yang the only Chinese confronting the powerful opponents in the final.

"Before competition, the coach told us that anything could happen in the rink. I did not expect to enter the final alone," Zhou commented.

With three South Korean athletes in the final and Wang's early fall, the gold was open to anyone.

Eventually, China's 18-year-old world record holder, competing in her first Olympic game, clocked 2 minutes 16.993 seconds, nearly 2 seconds ahead of South Korean Lee Eun-byul, whose compatriot Park Seung-hi won bronze.

After collecting the gold and setting a new Olympic record, Zhou said, "This gold medal will change things. It will give me more confidence."

Things are changing now as China had yet to win the 1,500-meter Olympic gold and South Korea had won four of the six medals since the distance was introduced as an Olympic competition at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City.

(Reporting from Vancouver)