Beijing, China, February 12, 2022: China’s Gao Tingyu set a new Olympic record in winning the men’s 500 metres speed skating title at the National Speed Skating Oval on Saturday.
Gao, bronze medallist at PyeongChang four years ago, led an Asian sweep of the podium as Korea’s Cha Min-kyu took silver and Japan’s Wataru Morishige won bronze.
Gao clocked 34.32 seconds, Cha 34.39, just 0.07 seconds behind, and Morishige was third in 34.49.
The Chinese champion was one of two flagbearers for the home nation in the opening ceremony on February 4 – but this honour has led to disappointment in competition for the athletes involved.
On how he handled the so-called “curse of the flagbearer”, Gao said: “I was really scared of this, but as China’s flagbearer I wanted to win gold for China. In the competition, I didn’t care about the curse. I think I did very well in leading the Chinese athletes to achieve their goals. As a Chinese you need to walk the talk and fulfil your promises.”
When asked how he had improved his form in recent years he said: “My training is classified, I cannot tell you anything, but the most important thing is mindset. I improved my mindset. My mentality is different from four years ago. We are at home in China so I was excited and nervous. I want to give my medal to my country, to China.
“As the first Chinese gold medal winner of speed skating in men’s competition, I have a good start for this sport in China. I think we will be unstoppable in the future. We are not that strong at this moment, so we need to carry on our work.”
Silver medallist Cha said he was very happy that Asia won gold, silver and bronze and dominated the podium.
“That all Asians have won medals, Korea, China and Japan, is very good. I’m happy that Korea is one of them,” he said.
Photo: CGTN