Zhang's golden achievement marks historic breakthrough

For Zhang Hong, switching from short track to distance speed skating six years ago turned out to be the best decision of her athletic life and it paid off on Thursday when the 25-year-old struck gold for China in the 1,000m at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Zhang's victory ended a 22-year quest for China in the distance event and came on the heels of Li Jianrou's gold in the short track 500m earlier in the day.

"China has waited for this gold medal for 22 years and I got it today, which is hard to believe," Zhang said after clocking 1:14:02 to beat two skaters from the Netherlands: Ireen Wust (1:14.69) and Margot Boer (1:14.90).