Nine months after a disappointing Olympic campaign in Milan, China's speed skating star Gao Tingyu is stepping out of his comfort zone, trying to cook up a comeback using a recipe with a subtle hint of Oranjie that he picked up while training in the Netherlands.
Gao, who won China's first men's Winter Olympic speed skating gold medal in the 500m at Beijing 2022, returns to a track that has brought him the most fortune this week with a new target, as he looks to test the outcome of his new Dutch training program at the season's opening World Cup event at the National Speed Skating Oval.
The International Skating Union's three-day Beijing World Cup meet, which opens on Friday, is the first major international assignment for Gao since he capped a tough, injury-ridden four-year cycle leading up to Milano-Cortina 2026 with a lackluster 7th-place finish in Italy.
Rather than retreat, Gao opted for a radical change, navigating into uncharted territory by resettling himself in the Netherlands this past summer and training independently from the Chinese national program, aiming to reset his career by practicing alongside elite skaters from the sport's global powerhouse.
Gao is approaching the Beijing World Cup season opener as a trial of his self-proclaimed "solo flight" to the West.
"(By going solo) I had to manage my own team and coach, and handle every single administrative and logistical task myself," Gao said during a pre-competition news conference in Beijing on Thursday.
"It felt strange, but interesting at the same time. Doing that all by yourself almost feels like clocking in and out of a regular office job."
Gao didn't elaborate on the exact training regimen he'd completed in the Netherlands this offseason or his current coaching team, but insisted that he would go into the home World Cup test with a relaxed mindset.
"I want to take it step by step and keep moving upward this season," the 28-year-old native of Heilongjiang province said.
