Veteran skater Li unfazed by bronze
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-14 06:49

Li considered retiring after the 2002 Winter Olympics but was pressured to return owing to the weakness of Chinese men's team.

"Li is the leader of the men's team. He's the whole team," said Chinese coach Yang Yang (S) and former team-mate. "He didn't want to skate anymore, but the team needed him,"

After the 2002 Games, in which Li claimed a silver in the men's 1,500m and a bronze in the 5,000m relay, most of Li's team-mates retired from competition. Some went to study and some turned to coaching.

"With Li's stay, the Chinese team will remain in the top level in the international competitions, " said Xin Qingshan, the team's head coach. "Otherwise, we will fall to the second level and even struggle to reach the finals."

According to the revised rules of short track skating, only when a member of the team reaches the top four in the world championships can the country earn all the three tickets to the event at the Olympics.

Since Li is the only skater who has reached the top four, he is indispensable. The fact that he has never won a gold matters little.

In the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, Li narrowly lost to South Korean Kim Dong-sung at the 1,000m race, settling for the silver. Four years later, he was beaten by American star Apolo Anton Ohno, to second place once again.

Li is ready to take up coaching. "I will end my skating career after the Olympics and concentrate on being a good coach," he said.

In the remaining races at the ongoing Winter Games, Li will also compete in men's 500m, 1,000m and 5,000m relay.

"The bronze medal will push me to perform even better in the future events," Li said. "I will be more relaxed and concentrate more on the races."

Meanwhile, the Chinese women skaters also did well. Wang Meng and Fu Tianyu easily reached the 500m quarter-finals and the relay team qualified for the final. The finals of these two events will take on February 16 and 23 respectively.