Yang Yang (A)

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Olympic medal record
Women’s short-track speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	500m
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	1000m
Silver	1998 Nagano	3000m Relay
Silver	2002 Salt Lake City	3000m Relay
Bronze	2006 Turin	1000 m
World Championships
Gold	2005 Beijing	500 m
Silver	2005 Beijing	3000 m relay
Gold	2003, Warsaw	500 m
Bronze	2003	1000 m
Bronze	2003	1500 m
Gold	2003	3000 m relay
Gold	2002, Montréal	500 m
Gold	2002	1000 m
Gold	2002	1500 m
Silver	2001, Jeonju	500 m
Gold	2001	1000 m
Gold	2001	1500 m
Gold	2001	3000 m
Gold	2000, Sheffield	1000 m
Gold	2000	1500 m
Gold	2000	3000 m
Gold	1999, Sofia	500 m
Gold	1999	1000 m
Silver	1999	1500 m
Gold	1999	3000 m
Gold	1999	3000 m relay
Gold	1998	1000 m
Gold	1998	1500 m
Silver	1998	3000 m
Gold	1998	3000 m relay
Gold	1997	500 m
Gold	1997	1000 m
Bronze	1997	3000 m
Goodwill Games
Gold	2000, Lake Placid	1000 m
Bronze	2000	500 m

Yang Yang (A) (Chinese: 楊揚; born 24 August 1976 in Harbin, China) is an Olympic short track speed skater. She is currently a member of the Chinese national short track team. Most notably, her victory in the women's 500m short track at the 2002 Winter Olympics made her China's first-ever Winter Olympics gold medalist. She added a second gold in the women's 1000m short track at the same Games.

The "(A)" identifier was used as a way to distinguish her from another Yang Yang who was one of her contemporaries on the Chinese short track team. Originally, this Yang Yang was known as Yang Yang (L) for "large" (大 or 'big' in Chinese is used to distinguish between younger and older persons of roughly the same age), as she is older than Yang Yang (S) (for "small"); however, she objected to the "L" identifier, changing it to "A". Although Yang Yang (S) is now retired from competition and there is no longer a need to distinguish between the two in results, Yang Yang (A) still uses the identifier in competition, considering it a part of her identity.

Incidentally, the two Yang Yangs do not have identical Chinese names. Yang Yang (A)'s name means "flying flag", while Yang Yang (S)'s means "sunshine".

Personal records
Women's short track speed skating
Distance	Time	Date	Location	Notes
500 m	44:084	2002-02-20	Calgary
1000 m	1:30.216	2005-10-02	Hangzhou	2005 / 2006 World Cup
1500 m	2:21.690	2002-02-13	Salt Lake City, Utah	2002 Winter Olympics
3000 m	5:03.652	2000-12-10	Changchun	2000 / 2001 World Cup

[edit] References

• Yang Yang (A) (Short-track Speed Skating) from china.org.cn
• Bio at NBC Olympics site
• Yang Yang, the queen of short track speed skating (Interview) from Speed-Skating.Net