Sky’s the limit for China’s winter wonder women

Chairman Mao Zedong famously observed that “women hold up half the sky” — and nothing could be truer when it comes to China’s winter-sport athletes.

The national women’s speed skating team won three gold medals at last month’s Asian Winter Games in Sapporo and Obihiro, Japan.

Not content to rest on those laurels, coach Li Yan is already making plans for the next major championship.

“We got all the medals we expected in Sapporo, and we uncovered our problems. We are satisfied,” Li said as she checked out new skates ahead of preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Women contributed half of China’s gold medals in Japan. At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the women won all three of the country’s golds, while China still has only one outright male Olympic champion (and one mixed gold to make 1.5 titles) to the women’s 10.5 titles.

Chinese women have also marched ahead in terms of milestones.

At the 1992 Albertville Games, speed skater Ye Qiaobo earned China’s first Winter Olympic medal. In Salt Lake City 2002, Yang Yang captured the country’s first Winter Games gold.

The now-retired Yang Yang continues to push the sport at home, running a skating center in Shanghai that contributes to the government’s initiative to promote winter sports.

In 2015, another Winter Olympic gold medalist, Li Jianrou, established a skating club aimed at introducing teenagers to the sport.

Beijing and Hebei province will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, and, ahead of the Games, ice and snow sports are becoming increasingly popular with women across the country.

“I was astonished when I saw 40 amateur hockey players from Hong Kong devoting so much time to the sport, so I decided to teach them,” said Tan Anqi, a former member of the national women’s team.

Tan, who started coaching in the Hong Kong SAR in 2011, said her goal is to “show the public the fun and spirit of ice hockey” — yet another example of how the government objective of having 300 million Chinese participating in winter sports by 2022 is gaining ground.

That same spirit inspired 45-year-old Wang Jinfen to take up cross-country skiing. She stunned the crowd by finishing a 25km race during the Vasaloppet China event in January.

Wang said she wants to set an example for young people, and hopes to win a medal at home in 2022.

Wang’s unflinching dedication is typical of Chinese women’s commitment to winter sports.

In her early skiing career in the 1980s, her fingers often became frostbitten from training so hard. A lack of heating in her dorm forced her to run around the building to keep warm.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Wang has often considered quitting, but she added: ‘We will keep going, because we love what we do.”