'Han Dynasty' reigns in Turin night

TURIN: Han Xiaopeng never won a world title - but all that changed on Friday when the 22-year-old freestyle skier dazzled the judges and captured the Winter Olympic gold medal, becoming the youngest Olympic champion in his event and the first Chinese to reach the top of the podium in an Olympic snow competition.

"I never thought this would happen," said an elated Han after the victory in Turin. "I feel like I'm in a dream."

Born in Jiangsu Province in the southern part of China, where snow and ice are rare because of the warm weather, Han won the freestyle skiing men's aerials on Thursday at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games. He racked up the highest combined score by landing two near-flawless jumps.

Han upset a field of big names, including current World Cup leader Kyle Nissen of Canada and Belarus' Alexei Girshin, the bronze medallist at the last Games in Salt Lake City, to seal the historic victory.

His efforts allow China to achieve another landmark breakthrough on snow, after the country had ended its winter Olympics gold medal drought at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 when Yang Yang (A) snatched two short track speed skating titles.

Han also made history on Tuesday when he, along with his team-mate Qiu Sen, became the first Chinese men to qualify for an Olympic freestyle aerials final with the highest score from qualifiers.

"Qualifying for the final has already been a big breakthrough for China, so I felt no pressure at all before the final today," said Han, also China's first male Winter Olympic gold medallist. "I just told myself that I would do my best and fight for the best results for China."

Since he made the Olympic debut in the aerials events in the 1994 Lillehammer Games, the glory of the sport all came from the women's team.

In the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, China's Xu Nannan won the silver at the women's aerials, which was also China's first snow event Olympic medal. In the competition in Turin, gold favourite and reigning world champion Li Nina claimed the silver on Wednesday.

Han's firm confidence towards his men's team paid off eventually.

"Although most of the people did not regard our men's team the big favourites for the medal, I always believed that we could do as well as the women's team. We did it today," Han said.

Moving to the north

Born in Peixian County in China's southeast Jiangsu Province, Han was a sports acrobat in his early years in his hometown. He switched to aerials in 1995 after Yang Er'qi, an aerials coach from Shenyang Sports Institute in northeast China's Liaoning Province, spotted his potential in the sport that requires agility and courage.

"Coach Yang selected me when I was 12 years old due to my good athletic build and explosive ability," recalled Han. "Since I would like to do something new, I went to Shenyang to start my career as an aerialist, which was totally new to me at that time."

Moving to Shenyang where it is normally freezing during winter, the young boy had to face his first challenge - adapting himself to the cold weather. But as soon as he stepped onto the snow, he felt right at home, as if he was born there.

"When I saw the snow for the first time in my life, I felt very excited," Han said. "The weather condition was much better than I thought, and I became accustomed to it soon."

He also had to learn everything about the sport from the very beginning, but in no time, he showed his natural talent.

"Except for doing some somersaults on the ground, I knew nothing about the aerials at the beginning," Han said. "I have to learn all the basic skills, such as skiing, swimming and inline skating. When I touched skiing, I learned very fast and I realized that I could do the sport well in the future."

Rising for gold

Only four years after picking up the aerials, Han took the silver medal at the Ninth National Winter Games in 1999 and won his first national champion one year later.

In 2000, he made his World Cup debut as one of the best men's aerialists in the national team, but the young talent soon hit a major hurdle with a serious knee injury.

By the end of 2001, just two months before the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games, Han tore his right knee ligament during a training session, which sent him to the hospital.

"When my coach and team-mates went abroad for competitions, I had to lay on the bed alone, so I felt extremely upset and even thought of retiring," said Han. "But leaving the platform like that was not the result that I wanted, so I did not give up."

Enduring the injury, Han competed in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, finishing only 24th. Although he failed to qualify for the final, Han got much encouragement from his first Olympic experience.

"Managing to jump from the triple kicker with such a severe injury, I gained much confidence at that time and I promised to train harder while back in China and try to taste a medal four years later," Han said.

Working for his Olympic dream, Han made improvements step by step in the following year.

He ranked third in the World Cup series final standings during the 2004/05 season and finished second at the World Cup Czech stage just before the Turin Games.

The victory in Turin will be sure to encourage him to go higher and higher.

"The gold medal means we Chinese could also be the best in the snow event, and it will light the hope of all the Chinese athletes that are doing the snow events," Han said.

"We will become more confident, and the snow events would draw more and more attention from the country."

Source: China Daily