Li Yan (speed skater)
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's short track speed skating | ||
Representing  China
|
||
| Olympic Games | ||
 |
1992 Albertville | 500 m |
| Asian Winter Games | ||
 |
1990 Sapporo | 1500 m |
Li Yan (Chinese: 李琰, born September 8, 1968) is a Chinese Short track speed skating coach and also a retired skater. She competed in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics for China. She has coached for Slovakia, for a short time the Club USSV in Vienna and the United States. After the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, she came back to China and became the head coach of Chinese national short track speed skating team. In 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games, her team won 6 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals in total. In May 16, 2014, a press release provided by the Chinese Skating Association announced that "Li would remain as the head coach of the Chinese short track team until the Pyeongchang Games".
She was born in the city of Dalian in Liaoning Province. and as she was two years old, moved to Baoquanling collective farm in Heilongjiang where her father worked as a military officer. She attended the local school, which maintained a speed skating team. From that team she was recruited to attend a sports school in Jiamusi in 1979. According to her coach in Jiamusi, He Peicheng, Li trained very hard and could withstand extremely cold temperatures. "She would cry but she would finish all of her exercises." In 1982, she finished second at a national youth speed skating competition.
Li joined China's national short track speed skating team in 1987. In 1988, when short track speed skating first appeared at the Winter Olympics in Calgary as a demonstration sport, she competed and won the 1000m and finished third in the 500m and 1500m events.
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