Photo: Li Hao/GT

China's top sports authority sent congratulations to Chinese skater Gao Tingyu, who bagged a gold medal while also setting a new Olympic record in speed skating men's 500 meters competition on Saturday.

"Gao has conducted an excitingly fast and excellent performance at the National Speed Skating Oval. And the March of the Volunteers [China's national anthem] will be played again inside the stadium," said the message from the General Administration of Sport congratulating the national speed skating team for Gao's success shortly after the competition.

This is also the fourth gold medal for Team China at the ongoing Beijing Olympic Winter Games and the first Olympic gold in the country's speed skating history.

Gao, 24,  finished with a time of 34.32 seconds, followed by South Korean Cha Min-kyu (34.39) and Japanese Morishige Wataru (34.49). China's Yang Tao ranked 21.

Photo: Li Hao/GT

In 2018, the highly potential Gaol already won a bronze medal at Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea, as he said after the win in  Pyeongchang: "I feel like that my capacity has reached the point where I can compete for Olympic medals. As long as I'm in a stable state of mind, I think for me the opponent is only myself."

Gao has won championships in various competitions ever since he was admitted into China's national speed skating team in 2015.

He has suffered from severe back injuries and had an eight-month break before competing in the China Speed Skating Championship in 2021, winning  gold.

Gao was also the national flag bear at the opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 on February 4.

"It is a great honor to be the flag bearer of Team China. It is the role that I've always dreamed of playing and I just want to show my best at speed skating's arena," he shared on Chinese social media Sina Weibo after the opening ceremony.

Global Times