The program if the Olympic Winter Games has developed over a long period of time, with some sports or disciplines disappearing and others being added. Some, such as curling, which was an Olympic event 1924, have recently returned. Others, including ski jumping and figure skating, have barely changed and remain part of the program. Figure skating is the only sport which has always been open to women while, in contrast, ski jumping and Nordic combined are stiil men-only events.

China made its debut in Lake Placid Winter Olympics. However China did not take any medal until the 1992 Albertville Olympics when Ye Qiaobo finished second in both the women's 500m and 1000m speed skating and Li Yan took the silver in women's 500m short speed skating event.

Since then, China has collected a bundle of silver and bronze medals in winter Olympics and became the only country that has collected 10 silvers and 4 bronzes without a gold medal in winter Olympics.

In 1994 and 1998 winter Olympics, Chinese short track speed skaters were on the edge to break the gold-jinx but missed in final seconds in several distances.

In 2002 Salt Lake Games, Yang Yang spent 44.187 seconds to cross the finish line first in the women's 500 meters short track speed skating, winning the gold medal that China has been longing for more than two decades in winter Olympics. One week later, Yang Yang won the women's 1000m short track speed skating race, giving its seconds gold medal.

The 2006 Torino Winter Olympics came to a close on Sunday, Feb. 26. While China's 11 Olympic medals seem to pale in comparison to the 63 medals won by Chinese athletes in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics Games, China accomplished great things at the games in Torino, Italy.

Han Xiaopeng

Han Xiaopeng made history by winning a gold medal in Freestyle Skiing Aerials, the first Chinese gold in a snow event at a winter games. Xiaopeng, 22, is the youngest man ever to win aerials gold medal. This win was more shocking due to the face that he had never before qualified for a final. Nina Li won silver in women's aerials. The rest of the Chinese winter medals were won on the ice. Meng Wang, 20, won a full set of medals in women's short track skating. She won gold in the 500m, silver in the 1000m, and bronze in the 1500m. Teammate Yang Yang won bronze in the 1000m.

Jiajun Li won men's 1500, short track bronze. Two other Chinese women made it to the podium for the 500m speed skating event. Manli Wang captured silver and Ran Hui won bronze. Two Chinese figure skating pairs won Olympic medals: Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang won silver and Xue Shen and Hongbao Zhao won bronze. Shen and Zhao also won bronze in Salt Lake City in 2002, wining the first Olympic pairs medal for China, but were overshadowed by a judging scandal that resulted in co-gold medals for the Russian and Canadian teams. While Shen and Zhao were expected to be gold medal contenders in the Torino games, that forecast changed when Zhao tore his achilles tendon in Aug. 2005. It was amazing that he recovered enough in time to compete in Torino. The bronze medal winning performance was a triumphant return to skating for the pair.

In the 2006 Torino Games, China won 11 medals (2 gold): half of the all-time medals won in the Winter Olympics by China. This is another sign of China's growing athletic strength. With the uptrend in China's winter sports, we believe they will take the world by surprise 2010 Vancouver Games.