Ann Zhang (; born 21 June 1957) is a retired

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

short track athlete and coach, who worked as the coach of the Australian short track team from 1996 to 2014.

Early life

Zhang Yuanyuan was born on 21 June 1957. She hails from

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

. According to her Facebook profile, she studied at

Harbin Sport University Harbin Sport University () is a university in Harbin, China, working with research on health and sports. In 2015, the announcement of a new Olympic winter sports center was made, to be set up at Harbin Sport University. The Harbin Sport Universit ...

from 1981 to 1985. In 1988 she immigrated to Australia. Initially she took other jobs while she was teaching skating in sports clubs.

Coaching career

Zhang, living in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, began her coaching career as the junior coach of the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

selection in 1992. Four years later she was promoted to become the Australia national coach. At that time, the country's short track team had already achieved considerable success, including the first medal for Australia at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, a bronze medal in the relay at the Games in

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

in 1994. After Zhang took over the team, an Australian short tracker was able to finish fourth in the Short Track World Cup in 1996. Zhang achieved her greatest successes as a coach at the Olympic Games. The short track team was successful in the 2002 Games in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Steven Bradbury Steven John Bradbury OAM (born 14 October 1973) is an Australian former short track speed skater and four-time Olympian. He won the 1,000 m event at the 2002 Winter Olympics after all of his opponents were involved in a last-corner pile-u ...

surprisingly won the first Winter Olympics gold medal for his country. On 15 April 2014, Zhang stepped down as the Australian head coach and retired. In 2019, Zhang briefly worked as an interim coach for the Singaporean national team.

References

External links

* Australian female short track speed skaters Chinese female short track speed skaters 1957 births Living people Sportspeople from Heilongjiang {{Australia-sport-bio-stub