Topic: Yang Yang

Yang Yang (A) in Montreal, 2002.

Yang Yang (Chinese: 楊揚; born 24 August 1976 in Harbin, China) is an Olympic short track speed skater. She is currently a member of the Chinese national short track team. Most notably, her victory in the women's 500 m short track at the 2002 Winter Olympics made her China's first-ever Winter Olympics gold medalist. She added a second gold in the women's 1000 m short track at the same Games.

By coincidence, she had a contemporary on the Chinese skating team also named Yang Yang. The "(A)" identifier was used as a way to distinguish her from the other Yang Yang. Originally, this Yang Yang was known as Yang Yang (L) for "large" (大 or 'big' in Chinese is used to distinguish between younger and older persons of roughly the same age), as she is older than Yang Yang (S) (for "small"); however, she objected to the "L" identifier, changing it to "A" for "August", her birth month. Although Yang Yang (S) is now retired from competition and there is no longer a need to distinguish between the two in results, Yang Yang (A) still uses the identifier in competition, considering it a part of her identity.