In the weeks prior to the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) inspection tour of China following the submission of the east Asian nation's 2022 Winter Olympics bid, one of the country's winter-sports superstars, Yiwei Zhang, has won gold at the U.S. World Grand Prix in Park City, Utah.
Yiwei walked away from the men's snowboard halfpipe event on Sunday as the victor, after he impressed the crowd and commentators with a huge double cork 1,260 for an astonishing 98.00-point final run.
Still in his early 20s, the Chinese snowboard athlete from Gaizhou, Liaoning, is a reluctant champion, explaining to the U.S. media close to one year ago that the sport chose him.
Yiwei was only 11 years of age when he was taken out of gymnastics class at school in his hometown by Chinese Ski Association officials. The young sporting star recalled:
"They wanted to build a snowboarding team for halfpipe and they just needed athletes. I didn't know anything about this sport and had never tried it, but they said it didn't matter."
Yiwei said that he was "the kind of boy who wanted to try new things and see the world," so he made an earnest attempt at snowboarding and fell in love with the snow from the very first time he was released onto the slopes.
His early training period involved studying the way that 2006 and 2010 Olympic gold medalist, Shuan White, moved on a snowboard. Both he and his coaches analyzed White's athletic skill, including how he entered the halfpipe, the way that he placed his edges, and the manner in which he contorted his body for every trick.
Yiwei also tied with Taylor Gold on Sunday for the overall Sprint U.S. Grand Prix tour title.
Meanwhile, Kelly Clark won the women's event at Utah.