Yang Jingru (speed skater)

Yang Jingru (born 10 July 2006) is a Chinese speed skater who won the gold medal for short track speed skating at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics – Women's 1500 metres.

Early life
Born in 2006 in Qitaihe city in Heilongjiang, Yang was raised by her grandmother as her parents worked away from home. She attended Changxing School in Qitaihe where she joined the school's skating team. Both her parents and grandmother were not supportive in her decision to do skating but due to her persistence, they agreed with her decision. She later trained at a short track speed skating school in Qitaihe.

Sports career
On 18 December 2022, at the 3rd Russian–Chinese Winter Youth Games in Changchun, China, the Chinese team consisting of Yang, Sun Yiming, Pang Siyu, Hou Yuming and Wang Jiajing won first place in the women's 3000m short track speed skating relay competition.

Yang won in the U-19 women's 1000m short track speed skating at the National Skating U Series Inter-school League which was held in Hulunbuir, China in February 2023. On March 5, she won the women's 1500m in the 2022-2023 National Short Track Speed Skating Youth Championship held in Qitaihe. At the 15th Heilongjiang Provincial Games on April 2023, Yang won the gold medal for women's 1000m short track speed skating.

On October 2023, she won the championship in the women's 1500m group A of the China Cup Short Track Speed Skating Elite League Youth Group in Qitaihe. At the 14th Chinese National Winter Games taking place in Hulunbuir on January 2024, Yang won third place at women's 1500m with a time of a time of 2:29.103 and at the women's 3000m at the games, the Heilongjiang team consisting of Yang, Yan Tongyao, Lin Jingyi, Yang Jingru, Wang Kexin and Li Jing, won second place with a time of 4:18.422. In the group A of women's 1500m at the games, she won first place with a time of 1 minute 30.770 seconds.

At the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea on 20 January 2024, she won gold medal in the 1500m finals with a time of 2 minutes 33.148 seconds, which was the first gold medal won by a member of the Chinese sports delegation at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games. During the game, Yang and her teammate Li Jinzi employed a tactic called 'rabbit tactic'. Considered as a 'genius trick' by sports reporter James Dator of SB Nation, it involved Yang accelerating suddenly and swiftly gliding past all of her competition before she lapped the full field while in the remaining 10 laps she maintained her position in the back of other competitors. With the exception of Yang's teammate Li, all of the competitors believed they had one lap remaining when the last lap bell went off for Yang. The competitors then completed the race. After patiently waiting at the back, Yang finished first while Li finished second. The TikTok account of the International Olympic Committee posted the footage from the game, praising it for the "incredible strategy", with the video receiving a viewership of over 10 million. On January 21, in the 1000m finals at the games, Yang won silver medal with a time of 1 minute 40.996 seconds. On January 24, in the final of the mixed 2000m relay at the games, the Chinese team consisting of Yang, Li Jinzi, Zhang Baihao and Zhang Xinzhe won the gold medal with a time of two minutes 46.516 seconds.

On February 18, at the third ISU Junior Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Heerenveen, Netherlands, she won first place with a time of 2:21.73.

Other honors
On 25 April 2024, the Heilongjiang Federation of Trade Unions awarded her the 'Heilongjiang Province May 1st Labor Medal'.