History-making Gao hopes for gold in Beijing 2022

PYEONGCHANG - Gao Tingyu has set his sight on Beijing 2022 after becoming the first Chinese male speed skater to win a medal at the Winter Olympics on Monday.

The 20-year-old gave China a wonderful surprise as he snatched a bronze medal in the men's 500m with a time of 34.65 seconds, 0.23 behind the winner, Havard Lorentzen of Norway.

"I feel very honoured to have this breakthrough," he said. "But I haven't had time to think about it more beyond that."

However, the dark horse believed that he could have done better if he had not be affected by a false start by Japanese Joji Kato, whom he was paired with, as well as the fall of Poland's Artur Nogal earlier.

"Of course those happenings affected me," he said. "It seems that I had everything in one event - a false start, and someone falling.

"It gave me a fright, and I didn't really dare to go all out."

"It wasn't my best performance. As for the Beijing Olympic Games, I want the gold," he added.

Gao was 10th in the 2017 world single distances championships and his best performance in the 2017-18 season was fifth in the World Cup held in Salt Lake City.

While targeting a top-eight finish before the Games, he actually believed that he had a shot at the gold.

"In this event, especially the 500m, the top 16 can all contend for the gold," he said.