Stretching during warm-up exercises outside the ice rink, Yang Yang (A), China's first ever Winter Olympic gold medallist, watches her young proteges going through their paces.

She is back in training and hopes to gain another gold medal to go with the one she won at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games. And she is out to prove herself again despite rumours of her retirement at 29.

"I'm a freshman on the ice now and I'm still young," said the short track speed skating Queen. "I still feel excited while standing at the starting line."

After breaking the gold medal jinx at Winter Olympic Games for China in 2002 by winning two individual gold in 500m and 1,000m race, Yang chose one-year away from the ice to pursue her studies in the US, which was considered by most of the people be her retirement.

"After the 2002 Winter Olympics, I found that I had to force myself onto the ice every time," Yang recalled. "So, I decided to leave myself a period of time to think carefully about whether to continue my skating career or not. I chose a temporary rest from daily training."

She dominated the World Championships for 6 years straight (1997-2002), reaching 22 of 24 possible finals and winning 15 of them and pocketing two Winter Olympic gold medals. Yang attained all the glory that is going on the track.

It seems that studying abroad is a reasonable chance for her to retire at a suitable time. While, to the surprise of most of the people, after an absence of a year from competitions during the 2003-04 season, Yang stood on the ice again at the 2004-05 season-opening International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup.

"I have asked myself many times whether I want to continue my skating or not. Finally I followed the voice from the bottom of my heart and yes, I'm still eager to stand on the track," Yang said. "As my I get older, I have begun to treasure my sporting life."

Yang is also needed urgently by the national team, which is another reason for her return.

"With the team calling me back as well, I feel the value of myself," said the smiling Yang. "Although most of my friends and relatives disagreed with my return for the consideration of my physical situation, age, and the possibility of failure, I decided to return.

"I won't mind much by how the others look at me. I'll just compete for myself. I believe the people who support me will always understand me."

However, the decision to return means she'll face difficulties.

"My physical condition is not as before," admitted Yang. "But I can adjust my mind properly. I'm now a freshman on the short track and I will treasure every day on the ice. I won't put much of the attention on results, but cherish the process that I strive through."

With the rare appearance of skaters at Yang's generation, such as her former relay teammates Yang Yang (S), Wang Chunlu and Sun Dandan, most of the team members in the national team at present are at the age of around 20, about ten years younger than her. Therefore, how to communicate with these young teammates is another subject for her to confront.

"I have worried much about how to get along with these young team members before coming back, because I'm afraid of some kind of generation gap between us," said Yang. "My forthright personality, which may cause direct blame on them, is another obstacle I have to overcome."

After four months training with the team, Yang's characteristic support of others helped her a lot in making personal contract with younger members.

"I was accustomed to pointing out others' weakness directly before," said Yang, who sets their practice drills in the relay race. "Now I have changed to a mild tone to praise these youngsters and then encourage them to do better."

At the beginning of Yang's rejoining the team in July, her glorious podium history has left some doubts on weather she could do the training as hard as before to some young skaters.

With nearly four months' pass, Yang's actions have answered the suspicion vividly.

"Her training intensity is the same with us and sometimes she practised even harder," said Wang Meng, who is only 19 years' old and considered as the new leader of China's women's team. "We admired her much and her spirit has taught us a lot."

The team coaches and officials agree.

"Although Yang stills need time to reach her best competitive situation, she has set a good example to those young skaters in the team," said the team's head coach Xin Qingshan. "Her rich experience in the competitions could help them a lot."

Up to now, those young skaters always go to Yang for suggestion or guides before or after every race. Yang is also happy with the progress made by her followers.

"Before the 1,500m finals of the first leg of the world cup, Wang came to me for advice initiative," said Yang. "I'm very happy with it and of course told her everything that I know."

Wang finally beat three South Koreans with her teammate Wang Wei, by right tactics and won her first gold in the tournament.

Hard study

Besides training, Yang also continues her study at Tsinghua University at the same time.

"Even though I experienced a hard time during the one-year study in the US, I still want to finish it by myself," Yang said. "Actually, it is easy for me to get a degree or a graduation certificate, but I want to learn some real knowledge. That's why I chose such a strict university as Tsinghua to pursue my bachelor degree."

She is now studying by doing some research and paper work outside classes.

"Although it may take much more years than other regular students, I will be sure to make unremitting efforts to conclude my study with a real degree," Yang added.

Stumbling twice at her first returning final in Harbin, which cost the team's 3,000m relay medal in the world cup, predicted a likely difficult future of her comeback. But Yang does not care about the failure.

"I'm a person who will seek for perfection all the time," she said. "I know that there will be more stumbles waiting for me. But I will go on with my ice dream."