Feature: From wheelchair basketballer to Paralympic cross-country champion

CHONGLI, Zhangjiakou, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Beating the most decorated American opponent, China's Para cross-country skier Yang Hongqiong, who used to play wheelchair basketball, fulfilled her dream of a Paralympic gold here on Sunday.

At Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center, a venue shared by cross-country skiing at the Beijing Winter Paralympics, debutant Yang clinched the women's long-distance sitting gold in a narrow win over American star Oksana Masters.

32-year-old Yang finished the 15km race in 43 minutes and 6.7 seconds, followed by Masters of the same age in 43:38.3 and China's Li Panpan in 45:17.0.

"Frankly speaking, I did expect a medal but not a gold," said Yang, who won the fifth gold for host China at the ongoing Games. "I knew the opponents were very competitive."

Masters had swept eight gold medals in the sprint, middle, and long-distance sitting events at world championships since 2017 and was crowned in the Para biathlon women's sprint sitting here on Saturday.

"The Chinese athletes are very surprising. You never see them until the Games. But they're very strong and know how to perform in the right races. They are great competitors," said Masters.

In the first half of the race, the lead went seesaw between Yang and Li, and Masters followed closely. After seven kilometers, Masters overtook Li and competed with Yang tightly until the end but had to settle for a silver with a gap of 32.1 seconds.

"I knew that they (Chinese skiers) did not race yesterday (in Para biathlon) and I did, so that made it a really challenging race," Masters said. "It's great. This will elevate the sport in China for the future."

"With this medal, we've proved that China has unlimited potential for winter sports," said Yang. "For myself, the tears and sweats, all the efforts I put into training, that's what put the gold medal into my hands."

After Beijing, together with Zhangjiakou, won the bid to host the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Yang shifted from a wheelchair basketballer to a Para cross-country skier with the ambition to win glory on home snow.

"The two events are quite different. The outdoor skiing requires more stamina and you have to endure the change of temperature from minus 20 degrees Celsius in winter to 30 degrees Celsius in summer at most," Yang said.

"At the beginning, I had a weakness in vital capacity," she admitted. "But through years of training, I have improved a lot. It is an accumulative process."

"We always train twice a day, 90 minutes for each," she said. "Sometimes, I practiced more in the evening."

Coming from Yunnan, a province in the southwest of China known for its temperate weather, Yang said, "We didn't have conditions for training in Yunnan. It's only when we came to the national team that training on actual snow became accessible."

Before the Beijing Winter Paralympics, the Chinese Para biathlon and cross-country teams warmed up for almost two months in Baiyin of Gansu Province in the northwest of China, which has almost the same altitude and temperature as the Paralympic snow venue in Chongli, Zhangjiakou.

The Chinese Paralympic skiers came to Chongli about one week before the opening ceremony. Yang expressed her heartfelt thanks to the logistics and the Chinese crowd cheering for her during the race.

"They were so lovely. I actually felt worn out in the second half of the race, but then I heard them cheering for me. With that in the background, the more I skied, the more powerful I felt," she said.