LI Jinyu Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About 2018 Olympics Silver Medalist Skater

China is dominating the world, economic wise, and the country is also involving itself with the activities of the world including international games. China was represented by some of its best athletes in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games that concluded last month. One of the athletes who raised China’s flag high was Li Jinyu, who managed to get a silver medal at the events. Jinyu is a skater, and she speaks Mandarin. She helped China move up in the medal standings after she won the country's fourth silver medal. Jinyu’s fans were excited with her win, and after she posted a photo of herself holding her medal on Instagram, congratulatory messages started flowing in. 17-year-old Li JInyu was born in Heilongjiang, China and she started skating when she was just a little girl. It quickly became her hobby, and soon she had mastered every aspect piece of it. Jinyu took up speed skating in 2007, and she has specialized in it ever since. The skater has won many medals and made a considerable net worth from her skating career. She has never won a gold medal in an international event, but who can tell what the future holds? Currently, she has won three World Championship medals, namely two bronze and one silver medal. Her next big medal was at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games where she got the second silver medal of her career. Li Jinyu’s most memorable achievement was bagging a gold medal at the 2017 Harbin Game. Her hero is Zhou Yang, who is a Chinese short track skater, while her biggest influence is her coach, Li Yan.

Li Jinyu surprised her home country after she claimed the fourth silver medal for China in the women’s 1500 meters short track speed skating event at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. The favorite, South Korean Choi Min-Jeong, bagged the gold medal before the South Korean audience, which included the country’s president, Moon Jae-in. The Canadian skater, Kim Boutin, claimed the bronze medal. Li Jinyu was qualified to move to the finals after she fell to the ice due to the crash with Britain’s Elise Christie in the semifinals. She stayed all the way behind the pacesetters and only passed Boutin before reaching the last bend to finish in second place. China has eyed gold medals from short track speed skating, with nine coming from women’s events. The Chinese short trackers had been held back from the finals in both men’s and women’s events, but Jinyu changed China’s fate. Her coach, Li Yan, said that Jinyu’s medal was a great encouragement for the Chinese team. Jinyu said that she wasn’t nervous or excited in the final and even after coming second, she wasn’t feeling any excitement at all. The first thing her coach told her after the race was that she had done it well and she knew she was good. Jinyu wore her blue-rimmed glasses, and kept her hair short, looking like a high school student, and she held a white tiger mascot as she addressed the Chinese journalists. She told them that she didn’t feel any pressure from her coach. However, he was telling her that she wasn’t worse than the other skaters and asked her to be more active in the race. Jinyu followed his advice and skated really well. The defending champion, the Chinese Zhou Yang, came eighth and another Chinese, Han Yutong, came ninth. Li Jinyu is the youngest member of the Chinese women’s team, and her teammates nicknamed her “Li, the Little.” Zhou, who has won the Olympic gold medal twice, is Jinyu’s icon and she has given Jinyu a lot of support. Jinyu felt secure when Zhou was around and she always feels the power of the more senior athlete when she speaks to her. Therefore, Jinyu refused to take the title, “successor of Zhou.”

Elise Christie faces some criticism for her skating style, which she describes as gung-ho, after her high-speed collision with Chinese skater Li Jinyu. There were also some concerns about her mental health due to her three disqualifications in the Sochi Olympics. However, Christie's coach insisted that she was mentally sound and she would do her best in the next event. After Christie crashed into Jinyu in the semi-finals, she was taken to the hospital and the Chinese skater qualified for the finals right away. It was a blow to Britain to lose their skater as the country anticipated her win. She suffered some soft tissue damage in her right ankle but didn’t have any broken bones, and the British Olympic officials stated that she didn’t experience any mental scars despite the high-speed smash. Christine then posted a picture of her exercising on a bike before the next event which was scheduled for that following Tuesday.

Li Jinyu’s net worth is not clear, but now that she has won a medal, she will get sponsorships from some of the biggest companies in China and start making a respectable net worth. Athletes like her who have bagged several medals have a net worth starting at $1 million.

The future looks promising for Li Jinyu after she defeated her role model. Some good practice and motivation can help her secure a gold medal in the next Olympics. Follow and check her photos on Instagram.