Ann Zhang

Ann Zhang (born June 21, 1957 in Beijing ) is a Chinese short track coach who has been the coach of the Australian short track team since 1996.

Zhang, who lives in Brisbane , Australia began her coaching career as the junior coach of the New South Wales selection in 1992. Four years later, she was promoted to Australia's national coach. At that time, the country's short track department had already achieved considerable success, including the first medal for Australia at the Winter Olympics , a bronze medal in the relay at the Games in Lillehammer in 1994 . After Zhang took over the team, an Australian short tracker was able to finish fourth in the Short Track World Cup in 1996 . However, Zhang achieved his greatest success as a coach at the Olympic Games. While the season that qualified for this in 1998 did not defend the medal, the short track delegation took part very successfully in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City . Very surprisingly, Steven Bradbury won the first Olympic gold medal for his country, and the season also reached sixth place. Four years later in Turin another top result failed in the individual races, but the relay was again sixth.

Web links

• Profile on owia.org ( Memento from August 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )