Zhang Dan

This article is about the figure skater. For a badminton player, see Zhang Dan (Badminton) .

Zhang Dan
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao at the 2008 World Championships in Gothenburg
nation	People's Republic of China
birthday	4th October 1985
place of birth	Harbin
size	167 cm
Weight	48 kg
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Zhang Hao
society	Harbin Ice Skating Club
Trainer	Yao Bin, Chen Xiaofei, Huan Bing, Sun Lu
choreographer	Lori Nichol, Marina Zujewa, Renée Roca, Igor Spilband
status	resigned
End of career	2012
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 0 × 3 × 1 × VKM medals 2 × 2 × 3 ×
winter Olympics silver Turin 2006 Couples  World figure skating championships bronze Moscow 2005 Couples silver Calgary 2006 Couples silver Gothenburg 2008 Couples silver Los Angeles 2009 Couples Four continents championships bronze Jeonju 2002 Couples bronze Beijing 2003 Couples silver Hamilton 2004 Couples gold Gangneung 2005 Couples silver Goyang 2008 Couples bronze Vancouver 2009 Couples gold Jeonju 2010 Couples
Personal best
Total points 197.82 World Cup 2008  Freestyle 126.58 World Cup 2010  Short program 74.36 World Cup 2008
Placements in the figure skating Grand Prix
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Grand Prix Final 0 3 1  Grand Prix competitions 10 5 3

Zhang Dan ( Chinese  张丹 , Pinyin Zhāng Dān , born October 4, 1985 in Harbin ) is a former Chinese figure skater who started in pair skating .

Zhang, who was born in Harbin, the center of Chinese figure skating, started figure skating at the age of seven. Since 1997, she has competed in pair skating with Zhang Hao for the Harbin Ice Skating Club. Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao are not related. They were trained by Yao Bin , who, together with partner Bo Luan, was the first Chinese participant in World Championships in pair skating in 1980 .

Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan with trainer Yao Bin

Unlike the other two successful Chinese couples Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo and Pang Qing / Tong Jian , Zhang / Zhang already had great success in the junior division. At the Junior World Championships in Oberstdorf in 2000, the couple showed a four-fold throw , the first ever in this competition. In 2001 and 2003 they became junior world champions . They were the first Chinese junior world champions in pair skating. In 2001 and 2002 they also won the Junior Grand Prix Final.

In 2002 Zhang / Zhang made their senior debut. In their first four continents championship , they immediately won the bronze medal. At the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City , they were Eleventh and at their first World Cup Ninth. In 2003 they became Chinese champions in pair skating. They won bronze again at the four continents championship and were able to improve by three places to sixth place at the world championship . In 2004 both championships went up one place. They won the silver medal in the four continents championship and finished fifth in the world championship .

Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao at the 2004 World Cup in Dortmund

The final breakthrough came in 2005. First they won the four continents championship and then they won their first world championship medal with bronze in Moscow . Zhang / Zhang reached their peak so far in 2006, when they won Olympic silver in Turin behind the Russians Tatjana Totmjanina and Maxim Marinin . They placed themselves in front of their higher-ranking and much more experienced compatriots Shen / Zhao and Pang / Tong and that despite a serious fall by Zhang Dan in the freestyle while attempting a thrown quadruple salchow. A few weeks later they also became vice world champions in Calgary behind Pang Qing and Tong Jian . At the world championships in 2008 and 2009 , Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan were runner-up world champions behind Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy . They also won silver and bronze in the four continents championships.

In 2010 they won their second title at the Four Continents Championships, but under weak competition. In their third Olympic Games as well as the World Cup , they finished fifth in victories of their compatriots.

In 2012, Zhang Dan ended her figure skating career. She is studying now.

Results

Pair skating

(with Zhang Hao )

Competition / year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
winter Olympics			11.				2.				5.
World championships			9.	6th	5.	3.	2.	5.	2.	2.	5.
Four continents championships			3.	3.	2.	1.			2.	3.	1.
Junior World Championships	4th	1.		1.
Chinese championships	2.	3.	3.	1.	2.				2.				1.
-
Grand Prix competition / season	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10	10/11	11/12
Grand Prix Final					6th	5.	2.	3.	2.	2.	6th		4th
Skate America				4th	3.	1.	1.				3.		2.
Skate Canada								1.
Cup of Russia					3.	1.			1.	1.
Eric Bompard Trophy				4th	1.				1.
NHK Trophy							1.	2.
Cup of China						2.				1.	2.		2.

Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, 2009

Web links

Commons : Zhang Dan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao in the database of the International Skating Union (English)
• Zhang Dan in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Official website