China coach pondering over hefty contract extension

China's coach Li Yan (top) celebrates with team members after Zhou Yang (left) defended her women's 1,500m short track speed skating Olympic title in Sochi February 15, 2014.  [Photo/Xinhua]

SOCHI - Chinese short track speed skating coach Li Yan, who has been reportedly paid between 2 and 4 million yuan (328,000 and 656,000 US dollars) every year, has yet to decide on contract extension.

"We respect whatever decision she makes," a top Chinese sports official told Xinhua's CNC TV on Friday night.

"Li Yan's contract will end in the middle of this year and we give full recognition to her work as China head coach," said Xiao Tian, vice minister of the State General Administration of Sport.

The world champion-turned coach, who had led American Apolo Anton Ohno to end South Korea's dominance in the men's 500m in the 2006 Olympics, quit as U.S. head coach and took the helm of the struggling Chinese team in May 2006.

Li, who masterminded China's clean sweep of four women's titles in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, led the team to a record medal haul of six including two golds in the Sochi Games.

Reports said Li was paid over 600,000 yuan (98,400 US dollars) annually before the 2010 Olympics and 2 million after, while Chongqing Morning Post has disclosed Li's annual income was 4 million instead of 2, citing a short track speed skating source.

Li has once confronted a Chinese newspaper on the leak of her earnings, saying: "How much my contract is worth is a secret, only known to a few heads of the Chinese winter sports administrative center."

The 47-year-old Li had the butterflies in the stomach until Zhou Yang won the women's 1,500m gold medal, China's second short track gold. Li Jianrou had earlier snatched a lucky 500m victory after three other finalists crashed in front of the Chinese.

Li shed happy a tear in front of Xiao Tian after the 1,500m win and has become more talkative to media since.

China had set a short track target of two gold medals, given the stunning withdrawal of four-time Olympic champion Wang Meng, who fractured her ankle in pre-Olympics training.

Xiao Tian hailed Li Yan as a representative of the top Chinese short track coaches whose hard work has raised China to a short track world power.

"Li Yan went to college after retirement as an athlete and had been coaching in east Europe, later in the United States," said Xiao.