China's skating legend Yang Yang (A) will lead the country's quest for gold one last time in 'the final battle of Turin', as the Chinese team are calling the upcoming Winter Olympics. The 30-year-old short track speed skater became a national icon on ice when she won China's first-ever gold medals at a Winter games, taking the 500 metres and the 1,000 metres in Salt Lake City in 2002. She retired after the Salt Lake City games and spent a year studying English in the United States before returning to China, where she is now finishing a business management degree in Tsinghua University. But with the Turin Olympics looming it was not difficult for her coaches to coax her into donning her skates once more. 'I am still young and in good condition,' she said. 'When I was absent from the rink I found I missed it very much. I knew that if I was only a spectator for the Turin Olympics I would be very sad.' While she is reluctant to make personal medal predictions, she says she still has plenty of confidence in her ability. 'I wouldn't have come back to the team if I didn't think I could put in a very good performance in Turin,' she said. Her experience will also be invaluable to her young teammates. Yang took two individual silver medals in the Nagano games in 1998, and not only won two golds four years later but set an Olympic record in the process. She has also led her team to two Olympic silvers in the relay event. In international circles she carries the letter (A) after her name to distinguish her from her teammate who is known as Yang Yang (S). The Chinese characters for their names are different, but the phonetic version is the same. 'S' stands for small, the story goes, and the Olympic champion was meant to be known as 'L', for large, but the slim young lady from Harbin took umbrage and opted for 'A' instead. Going into the last two Olympic games, Yang of the A variety said she felt highly stressed, weighed down by the expectations of her coaches, the media and the public who all wanted to savour the glory of Winter Olympic gold for the first time. But now that she has already made the breakthrough she is taking a more relaxed approach to this event and is determined to enjoy the moment. 'All that mattered before was to win gold, which really put pressure on me,' she said. 'This time around I'm much more relaxed. I think that is better preparation.' In Salt Lake City, China's short track speed skaters won a total of two gold medals, two silver and four bronze. Team coach Xin Qingshan said yesterday that while his team have improved in the past four years, so has the competition, 'so it will be tougher this time round'. The women's team will probably lead the medal charge again, led by Yang Yang (A) and rising star Wang Meng, he said. 'At this stage, I can only confidently predict we will take home one gold medal. We will try for more of course,' said Xin.