What's the meaning of the "dark horse"? It's someone who wins when no one expects it.
Han Xiaopeng took China's first gold on snow. He became an Olympic "dark horse" by winning the gold medal in men's freestyle aerial skiing (自由式滑雪空中技巧) at Turin in Italy. He made two almost perfect jumps for the highest score. Han had never won a world gold medal before, let alone (更不用说) in the Olympics!
"I never thought this would happen," said the 23-year-old. "I feel like I'm in a dream." It's China's second gold medal at the Turin Olympics. But more important, Han's gold was the country's first ever in a snow sport. In 2002, China's Yang Yang won the gold for speed skating at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, US.
Han's win was unexpected but it doesn't mean that he didn't work hard.
Han grew up in Jiangsu Province. Before he started his training on snow, he used to be an acrobat (杂技演员) at a circus. In 1995, a coach found his talent (才能). The coach, Yang Er'qi, said Han had the agility (灵活性) and courage to be a ski jumper. When Yang first took the 12-year-old boy to northern China, he couldn't swim, skate or ski. But he wasn't afraid of the high platform (跳台) and kept on training.
Han almost left the sport after hurting his knee months before the Salt Lake Games. In that Olympics he only got 24th. "I was hopeless at that time, but my family and the coach stood behind me firmly, helping me through," he recalled.
Han Xiaopeng worked so hard that he won the gold medal in the Olympics at last. Because of his success, more and more people in China are becoming interested in skiing. We are proud of him and we hope he will have another big success in the next winter Olympics.
