Champion speed skater Ye gets creative on canvas

The bamboo painting, explains Ye, symbolizes integrity and unpretentiousness.

"Bamboo is upright, confident and full of vitality. So, I hope that by drawing bamboo, I can bless the athletes at the Winter Games and hope that they have excellent results."

Ye's sporting journey began around Small Heaven Lake of Paektu Mountain but skating was not her first sport. As a sporty 9-year-old, Ye was interested in running and playing table tennis and had not tried winter sports. That's when a coach noticed her ability and her bursts of speed, and urged her into skating.

"I think skating matched my personality, because I love to challenge myself and fight for first place," she says. "Speed was exciting."

The rest, as they say, is history. Ye is renowned not just for her three Olympic medals but also for her resilience. In 1993, in order to compete at Lillehammer 1994, she underwent multiple surgeries on a crushed knee. Still suffering from the injury, she went back on the rink, and won a third Olympic medal in the 1,000m. After the Games, she went back to the operating table to have more chips of crushed bone removed.

Her story influenced and moved a generation of people, and "The Spirit of Qiaobo" is a famous phrase still today.

"Many years after my retirement, the medals and trophies I won became dull, sometimes forgotten in the corner," she concludes. "However, the accolades that I earned through my hard work and dedication always inspire young people who are feeling low, who are lost in hesitation and hard situations, when they are about to give up－this is an unexpected bonus outside the arena, and it is even more significant and valuable than the medal itself."

Drawing parallels between art and sport, she says: "Both require perseverance, persistence and endurance. When I was on the ice, I was very vigorous, determined and disciplined. When I paint, I just let my hand move romantically and spontaneously. The world in my eyes is very delicate and graceful, I also become immersed in the perceptive atmosphere of Zen."

Launched by the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage at Pyeongchang 2018, the Olympian Artists-in-Residence program celebrates the link between sport and culture by offering opportunities to athletes with artistic interests to produce and present new artworks during and between editions of the Olympic Games.