Factbox-Olympics-China's Top 10 Winter Olympic greats

BEIJING (Reuters) - The following is a look at China's top 10 Winter Olympic greats.

    YE QIAOBO (SPEED SKATING)

Ye won China's first ever Winter Olympics medal, a silver in the 500 metres at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France. Ye, originally from the northeastern province of Jilin, won a second silver, in the 1000m, at the same Games.

    At the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, she gained extra plaudits at home by overcoming the pain of an ongoing knee injury to win a bronze medal, also in the 1000m.

YANG YANG (A) (SHORT-TRACK SPEED SKATING)

    Yang Yang (A) won China's first ever Winter Olympics gold medal, in the 500m at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. She followed it up with another gold at the same Games, making her the first short track speed skater of any nationality to win more than one gold at a Winter Games.

    In total Yang, originally from Heilongjiang province, is a five-time Olympic medallist and six-time Overall World Champion.

    The bracketed (A) after her name refers to her birth month, August. It is often used to differentiate her from fellow Chinese short track speed skater and sometimes rival, Yang Yang (S), who was born in September. Though spelled the same in the romanised alphabet their names use different Chinese characters.

    After retirement Yang Yang (A) became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was part of the Beijing 2022 bid-winning team and appointed Vice President of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

    SHEN XUE AND ZHAO HONGBO (FIGURE SKATING)

    Shen and Zhao were household names in China but became even more famous after they won the country's first figure skating Olympic gold medal in the pairs at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

    Shen and Zhao,