China's top winter Olympian faces anxious Sochi wait

China's short track speed skater Wang Meng China's most decorated winter Olympian faces an anxious wait to see if she can participate in the Sochi Games following a "successful" operation on a broken ankle, sports officials said on Friday. Short track speed skater Wang Meng suffered a "double fracture" when she collided with a male team-mate while training in Shanghai on Thursday, a statement from China's General Administration of Sport said.
"A fracture needs time to heal and whether or not she can participate in the Winter Olympics is still unknown," an unnamed doctor from Huashan Hospital was quoted as saying in the statement.
Such injuries commonly take six weeks to heal and also need a "rehabilitation process", the doctor said, without giving further details, although medical staff were quoted describing the surgery as "very successful".
The Sochi Games begin in three weeks on February 7, and Wang had been expected to start competing with the women's 500m speed skating event from February 11.
The loss of the 28-year-old star skater would be a bitter blow for China, as she took three of the national team's five gold medals at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
There, the current overall world champion won the 500m, 1,000m and 3,000m relay.
She also won the 500m gold at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006 -- she is the current world record holder at the distance -- along with the 1,000m silver and 1,500m bronze.
The skater, from the icy northeastern province of Heilongjiang, has a temper as fiery as her often dyed-red hair.
She has had several run-ins with the nation's sports authorities, who banned her from the national team for brawling with her manager in a drink-fuelled clash in 2011.
Source: AFP