Wang Meng has one Winter Olympics gold medal -- China's first at Turin -- and with three races to go here, won't rest on her success.
"I haven't turned off the power," Wang said on Wednesday after winning the 500-meter short track final. The big favorite, Wang held off Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova by the length of a skate.
"It was challenging," Wang said. "It was very close at the end."
Anouk LeBlanc-Boucher of Canada took the bronze, getting to the line ahead of China's Fu Tianyu by an even smaller margin. It didn't matter when Fu was disqualified for cross-drafting.
The 20-year-old Wang is skating in her first Olympics and won all four World Cup races in the 500 this season.
For the Chinese, though, so much had gone wrong already that nothing could be taken for granted, especially in the thrills-and-spills sport of short track speedskating.
On Tuesday, Wang Manli was a hot favorite in the women's long track 500 and she failed to handle the pressure, taking a silver.
A day earlier, Zhang Dan had a spectacular crash in the final of the figure skating pair's competition, effectively ending any hope to earn gold with her partner Zhang Hao.
Wang Meng, however, fulfilled all expectations of her nation, getting off the line first and holding the lead the rest of the way.
The only crash she took was when she was already on her victory lap and her skate got tangled in the Chinese flag, sending her tumbling to the ice.
For the reigning World Cup champion, things did not seem as clearcut as the pictures of the final made out.
"Because it is the Olympics, it was special," Wang said. "I was very tense in my mind. Before I have never had a case of nerves but this was different from the world championships and the World Cup."
The gold pushed China up in the medal standings into seventh position with six medals overall, better than traditional Winter Games nations such as Canada and the Netherlands.
It also showed China's growing strength in the event.
Since the sport was introduced in 1992, North Americans won every title until Yang Yang got the first Chinese gold in Salt Lake City. This year Yang failed to make the team for the 500, leaving Wang to shine in her first Olympics.
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