From being a torchbearer at the world’s top sporting event to competing in her first Winter Olympics race, cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang experienced two memorable moments in just 18 hours.
Dinigeer, 20, and Zhao Jiawen, 21, a men’s Nordic combined athlete, jointly lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on Friday.
Born into a family of skiers, Dinigeer grew up in Altay prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where a rock painting of people hunting on skis was discovered in 2005. Chinese experts estimated the painting was at least 10,000 years old, leading Altay to be widely recognized as the earliest known “origin of skiing”.
Unique geographical and climatic conditions in Altay have made skiing indispensable in local people’s lives. The prefecture has also become the cradle of China’s Alpine and cross-country skiing athletes since the 1980s.
Dinigeer’s father, Yilamujiang Muraj, placed third in a national cross-country skiing competition in 1993. He has been training young people in cross-country skiing since he retired from competition, coaching his daughter and discovering several other athletes.
He is now a member of China’s national cross-country ski coaching team.
Yilamujiang said he has been excited and proud of his daughter since the opening ceremony.
“I’m as happy as my daughter for her to have the opportunity to light the cauldron on the Olympic stage,” he said.
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