OLYMPICS: Germany's Wolf leads pack of Asians in 500m

Posted: Feb 15, 2:56a ET | Updated: Feb 15, 2:57a ET

Three-time world champ favored to win Tuesday's sprint showdown

VANCOUVER (AFP) -- China's Wang Beixing leads a pack of Asian contenders hoping to claim the continent's first women's Olympic speed skating gold medal in Tuesday's 500m final, but a lone Wolf could beat them all.

Germany's Jenny Wolf , the three-time reigning world champion and world record-holder, will be favored in the sprint showdown at the same oval where she forced Wang to settle for a fourth consecutive 500m runner-up finish.

Related to this article

Slideshows

• 

  Jenny Wolf on the ice

  German Olympic speed skater Jenny Wolf over the years.

• Wang Beixing on the ice

"I set a track record here. I think I can go faster this time," Wolf said. "I feel very well. I'm in good shape. I'm pretty confident."

South Korea's Lee Sang-Hwa and Japan's Nao Kodaira are also medal contenders in the event and while Wolf is the woman to beat at her favourite distance, she realizes the gap between her and Asian rivals is shrinking.

"Wang and Lee are really fast. They are catching up," Wolf said. "Sometimes they are faster than me this year, so I hope in the Olympics I will be the best."

Wolf, 31, set the world record of 37 seconds last December in a World Cup race at Salt Lake City, lowering her old mark from Calgary in 2007 by 0.02 seconds in a bid for her fifth consecutive World Cup 500m crown.

"I'm doing nothing special for the Olympics. I'm doing the same thing as the last three years," Wolf said.

"It's a little bit difficult because normally the biggest competition is in March. This year it's in February so we had to adjust our training."

Wang, coached by Canadian 1998 500m bronze medallist Kevin Crockett, was second to Wolf at the past three world championships and in 2005 to compatriot and idol Wang Manli, the 2006 Turin Olympic runner-up at 500m who has come the closest to a golden Asian breakthrough in Olympic speedskating.

This season, Wang has won races at Berlin and Salt Lake City. Wang, 24, and hopes to improve upon her seventh-place Olympic showing at Turin, again one spot behind Wolf.

Lee, who turns 21 on February 25, was fifth at the Torino Games as well as third at the worlds last year and in 2005 but she has not won a World Cup race since 2007.

Kodaira, 23, cracked her first 500, World Cup podium this season by finishing third at Berlin and stands fourth in the points chase this season.

View AFP Article on NBC Olympics