Yang's first major international success came at the
2002 Asian Games where, aged only 18, he won two gold C-2 medals with
Wang Bing. At the
2003 world championships in
Gainesville, USA he was the youngest of the individual C-1 1000m finalists, finishing a very creditable seventh overall. At the start of the 2004 season he formed a new C-2 partnership with the more experienced
Meng, working under
Canadian coach
Marek Ploch. On their first international appearance together in
Komatsu, Japan, they shocked observers by posting a 500 m time of 1:40.27. Then, in June, they won the prestigious
Duisburg World Cup. At the Olympic Games in
Athens, they were drawn in the toughest heat alongside all the main medal contenders. They won the heat in a time of 1:38.916, almost a full second ahead of Cubans
Rojas and
Ledys Balceiro. The final was much closer with less than a second separating the first eight contenders but Meng and Yang again came out on top, beating the Cuban pair to win the gold medal. After the Olympics, Yang returned to the C-1. At the
2005 World Championships in
Zagreb, Croatia he raced over all three distances, despite the new compressed schedule, and finished sixth (500 m), seventh (1000 m) and tenth (200 m). At the
2006 World Championships in
Szeged, Hungary, Yang concentrated on the shorter distance events. He won the C-1 500 m bronze medal, China's first-ever men's world championship medal, and finished fifth in the C-1 200 m. Yang won another bronze in the C-1 500 m event at the
following world championships in Duisburg. Meng and Yang defended their Olympic title four years later despite their boat
capsizing at the finish line after their win. Yang is tall and weighs . ==References==