By Short Track Manager
Double Olympic gold medalist Wu Dajing has been named the proposed new head coach of China's national short track speed skating team, according to an official notice published August 12, 2026 by the General Administration of Sport's Winter Sports Management Center (冬运中心) — the government body that oversees the national program.
Wu, 32, retired from competition on January 6, 2026, closing an 18-year career that included three Olympic appearances. He won the men's 500m at PyeongChang 2018 and anchored China's gold-medal mixed team relay at Beijing 2022. According to Chinese state media, he has spent time since retiring as a lecturer at Jilin University's institute of physical education and worked as a broadcast commentator during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
The head-coach position was opened to public recruitment on July 29, 2026, with applications closing August 4 and a competitive evaluation session held August 11 at the Winter Sports Management Center. Normal eligibility rules require five years of coaching experience — but the recruitment carried an exemption clause waiving that requirement for any candidate who won two or more Winter Olympic gold medals as an athlete. Wu qualifies outright under that clause.
The Winter Sports Management Center's own notice is explicit that this is a proposed appointment (拟聘用), not a completed one: it opens a five-working-day public comment period beginning August 13, 2026, during which anyone can raise an objection by phone or email to the center's discipline inspection office. Barring a successful objection, that window runs to roughly August 19–20.
Some Chinese state-media coverage of the announcement (including Guangming Daily and Sina) already describes Wu as having "formally assumed" the role — but that gets ahead of the government's own paperwork. The comment period is a standard step in Chinese public-sector hiring, and it had not yet closed as of this writing.
Wu Dajing is not a name in the Short Track Manager pool — he's a coach, not a roster pick. But he inherits a Chinese short-track program whose relay teams remain rosterable and, as of the most recent price snapshot, trending upward: the men's 5000m relay, women's 3000m relay, and mixed relay squads are all priced in the pool. A new head coach doesn't move any of those numbers on its own, but training-camp and squad-selection decisions under his direction over the coming months are worth watching heading into the 2026/27 World Tour opener.
Source: China Winter Sports Management Center (冬运中心) official notice, August 12, 2026