Xinjiang skier who lit cauldron at Beijing Winter Olympics

Dinigeer Yilamujiang was a stranger to most people outside the cross-country skiing world before Friday night. But the 20-year-old Chinese girl came into the limelight when she lit the large snowflake-shaped cauldron together with Zhao Jiawen at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

"That moment will encourage me every day for the rest of my life," Dinigeer told Xinhua on Sunday.

"I was so excited when I found out we were going to place the torch. It's a huge honor for me!"

The final torchbearers - each representing a decade of birth since the 1950s - carried the Olympic torch around the stadium ahead of the cauldron lighting.

Dinigeer and Nordic combined athlete Zhao, representing the 2000s, received the torch from their winter sport predecessors, symbolizing the inheritance of sport traditions and the Olympic spirit across generations.

"[Dinigeer] is absolutely perfectly entitled to take part in the torch relay, and I think the concept of having all the generations there was an excellent one. I think it was a lovely concept," said Mark Adams, spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee.

Born in Altay Prefecture of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2001, Dinigeer seems to have a natural bond with snow.

In 2005, cave paintings of Altay people hunting on skis with poles were discovered, which archaeologists estimated could be more than 10,000 years old. Since then, Altay has been recognized by many as one of the birthplaces of human skiing.

Unique geographical and climatic conditions in Altay make skiing an indispensable part of local people's lives. As early as the 1980s, many Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing athletes from the Altay region began to represent China in international competitions.

Dinigeer's father, Yilamujiang Miraj, was also a cross-country athlete who once finished third in a national cross-country competition in 1993.

Following in her father's footsteps, Dinigeer started cross-country skiing at the age of 10 when a 20-person youth team was founded in 2010 and coached by her father.

Their training ground was in the hills just outside the city. Before each session, Dinigeer and her teammates would form in line, moving one step at a time to press a trail out of the powder snow. In a region where snowfall can be as deep as one meter, they often had to spend seven or eight hours pressing the snow and leaving the trail to freeze overnight to train on the next day.

Discussing her daughter's skiing experience, Roxan Hatibaji disagreed with her pursuit at first, and was even upset at her husband as "one cross-country skier in our family is more than enough."

But Dinigeer became more and more obsessed with the sport. When other girls were still crying over a fall, Dinigeer would stand up and move forward, with frostbite and bruises never a concern.

It was Dinigeer's love and passion for cross-country skiing that completely convinced her mother. "I saw her compete again and again with a smiling face, then I understood how much she loves it as a career," said Hatibaji.

Despite her previous cross-country skiing experience with the youth team, Dinigeer didn't turn professional until 2017, when she switched from track and field to join the national cross-country skiing team.

"It is very difficult for an athlete to switch from one sport to another," said Fu Yong, head coach of the Xinjiang cross-country skiing team. "Not to mention that she switched to a completely different sport, from green grass to white snow."

Beijing won the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, sparking enormous enthusiasm among Chinese people for winter sports.

Relying on high-quality snow and an ultra-long snow season lasting from November to May the next year, Dinigeer's hometown has built many international ski resorts, gradually becoming a destination for skiers and snowboarders from home and abroad.

Located 18 kilometers east of Koktokay County, the Koktokay International Ski Resort is situated between the elevations of 1,821 and 3,041 meters and has 28 kilometers of slopes available.

The Jiangjunshan Ski Resort has become home to many school students since the 2014 season. Just a 10-minute drive from downtown Altay, children are able to take their PE classes at the resort free of charge.

Dinigeer has made huge progress, too.

In the three Junior World Championships from 2019 to 2021, Dinigeer had two top-10 finishes in the 5km event - fifth in 2020 and sixth in 2021. In March 2019, she finished second in the opening women's leg of a three-leg sprint series in Beijing to become the first Chinese medalist in the sport at any FIS-level event.

The increase in the skiing population in Xinjiang also contributed to a growing presence of Xinjiang athletes in the Winter Olympics, from four at PyeongChang 2018 to six at Beijing 2022, with Dinigeer being one of them.

"All we expect from her at the Beijing Winter Olympics is to do her best and live up to her own efforts," said Hatibaji. "I hope she comes back home quickly so that I can make her favorite dishes and let her rest well."

Less than 20 hours after lighting the Olympic cauldron, Dinigeer competed in the women's 7.5km + 7.5km skiathlon, the first gold medal event at Beijing 2022.

Although she only finished 43rd with a time of 50 minutes and 10.7 seconds, Dinigeer still made her family proud as one of the last two torchbearers at the Beijing 2022 opening ceremony.

"We were all looking for her when the Chinese delegation showed up during the opening ceremony," said Dinigeer's cousin Xerin Turhunjan.

"All of our family members were very excited and surprised. Her mother burst into tears. The whole family is extremely proud of her."