Li Ya-min: Markswoman of the People's Republic

From the People's Republic of China Press, 1975

A SOLE WOMAN stood out among the contenders on the shooting range at the Aryamehr Sports Center in Teheran last September 5 — a young woman with her hair in two braids and wearing a bright red jersey with the golden national Tien An Men emblem pinned on it. She was 20-year-old Li Ya-min. When her turn came, eyes alert, she aimed her pistol at the target, and with calm determination fired 60 shots one after another into the bull's- eye 25 meters away to score 555 points. With this she broke the women's world record for the event. The former record of 554 points had been set by Australia's J. Trim at Phoenix in the United States in 1970.

Li Ya-min is on the staff of an army medical research institute in Peking. A lover of sports since childhood, while still in primary school she enrolled in a gymnastics class in a sparetime sports school. After joining the army, taking to heart Chairman Mao's advice that a person should be competent both civil and military-wise, she threw herself into her military training with great enthusiasm. She soon developed a great interest in pistol shooting. Though she had previously never had a pistol in her hand, she became a world record-breaker after only a year and a half of practice.

She used to shoot three or four hours without a break under the blazing summer sun and even in the cold of winter, warming her hands with her breath and stamping her numbed feet on the frozen ground. She would shoot a target made unsteady by the wind, and on rainy days would stand under the eaves aiming at the indistinct outline of the bull's-eye. At night she often practiced aiming at a small paper target she had drawn herself and put up on the wall of her room. Finding that the handle of the pistol was bruising her wrist, she taped it up. This affected her aim, so she tore the tape away and kept on in spite of the pain.

In one contest Li Ya-min won first place by scoring 193 points in 20 shots. But as the others gathered around to congratulate her she stood frowning at the target. On one imperfect shot she had lost two points. She spent the evening alone in her room thinking the matter over. Finally she concluded that she had not held the gun steady and had pulled the trigger before taking perfect aim. To overcome this shortcoming, she concentrated on strengthening her arm. Every morning and evening she did push-ups and exercised with dumbbells. She also practiced aiming with a brick tied to the handle of the pistol.

Last May at the selective trials for the Asian Games, she equaled the world record for the women's standard pistol event. She chalked up an even better record four months later at the Asian Games.