Double Olympic short track speed skating gold medallist Yang Yang is set to become vice-president of WADA ©Getty Images

Double Olympic short track speed skating gold medallist Yang Yang is set to become vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after she was nominated as the Olympic Movement representative for the position.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board announced it had put the former Chinese athlete, one of the most decorated skaters in history, forward for the role during its latest meeting here.

Yang is set to be officially elected at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Poland in November.

The 42-year-old, a former IOC member who served on WADA's Athlete Committee from 2005 to 2013, will work alongside President-elect Witold Bańka.

Yang and Bańka, the public authorities candidate to replace Sir Craig Reedie as President, are due to begin their respective terms on January 1.

She replaces Norway's Linda Helleland, a vocal critic of the IOC and WADA in the fallout to the Russian doping scandal and who has campaigned for widespread reform at the global anti-doping watchdog.

It means that, from January of next year, the WADA President and vice-president will be former athletes.

"I warmly welcome the decision of the IOC Executive Board to nominate Ms Yang Yang, two-time Olympic Champion in short track speed skating for the WADA VP," Bańka wrote on Twitter. 

"Athletes at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport - that’s a good sign for the future."

Yang was also congratulated on her appointment by WADA.

Yang was a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission before her term came to an end after last year's Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

She was elected onto the body at the Session during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Yang, a 32-time World Championships gold medallist, won the 500 metres and 1,000m titles, as well as silver in the 3,000m relay, at Salt Lake City 2002.

Her victories in Salt Lake saw her become the first Chinese Winter Olympics gold medallist.

The Chinese athlete, chairperson of the Beijing 2022 Athletes' Commission, also claimed 3,000m relay silver in Nagano in 1998 and bronze in the 1,000m at Turin 2006.

WADA's senior leadership positions are rotated between Governments and sports movement representatives.

It is the Olympic Movement's turn to nominate the vice-president as the President comes from the public authorities.