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International online news (reporter Wang Yueyang): On the 500-day countdown to the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the PangQing Tong Jian Ice Art Center located outside the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing's Chaoyang District welcomed a group of "little angels". More than a dozen children with Down syndrome and autism walked into the ice rink and became special students of the "Love Skating" public welfare class. The teachers who gave them lessons were figure skating pair skating world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian.
After retiring in 2015, Pang Qing and Tong Jian put their energy into the popularization and development of ice and snow sports, and the "Love Skating" public welfare class became a series of courses they carefully created.
Although pang Qing and Tong Jian's figure skating careers ended in the 2015 World Championships song "Waiting for You", their dance music will never end in the cause of promoting ice and snow sports and popularizing figure skating.
Pang Qing and Tong Jian's closing performance at the 2015 Figure Skating World Championships Image source: Xinhua News Agency
From "breaking up" to sticking to the figure skating love affair
People familiar with Pang Qing and Tong Jian know that they did not go well at the beginning of their figure skating practice, coach Yao Bin was promoted to the national team, and Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who were not outstanding at that time, did not go to the national team with the coach, but stayed in the provincial team. Without the guidance of the coach, Pang Qing and Tong Jian seemed to have "broken the kite of the line" and lost the goal of moving forward.
"At that time, we didn't have a separate ice rink in the provincial team, we had to wait for other sports to finish training, and then we went to 'rub' the ice rink for training, and sometimes we would often queue up until the early morning to take our turn." For the experience of more than twenty years ago, Tong Jian still remembers deeply, "Because the coach was not around, we were a new combination at that time, plus we were similar in age, when discussing technology, no one could convince anyone, often they would break up unhappily, and they were almost separated at that time." ”
But the two of them, with their love of figure skating, slowly survived that time. In Tong Jian's words, in the 4 or 5 years that the coach was not around, the beginning was a monthly expectation, and then it was a year of expectation, when he felt that he could not persevere, he would tell himself that he hoped that everything would change tomorrow. Of course, in the end, they were able to persevere because Pang Qing and Tong Jian had built up trust in each other in the process of getting along day and night.
From chasing dreams without regrets to waiting for you
After a five-year absence from Coach Yao Bin, Pang Qing and Tong Jian finally had the opportunity to come to Beijing and enter the national team training. At the Asian Championships in December 1999, Pang Qing and Tong Jian won the first intercontinental championship of their figure skating careers, although the gold content of this gold medal was not too high, but it gave them a dose of strengthening in the trough.
The following decade was a decade of rapid improvement in the athletic performance of Pang Qing and Tong Jian. They have won gold and silver in international competitions such as the World Championships and the Four Continents Championships, becoming another "trump card" for the Chinese figure skating team. But there are also things that they regret in this decade, Salt Lake City in 2002, Turin in 2006, and the two Winter Olympics they have not been able to get medals, which has become their next goal.
Pang Qing and Tong Jian won silver medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics Image source: Xinhua News Agency
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was the golden period of Pang Qing and Tong Jian's sports career, both technically and psychologically to the most mature stage, but the pressure felt was also the biggest, "The athletes of our era had to consider retiring and changing careers at the age of 30, although we did not get medals in 2002 and 06, but we thought there was another chance than the finish." Ahead of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, we had a hunch that this might be our last chance to win a medal. ”
Under this huge pressure, Pang Qing and Tong Jian showed their best state at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, in the free skating, with a song "Chasing Dreams Without Regrets", Pang Qing and Tong Jian broke the record for the highest score in free skating of the International Skating Federation with a free skating score of 141.81 points, and also won the silver medal in the Winter Olympics.
In 2015, in the last World Championships competition of Pang Qing and Tong Jian, they drew a successful end to their 22-year figure skating career with a song "Waiting for You". Tong Jian said that the song "Waiting for You" has two meanings for them, the first is to wait for their love, to wait for each other, and the second is also a kind of waiting for their lifelong figure skating career.
From figure skating charity classes to the Beijing Winter Olympics
In August 2015, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who had just retired, founded the "Love Skating" public welfare class, allowing figure skating enthusiasts to experience and learn for free, so that they had the opportunity to feel ice sports under the guidance of professional coaches. Not long ago, Pang Qing and Tong Jian completed the 60th course of the "Love Skating" public welfare class in the inaugural flight of Air China's "Winter Olympics Ice and Snow" theme painted aircraft.
In June 2018, pang qing tong jian ice art center, the largest single ice center in Asia named after the two people, was put into operation. Tong Jian said that he hopes that through the operation of the art center, it will play a benchmarking role in the industry and show the perfect combination of sports and life in the future. It is hoped that every child and parent will find a sense of home in the center and get a change in their lifestyle.
Pang Qing, Tong Jian and teenagers participating in the "Love Skating" public welfare class Photo: Wang Yueyang
Promoting figure skating is the unshirkable responsibility of Pang Qing and Tong Jian, and they also hope to take on more social responsibilities, Tong Jian revealed: "The countdown to the 2022 Winter Olympics is 500 days, we invite children with Down syndrome, autism and other diseases to the ice rink to experience the fun of skating, and in the next 100 days we will continue to provide them with a variety of activities experience." At the 400-, 300-day, 200-day, and 100-day countdowns, we will invite more people to experience the charm of ice sports. ”
Pang Qing said: "The Beijing Winter Olympics are getting closer and closer to us, but it may still be far from these children. We don't want them to lose the opportunity to feel the Olympic Games, and we hope that through their own strength, the Olympic spirit will also have an impact on them. ”