Meng Guanliang, the first gold medalist in the Chinese Kayak Olympics, is now the head coach of the Still Water Project of the Chinese Kayak Team and the director of the Zhejiang Provincial Water Sports Management Center. On the morning of July 27, the national kayaking team held a ceremony at Beijing Airport, and Meng Guanliang took over the flag on behalf of the athletes and coaches, "Our goal must be achieved, and our goal must be achieved!" ”
It is understood that a total of 15 Chinese athletes played in Tokyo this time, including 3 Zhejiang athletes, namely male athlete Wang Congkang, female athletes Li Dongkun and Wang Nan, all three of whom participated in the Olympic Games for the first time. Shaoxing coach Qiu Sairong traveled as the "assistant head coach". For the zhejiang players' participation goals, the 44-year-old Meng Guanliang only revealed 8 words: "Low-key travel, worth looking forward to."
"My identity is changing, there are athletes, coaches, team leaders, etc., but the mission of adding glory to the country and my hometown has always remained the same." As a two-time Olympic champion and China's first consecutive olympic champion in kayaking, Meng Guanliang is participating in the Summer Olympics for the fifth consecutive time. At the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics, he won two Olympic titles as an athlete. At the 2012 London Olympics, he was the deputy leader of the Chinese kayaking team, and at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he participated as a sports official.
It is reported that the water project is the "gold medal event" of the Olympic Games, but China has only been able to play the role of "catch-up" for a long time before. It is necessary to "tear" the "water defense line" of European and American players in the international arena and strive for a place. In 1995, at the age of 18, Meng Guanliang was selected for the national kayaking team, when the team was still hovering at a low ebb. "At that time, I was practicing really hard," Meng Guanliang said, entering the Athens Olympic cycle, Canadian head coach Mark particularly emphasized the intensity of training, the team members trained almost twice as much as before, "every class is practiced to exhaustion."
With the retirement of a number of veterans, the Chinese kayaking team has experienced a period of silence. As the footsteps of the Tokyo Olympic Games approached, Meng Guanliang took over the "baton" at an important juncture and became the head coach of the still water project of the Chinese kayaking team. Today, Meng Guanliang has a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, shouldering the responsibility of leading the team to the Tokyo Olympic Games, "I ask all athletes to go all out and fight until the last moment." The Tokyo Olympics competition is just around the corner, and Meng Guanliang is trying to write another "Olympic answer sheet" in his career.