In the final match of the women's heptathlon at the Tokyo Olympics that ended last night, China's Zheng Ninali ran a personal best of 2 minutes 10.35 seconds in the 800 meters and scored 960 points. After all seven competitions, Zheng Ninali, who participated in the Olympic Games for the first time, ranked tenth with a score of 6318 points. Although there is still a long way to go before the podium, Zheng Ninali has written a new history for Chinese athletics.
The first naturalized athlete in athletics: continuing Grandma's hopes
Dark brown hair, three-dimensional facial features, toned posture, Zheng Ninali is the first naturalized person in Chinese athletics, she achieved China's breakthrough in the Olympic heptathlon on the field of the Tokyo Olympic Games - finally there are Chinese athletes participating in the Olympic heptathlon competition. The 10th place result also took the "first step" in the history of the Olympic Games of the Chinese team in this project.
Zheng Ninali is a mixed Chinese-German child, originally a Canadian national. Her mother, Duan Li, was a Chinese high jumper, and her grandmother was Zheng Fengrong, the first generation of Chinese track and field players. Zheng Fengrong was the first athlete in New China to break the world record in athletics and the first female athlete in New China to break the world record.
At the time, the Associated Press exclaimed, "A 20-year-old Chinese girl in Beijing warned the world of athletics with a powerful jump that six hundred million Chinese will not always be behind."
Zheng Ninali, who inherited the track and field gene, has been exposed to athletics since she was 6 years old, and has the title of "Queen of Athletics" when she was a student. At the age of 19, Zheng Ninali qualified for the Canadian National Championships and became the leader in the heptathlon, and was also named the best canadian athlete under 20 in 2017 by the Canadian Athletics Federation, and in 2018, she represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games and won the first place in the women's heptathlon U20 world.
Athletes who change their nationality require the IAAF to be at least 20 years old. Under the patriotic spirit of her grandmother's glory for the country, despite the Canadian team's efforts to retain, on the day of her 20th birthday in 2018, Zheng Ninali still resolutely chose to naturalize in China and become China's first naturalized athlete in athletics.
Zheng Ninali chose to join the Chinese nationality and embarked on the field of the Tokyo Olympic Games, which can be said to realize the dream of representing the Chinese team in the Olympic Games for the two elderly people.
"Dedicated to our efforts"
On Zheng Ninali's legs, tattooed with four words "dedication", this is actually a sentence that her grandmother Zheng Fengrong asked her from childhood, and because of this, Zheng Ninali tattooed these four words written by her grandmother on her body to spur herself.
In order to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, Zheng Ninali returned from Canada to learn shot put from the master of the shot put player Gong Lijiao and the Chinese national team throwing coach from Yuzhen, and learned javelin from Beijing athletics coach Dai Li. She said that whenever she was most tired, she always thought about how her grandmother trained and competed: "I feel that my grandmother is that kind of person, she is never afraid of being tired." 」 She always told me that she trained very fiercely, and she could train for almost 330 days a year for 365 days. ”
"Dedication" is Grandma's requirement for Zheng Ninali, and Nina's independence, hard work, and "dedication" are also Grandma's pride. Zheng Ninali said: "I grew up in Canada, but it was Chinese to raise me, so this time back to China, I hope to help China get better and better in the heptathlon." ”
"Next I will protect my body and then focus on preparing for next year's Asian Games."
Of course, there is still a long way to go before Breaking the world record, but in terms of Zheng Ninali's current ability, her joining does make up for the shortcomings of the Chinese women's heptathlon and enhance China's Asian competitiveness in this project. Zheng Ninali, a 23-year-old Chinese athlete, has unlimited potential for the future.
Link: These naturalized athletes are equally worth looking forward to
Equestrian: Hua Tian
Equestrian as a very gentleman and elegant sports athlete, due to the late start in China, the results have not been too good, in 2008, when only 19 years old Hua Tian gave up his British citizenship and chose to return to the embrace of the motherland. He is a mixed-race Chinese-British child, graduated from the prestigious Eton College, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 2012 London Olympic Games, 2016 Rio Olympic Games, 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Huatian represented China three times, and in 2016 successfully reached the final and won the eighth place.
In the no. 2 race, Huatian left too much space in front of the last obstacle, causing the mount "Don De Janeiro" to crash directly into the obstacle. In the end, the Chinese team participating in the equestrian triathlon team competition for the first time ranked ninth, and Huatian ranked 25th in the individual race. After the game, Huatian couldn't stop hiding his tears from his mistakes: "I am proud to represent China in the Tokyo Olympics, you should be able to see how important this is to me, I am very sad now." ”
Chinese ice hockey team: Zheng Enlai
Yes, he is Zheng Ninali's older brother, Zheng Enlai, known as the ice hockey prodigy. As an athlete with extraordinary talent in the field of ice hockey, he was photographed by the Mercedes Hat Tigers of the WHL Ice Hockey League when he was less than 13 years old, and at the banquet for Zheng Fengrong's eightieth birthday in 2017, Zheng Enlai decided to choose to return to China and gave his grandmother a special birthday gift.
There is another story about his name: the original Chinese name of this ice hockey prodigy was "Zheng Tai", and later because he heard his grandmother tell the story of Premier Zhou Enlai, he changed his Chinese name to "Zheng Enlai", he said: "If you want to play for the Chinese team in the 2022 Winter Olympics in the future, you must have a louder name." ”
Skier: Gu Ailing
Gu Ailing's achievements are not said by anyone who has seen it: Mu. At the age of 3, he was exposed to skiing, and at the age of 9, he won the National Junior Championship and won dozens of gold medals, 9 of which were at the National American level. After becoming a naturalized Chinese, it took only 8 months to win 8 medals for China, which became the pride of the Chinese people. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, she will also play for her country as a Chinese athlete.
The International Snow Federation once gave a high evaluation to Gu Ailing on its official website: "She is already a fairly threatening athlete in all three events, although she is only 16 years old, many people already think that she is currently the best female freestyle skier in the world." ”
In addition to her impressive athletic achievements, she is also a school bully! With sat1580, only 20% away from the full score, it beat the score of 99.8% of the world's test takers and entered Stanford University. And whenever facing the media, Gu Ailing always emphasizes again and again: I am a girl who grew up in Beijing's hutongs, and I am a real Chinese!
Fans can't wait for the Winter Olympics
Hard work, excellent, patriotic, good looks!
These naturalized athletes of the motherland
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This article is synthesized from: The Paper, People's Daily and so on
Editor: Chen Wen
Editor-in-Charge: Min Chen