This year is the 11th year that Yang Yang has settled his family in Shanghai. In 2011, Yang Yang, the first gold medalist of the Winter Olympics, settled in Pudong, and two years later, she established the Shanghai Feiyang Ice Sports Center at the Sanlin Sports Center, operating the first market-oriented professional skating hall in China.
In the past 11 years, her "Feiyang" has become one of the most professional ice rinks in Shanghai - practicing the strategy of "North Ice South Exhibition East Expansion", Feiyang not only attracts more and more ice sports enthusiasts to come, but also exports professional teachers to ordinary primary and secondary schools, and continuously expands the crowd participating in ice sports. In the past 11 years, Yang Yang's identity has also changed: from a member of the International Olympic Committee to the chairman of the Athletes Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, she has always contributed to her passion.
Why Shanghai?
Why Shanghai? This is a question that others have repeatedly asked Yang Yang, and it is also a question that Yang Yang has repeatedly asked himself.
In Shanghai, Yang Yang has found the best future for the development of ice sports: "The pursuit of speed in short track speed skating, the pursuit of beauty in figure skating, the pursuit of teamwork in ice hockey, including the requirements of ice sports for the cultural and artistic literacy of the viewer, all of which are very consistent with Shanghai's urban spirit of inclusiveness, excellence and inclusiveness." At that time, Pudong New Area was committed to attracting top talents to settle down and build sports brands, so when Yang Yang first came to Sanlin, he got a warm response.
"The tolerance and delicacy unique to Shanghainese people make me feel at home." Yang Yang recalled that when she first came to Shanghai, the Beijing Winter Olympics had not yet successfully bid, and the sports industry had not begun to flourish, but Shanghai's welcome gave her the courage to stay.
In 2013, the Feiyang Ice Sports Center opened. The first market-oriented ice rink made Yang Yang, the "first to eat crabs", inevitably feel uneasy in his heart: the high operating costs of the ice rink, the huge team, and the unknown market. "I was thinking it was 'surviving.'" In the initial stage of entrepreneurship, Yang Yang went to government agencies to negotiate, went to schools to promote, personally led the team, and even ran to the tax bureau alone to handle affairs - after "losing" for two and a half years, he finally "survived".
Later, with the help of the spring breeze of the vigorous development of the sports industry and the good news of Beijing's successful bid to host the Winter Olympic Games, Feiyang not only established itself in Shanghai, but also took root.
Training of Shanghai athletes
Ascend to the national arena
"In my heart, there is always this feeling. I hope to bring more outstanding teachers of ice hockey, short track speed skating and figure skating, provide professional services and teaching, and let more Shanghai citizens understand and approach professional ice sports. Yang Yang once set a goal for himself: to do what he likes to do, what he can do, and what he should do. Now, her three wishes have been fulfilled one by one in Shanghai.
Nowadays, the Feiyang Ice Rink is "divided into two": on the one hand, it expands the population of popularizing ice sports, on the other hand, it cultivates ice sports to belong to Shanghai's own reserve talents.
While opening the door to welcome ice fans, Yang Yang and his team took the initiative to "take a step forward": in 2015, with the support of the Pudong New Area Education Bureau, the Feiyang Ice Sports Center launched the "Ice Sports into School" project, and the primary and secondary schools in Sanlin Became the first participants in Shanghai. "The first time I faced 19 principals, there was no concept of the Winter Olympics at that time, and the principals were worried about safety, so in fact, my heart was very worried." Yang Yang said that what makes her happy is that the principals have given her absolute trust and welcomed ice sports into the campus with great tolerance. As a result, since 2015, more than 5,000 children from 25 schools have come to Feiyang to participate in the skating enlightenment course every year. Coached by excellent coaches from the national team and The Heilongjiang team, each student receives professional training once a week at the ice rink. After Beijing's bid to host the Winter Olympics was successful, it became more logical for ice sports to enter the campus. Today, the professional coaches of The Feiyang Club teach short track speed skating, ice hockey and figure skating courses in more than 30 primary and secondary schools across the city, nurturing Shanghai's ice players.
After 8 years of hard work, Shanghai's young athletes have also begun to emerge on the national stage: at the second Youth Games, the young athletes trained by Feiyang won two gold medals in short track speed skating, and in the U8 group of the national figure skating competition, there were also champions from Feiyang. While cultivating talents, Yang Yang also founded a series of ice events: Shanghai Youth Short Track Speed Skating Open, Shanghai Primary and Secondary School Students Ice Games, Large and Small Xiaoice Ball Events... More and more teenagers have fallen in love with ice sports here, and have developed their own inseparable hobbies, contributing their own strength as ice and snow people to the commitment of "300 million people participating in ice and snow sports".
Be a good "host" of the Winter Olympics
As the Beijing Winter Olympics approached, Yang Yang became busier. Yang Yang, who is the chairman of the Athletes' Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, is busy with various meetings, interviews and promotional activities, but the busier she is, the happier she feels, "I am very happy, because I am still doing what I like and am good at until now." ”
The Beijing Winter Olympics, Yu Yang, is also an indispensable and colorful part of her life. At the 128th Plenary Session of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015, Yang Yang, who was pregnant with Liujia, stood on the presentation table as a member of The Chinese winter Olympic bid delegation and emotionally told her love affair with the Olympics.
At that presentation conference, she won praise from both inside and outside the venue with her outstanding performance, and also made an important contribution to the success of Beijing's bid. Her identity as a member of the International Olympic Committee at that time, as well as the "circle of friends" she met, made Beijing known and expected by more people.
Beijing has been successfully bidding for the case for six years. Today, Yang Yang has stepped down as a member of the International Olympic Committee, but has a new identity - the chairman of the Athletes' Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. This is the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics that an athletes' committee has been set up, and it is also an innovative move by Beijing. The Athletes' Committee is composed of 19 members, including star athletes in winter sports such as Zhao Hongbo and Li Nina, as well as athletes from the Summer Olympics such as Wang Hao and Du Li.
In Yang Yang's view, the work of the Athletes Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games is "no big or small". "From the extension after the beijing Winter Olympics to the preparation of a needle and a thread for the athletes at the competition site, we all need to be in the athlete's point of view." For example, in the menu of the Winter Olympic Games just released, there are careful suggestions such as "preparing food without wheat bran for some athletes" put forward by the members of the Athletes Committee; for example, Yang Yang proposed, referring to the Barcelona Olympic Games, leaving the handprints and footprints of all athletes participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics as valuable "Beijing memories" for the future and the next generation.
Yang Yang described his work as chairman of the sports committee this way: "If our work can really impress athletes, it can move the world. At present, when the network is highly developed, athletes themselves are self-media, especially excellent athletes. If we can give them a more nuanced service, we can ensure that they are not too much outside interference and participate in the competition comfortably. By spreading their wonderful experience through social media, they can add a lot of color to our Winter Olympics. ”
At the end of the interview, Yang Yang had to work seamlessly again, busy with the promotion activities of the next Winter Olympics. But she was always so spirited. "It's gratifying that when I can do something for the Winter Olympics, I can, and have the ability, to be personally involved in it and contribute a little bit of myself to it," she said. ”
Text: Gong Jieyun
Source: Shangguan News