From an ordinary high school sophomore in Altay, Xinjiang, to a member of the cross-country skiing national training team that will compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics, Bayani Garin, a Kazakh girl who will celebrate her 22nd birthday on December 17, took four years.
In May 2017, teammate Dinigal's father, Cross-country ski instructor Yilamujan Mulaji, came to Bayani's hometown county to select materials for her high school. Bayani, who was preparing for the college entrance examination, was recommended by the physical education teacher to Coach Yilamujiang because he liked to run. At the end of May, Bayani came to Urumqi to participate in the selection, and then went through several rounds of selection, and finally stayed. At the beginning of 2018, she accompanied the Xinjiang group of the cross-country skiing national training team to Norway, a cross-country skiing powerhouse, to start a three-year external training. Having never experienced any professional training in sports before, and never heard of cross-country skiing, Bayani admits that until now he is still in the process of continuous learning and improvement.
Compared with the pain and tiredness of training, what made Bayani feel the most difficult was the inner torture she experienced in the early stages, and the "uncertainty about the future" made her very uncomfortable. Foreign training came to an unfamiliar environment, sometimes homesick; high school classmates went to college, they had no athletic achievements, and their first participation in the local competition in Norway was at the bottom, so they had the idea of whether to continue practicing. "Later, I felt that I had already started practicing, I couldn't give up, I must make achievements and do a good job in this matter." Once you've set your goals, everything else figures out. Bayani said: "There are many memorable games during the training period, because each game has meaning to itself, and it can make you more motivated and confident than good, and it can help you find what needs to be strengthened. In the eyes of foreign teachers, Bayani and his teammates have two major characteristics that make him very satisfied: one is that Chinese athletes are particularly able to endure hardships in training, and the other is that everyone fully trusts him and can practice in full accordance with his requirements.
Through continuous competition testing, the gap between Bayani and foreign outstanding players is getting smaller and smaller. "When I first went in 2018, I couldn't keep up with the competition without talking about the competition, and I felt that they were all very good." Bayani said with a smile, "After the results are good, the confidence is greatly increased, the requirements for myself are getting higher and higher, and I want to do a good job in training and continue to improve." ”
On October 30, the cross-country skiing women's relay national training team was established at the National Snow Sports Training Base in Chengde, Hebei Province, of which Bayani was one of them. Bayani said: "First of all, we must thank the great motherland and give special support to have our current relay team." ”
Speaking of the Goals of the Winter Olympics, Bayani firmly said that he would storm the podium. In the eyes of the outside world, it is almost impossible for cross-country skiing projects with weak foundations to achieve leapfrog breakthroughs. "Anything is possible, and we will definitely do our best to fight towards this goal!" Bayani said.
Image source: Cross-country skiing national training team