She was obsessed with practicing gymnastics, but was forced to transfer to freestyle skiing aerial skills. She, "halfway out of the house", but in less than three years, she has stood on the podium of the championship of heavyweight events. After becoming the "first person in the history of the World Cup", she will fight again for the Beijing Winter Olympics. She is Xu Mengtao, the Chinese freestyle skiing aerial skills women's team "Dangjia Huadan"!
Xu Mengtao, a native of Anshan, Liaoning Province, born in 1990, is a veteran who has participated in three Winter Olympic Games and has been the backbone of the team for many years.
Twists and turns
Because his father was a sports fan and especially loved gymnastics, Xu Mengtao carried his father's dream of championing from the age of 4 and began to practice gymnastics. Despite her family's very average circumstances, her parents did everything they could to create a good training environment for her.
Excellent physical flexibility, coupled with willingness to endure hardships and not afraid of tiredness, Xu Mengtao's achievements have improved by leaps and bounds. After studying at Anshan Sports School for three years, he was selected by the Jilin Provincial Gymnastics Team. At only 7 years old, she trained alone in Changchun for a year.
However, due to household registration reasons, he had no choice but to return to Anshan, and then joined the Liaoning gymnastics team, but he encountered the restructuring of the gymnastics team, fortunately, he was soon accepted by the gymnastics team of the Shenyang Gymnastics School, and he thought that he could continue on the road of gymnastics from then on.
Helplessly, fate once again made a big joke with this talented and hard-working girl: because she grew taller and taller, and her kneecap was larger than other athletes, she was no longer suitable for gymnastics. For Xu Mengtao, who has been practicing gymnastics since she was 4 years old, and her family, this is undoubtedly bad news.
However, there is a saying that life closes a door for you and opens a window for you at the same time. For Xu Mengtao, who is diligent and diligent, this window is "freestyle skiing aerial skills".
At Shenyang Sports Institute, after just over two years of training, Xu Mengtao's performance showed an "exponential increase" and became a first-class master in the team. From 2005 to 2007, she won the national championship, the runner-up of the Asian Winter Games, and the world youth championship, and naturally became one of the most concerned "ski upstarts".
Eat one's word
For a long time to come, Xu Mengtao's ski life was like hanging:
In 2009, he won his first World Cup gold medal in the final of the World Cup in Moscow; at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he finished 6th in his first participation in the Winter Olympics; in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, he won the World Cup championship title for two consecutive years; in the 2012-2013 season, he won 6 World Cup gold medals...
Invincible on the field, she became the favorite to win the freestyle ski competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Unfortunately, it was the silver medal that won back, not the gold medal.
After four years of hard training, Xu Mengtao once again stood on the starting stage of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with the aura of "winning the championship hot player". Before the game, she made a "life and death statement" - "if you don't win the championship, you will retire". At that time, for her, the gold medal seemed inevitable.
However, in the final, due to the failure to successfully complete the difficult action, the gold medal became a bubble. This defeat made Xu Mengtao fall into the ice cave, and the whole world lost its luster.
However, after infinite self-blame, infinite remorse and countless times of crying, she, who has always been optimistic, quickly adjusted her state, "reversed" tore off the previous "life and death", claiming that she did not want to retire, was not willing, and would not give up the dream of the Winter Olympic championship.
Reluctance to "settle"
As a result, the "Desperate Three Ladies" once again threw themselves into hard training. However, the irreversible increase in age, the decline in physical strength, and the old injuries accumulated over the years have made her dream chasing extremely difficult.
Even so, Xu Mengtao, who pursues perfection, is not willing to choose to reduce the difficulty in order to succeed. In her skiing career, the ultimate goal is to combine difficulty and success. No matter how difficult the action, someone can successfully complete it, and she hopes to be the "first person to eat tomatoes".
On December 4, xu Mengtao won the first title of the new season with 99.49 points in the FIS Freestyle Skiing Aerial Skills World Cup in Finland. So far, with the 26 World Cup gold medals in her pocket, she has successfully won the title of "the first person in the history of the World Cup".
This "New Year's Day" has proved with his own practical actions that some breakthroughs may be late, but as long as enough effort is made, one day it will come.
The best performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics is Xu Mengtao's long-awaited "next breakthrough". Let's cheer up the "Four Dynasties of the Winter Olympics" and Xu Mengtao! Come on China!
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