"I'm very angry and competitive! In the team, I may be the fiercest one! The opponent wants to surpass me, it is not so easy! Even if I can't win, I won't let you win mine easily. ”
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Xu Mei
Cover photo / Southern People Weekly reporter Liang Chen
On February 20, 2018, the last day of the short track speed skating event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing first set a new world record in the quarterfinals, advancing to the men's 500m final, and then broke the world record he had just created again, winning the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics for the Chinese delegation with a time of 39.584 seconds, which was also the first Olympic gold in the history of China's men's short track.
Before going to PyeongChang, he designed many celebratory actions for the moment of winning the championship, "When I won the championship, I was so nervous, it was blank, and I forgot all the designed actions!" ”
▲ On February 22, 2018, in the men's 500m short track speed skating final at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, Wu Dajing won the championship Photo/Visual China
He also imagined how much attention he would receive after becoming an Olympic champion. When attending the event after winning the championship, the host often proposed, "Let's relive the wonderful moments of Dajing's gold medal!" ”
"Actually, I really don't want to see it, I don't dare to watch it!"
He even suspected that the brave and invincible person in the camera who broke two world records was not himself at all, and he remembered that he was "nervous to death", "weak in his heart", and "his legs were not strong!" ”
▲ Photo/ Southern People Weekly reporter Liang Chen
He and his teammates arrived in Pyeongchang with the ambition of everyone to win the medal, but the referee's strict penalty made the Chinese team the hardest hit area for fouls – on the second match day, four players were judged to be fouled out in just 30 minutes, and the Chinese team lost two gold points; on February 17, Wu Dajing, who was alone in the 1,000-meter event, was sent out of the 1/4 final; three days later, the women's team was judged to be fouled and cancelled in the 3000-meter relay final...
The WeChat group of the Chinese short track team preparing for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is called "Tiger's Mouth Pulling Teeth", which was coached by Li Yan. Playing at the home of the rival South Korea team, the Chinese team had the expectation of fighting hard, but what was not expected was that the referee's judgment was so harsh.
The atmosphere was suffocating, Wu Dajing turned off his mobile phone, the TV in the gym was his only channel with the information world, "The Chinese delegation on the gold medal list has always been zero, a day like 48 hours, every day is so long, it has been staying up, staying up until the 13th match day..."
"On the last day, there were only two events left, my 500m and the men's team's 5000m relay, and all the pressure to win gold was on me and the brothers in the relay!"
Coach Li Yan asked the team members to bring the medal gown to the arena every day, the pressure was like a mountain, she herself relied on sleeping pills to sleep for a while, in front of the team members is still a calm reminder, "Do yourself!" ”
Wu Dajing was brought out by her hand, "When I first joined the team, I was the youngest, and now I am the biggest!" ”
"I'm stupid, the teacher always says that I have poor understanding, my attention is still particularly inattentive, I always lose my mind when she speaks, and I turn back to her and ask..."
"Stupid children's luck will not be too bad," he remembered Li Yan's words about him.
▲On December 6, 2018, In Shanghai, Wu Dajing (left) and Yang Yang attended the launching ceremony of the national public ice and snow season Photo/Visual China
The Winter Olympics isn't the first time he's staged a one-man savior. At the 2014 World Championships, in the men's 1500 meters Han Tianyu regretted to win silver, the women's 500 meters Fan Kexin accidentally lost gold, the Chinese team did not see gold for a long time, less than 20 years old he broke through the men's 500 meters event, ranked first in five consecutive rounds, and opened his own leadership era with great courage.
"I didn't have much talent, I didn't have any skills at the beginning, I was especially grateful to the teacher for selecting me to the national team, she was really very discerning," He has been famous for many years, but he still values the recognition of the teacher like a child, and when he stopped hugging the teacher after winning the championship, the cheers of his teammates and the audience he didn't hear at all," I heard the teacher say to me, 'You're great!'" You are awesome! You are awesome! ’”
After winning the championship, after passing through the media mixed area, the reporters were also excited and wanted to take a photo with him, he was afraid that the reporter in the back row would be blocked, "I crouch down and shoot with everyone!" ”
In an interview with Southern People Weekly, I asked him: Why can a thoughtful and good-tempered person like you always stand up in a hard battle? "I'm very angry and competitive! In the team, I may be the fiercest one! The opponent wants to surpass me, it is not so easy! Even if I can't win, I won't let you win mine easily. ”
When I first started practicing skating, my father was resolutely opposed, "They didn't have so high expectations, and my dad didn't want me to suffer so much, that is, later I practiced professionally, and he didn't think that I could win the world championship, he thought I had a sports specialty, I could go to college, I graduated and returned to them, and I had a job to protect the harvest from drought and floods." ”
The first time he went to ice, he fell 107, a number that remains to this day. When he first entered the national team, he could not keep up with the men's team, and could only give the girls as sparring partners, "long-distance Zhou Yang super me, short distance Fan Kexin super-me", every day worried, afraid to wake up, to "distribute" back to the local team.
▲ The first time on the ice, Wu Dajing fell 107 wrestling, this number he has been remembering until now Photo / Southern People Weekly reporter Liang Chen
Wu Dajing said, "Athletes are particularly critical to re-understanding themselves, and the first time I combed myself was in 2011, and that stage was particularly important to me. ”
There was a competition that year, and the main players all went abroad to compete, "There are only a few of us sparring." When they set off, we put them in the car and watched them... Do you know what it's like in your heart? It's pathetic, everyone is out to play, don't take you. I seem to have been thinking about it from that time, I want to practice, I want the next coach to take me! ”
The ego drive kicked in, and he began to accelerate. "At that time, there was an assistant coach in the team watching us at home, I asked him to help me record the training video, my mobile phone, his mobile phone together, and then on the computer to compare their own video with the master game video to see, cut the details, really understand where their gap is? Practice while changing. Opened up, willing to ponder, at that time, when I cornered the circle is still particularly large, on a small detail to change a small detail, with the assistant coach every day to study, their own route, through the video to find the master's route, optimize their own movements and routes, repeated practice, until the formation of their own solid muscle memory. ”
▲ On October 16, 2021, the short track speed skating national team 2021-2022 season departure ceremony and pre-departure education meeting was held in Beijing Shougang Park, and the new short track speed skating national team was unveiled, the left one is Wu Dajing Photo / Xinhua News Agency
All the upward roads are so difficult and tortuous, but the memories are all beautiful. After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing enjoyed being a top athlete to get attention and support, but he also had to bear the weight of fame. Although he did not win the championship less, he was often questioned. On the evening of November 27, 2021, Beijing time, the third day of competition began at the Islamic Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. In the men's 500m final, Wu Dajing finally won his first gold medal in the single event of the season with a time of 39.878 seconds. In the previous three consecutive stops, he had missed the gold medal in the individual event, and in the last stop, the 27-year-old Wu Dajing finally proved that he was still the king of the short track.
▲ On November 27, 2021, in the final of the men's 500m Group A of the 2021-2022 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, China's Wu Dajing won the championship with a time of 39.878 seconds Photo/Xinhua News Agency
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing, the captain of the Chinese short track speed skating team, is the oldest athlete on the team. Four years ago, when he took over the captain's flag from coach Li Yan, he said, "We have only one goal, that is, the Beijing Winter Olympics, thank you for accompanying each other on the road of chasing dreams, and hope that everyone can grow from excellent athletes to great athletes." ”