Introduction: If there are many miracles in the figure skating arena, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo must be one of the shining links.
The music sounded, a Chinese group danced, they enjoyed the feeling of dancing on the ice, this was their last trip to the Winter Olympics, which also made them more mature, more confident, and fully immersed in their dance music - this is 31-year-old Shen Xue and 36-year-old Zhao Hongbo. It was also the fourth time the duo had participated in the Olympics: the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
"In fact, we didn't show our best form at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, neither in terms of age nor competitive state." Zhao Hongbo recalled, "But we seized the opportunity, although the opportunity was very slim, but we seized it." "At that time, the Russian team was in the stage of replacing the old and the new, and the German players were more threatening." I remember when I was in the short show competition, there were 18 pairs of contestants, we were the first to play, the German player was the last to appear, and until the end, the German players did not score more than us. Recalling that unforgettable experience, Zhao Hongbo still remembers it vividly, "This is the biggest dream in our lives." We have participated in 4 Olympic Games to get this Olympic gold medal in pair skating. We have persevered for many years to achieve this goal. ”
They danced confidently, and all the memories appeared in front of them - jumping again and again, sliding, failing Axel jumping, lifting again and again..... They accompanied the music, closed the curtain, bowed, and withdrew.
"We were waiting for the results on the pitch and suddenly the coach was on the sidelines saying, 'You're already champions!' At this point my mind was blank for a long time... After so many years, the dream has finally come true. The coach shouted excitedly from the side: You have won! But the two of them were in a trance. The ice pair won the championship with perfect performance and won the gold medal of the Winter Olympics for the first time, which was also the first time that Chinese figure skating won the Winter Olympic Championship.
The road to pursuing your dreams is not destined to be smooth. As Zhao Hongbo said, being an athlete must start from failure, pay a lot, and will experience many failures. "Although we have failed many times, the desire for gold medals makes us quickly forget the hardships we have suffered and continue to work hard for our dreams."
Looking back at the previous decade: The 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics was Shin Seol/Cho Hongbo's first Appearance at the Olympic Games, and with only eighth in the short program, he finished fifth with his outstanding performance in free skating. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, the more mature Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo stood on the podium at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics; at the 2006 Turin Olympics, Zhao Hongbo did not return from injury until the last moment before the opening of the Winter Olympics. In the case of being far from the best in form, Zhao Hongbo conquered the referee with superhuman will quality and good artistic expression, and once again appeared on the podium of the Winter Olympics. Although it is only a bronze medal like Salt Lake City, it is a miracle for Zhao Hongbo, who suffered a serious foot injury, to be able to skate such a result.
Time back to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, back to the tense atmosphere of the speed skating arena: the short program they debuted first in 20 pairs of players, with on-field performance to prove that the order of appearances is not important, strong strength is the decisive factor, with 76.66 points to suppress the 19 pairs that have appeared in succession, the third time since this season to rewrite the pair skating short program "World Record". The performance of shenxue /Zhao Hongbo in free skating is still outstanding, although it is slightly inferior to teammates Pang Qing/Tong Jian, but still scored a high score of 139.91 points, with a total score of 216.57 once again breaking the highest score record of the International Skating Federation, and rewrote the history of Chinese figure skating on the highest podium of the Winter Olympics. The way they lifted the medals seemed to be lifting each other up on the ice rink and snuggling forward.
With the Winter Olympic gold medal as the end, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo ended perfectly, and the story of the ice and snow couple is still written.