Reporter | Chen Dingrui
In just over half a month, the 39-year-old former Premier League goalkeeper Peter Cech should be working hard to become a time management guru. At that time, his eyes will not only be on the Premier League, but also on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a Thousand Miles Away, the Czech men's ice hockey team that will play in the Olympic finals for the eighth time in history.
Currently ranked sixth in the world, czech men's ice is a globally recognized traditional powerhouse, which enjoys the name of "BIG 6" along with Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Sitting on an Olympic gold medal, an Olympic bronze medal, six World Championship gold medals and three World Cup bronze medals, czech men's ice has long attracted the attention of the people, and Cech, who once talked about ice hockey complex in his Chelsea career, is bound to not miss the long journey of Czech men's ice at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Working during the day and watching football late at night, the current Chelsea club's director of technology and performance can probably empathize with Chinese fans who stay up late to follow the Premier League and Champions League.
Petr Cech, the world's first goalkeeper in football.
Cech has a fond memory of czech hockey's trip to the Far East: as early as the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, Cech, who was still stationed at the Victory Academy in Pilsen, would secretly skip class and focus on the Czech men's ice hockey team through the TV screen. At that time, the Czech men's ice defeated strong opponents in a row, overpowering the United States, Canada and Russia, and finally stood on the highest podium of the Winter Olympics.
Speaking of which, Cech, who idolizes his country's hockey hero Dominique Hašek, has a deep intersection with Czech hockey: as a child, he would cut pictures of hockey stars from magazines and carefully paste them in his notebook; as a teenager, he would manually simulate equipment and venues, pretending to score the key balls on the ice rink.
After retiring from Arsenal in 2018, Cech finally had the opportunity to realize his crossover dream and join the semi-professional team of the British Ice Hockey Fourth Division, the Guildford Phoenix. In the 6 appearances of the 2019 season, the Czechs kept two clean sheets and won the best player of the game for their outstanding performance of consecutive penalties.
Of course, Cech's move from the football field to the ice hockey rink is, in the final analysis, just a ticket play, and he will never be able to break into any fame on the ice rink.
Norwegian ski jumping world champion Vilkola left the skiing field to join Rosenborg F.C. and became a legend.
But looking at world football, there are many amphibious stars who have won football fields and winter sports, and they have not only pushed open the door to the new world, but even really boarded the Winter Olympic Games.
Born on 4 August 1943 in Arta, Norway, Bjørn Vilkola, who deserves the title of "Elder God", won two gold medals at the 1966 World Championships in Oslo, specializing in ski jumping, and jumped the first world best in 145.5 meters in an official training. From 1967 to 1969, he performed a hat-trick at the Ski Jumping Quadruple Tournament, becoming the first person to be crowned three times in a row so far.
By contrast, Bjørn Vilkola's Winter Olympic record was not outstanding: at the 1964 Insbruck Olympics, he finished 11th in biathlon in Northern Europe; by the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble and the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, Norwegian athletes who had returned to ski jumping had only finished 4th on regular and 37th on the main stage.
However, Bjørn Vilkola, who can use his personal name for a Norwegian proverb, did not lose his championship fortune, and before he could finish his ski jumping career, he put on the jersey of Rosenborg, norway's old football club. Soon after, he won league and cup doubles with the team in the 1971 season, and even became the team's top scorer.
Former Soviet star Popov, two league golden boots, a winter Olympic gold medal.
Those who have had similar experiences with Björn Vilkola are the former Soviet celebrities, Vishevolod Popovov.
From 1944 to 1953, Popov's football career was linked to four Moscow teams, leaving behind an efficient record card of 82 goals in 79 games and 14 goals in 32 games – winning the league Golden Boot twice. At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Vzevorod Popov represented the Soviet Union in Northern Europe. With a loss to Yugoslavia in the first round of the rematch, the Soviets' Olympic journey lasted only three games, but Vrsevolod Popov scored a hat-trick to tie for fourth place in the top scorers list with five goals.
A year later, Vishevolod Popov bid farewell to the green field and focused on the refinement of ice hockey techniques. In the end, at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Voussevolod Popov, who switched from football to ice hockey and enjoyed the honor of top scorer, won the gold medal in the men's ice hockey event with his teammates.
From his playing career to his coaching days, Vorscherod Popov has achieved a perfect conquest of football and ice hockey, and the number of championship honors is innumerable. He is absolutely unique in the history of the Olympic Games and world sports.