The year 2021, which has just bid farewell to us, is the year of the restart of the world of sports, and the selection of sports role models is also returning after a year. After half a month, nearly 100 expert media voted, combined with the public's online voting, the final result was finally released.
There is an unavoidable name in the Chinese sports world in 2021, Su Bingtian, an old boy who is about to turn 33 and emerge from 8 candidates to be elected as the best male athlete of the year for sports role models. This is a glittering candidate list, Ma Long, Lü Xiaojun, Wang Shun, which is not an Olympic hero full of honors, Zhou Guanyu and Zhao Xintong are also the proud sons of the hot heavens, but in front of Su Bingtian, they are slightly inferior.
In 9.83 seconds, making history and running into the Olympic 100-meter final, Su Bingtian was crowned a god in 2021. But what is even more precious is that he is also a mortal who will be hurt, self-doubting, and want to give up.
Before the 2017 National Games, 28-year-old Su Bingtian was ready to retire after winning the gold medal, because 27 and 28 years old are the ages when sprinters "usually" choose to retire. An unexpected injury before the final prevented Su Bingtian from reaching the top podium, and the story that followed set him apart from the "usual" athletes.
Su Bingtian rekindled his fighting spirit and joined hands with the new head coach Randy Huntington, starting from changing the technology, until the mentality was slowly adjusted to the "Olympic 100m Final Flyer" model:
Don't set limits for yourself, the limits are all told by others. I don't push the limit, I break through myself.
When we open the list of winners of the 2021 sports role model again, it is not difficult to find that always believing in the possibility of breakthrough and not setting limits for ourselves are the common qualities of the winners.
Gong Lijiao was elected as the best female athlete of the year for sports role models. 4 expeditions, 13 years of Olympic long-distance running, Gong Lijiao guarded a cold shot put project, and the sullen head was 21 years. Finally, at the Tokyo Olympic Games, she won her first olympic gold medal and the first Olympic gold medal in the Chinese women's shot put, and returned to China to achieve the great feat of 4 consecutive championships at the National Games. Even outside the field, Gong Lijiao is not willing to limit her identity to athletes, dry cleaning shops, milk tea shops, dessert shops, seafood shops, gyms, she opened a lot, enough boss addiction.
In 2021, the epidemic changed from "heavy attack" to "guerrilla harassment", the loss of traditional sports events, the suspension of suspension, e-sports did not waste opportunities, and suddenly emerged. EDG Esports Club and League of Legends Pro League won the Sports Role Model team of the year and the best event of the year. When "EDG Bull X" resounded throughout the Optics Valley, when "Chinese do not cheat Chinese" spread all over the Internet, even deaf sports people had to open their eyes to see what young people really liked. EDG has been the king of the First World War for eight years, relying on the spirit of "unbroken and unsettled" e-sports, breaking one shackle after another disguised as "limit".
A team that lacks star flavor and mediocre talent, if it is determined that paper strength is the upper limit of performance, standing in the star-studded European Cup arena, it has long lost its armor, right? But Italy did not, relying on the strength of the team to stand on the top of Europe again after 53 years with a civilian squad. They are the international role models of the year for sports role models.
A physical education teacher who has just graduated from college and came to a mountain primary school with difficult conditions, is there any other choice but to "lie flat"? Lai Xuanzhi took the jump rope as a breakthrough point, studied the unique semi-squat jumping method, led one by one left-behind children and migrant workers, won 33 world jump rope championships, and broke 11 world records. He is a national moral model and the best physical education teacher of the year for sports role models.
In fact, the 2021 sports role model selection activity is also seeking a breakthrough. Returning after the disruption of 2020, we have expanded the scope of the field involved, further refining the award setting, hoping that readers can glimpse more aspects of sports development from the annual selection. For example, the "Wind Chasing Plan" rural school women's football education support project jointly carried out by CYDF and Alipay Charity Foundation won the best sports public welfare project of the year, "Hongqi Automobile Delivers Cars for Olympic Athletes" won the Best Sports Marketing Award of the Year, and Anta Dangren did not let it become the best sports brand of the year.
Another big change in this year's sports role model selection is the addition of public voting in addition to professional media judges. Ma Long and Chen Meng became the public vote kings of the best male and female athletes of the year, which shows the popularity of table tennis stars. The public vote is the representative of traffic and heat, which cannot be ignored.
Now, let us expand our vision from sports to the whole society, which is an era of more and more inward volumes, more and more people who are self-contained and self-limiting: "The end of the universe is to test the public", and seeking stability is the signature of life. Of course, there are complex reasons behind this, but have you and I in the midst of it given up the possibility of exploring our potential too early and too easily?
Mandela once said that sport has the power to change the world. I hope that this year's sports role model selection can pass on this power to everyone who chases their dreams and inspire your fighting spirit to seek change. I wouldn't say that only a life without self-limitations is worth living, but there are certainly landscapes that don't exist elsewhere.