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Cover news reporter Shao Meng
Eight years later, the scene of the Sochi Winter Olympics still remains in the memory of many people. At that time, several of the most optimistic short-track players of the Chinese team did not enter the final, and many people believed that the Chinese team might not win the women's 500-meter medal in short track speed skating. However, as her opponents fell off the track one after another, a Chinese girl slid firmly to the finish line, and she was Li Jianrou. Instead of the injured Wang Meng, she played, her strength was long distance, and she won the championship "unexpectedly" and won the first gold of the Chinese sports delegation at that time. Yang Yang, the first gold medalist of the Chinese Winter Olympics, choked up when explaining: "Four years of hard work! Four years hard! It's not easy! ”
A few days ago, the cover reporter spoke with Li Jianrou in Beijing. The 35-year-old wears a red sweatshirt with a neat high ponytail and a five-star red flag badge on her chest. In the interview shot, she and the winning figure wearing a five-star red flag gradually overlapped, and time seemed to leave no trace on her.
Li Jianrou was interviewed by a cover reporter.
Recalling the moment of winning the championship, Li Jianrou still felt a thousand emotions. Although she has been called a "lucky champion", she has not been smooth sailing, and the experience of being returned to the provincial team from the national team once made her depressed, but she admitted: "I like to turn pressure into motivation. Opportunities are left to those who are prepared, and in 2011, the 25-year-old Li Jianrou was selected for the national team for the second time, and her glory began. At the 2012 World Championships, Li Jianrou won consecutive 1500m, 3000m relay and individual all-around championships, becoming China's third all-around after Yang Yang and Wang Mao. Two years later at the Sochi Winter Olympics, she proved herself again at the age of 28.
After retiring, Li Jianrou did not leave ice and snow sports, and even switched to snowboarding to return to the Winter Olympics. "I still have a nostalgia for the field, and hope that through 18 years of short track speed skating experience and experience, more teenagers will be encouraged to participate in ice and snow sports and cultivate reserve talents for the country." Li Jianrou said that although he was unable to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics due to insufficient cross-event points and other reasons, he was still working hard for the development of ice and snow sports in China.
At the Sochi Winter Olympics, Li Jianrou held high the national flag to celebrate after winning the championship. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wang Yuguo)
Stick to 18 years and win the championship
"More than luck, I believe in the reward of my own efforts"
Cover News: What was the most memorable match of your career?
Li Jianrou: That must be the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Everyone knows that I won the short track speed skating women's 500 meters, but in fact, I am a long-distance athlete, Wang Meng was injured before the game, and I was ordered to participate as a substitute team member, so whether it is mentality or understanding of the opponent, they may be better.
Cover News: Your strength is the long distance, what did you think after the Sochi Winter Olympics learned that you would participate in short track speed skating for 500 meters? In the face of the outside world's unoptimity, is there any pressure?
Li Jianrou: In fact, at that time, Coach Li Yan did not intend to let me go to the short track speed skating 500 meters, because the day of the 500 meters preliminary round was also the women's relay semifinals, and that game was also very important. For more than half a month before the race, I practiced frantically every day to start, whether on ice or on land. 2014 was my first Olympics, when I was 28 years old, probably my last Olympics, and I want to prove it to the coach with my actions, I want to participate in all the events, because every event is an opportunity and an opportunity. In the end, the coach saw my determination to go up to the 500 meters and decided to let me participate before the race.
Cover News: From the preparation to the end of the Sochi Winter Olympics, is there anything that impressed you more?
Li Jianrou: In fact, from entering the Olympic Village to leaving the village, it looks like a blank in retrospect. Because Wang Meng was injured, we relayed, and the whole team was affected a bit. The idea at the time was to prepare for war. The only flash, many people may think that it should be the moment I stepped on the podium, in fact, now I think, just the moment I sprinted, other including when receiving the award, the impression is very vague.
Cover News: At that time, many commentators thought that you won the championship by luck, but some people thought that you were already a veteran, and you had also achieved excellent results before.
Li Jianrou: Actually, I don't really care what other people say, I know how much effort I have made and how I have trained for so many years. I am the only women's team that has been practicing for so many years, and I am a female Olympic champion at this age. Only I know how the road has come for so many years, saying that I am rewarded with diligence or "Chinese luck", and I believe that it is the reward for my own efforts.
In 1995, 9-year-old Li Jianrou wore a skating suit. Courtesy of respondents.
Witness the leaps and bounds of ice and snow projects
"More envy of today's athletes"
Cover News: Can you tell us about your experience with ice and snow sports? You started skating in the 1990s, what were the conditions like then?
Li Jianrou: I started training at the age of ten, and looking back on that time, I really envy the athletes now. Because the ice knives we wore at that time (professional equipment for speed skating) were the same as the most common ice knives now, and now the price is about two or three hundred yuan, we wear ice knives like that, go to the outdoor skating rink, and start training every night after school. At that time, when the winter was relatively cold, my parents would make me some cotton shoe covers, put them on the outside of the skates, wear cotton clothes inside, put on the current jumpsuit, and then put on a helmet and cotton hat to train. It was a really tough time compared to now.
Cover News: From the exposure to short track speed skating to the retirement to the present, can you talk about how you feel that the ice and snow sports on the mainland have changed?
Li Jianrou: I have been working on ice in 1996 for 25 years. Looking back on this process, I think it is a leap forward, whether it is the current conditions of athletes, the level of coaches, or training equipment, including venues, etc. From the 2002 Winter Olympics, when we achieved a "zero breakthrough" in gold medals to the present, whether it is ice sports or snow sports, there has been a great improvement in performance.
Cover News: If China's winter program is to improve as a whole, what do you think needs to be done?
Li Jianrou: I think the initial training of teenagers is very important. After athletes practice for four or five years, some technical and psychological influences are difficult to change, so enlightenment is very important. Athletes, including my own ice and snow club, have now reached the national level in about two or three years, and in the era when I studied, I probably practiced for eight years to reach such a level.
After retiring from the army, Li Jianrou still did not leave the ice and snow sports. Courtesy of respondents
Create a snow club
Looking forward to leading the team to stand in the next Winter Olympic Games
Cover News: In 2015, because of age and injury, many athletes will become coaches after retirement, you are now also the coach of the Hebei Short Track Speed Skating Team, why did you create an ice and snow club?
Li Jianrou: The Ice and Snow Club was actually established in 2015, I still have nostalgia for the field, I still yearn for it, I still have a lot of love for ice and snow projects, I hope that I can drive more teenagers to participate in ice and snow sports through 18 years of short track speed skating experience and experience, from which to select more outstanding talents, and cultivate reserve talents for the country.
Cover News: Where were you when Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics was successful? How did it feel to hear the news?
Li Jianrou: I was watching the live broadcast with all the athletes at the Jilin Provincial Sports Bureau, and I was crying anyway at that moment. In fact, there are relatively few people on the mainland participating in winter sports, but with the successful bid for the Olympic Games and the promotion of China's ice and snow sports "south exhibition westward expansion and eastward expansion" strategy, many southern regions are now involved in ice and snow. This proves that the teams involved in ice and snow sports are gradually growing, and the rate of growth is very fast. I think China's ice and snow projects are on the rise.
Cover News: In June 2017, you reinstated your athlete status, switched to snowboard slope obstacle course skills, and hoped to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a cross-sport ice and snow sportsman, why did you choose this event? After practicing snowboarding, I have been training and preparing, so why did I give up fighting the Winter Olympics later?
Li Jianrou: That year I started playing snowboarding, and every morning I went to practice around eight o'clock, and I could skip lunch until I closed the door. This project has a bit of competition and extremes, requires skill, not pure physical fitness, for me who has just retired, physical fitness is not a problem at all. At that time, I hoped to enter the national team for professional training, to prepare for the last two years, to play the points race abroad. But because in terms of skiing, I started from scratch to play points, and in the past two years, I have not had the opportunity to compete abroad because of the epidemic, which means that I do not have this point, so I am not eligible to participate in the Olympic Games.
In fact, I am still very nostalgic for the field, or I still like to represent the country to participate in the competition, my original intention has not been forgotten, but after all, age and physical aspects, now it is really not allowed.
Cover News: The Beijing Winter Olympics are getting closer and closer, will it be a pity not to participate? What are your expectations for this Winter Olympics?
Li Jianrou: There are definitely regrets, I think my mentality is the same as when I was an athlete, although I can't participate in this Winter Olympics, there are regrets, but in 2026, I will definitely take my own players to the Winter Olympics. I also hope that this Winter Olympics held in China will enable all athletes to live up to their youth, live up to their efforts, and achieve more good results.