Looking back at the history of Chinese figure skating, from scratch, has gone through 30 years of time, since the Chinese figure skating team competed in the Winter Olympics in 1980, women's singles and men's singles have made breakthroughs, and so far the only gold medal is also the first gold medal of Chinese figure skating, won by the pair skating combination Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, for this precious gold medal, the two have competed in four Olympic Games.
Since the ninth Winter Olympics, the former Soviet Union and its subsequent Russia have monopolized the gold medals in the double skating Olympic games for nearly 46 years, and players from various countries have repeatedly challenged the gold medals, but they have not succeeded, until Shen Xuezhao Hongbo won the championship at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, which broke Russia's twelfth consecutive Olympic championships. The gold medallion also rewrote the nearly half-century olympic history of figure skating.
This issue of the Ice and Snow Research Society will walk you into the story of this pair of "ice legends" Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo.
Teamed up for 18 years, four Olympic games, and finally realized the dream of Vancouver
On February 15, 2010, at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Shen Xue hid his face and cried when he heard "the first place" read on the radio. At the moment when the game was over and the music stopped, Zhao Hongbo squatted on the ground for a long time and did not want to stand up. The journey of Shen Zhao's four Olympic games finally ended with a gold medal.
After the game, the emotions of the two did not come out of the joy of winning gold for a long time. From the moment he finished the game, Shen Xue's tears were like a faucet that could not be turned off, and he couldn't stop sliding over his face, "This gold medal is particularly difficult to come by, especially remembering every hardship I have experienced, there are still more happy ingredients in the tears." Zhao Hongbo also couldn't hide his inner excitement, "Too many years, finally got this gold medal, now I really don't know what to say, the two of us have experienced too much too much!" It is worth it to be 37 years old to get this gold medal! The "three "too many" contain all the bittersweet and bittersweet and inner feelings of hand in the past 18 years.
Zhao Hongbo was selected by the coach to start learning figure skating at the age of 7, and at the age of 13, he changed to pair skating at the suggestion of coach Li Yueming, and in 1991, the 18-year-old Zhao Hongbo won the national double skating championship with his first partner Xie Maomao. Not long after, Xie Maomao retired, coach Yao Bin had to choose another partner for Zhao Hongbo, when Shen Xue even fell down during training, he did not say a word, silently got up and continued to practice, Yao Bin also took a fancy to this tenacity, and chose to let the two hold hands.
Compared with Zhao Hongbo, who became famous earlier, Shen Xue is still only a 14-year-old girl, but she does not shrink back from the large difference in strength, but uses practice to cultivate tacit understanding and narrow the gap between the two. Holding hands for only four months, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the domestic arena.
The Olympic Games is a stage that every athlete aspires to, and the Shen Zhao group is no exception. In 1998, the two of them' first Winter Olympics trip, and they performed a song "Olympia" on the ice. The speed of the lightning and the technical action of the board and the glance are very in place, but unfortunately the artistic expression of the two is not enough, and finally won the fifth place, but this result was also a place that Chinese double skating dared not think at that time.
With the confidence laid by the Olympic Games, Shen Zhao actively trained to prepare for the next Winter Olympics. At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, before the free skating competition, the two did not make up their minds not to use the "killer skill", and they did not have to stop the bronze medal, use the four-sided throw, and if the opponent made a mistake, it was likely to get gold. In the last moment before the free skate, whether it was a gamble between jade crushing or waquan, they chose the former. You know, this action has never been completed in the history of the world's pair skating in an official competition.
At the beginning of the game, Shen Zhao's combination entered the slide before the jump was stable and powerful, with the take-off, three laps, four laps, Shen Xue fully turned in the air, but at the moment of falling ice, because of the height tension of the body and the contraction of the muscles, she failed to stand firm and fell on the ice. At that moment, the audience present experienced the ups and downs from shock to disappointment, and at that moment, Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo was also so close to success. In the end, they received a precious bronze medal.
After the game, they did not stop because of the regret of the game, and continued to look at the Winter Olympics, this time, they decided to combine difficulty and artistic expression. In the process of orderly development of the training schedule and the continuous improvement of the state, fate seems to have played a joke with them again. In August 2005, before the winter Olympic cycle began, Zhao Hongbo ruptured his Achilles tendon during a training session and had to undergo surgery immediately. "I think maybe it's all over. I hugged Shen Xue, and the two of them cried. All the preparations suddenly returned to the original point, and the days when Zhao Hongbo was injured were also the most painful periods for the two people.
"It's okay, we can start all over again." In such a difficult time, the two encourage each other. From the recovery of surgery to the start of training to the field of the Winter Olympics, Zhao Hongbo completed this difficult leap in just half a year, and in the end, they still stood on the ice of the Turin Winter Olympics and won a bronze medal.
"Although we have failed many times, the desire for gold medals has made us quickly forget the hardships we have suffered and continue to work hard for our dreams." In this way, they embarked on the field of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, which is also the 16th year of the Duo's Olympic Games. In the free skating competition, they chose the Italian composer's "Soft Board", and the deep emotions and thoughts expressed in the music just condensed the ice couple's mental journey through the competition and the test of life, accompanied by the soothing rhythm of "Soft Board", Shen Zhao's interpretation is more like a spiritual dialogue, which makes the audience intoxicated.
At the end of the song, the two won the championship with years of tacit understanding and perfect play. "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. ”
In order to practice four weeks to throw jumps, he once gambled on his career
Behind the Olympic gold medal is countless bitterness and sweat, of which the training experience of "throwing around the jump" is the most difficult time for Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo.
Around 2000, as one of the few Asian faces on the world ice scene at that time, it was difficult to break through the crowd of players with a strong subjective artistic score, and only difficult technical actions could break the iron wall of Western referees. After some consideration, the head coach Yao Bin proposed the idea of letting Shen Zhao practice throwing around.
Compared to throwing three weeks, four weeks is 360 degrees more on the basis of three weeks, requiring athletes to rotate higher and faster in the air, which also means that once you fall, the pain will be several times greater. However, for the sake of grades, there is no better option.
Because the technical difficulty of the action is very high, Shen Xue is fully armed every time he trains, wearing a helmet, wrist pads, and knee pads, although to a certain extent, he forms protection for the body, but he cannot completely alleviate the pain caused by the fall. At the beginning of the practice, because she did not grasp the essentials, Shen Xue would fall heavily to the ground after being thrown high, her nose was blue and her face was swollen, and there was almost no good place on her body, on the ice surface and on the baffle, there were tragic marks left by her everywhere, but she did not say a word and wrapped the gauze and continued to devote herself to training. The surrounding teammates recalled the scene when Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo practiced throwing around with only one sentence, "It's really a crime." "Falling again and again, getting up again and again, partner Zhao Hongbo has been by his side, "you want to take another step towards the world championship" is said to both to your partner and to yourself.
Because he didn't want his parents to worry about himself, Shen Xue had been hiding from himself about practicing dancing around, and his parents were completely kept in the dark. Later, through the dictation of other coaches, Shen Xue's parents learned the news of their daughter's four weeks of practice, "I was in a hurry, I had high blood pressure, and I was hospitalized." The reason why the coaches who came back confided the truth to us was because they saw with their own eyes that the 'throw 4 weeks' training was so dangerous, and they hoped that we would persuade Xiaoxue to give up this action, if it was broken, her sports career would come to an end..." When recalling this past, Shen Xue's mother was always in tears.
In this way, in the case of an ambulance on standby, after 43 painful falls, the 44th time, after Shen Xue turned around in the air, he fell smoothly on the ice, and the people at the scene immediately cheered and congratulated Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. They all knew what kind of hardships the Shen Zhao group had experienced in order to complete such an action.
Never left the ice couple poured all their weight into figure skating
After realizing their Olympic gold dream in 2010, they chose to retire, but with a love of figure skating, they never left the ice rink. Let more people fall in love with skating, bring out more excellent athletes, has become their new dream.
In 2013, Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo's head coach Yao Bin retired, Zhao Hongbo took over the baton in the hands of his mentor, turned from an athlete and became the head coach of the Chinese figure skating team pair skating, he said: "The first half of my life was dedicated to the cause of figure skating, and I think I will not leave it in the second half of my life." I hope I can become a great coach like my mentor Yao Bin. In 2018, Shen Xue became the president of the Chinese Figure Skating Association. The two also because of their busy work, usually rarely get together, once the two meet, the most exchanged topic is figure skating.
Shen Xue Zhao Hongbo's historic breakthrough in the field of figure skating in China has also attracted more young people to enter the ice rink and understand the sport of figure skating. Figure skating, also known as "ballet on ice", is a sport that combines ice skills and artistic beauty, and is divided into men's and women's singles according to gender, as well as double skating and ice dance.
At present, in the Chinese figure skating pair skating event, Sui Wenjing Han Cong continues the glory of his predecessors. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, they won the silver medal with a 0.43 points, and in the 21-22 season they overcame injuries and made a comeback, winning both races at the Figure Skating World Championships. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, they will also usher in the second Winter Olympic journey to launch an attack on the gold medal.
Ice and snow event is coming, China Mobile Migu will pay attention to the performance of Chinese ice and snow athletes, figure skating event cycle is from February 4 to February 20, sports users can instantly follow up the ice and snow athletes through the ice and snow area of Mobaihe and Migu Video, and cheer for China's ice and snow together!