"I never doubted my abilities and I felt like I could still do a lot of what I could do."
From zero foundation to stand on the Olympic stage, Geng Wenqiang only took 3 years, in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Geng Wenqiang represented the Chinese steel frame snow team for the first time to step on the winter Olympic field, achieved a result of 13. In the Beijing cycle, he "did more", his performance steadily improved, and the first World Cup gold medal created the history of China's steel frame snowmobile.
As the Beijing Winter Olympics approach, Geng Wenqiang is full of expectations for Geng Wenqiang, expecting him to create miracles in the venues and tracks he is familiar with at home. However, to everyone's shock, he was not selected in the team selection competition and did not enter the final Winter Olympic list.
As a pioneer of China's steel frame snowmobile, Geng Wenqiang has created the history of China's steel frame snowmobile for many times. This young man who switched from long jump to steel frame snowmobile has brought too many surprises to China's steel frame snowmobile industry, and it is regrettable that he was not selected this time.
Cross-discipline selection: From track and field tracks to ice and snow tracks, everything starts from scratch
Before the cross-project selection at the age of 20, Geng Wenqiang may never have realized that his life would be related to the steel frame snowmobile. The ice and snow sport, which originated in North American Indians, is a little strange to Chinese, and for the 20-year-old Geng Wenqiang, it is an unknown and exciting challenge.
Geng Wenqiang, a fledgling at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
Geng Wenqiang was born in 1995, began practicing long jump at the age of 11, and was selected for the Inner Mongolia Athletics Team at the age of 16 to receive professional training. In 2015, the National Steel Frame Snow Team was established, and the team went to the sports teams of various sports to select materials across disciplines. In the Inner Mongolia Athletics Team, Geng Wenqiang was selected by the coach.
"At that time, 120 people from all over the country participated in the selection in Yanqing, Beijing, and finally selected five men and five women." Geng Wenqiang recalled.
After entering the national team, Geng Wenqiang's steel frame snowmobile journey finally officially started, ice tracks and snowmobiles entered his life, and he became familiar with this sport from 0 that he had never touched before. New teammates, new coaches, new venues, new lives.
Geng Wenqiang is doing physical training
Geng Wenqiang's first experience of the steel frame snowmobile has also overcome a huge psychological burden, "when I first started, I was particularly scared, especially nervous, I felt that I could not control the snowmobile", indeed, the speed of the steel frame snowmobile gliding in the track was as high as more than 120 kilometers per hour, the vertical drop was more than 110 meters, the sense of weightlessness, suffocation, fear... Athletes need to overcome a variety of physical and psychological discomforts.
Calm and calm: the most suitable personality, the most suitable exercise
"My personality is not particularly irritating, relatively stable"
Geng Wenqiang believes that the players should not be too excited when the steel frame snowmobile is sliding, and if they are particularly excited, it will affect the control of the snowmobile. His calmer and calmer personality will have an advantage in the direction and speed of controlling the snowmobile.
Geng Wenqiang said that if you trust it infinitely (the steel frame snowmobile), it will also trust you. It is this trust that enables Geng Wenqiang to make breakthroughs and progress again and again in this stimulating sport.
When he first started practicing gliding, Geng Wenqiang was still very nervous, and he could even hear his own heartbeat. The problem in front of him at that time was: sliding a straight line, and he couldn't slide a straight line after practicing for a week or so. But with the deepening of the later training and the more and more calm mentality, sliding out of a straight line is no longer difficult for him.
Steel frame snowmobile is known as "F1 of the ice world"
Years of sports training and large and small competitions have shaped Geng Wenqiang's unfazed personality. This personality is suitable for the sport of steel frame snowmobiling, and is also destined to become a weapon that Geng Wenqiang is invincible.
Geng Wenqiang's ability to create the history of China's steel frame snowmobile is not only due to his calm character and mature aura, but also inseparable from his efforts to be different from ordinary people.
The road ahead: the journey of the steel frame snowmobile will continue
When the steel frame snow team was just formed, there was no bobsleigh track that could be used for training in China, and Geng Wenqiang went with the team to train and compete in different countries.
Geng Wenqiang recalled: "We went to Calgary on the first day, trained on land for about three days, and then started to slide down From Turn 6. The moment I slid to the end and stopped, I felt a stone in my heart fall. ”
It has been more than 6 years since he became acquainted with steel frame snowmobiles, and Geng Wenqiang has gradually changed from a "young general" who has just touched the sport to a "veteran" who has been in the battlefield for a long time. These years of experience are not only his precious life wealth, but also the driving force for him to continue his journey in the future.
Geng Wenqiang tied with Britain's Weston and Germany's Grossel to win the championship
Geng Wenqiang has brought too many surprises and glory to the cause of China's steel frame snowmobile with his efforts, and is a well-deserved pioneer. In the future, Geng Wenqiang still needs to make more efforts to break through himself and surpass history.
Although Geng Wenqiang missed the Beijing Winter Olympics this year, we expect him to meet the next competitions and challenges in better shape. There is still glory on the other side, the teenager is not afraid of the years, Geng Wenqiang, we cheer for you! (Text/Zhu Guan'an)