With less than 10 days to go until the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, for many young players participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time, stepping on this stage is an affirmation and inspiration in itself, and for those veterans who have participated in the Winter Olympics many times, there is a completely different state of mind - the Chinese delegation to the Winter Olympics has 5 athletes of the Four Winter Olympics, who have walked all the way from Vancouver to Beijing, and every step they take carries their faith in pursuing their dreams.
Leave regrets behind
Xu Mengtao, now 31, first stepped onto the Stage at the Winter Olympics 12 years ago in Vancouver, where she finished sixth in the freestyle skiing aerial skills competition, when she was a young player under 20 years old. Four years later in Sochi, she won a silver medal. During the PyeongChang Winter Olympic cycle, she riveted her medals to "upgrade" and came to PyeongChang as the world number one, but made a serious mistake in the second jump of the final and finally finished ninth.
This result was a great blow to Xu Mengtao, and he even had the idea of retiring after the game. For a while, Xu Mengtao even had a bit of "faith" and might not be able to win the Winter Olympics champion himself. But in the end, she chose to step out of the shadows and continue to "fight" – from where she fell, she started again.
Xu Mengtao
For a veteran, making such a decision is not easy. To solve the injury and improve her physical fitness, the sudden epidemic in 2020 also disrupted her original preparation rhythm. But Xu Mengtao did not give up and trained with the team step by step. On December 3, 2020, Xu Mengtao, who had recently returned to the international arena, won the World Cup in Finland, setting a new record with a total of 26 World Cup titles. Xu Mengtao, who stood up from setbacks, proved with strength that she has always been one of the best female freestyle skiing aerial skill athletes in the world.
The defeat in PyeongChang was both a pity and a motivating force for her to persevere. She hopes to leave her best performance in 2022 and put her most perfect action at the Beijing Winter Olympics. "I want to come up with the best Xu Mengtao from my own accumulation, from my own ability, and from my own competitive performance."
Similar to Xu Mengtao, Cai Xuetong, a snowboard U-shaped track skilled player who also became famous at a young age, always had regrets in his winter Olympic trip. Born in 1993, Cai Xuetong won her first World Cup gold medal at the age of 16, but due to her inexperience, she only finished 23rd at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and her performance was poorly affected by an injury in Sochi. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong, who has experienced for 8 years, has the ability to win the championship in both experience and strength, and she is also one of the players with the highest demand for the championship, but a mistake on the field made her finally only finish fifth.
Cai Xuetong
Cai Xuetong also had doubts about himself for a while after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, is it time for the "veteran" to end the curtain? The hesitant Cai Xuetong chose to temporarily leave the arena to sort out his state of mind. This experience allowed her to see her heart and what she really wanted.
Cai Xuetong, who returned to the arena, was more determined and showed great strength, and she said, I feel that I still have potential - she does, just before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, she won the annual championship of women's U-shaped track skills in this season's Snowboard World Cup with a total of 216 points.
Cai Xuetong said that because of the impact of the epidemic for a long time, he thought he would be nervous, but when he stood on the field, he calmed down a lot - I believe that in the face of the upcoming Winter Olympics, the mature Cai Xuetong will be more relaxed.
Both for persistence and inheritance
At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, Jia Zongyang, a freestyle skier in men's aerial skill, won the silver medal, just a slight gap of 0.46 points from the first place. This silver medal with regrets is also not easy to come by, behind which is Jia Zongyang's persistence, which is the 22 steel nails embedded in his left leg.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Han Xiaopeng won the gold medal in the men's aerial skills of freestyle skiing, creating the history of Chinese athletes in the event. Four years later in Vancouver, Jia Zongyang, who first stepped on the Winter Olympic games, fought alongside Han Xiaopeng, and in that competition, Han Xiaopeng made a mistake and failed to reach the final, and Jia Zongyang won the sixth place as a rookie.
After that, in Sochi, Jia Zongyang stood on the podium as a bronze medalist, and his preparation plan for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics cycle was disrupted by a crushing fracture of his left leg, in order to stand on the field, he underwent multiple surgeries, embedded 22 steel nails in his left leg, and paid unimaginable hardships when he performed recovery training after surgery, but in the end he still regretted the gold medal with a very small gap.
Jia Zongyang (Photo/An Lingjun)
Today, Jia Zongyang is still fighting on the field, winning a silver medal in individual events in this season's World Cup, and also reaching the mixed team championship podium with Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu. The men's individual competition is fierce, and the "post-95s" and "post-00s" young players in the Chinese team are also catching up. And just as Jia Zongyang looked at Han Xiaopeng, now he has also become the target of many young players in the team, and after more than ten years of perseverance, Jia Zongyang is undoubtedly motivating the young players in the team to continue to move forward with actions.
Also at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, just a few days before Jia Zongyang won the silver medal. Liu Jiayu, a snowboard women's U-shaped track skiller, won the silver medal in this event and won the first medal of the Chinese delegation at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the first medal of Chinese snowboarding at the Winter Olympics.
Liu Jiayu
From Pyeongchang to Beijing, this smiling girl did not hesitate much about "fighting for another four years", after all, this is a Winter Olympics held on her doorstep. On the one hand, she hopes that she can achieve better results, on the other hand, she believes that as a veteran team member, she has the obligation to inherit and lead the young team members to grow together.
Similarly, like many veterans, she struggles with injuries. Previously, because of an injury, Liu Jiayu's overall training has also undergone major changes, in addition to concentrating on studying technical movements and exercising physical fitness, he must also take into account rehabilitation, treatment, recovery and so on. Liu Jiayu said that she has become accustomed to injuries, and the more complete training guarantees have also enabled her to combine her own shortcomings and specialties to formulate a more reasonable training plan and train in a targeted manner in a short period of time.
As a "Patriarch of the Four Dynasties", the experience alone is a valuable asset.
Images, except for those marked, are from personal social media