Not long ago, the Chinese delegation announced the two flag bearers of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the male flag bearer belongs to the speed skater Gao Tingyu, and the female flag bearer is the steel frame snowmobile player Zhao Dan. This decision puzzled many viewers, because according to historical achievements and influence, Wu Dajing, Jia Zongyang and others seem to be more likely to be elected, so why can Gao Tingyu serve as the standard-bearer?
Extraordinary
Speed skating is different from short track speed skating, because there are only two players in the same group, so in terms of perception, it is not as intense as short track speed skating. But it is not difficult to understand the two events, it is not difficult to see that speed skating has higher requirements for absolute speed. And Gao Tingyu's main event is 500 meters, which is equivalent to the 100 meters sprint in athletics, so the world's top athletes are competing for medals in the 500 meters, and the 0.1 second gap may separate the rankings from 4 or 5.
Therefore, although Gao Tingyu's performance is not so eye-catching, the bronze medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics can definitely be said to be a dark horse! On the Olympic stage where Gao Shun gathered, no one expected him to be only 21 years old at the time, and after Zhang Hong, the performance of the speed skating women's team was not outstanding, and people naturally shifted their attention to other sports. However, in this case, Gao Tingyu turned out to be a valuable bronze medal, which not only made history, making him the first Chinese male speed skater to win an Olympic medal. What's more, he rekindled expectations and hopes for speed skating!
The future can be expected
Gao Tingyu was not satisfied with the first person in the history of speed skating in the Olympic medal, but chose to challenge to a higher level. Just as breaking 9.9 seconds in the 100m race in athletics is a big hurdle, it is not easy to skate in the 500m of speed skating. Gao Tingyu trained hard for two more years before he slid to a personal best of 34.282 seconds. Long-term efforts finally ushered in the moment when he broke through the cocoon, and in September 2021, he finally slipped into the 34-second mark and broke the national record with 33.83 seconds.
In November, Gao Tingyu finally ushered in a very important highlight moment in his life, although he often won championships in national and Asian competitions, but he repeatedly missed gold medals when passing against the world's top players. However, in the Speed Skating World Cup in Poland, he won the championship with a time of 34.26 seconds! This is his first time to win a championship in the world's top competition, and his performance at the Winter Olympics is expected by many people. And as he grew older, although he was not as light as he was in 2018, his strength had increased.
Image sunshine
In addition to his strength, the reason why Gao Tingyu was able to serve as the standard-bearer of the Winter Olympics was also because of his healthy and sunny image. He is also a dog lover after the competition, and he likes to interact with his dog very much, which is super loving. In addition, he is also a pistachio and scribble player on the speed skating team, and he likes to joke with his teammates and seniors, and his interaction with ice fans on social media is also very decent.
Successor
Although speed skating does not have as much traffic as short track speed skating, but this project is also the Chinese team's long-term advantage of the project, Ye Qiaobo is in the speed skating project for the Chinese delegation to make a breakthrough to create history, but due to the instability of talent training, the lack of scientific training technology and the world's top athletes such as Lin, China's speed skating has not ushered in a wide range of development and promotion. Although Wang Beixing has continued his outstanding performance since then, and Zhang Hong has won the gold medal in the history of speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, speed skating still needs a successor.
The timing of Gao Tingyu's appearance is excellent! The bronze medalist of the Winter Olympics and the sprint event gives him an advantage in terms of project influence, just as the sprint event in athletics will be more attractive than the middle and long distance, although Ning Zhongyan performed better in the middle distance event, Gao Tingyu is still an arrow figure who can represent China's speed skating! Why can he be a standard-bearer? In fact, he is the flag bearer of Speed Skating in China today!
(Aibao)