Written by Xu Sijia
On the evening of February 4, the eyes of the world will focus on China's "Bird's Nest". Gao Tingyu, 25, and Zhao Dan, a "post-00s" girl, will raise the five-star red flag to lead the Chinese sports delegation to the entrance.
Ni Huizhong, secretary general of the Chinese delegation, said that the criteria for selecting the flag bearer of this delegation are, "both to affirm the efforts of the athletes and their breakthroughs." Four years ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu won the first Olympic medal in the history of Chinese men's speed skating, for which the Chinese men's speed skating has been waiting for 38 years.
This "Buddhist teenager" who looks very grinning and light on the outside is actually a person with a heart that is undistracted and has studied the project with his heart. He doesn't play games, and in his spare time, he only sleeps to watch videos of his main opponents, and even for three years, he even dreams of playing.
The road to breakthrough is always full of falls and injuries
Gao Tingyu at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
It is often said that good things are grinding. The road to breakthrough is always full of falls and injuries.
Four years ago in Pyeongchang, during a warm-up training session less than an hour before the start of the race, Gao Tingyu accidentally fell off the track at the turn, an accident that once made him "not want to compare". After climbing up, Gao Tingyu adjusted the position of the ice knife on the sideline alone before he dared to stand back on the field, "I felt that after that fall, I was suddenly confused, my psychology had a shadow, and I didn't dare to add strength when cornering." ”
The first shot started, and the Japanese runners in the same group rushed to run, which directly affected the starting state of Gao Tingyu's second shot. "I thought it was a grind to fall out of the track before the race, but I didn't expect that there was a grind waiting for me behind me."
The Winter Olympics have entered the Beijing cycle, and Gao Tingyu's technology and mentality have become more and more mature, but the accidents and tests have not been absent. A recurrence of a low back injury led him to leave the national team in April 2020 and return to the provincial team to adjust and recover. For 8 months, he traveled back and forth between the training ground and the infirmary every day, "if you keep training, there will always be a load, and the load will be aggravated." You can only repeatedly prick (acupuncture), the waist is already full of eyes, sometimes if you touch the blood vessels, it is blood, you use alcohol to wipe the blood off and then prick (acupuncture). When recalling injuries, Gao Tingyu's tone was always very calm.
At the beginning of this season, after Gao Tingyu won the championship in Poland, he missed the Norwegian race due to a waist injury, and the United States station was sent off for a starting foul. Fortunately, in the face of these tribulations, Gao Tingyu has always remained sober, "Playing iron still needs to be hard, I have always been perfecting the details of the starting, I feel that it is not a certain aspect, but all aspects still need to be improved." ”
Everything was the best arranged
Gao Tingyu and his companions display the national flag during a group photo
It is said that athletes care most about winning and losing, but Gao Tingyu is a special case, starting from entering the national team, the most commonly used mantra of this northeast boy is "OK". "How does training feel?" "It was ok!" "Did the results meet expectations?" "It was ok!"
Gao Tingyu himself ridiculed, perhaps this is the "Buddhist" mentality. He can always smile lightly and recall the hardships along the way.
When he was seven or eight years old, Gao Tingyu practiced skating in Yichun's school, and later, he got the opportunity to "learn from the scriptures" in Harbin and train with the Mudanjiang team. As a result, when he returned to school, he was expelled from the school team for private training, and someone asked him, was it sad at that time? He said, "No, I want to thank them. ”
During the interview, the reporter always wanted to chase him and talk about the hardships of the past, but he smiled and said, "I am a man, forgetful." I can't remember anything that feels less important. ”
Just like Gao Tingyu's favorite aphorism: Everything is the best arrangement.
He never played games, and he skated in his dreams
Gao Tingyu in the game
In Zhang Hong's view, Gao Tingyu seems to be careless, and under the appearance of "Hanging Er Lang Dang", there is a super self-control that ordinary people do not have. "Although he is very young, but his mind is particularly mature, he will set some goals for himself psychologically, do some mature things, will not be like some athletes greedy, he will focus on watching the game video every day, research technology, study ice blade, his self-discipline ability is beyond everyone in the team."
In addition to boring training, most athletes usually play games together, but Gao Tingyu does not play games at all. Occasionally listening to songs and watching movies, he likes Jay Chou and thinks "if Superman could fly".
Gao Tingyu greeted everyone when he received the award
For several years, he has fallen asleep not with relaxing games, but with videos of opponents playing on a loop over and over again, "I think you can only find your shortcomings by comparing with others, especially those videos that break world records and Olympic records." I basically watch it every day before I go to bed, and I watch it when I wake up, and for about three or four years I was like a demon, dreaming that I was skating. Gao Tingyu said, "Once I dreamed that I had been sliding on the field, there were referees and coaches on the field, that is, there was no opponent, there was no finish line, and I could never finish the slide, and I woke up all of a sudden." ”
epilogue:
Four years ago in PyeongChang, we asked him, "If you can predict the future, what would you most want to know?" Without a moment's hesitation he said, "I want to see, four years from now!" ”
Now, I want to tell the big boy who had no distractions four years ago, "Hey, did you see, four years later you carried the banner of the Chinese delegation!" ”