▲ 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, Ye Qiaobo in the competition Photo / Xinhua News Agency
"Although the color of this medal is not satisfactory, I personally feel that in a sense, this bronze medal seems to have more personal significance to me. While not a perfect ending, it exemplifies a never-say-die sportsmanship in which athletes go all out. ”
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Zhang Mingmeng
In 1992, the 16th Winter Olympics were held in Albertville, France, and the 28-year-old Ye Qiaobo won two silver medals in the women's 500 meters and 1000 meters speed skating finals, allowing the five-star red flag to fly on the podium of the Winter Olympics for the first time.
It was just part of a moment of brilliance in her career. In 1993, Ye Qiaobo won three gold medals at the World Sprint Skating Championships, becoming Asia's first World Championships all-around champion. Also this year, she won all 8 gold medals in the women's 500 meters of the World Cup series, and won the World Cup championship "Golden Ice Knife". At the 17th Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994, Ye Jobo won a bronze medal in the 1,000m event. When she retired from injury in 1994, she won a total of 23 world championships.
▲ On February 14, 1992, at the award ceremony of the women's speed skating 1000 meters at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, Ye Qiaobo (left) won the silver medal Photo/Visual China
As a speed skater, her physical condition is not very good: European athletes are 1 meter 7-1 meter 8 tall, but she is only 1 meter 65. She has always been competitive, recalling in many interviews that she "has not lost since childhood.". In the first to third grades of elementary school, she was the first in all the sports competitions she participated in, but no sports school wanted her because her running posture was not good enough. The teacher thought it looked like skating and suggested she try it.
She started skating at the age of 10 and practiced for a month, breaking the record of the Changchun Children's Group. At the age of 12, he was selected for the Bayi speed skating team. At that time, there was no indoor ice skating rink, and I could only take an open-top car to train on the lake or river surface of Heihe, Nenjiang, Hailar, Qiqihar and other places, and the temperature was -35 degrees to 40 degrees. She was the youngest of all the team members, and had fallen into the ice cave several times, relying on the bamboo pole handed by the coach to climb out of the cold water. She was born into a military family, and diligence is a quality of will that she has had since she was a child, and if others do it 100 times, she will do it 200 times.
In 1977, Ye Qiaobo enlisted in the army and became a speed skater at the ice training base of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Subsequently, she won the second place in the youth group of the National Championships, the all-around champion of the National Youth Championships, and at the age of 18, she won 2 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in the National Speed Skating Championships, breaking the national record many times. He became a member of the national team in 1985. In 1991, Ye Qiaobo won the 500-meter championship, the 5-distance speed skating runner-up, the World Cup 500-meter championship, and the 1000-meter runner-up, becoming one of the representative figures of China's short-track speed skating and The most gold-rich player in China at the Winter Olympics.
While an athlete, Ye Qiaobo never gave interviews, which she thought would be distracting. Her bedside schedule is full of different quotes, and her daily life is training, eating and sleeping. "I eat for training, sleep for training, massage recovery or for training, and I don't feel bored with a day's 'three o'clock and one line'." She does only three things at night: therapeutic massages, watching videos to analyze technical movements, and teaching herself English.
At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, Ye Jobo was in a heroic state and reached the finals of the 500m and 1000m speed skating as he wished. In the 500m final, she was 12 metres behind her opponents and entered the lane change zone. According to the rules, the outsiders and the opponent must give way when they pull the time, but the other party does not give way, and the two collide together. Ye Qiaobo could only restart, losing at least half a second. She chased all the way and ended up only 0.18 seconds behind the champion, about half a foot away. In the 1000m final, she was 0.02 seconds away from the champion and missed out again.
▲ December 25, 2021, Changchun, Jilin Province, speed skating world champion Ye Qiaobo holding the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch for display Photo / Xinhua News Agency
Long-term training made Ye Qiaobo's knee seriously injured, and after diagnosis, the doctor announced that the meniscus of her left knee was crushed and a large area of cartilage fractured, and suggested that she recover from the injury. But she still competed in the speed skating competition for the whole year of 1993, and even won the gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
When she went abroad to compete, considering that the cost of asking a doctor was too high, she taught herself acupuncture and gave herself more than a hundred injections at most. Because the injury was too serious, the knee edema was obvious, and the opponent's doctor could not see it anymore and taught her to bury the needle. Later in his career, Ye Qiaobo buried more than thirty needles in his knees for many years.
Before the Winter Olympics, she went to the doctor again for an injury, and the doctor gave two suggestions: repair, not to participate in any competition in a year; taking debris, broken ligaments can not be repaired, but can participate. She chose the latter. Doctors removed 5 broken bones from her left kneecap during the operation and again advised her to give up the idea of participating in the Winter Olympics.
"It wasn't easy under my left leg, so I dragged one and a half legs to the game. Even if I don't want this leg, I have to do my best. I think that the motivation to have goals and dreams is particularly large, and there is a lot of room for spiritual potential to be tapped. In other words, from surpassing the self to constantly breaking through the limits of the body, this period is to shake off the distance of the opponent. In an interview, Ye Qiaobo recalled, "I felt that every day was very difficult on the way to chasing my dreams, but in order to realize the dream of the 1994 Winter Olympics, I felt that it was worth throwing my legs on the ice rink, because this was the last fight of my life." The day after the operation, Ye Qiaobo limped and began training, and the next day the nurse drew a large amount of suction tube pus and blood.
In the 500m short track speed skating event, Ye Qiaobo did not play well, and her hope of winning the championship was only the 1000 meters short track speed skating final. In the end, she won the bronze medal in 1 minute 20 seconds 22 seconds, which was also the first medal won by the Chinese delegation in the ten days of the Winter Olympics.
During the operation after the competition, the doctor found that the patella, collateral ligaments, anterior cruciate ligament, and posterior cruciate ligament on both sides of her left knee had been broken for a long time, and there were 8 free broken bones in the cavity, and the intersection of the bones was serrated. For a long time afterwards, Ye Qiaobo could only sit in a wheelchair.
"Although the color of this medal is not satisfactory, I personally feel that in a sense, this bronze medal seems to have more personal significance to me. While not a perfect ending, it exemplifies a never-say-die sportsmanship in which athletes go all out. Ye Qiaobo said.
On the podium at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, YeChopo cried. It was the first time she had shed tears on the podium, and she knew it would be the last. "My road was not over, and that was the strongest thought at that time. Although my snow career ended on the field, a new life has just begun. She said.
▲On October 14, 2021, Tsinghua University held a mobilization meeting for volunteer work at the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and Ye Qiaobo shared at the mobilization meeting Photo/Xinhua News Agency
Ye Qiaobo's story was widely reported by the media, and the "Qiaobo Spirit" was widely circulated, inspiring a generation of young people. After many years of retirement, she can still meet someone to thank her: "It was your story that inspired me to work hard to get into college." ”
After bidding farewell to his career as an athlete, Ye Qiaobo studied for an MBA from Tsinghua University, the Central Party School, and a doctorate in economics. Later, he worked as a coach at the People's Liberation Army Ice Sports Training Base, has been committed to the promotion of winter sports, and is now a member of the Athletes Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee.
In a recent interview, she shared her youthful feelings with the athletes of the Winter Olympics: Learn from the best of others, be a better version of ourselves, we are all champions.