February 6
For Zhu Yi, a figure skater whose ancestral home is Ezhou, Hubei Province, it is a moment worth remembering. In the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating team preliminary women's singles short program competition, the 19-year-old Zhu Yi debuted for the Chinese team, which is also the first time that hubei Ezhou athletes have appeared on the stage of the Winter Olympics.
Lucky to catch the last train of the Winter Olympics
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese figure skating team won 2 pair skating, 1 men's singles, 1 women's singles, and 1 ice dance with a total of 5 places. Prior to this, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, and Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu had already qualified for the double skating and ice dance competition, and one seat for each male and female single skaters would be selected through the selection competition.
According to the selection rules of the Winter Games Center of the State General Administration of Sport, 3 athletes from each of the men's and women's singles will be qualified for the selection competition, the men's singles are Jin Boyang, Yan Han and Chen Yudong, and the women's singles are Zhu Yi, Chen Hongyi and Lin Shan. Starting from December 16, 2021, the Chinese team conducted 3 stations and 5 selection matches that lasted for one month. According to the rules of the selection competition, the best results of 4 of the 5 selection matches in the 3 stations of the athletes are added up to the final result, and the first place of men and women is qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
After two years of growth, Zhu Yi's competition with Chen Hongyi and Lin Shan lasted until the last one. Lin Shan, who was previously leading in points, made a serious mistake in the free skating in the last stop, and finally ranked third with 716.68 points, Chen Hongyi ranked second with 724.64 points, and Zhu Yi won the first place in the selection tournament with 732.60 points, and was lucky to catch the last train of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
"Little Flower" Zhu Yi is the pride of Ezhou
The name Zhu Yi was probably not heard of by most people before the Beijing Winter Olympics. In fact, she is an Ezhou girl with ancestral home in Hubei.
Zhu Yi's father, Zhu Songchun, is an outstanding student from Ezhou High School in Hubei Province, and is now a world-class computer scientist, who has won the World's highest award in the field of computer vision three times, and now serves as the dean of the Beijing General Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, the dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Peking University, and the dean of the School of Intelligence of Peking University.
Born in the United States in 2002, Zhu Yi began his exposure to figure skating at the age of 7 and soon showed extraordinary talent. In 2018, 16-year-old Zhu Yi won the championship with 167.69 points in the rookie group of the National Figure Skating Championships, which was 35 points higher than the second place. Zhu Yi's stunning performance attracted the attention of the US national team and invited her to represent the US team in the international figure skating arena. But Zhu Yi declined the invitation and returned to China with his father's encouragement.
For Zhu Yi, Zhu Songchun has great hopes, he hopes that his daughter can return to China and represent China in the Winter Olympics. Born in Hubei and raised in Hubei, Zhu Songchun has a full miss for his hometown. He once mentioned in an interview that Zhu Yi's nickname, Youyou, was taken from the poem describing the Yellow Crane Tower: "The Yellow Crane is gone, and the white clouds are empty for a thousand years."
"I was very excited to know that I had the opportunity to play for the Chinese figure skating team, and the support of my parents also swept away all my worries." After joining the Chinese national team and successfully catching the last train of the Olympic Games, Zhu Yi was very happy.
The family firmly believes that Zhu Yi will get better and better
"I hope that Zhu Yi can play his own level and win glory for the country and glory for Ezhou!" On the first winter Olympic field, Zhu Yiyuan's relatives in Ezhou also waited in front of the TV set early, waiting to watch Zhu Yi's winter Olympic debut.
At 9:30, Zhu Yi, dressed in a dark purple competition suit, opened his debut at the Winter Olympics with a song by the Rolling Stones "Blacken it" in the women's singles short program competition, which was also the first time that an Ezhou athlete had appeared on the Winter Olympics. Although there was an episode at the beginning, Zhu Yi quickly adjusted to the state and successfully completed the whole set of performance actions, and the audience gave her warm applause.
"Seeing Zhu Yi fight for the country, we are very proud as a family, which is also the pride of Ezhou people! We will always support her! Witnessing Zhu Yi's debut in the Winter Olympics, relatives believe that Zhu Yi's performance in the next step will get better and better.
Zhu Yi, who grew up in the United States, because he was busy with training and competition, usually there were not many opportunities to return to his hometown, and the last time he returned to his hometown was in August 2019, after joining the Chinese national team, Zhu Yi made a special trip back to Ezhou to visit his 94-year-old grandmother and family.
After being officially selected for the national team's Winter Olympics roster, Zhu Yi entered the closed preparation training with the team. But Zhu Yi, who concentrated on preparing for the war during the Spring Festival, is not alone, through the family's WeChat group, she can always feel the support of her family, "I hope she will play boldly and show her level!" After the Winter Olympics, I will go back to Ezhou to see! ”
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Tong Junpeng sent from Beijing
Photo: Xinhua News Agency