Fan Kexin cried again: I have waited too long for this gold medal!

Fan Kexin cried again.

On the evening of the 6th, the Chinese short track speed skating team ushered in the long-awaited award ceremony. In the awards square, standing on the highest podium, receiving the gold medal of the heavy representative champion, seeing the national flag raised, Fan Kexin cried again.

Participating in three Winter Olympics and finally winning a gold medal of his own means too much for Fan Kexin, who is already 29 years old. "I think I've been waiting for this gold medal for too long!" Fan Kexin said, "The moment the gold medal hung on my neck, I picked it up and looked at it repeatedly, and I was really very happy." ”

On February 5, the Chinese team won the championship in the mixed team relay final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics held at the Capital Gymnasium. The picture shows Fan Kexin in the game.

From an early age, I can suffer hardships

Fan Kexin was born in 1993 in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province, where six world champions were born, including Yang Yang, Wang Meng and Liu Qiuhong.

When he was a child, Fan Kexin's family was not rich. Mom and Dad had a makeshift activity board room and a shoe repair stall, which became the whole of the family. The board room is only about 10 square meters, and the bunk beds are shelved. Little Fan Kexin seems to be born to learn sports material, and her mother took her to the city stadium and ran three laps before being selected.

But the process of learning is undoubtedly extremely arduous. After the winter, the swimming pool of the municipal stadium is frozen into ice, which is a rare training ground for children. Every day at 4 a.m., Fan Kexin would get up on the ice, wear an ordinary ice knife bought for 150 yuan, have big shoes and small feet, and always go home tired and go straight to sleep. But Fan Kexin's biggest advantage is that she can endure hardships, and she has survived these difficulties.

In 2010, Fan Kexin, who had just turned 17, was officially called up to the Chinese national team. Just five months later, the 2011 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Sheffield, England, was announced, and Fan Kexin won the championship in the women's 500m final. "It was like a dream." Fan Kexin said.

I didn't dare to talk about the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

Winning the 500m World Cup championship consecutively, the state is at its peak, and Fan Kexin successfully qualified for the Sochi Winter Olympics. I thought that her winter Olympic gold journey was about to start, but I didn't expect that this wait would be 12 years.

In the women's 500m semifinals of short track speed skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Fan Kexin accidentally fell, and her ice knife hit the ice, and finally missed the final with a time of 1:24.431. But fortunately, she won a silver medal in the 1000 meters that she was not good at.

Four years ago in Pyeongchang, Fan Kexin played as the leader of the Chinese short track speed skating team, but she made major mistakes in both the 500m single event and the 3000m relay.

In the most promising 500-meter short track speed skating, Fan Kexin opened a foul, although the third line collision, but because of the foul was judged invalid. In the 3000-meter relay, Fan Kexin encountered an opponent during the handover and was convicted of a foul, and the results of the Chinese team were canceled.

Until a long time later, Fan Kexin confessed that he did not dare to talk about the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics at all: "When I think about it, I can't cry." ”

Start from scratch together

The defeat of the two Winter Olympics brought Fan Kexin too many regrets. Not surprisingly, the Beijing Winter Olympics will be her last chance to realize her dream. This time, she really wanted to win.

Everything starts from scratch, one stop to fight in the World Cup competition, and use his own strength to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics, for Fan Kexin, these are the necessary training on the road to the championship.

On January 13, 2022, in the second leg of the short track speed skating selection competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Fan Kexin won the women's 500 meters championship, and she won the first place in the women's 500 meters in two consecutive stops, ranking first in the total points, and successfully won the ticket for the Winter Olympics.

"I hope that the moment I stand on the Olympic field, all the energy will burst out and I will win the championship." At the moment of qualifying, Fan Kexin said so.

And everything starts from scratch, and it really starts from the "head". Before the game, Fan Kexin asked the coach to help cut his hair as usual. The short hair is very capable, she also wrote: "The level of coach hair cutting is very good, don't waste a little time, sprint with all your might!" ”

Finally hung the gold medal around his neck

In this way, Fan Kexin and his teammates ushered in this year's short track speed skating mixed relay competition. Although there were twists and turns in the middle, in the end they still won the gold medal with an advantage of 0.016 seconds.

At that moment, Fan Kexin hugged the 28-year-old Wu Dajing tightly, and in an interview, Wu Dajing also kept his hand on her shoulder, they were the oldest athletes of the women's team and the men's team, respectively, in the short track speed skating, which was a sport of hard racing, the veterans felt sorry for each other, and they knew how difficult it was to hold out for another four years after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and usher in the bloom of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

"I've been waiting for this gold medal for so long, I've always believed in the team, from the day I entered the national team, I always believed in my teammates, believed in the strength of the team. On the morning of the competition, we were still studying, still running in, how to skate better. I've been in the national team for 12 years, and first of all I want to thank the country. We train every day in a state of fighting, and when we go down to the ice, there is blood in our throats. At this moment, I feel that all our efforts are worth it! Fan Kexin choked up.

Nowadays, all the persistence and hard work have yielded good results. Fan Kexin has also packed up his mood and is ready to continue to compete for gold medals in this Winter Olympics.

Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Li Li Liu Shuang

Edited by Li Tuo

Process Editor Liu Weili