Peschstein, 49, who confesses speed skating with long-term companionship; Gu Ailing and Taisi's affection for each other; the Maran Choir who celebrates the world; the true feelings of volunteers and contestants... There is no shortage of conflict and confrontation in the arena, but these stories are telling us: the ice and snow on the Winter Olympics are warm.
The charm of sports is sometimes not about that "gold medal".
Text / Wang Nan
Editor / Yin Haonan
01
"My legs are old, but my heart is still young."
In the women's speed skating 3,000 meters on February 5, 22-year-old Chinese teenager Ahnal Adak appeared in the first group. She was joined by Claudia Peschstein, a 49-year-old veteran born in Germany in 1972.
As the oldest participant in this Winter Olympic Games, the 49-year-old recorded not only the passage of time, but also the legendary veteran's ups and downs in his career.
In 2009, German media reported that after analyzing the athlete's biological passport, the International Skating Federation (ISU) believed that Peschstein's blood had abnormal levels of reticular cells, suspecting that she had artificially increased the number of red blood cells to improve speed and endurance. He was eventually suspended for two years and caused Pechstein to miss the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Since then, Pechstein has insisted on denying the use of doping, but her repeated appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Court have been rejected one by one.
This past has made Pechstein much of criticism and condemnation, and it has become the heaviest blow of her career.
It wasn't until early 2010 that an expert report from the German Association of Hematology and Oncology clarified Peschstein's blood abnormalities, which were in fact inherited defects from her father. After constant complaints and advocacy, she finally got the chance to return to the field in 2015.
Looking at Pechstein's professional resume, from Albertville in France in 1992 to Beijing in China today, this is her eighth time on the field of the Winter Olympics. Moreover, she also became the standard-bearer of the German delegation for the Beijing Winter Olympics this time.
"It's a great honour for me and I've done everything I can to have the opportunity to raise the flag for Germany in my career. As a record-setting veteran, I'm incredibly proud."
"My legs are old, but my heart is still young." Peschstein said.
At the end of this month, she will celebrate her 50th birthday.
The image is taken from the official website of the International Skating Union
A record on the official website of the International Skating Federation shows that Peschstein, as the greatest athlete in the history of speed skating, not only set a speed skating women's 5,000m Olympic record at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the same time, she is also imprinted with a number of landmark symbols.
For example: the record of eight Winter Olympic Games (the number of participations is equal to that of ski jumper Norimishi Kasai), the oldest female athlete to participate in the Winter Olympics, the german Winter Olympic athlete who won the most awards (including five gold medals and three silver medals), the first speed skater to win medals at the five Winter Olympics...
Peschstein with the honors received
The Beijing Winter Olympics are likely to be the masterpiece of Peschstein's career, eight Winter Olympics, 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. She had looked down on the crowd and had fallen to the bottom, but she had never left.
02
Sporting power beyond the gold medal
In the women's freestyle ski jump final held yesterday, China's Gu Ailing scored a high score of 94.5 points with the final round of the double cork 1620, locking in the gold medal of the event in one fell swoop.
After the game, there was a heart-warming detail that was also discovered by netizens. France's Taisi, who was firmly at the top of the list in the first two rounds, played abnormally in the third round, and the total score was surpassed by Gu Ailing, and finally missed the gold medal. Tess covered her face and cried bitterly after landing on the ground, unable to get up for a long time. At this time, Gu Ailing, who had already made history, did not stand alone on the sidelines, but leaned over with the bronze medalist Mathilde Greymored and comforted Tess, who was sitting on the ground and crying.
What is not known is that France's Tess was slightly out of shape after the game, not because of the performance of "can't afford to lose", but because of a very heavy "love" in his heart: in January this year, France's Tess's father just died. She originally wanted to dedicate this gold medal to her father in heaven.
A foreign reporter said on Twitter that "France's Tess's father just passed away a month ago, and how loving the performance of the three athletes after the game"
The death of her loved ones once made Taisi a little lost, and she was unable to set foot on the snow field for a long time due to excessive grief. In this competition, Tess was eager to dedicate a gold medal to her father. And in the end, the result of not being able to do so broke the deepest softness in the heart of this brave girl.
After the game, Gu Ailing also generously said: "I am proud of Taisi, it is her wonderful performance that made me dare to challenge 1620 in the final round, and half of my gold medals belonged to her."
And the heart-warming story of the Winter Olympics is far more than this one.
03
A holy song born of earth
"Please illuminate the running, wrestling and throwing events, these all-out noble races. A corolla made of olive branches is given to the winner, creating a steely torso." At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4, 44 young Chinese faces sang "Olympic Odes" to the world in Greek.
This group of children, named Maran Choir.
This natural sound comes from the mountains.
Since 1960, this solemn Olympic anthem has been sung at the opening ceremony of every Olympic Games. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the performers of this song are all famous singers. This time, director Zhang Yimou chose to "let the aroma of the earth ascend to the hall of elegance", which is undoubtedly a challenge.
Fuping County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, located deep in the Taihang Mountains, just two years ago eradicated absolute poverty. A few months before the opening of the Winter Olympics, the children could barely read music. At the opening ceremony, the a cappella sang the Olympic anthem with extremely complex lifting and descending tunes. The efforts of several months highlight the expectations of Chinese to convey holiness and fraternity to the world, and the condensation of the day and night efforts of the children and the staff behind the scenes.
Deng Xiaolan, a rural teacher, taught the children to sing
After retiring, the 79-year-old "music grandmother" Deng Xiaolan traveled to Beijing and Hebei three times a month, spending nearly 4 months teaching children in the mountains to learn music, and finally making this "Ode to the Olympics" amazing to the world.
The night of the singing was during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger in the Lunar Calendar. The children performed in costumes printed with the image of "Tiger Head Baby" paper-cut, pinning their hopes of peace and joy, courage and strength. Paper-cutting intangible cultural heritage from Wei County, Hebei Province, was also brought to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics with children from mountainous areas. Chinese use their own romantic ways to convey sincere emotions to the world.
04
The friendship of the Winter Olympics in both directions
After the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a short video from Tiktok quickly became popular on the Internet. The video features Tessa Maud, a snowboarder from the United States, who emotionally recounts her unforgettable experience at the entrance ceremony.
She confessed, "It was the craziest night of my life, and all the volunteers were full of kindness and kindness, and they welcomed us from the bottom of their hearts!"
In particular, she mentioned that when she looked back at her mobile phone video, she always saw the one in the pink shirt, waving his arms and shouting "Welcome to China!" The volunteers couldn't help but cry.
Soon, Tessa's social media received more blessings and greetings from Chinese netizens. Everyone hopes that the sincere Tessa can enjoy the Olympic Games and compete smoothly.
It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that the pink-clad volunteer in Tessa's mouth was found— sun Zeyu, a third-year undergraduate from Tsinghua University's Department of Energy and Power Engineering, who served as a pacesetter volunteer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In his reply to Tessa, Sun Zeyu wrote: I am very happy that Tessa still remembers her smile and that welcome, and thank her for helping her record such an important moment in her life. He also wished Tessa and all the athletes a successful finish, as the 2008 Olympic Games "Beijing Welcomes You" sang - "in the yellow land to refresh the results".
At the end of the article, he also invited Tessa to wait for the epidemic to end and come back to China to see. He would take off his mask and say welcome to China to his face!
Sun Zeyu's reply to Tessa
Gu Ailing and Taisi's affection for each other; the Maran Choir who celebrates the world; the true feelings of volunteers and contestants; Peshstein who confesses speed skating with long-term love... There is no shortage of conflict and confrontation in the arena, but these stories are telling us: the ice and snow on the Winter Olympics are warm.