Source: Sports Weekly
After the men's 1000m final, Liu Shaolin carried skates, and a person quickly walked through the twists and turns of the athlete's mixed channel, without paying attention to anyone. Just ten minutes earlier, he had crossed the finish line of the final first time on the ice rink and was crying excitedly against the protective wall. But in the end, the referee replayed the video and found Liu Shaolin guilty of two fouls in the game, issued him a yellow card and canceled his results. The distance between him and the Olympic champion is so close but so far, Liu Shaolin's loss is not difficult to understand.
Two days later, Liu Shaolin returned to the Capital Gymnasium, this time competing in the 1500m, which he was not so good at. In the quarter-finals of the first shot, Liu Shaolin broke the Olympic record set by Lin Xiaojun at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Later, in the semi-finals, Liu Shaolin followed South Korea's Lee Jun-sui to cross the line and successfully advanced. In the final of the final shot of Group A, Liu Shaolin, whose physical fitness declined, only ranked sixth among the 10 players. Although he failed to win another "ice pier" for his sister as he wished, Liu Shaolin was already very satisfied with this result.
1500 meters "accident" broke the record 500 meters will not be stressed
This time, Liu Shaolin, who finished the game, was in a good mood, first chatted with Hungarian reporters for ten minutes, even though it was not early, he still patiently accepted the interview with the Chinese reporters waiting on the sidelines with Chinese.
"The 1500m is not our forte, and we are satisfied with reaching the final and skating out of the Olympic record." Liu Shaolin has always been better at the 500m and 1000m events, and he has never won a medal in the 1500m event at the World Championships. However, in the quarterfinals "Xi Ti" Olympic record, Liu Shaolin also reached his goal of this competition day. "We were also very happy, but in the end it was a little bit boring, and the legs were not good."
Recalling the scene in the 1000m final, Liu Shaolin has long been relieved, and when the reporter mentioned that he seemed to be in a bad mood when he passed through the mixed mining area, Liu Shaolin apologized very sincerely - although he did not have to do this, the athletes through the mixed mining area could refuse to be interviewed. "I'm sorry, I didn't interview you, I wasn't particularly happy at the time, and I didn't [accept] an interview with the Hungarian media, so I can say 'carry my bag home.'" Fortunately, the shadow of missing out on the 1000m gold medal did not hover over Liu Shaolin's head for too long, and the next day he posted on social media the dynamics of riding in the sun in the athletes' village, and a day later, Liu Shaolin's state was obviously not affected by this race. As an athlete who has been playing in the international short track speed skating arena for nearly a decade, Liu Shaolin said that he has learned to let go of the finished race and imagine the future more.
The 1000m and 1500m were fought, and Liu Shaolin's next event was the men's 500m. In the four World Cup games before the Beijing Winter Olympics, Liu Shaolin won two 500-meter championships, and also beat Pyeongchang Winter Olympic champion Wu Dajing to first in the 500-meter season standings. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Liu Shaolin, then 22, said in a northeastern Mandarin, "Wu Dajing is too fast to keep up," and now he has become the best performer in the men's 500m event this season.
After the 2000-meter relay final, the reporter once mentioned to Liu Shaolin his lament in Pyeongchang and asked him if he was now closer to Wu Dajing, who was "unable to catch up" at that time. Liu Shaolin responded with a smile: "Don't put pressure on me!" Let's take it one step at a time. "Although Liu Shaolin said that he refused to put pressure on him from the outside world, he was actually born not afraid of pressure." I've never had particularly much pressure on me, and I've never had a nervous time before the game. Some people are made nervous, but I don't. "Whether it's the men's 500m race that starts the next race day or the men's 5,000m relay race at the end of the schedule, Liu Shaolin, as an athlete, will naturally try to attack the championship, but at the same time, he said that he will not feel lost because he did not win the championship." If I could win the championship, I would be happy, and I would be happy if I didn't take it. I did everything I needed to be able to win the championship, and I wouldn't be unhappy if I didn't take it. ”
Wang Meng was particularly kind to him and wanted to communicate with volunteers more
From Sochi to Pyeongchang to Beijing, liu Shaolin, who speaks half Chinese and fluent Mandarin, is always popular in China whenever the Winter Olympics are held. In addition to the association of blood, Liu Shaolin's short track speed skating career is actually closely related to China. When their progress stagnated as children, Liu Shaolin and his younger brother Liu Shaoang practiced in China for a year and a half, and their childhood coach Zhang Jing is now also the head coach of the Hungarian short track speed skating team.
When Liu Shaolin was a child, Wang Meng, who was at the peak of his career, also gave him a lot of guidance.
Liu Shaolin first met Wang In 2006. At that time, Liu Shaolin and his brother had just begun their skating careers, short track speed skating was still a niche sport in Hungary, and Liu Shaolin only had second-hand ice blade skates to use. After Wang Meng participated in the competition in Europe to meet Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang brothers, he patiently taught them skating experience, which also made Liu Shaolin unforgettable. "She taught me a lot of things and she was very nice to me." Wang Meng, who worked as a commentator for short-track speed skating during the Winter Olympics, also mentioned that Liu Shaolin had known him when he was very young, and even "exposed" Liu Shaolin's nickname "Stinky". But this title made Liu Shaolin himself a little confused: "Every time we meet, she calls me 'Champion', and as soon as I go to the media, she calls me 'Stinky'!" One day I saw her, and I asked her what she meant. ”
Because of this "relationship" with China, Liu Shaolin is always very popular with Chinese players and volunteers in the closed loop of the Winter Olympics. When they met each other in the mixed mining area, Liu Shaolin and Wu Dajing would greet each other, and Ren Ziwei also said that "he and Shaolin Shaoang are very good friends." In the Winter Olympic Village, Liu Shaolin also felt the enthusiasm of the volunteers, he once posted a video of the volunteers showing him the souvenirs presented by Coach Zhang Jing, and also posted a photo with his brother and wrote: "Many people in the Winter Olympic Village asked us if we knew the Liu brothers. ”
Speaking of the feeling of being a "celebrity" in the Winter Olympic Village, Liu Shaolin is very happy to have exchanges with volunteers. "Volunteers come by themselves, and we want them to have more contact with us." Under the epidemic and the tight schedule, Liu Shaolin's communication with the volunteers is also very limited, but he feels supported and hopes to communicate more with the volunteers. "We also want to bring them a good one, take a picture, talk about it, and I like them very, very much."