Without standing on the podium, they "won" themselves

On February 7, the competition in the women's giant slalom event of alpine skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics ended, and Beat Fivuz from Switzerland won the gold medal with a time of 1:42.69. Compared to those projects that are more exciting and have a wider audience, alpine skiing is not very popular in the Winter Olympics. And this is not the strength of the Chinese team, and most domestic audiences have paid little attention to it. However, kong Fanying and Ni Yue, the two players representing China, had quite a brilliant performance, completing two rounds of skating with tenacious fighting spirit, ranking 40th and 44th respectively.

At first glance, there is a big gap between the results of the two and the medal winners. However, Kong Fanying's ranking has set a new record for the Chinese team in the last four Winter Olympics, achieving the highest ranking of Chinese athletes since the Vancouver Winter Olympics. At the same time, as a "newcomer" who stood on the Olympic field, Ni Yue also achieved outstanding results that impressed many predecessors.

Alpine skiing is a sport full of unknown risks. Those who qualified for the Winter Olympics were among the world's top players, but 33 of the 82 participants still failed to finish. Among them, the defending champion who won the gold medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the American Michaela Shiffrin, fell out of the first round. In this case, as long as it can be successfully completed, it is a great achievement. Affected by the order of departure, when Kong Fanying and Ni Yue set off, the snow track had been scraped by the snowboards of many players and became rugged and hardened, but they did not take this as a reason to slacken off, but redoubled their efforts to surpass the best result of the Chinese team in more than ten years. No matter from which point of view, the breakthroughs made by these two Olympic heroes deserve the vigorous "praise" of the society.

Athletes in any sport have strong and weak points, and for strong athletes, competing for medals is of course an important pursuit. However, even if you know early on that it is difficult to win medals, those who are relatively weak are not here to "accompany" others. Competitive sports always have to be higher and higher, and the existence of podiums and medals is also an inspiration to athletes, but when it comes to the core of the Olympic spirit, solidarity and self-transcendence are the keys.

In the face of reporters after the game, Kong Fanying said: "There is no energy before the finish line, because there are too many ice edges on it, and you must use 100% or even 200% strength to step on." Finally, with a belief, we must reach the end! For Kong Fanying, the belief that supported her to finish the game was not to win anyone, but to complete the mission and goal in her heart.

In this regard, the mood of the best athletes is generally similar. On February 8, Gu Ailing, who won the gold medal in the women's freestyle ski jump, also said: "I don't want to beat other players, I don't want to be better than others, I want to do my best." ”

In previous Olympic games, gold medalists have always received the most applause and flowers, and even silver and bronze medal winners will look a little lonely. However, those who are entitled to encouragement and applause are never only those who stand on the podium, but also on the great stage of the Olympic Games, which symbolizes the spiritual strength of mankind, every athlete who strives hard and pursues "faster, higher, stronger" is a great warrior and a "winner" on the road of self-transcendence.

Source: China Youth Daily client