On the morning of February 10, 28-year-old Chinese snowboarder Cai Xuetong finished fourth in the women's U-shaped track skills final at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Participating in the Winter Olympics for the fourth time, she regrettably failed to stand on the podium, but the fourth place has created her personal best ranking for the Winter Olympics. She said that in the future, if she still has the ability to constantly challenge her limits, she will continue to compete in the Winter Olympics. The veteran's persistence and hard work deserve everyone's praise for her.
Rollerblading as a child
He became famous at the age of 17
In 1993, Cai Xuetong was born in Harbin to an ordinary working-class family. Her parents are not highly educated, and they can only do some physical work to earn money to support the family. Deeply feeling that they have suffered from no culture, their parents have paid close attention to Cai Xuetong's learning since they were young, hoping that their daughters can study hard and succeed in learning when they grow up. However, Cai Xuetong ultimately failed to become the bully her parents expected, because of a pair of roller skates, she eventually embarked on the path of professional athletes.
When Cai Xuetong was four years old, his father brought back a pair of roller skates from other places, which aroused Cai Xuetong's strong interest. Taking advantage of her parents' time to cook in the kitchen, Cai Xuetong secretly put on this pair of roller skates that were obviously too large for her, and walked crookedly against the wall. When her parents saw her, Cai Xuetong, who had fallen on her heel several times, was able to walk freely in roller skates, which surprised and delighted her parents, so she took her daughter to learn rollerblading. Cai Xuetong showed her amazing athletic talent, she wore roller skates to skate more and more skillfully, soon she can play a big slalom trick, neighbors are praised as a good seedling as an athlete, saying that she will practice skating in the future.
In 2003, Cai Xuetong was 10 years old and had become a rollerblading expert. One day, she was rollerblading in the park, and her athletic posture and near-perfect movements attracted the attention of Li Daji, a ski instructor at the local Yuquan Amateur Sports School. Since then, Cai Xuetong has followed Coach Li Daji to practice skiing at the sports school without affecting normal learning. Since then, the little girl with the word "snow" in this name has been inextricably linked to skiing.
In 2004, at the request of the State General Administration of Sports, Heilongjiang Province set up a snowboarding team, coach Wang Yongtao went to Yuquan Amateur Sports School to pick seedlings, Li Daji recommended Cai Xuetong to him. Wang Yongtao took Cai Xuetong to the Heilongjiang Provincial Sports School for 10 days of trial training, and finally decided to keep her. Cai Xuetong began to train in snowboarding. After hard training, Cai Xuetong became a full member of the provincial ski team and gradually emerged. In March 2006, Cai Xuetong participated in the National Ski Championships, won the snowboard competition, and was soon transferred to the snowboard national team.
After careful tuning by the national team coach, Cai Xuetong's performance improved rapidly. In 2009, she represented her country for the first time in the International Snow Federation World Junior Snowboard Championships held in Japan, winning the women's snowboard U-shaped track championship, which was also the first gold medal won by Chinese snowboarders at the World Junior Championships.
The world champions took a lot
The results of the Winter Olympics were not ideal
After becoming famous at the World Junior Snowboard Championships in Japan, Cai Xuetong has won the Women's U-Pool Championships of the World Snowboard Championships and the World Cup several times, but her performance at the Winter Olympics was not ideal.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, When cai Xuetong, who was only 16 years old at the time, participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time, she was too nervous as a fledgling woman, and both skates failed, ranking only 23rd in the qualification round and failing to advance to the final. At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong did not play well due to injury, and only won the fifth place. Before the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong was in good shape and successfully defended the world championships in snowboarding. But perhaps because the expectations of the crowd put too much pressure on her, Cai Xuetong made a major mistake at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and finally finished fifth with 76.50 points.
Once away from the beloved snow field
The Beijing Winter Olympics wept with regret
Three times in the Winter Olympics did not reach the podium, which made Cai Xuetong a little disappointed. After the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, she spent a simple student life. However, the huge attraction of playing in the Winter Olympics for the first time in her own country eventually brought her back to the field. Talking about the reasons for her "comeback", Cai Xuetong admitted that the beijing Winter Olympic gold medal is her most desired dream, "I think my goal has not changed, and I still yearn for that gold medal." ”
In the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, the increasingly mature Cai Xuetong continues to create good results. On December 21, 2018, in the 2018-2019 FIS Snowboard U-Field World Cup in China, Cai Xuetong won his ninth World Cup championship. On March 1, 2020, in the 38th US Open Snowboarding U-Shaped Track Competition, Cai Xuetong won the championship with 88.16 points. In the 2021-2022 season, she won one gold and one silver in all three races of the World Cup snowboarding U-track race, and won the World Cup championship for the seventh time. What she wants most, however, is a Winter Olympic gold medal.
This time at the doorstep of the game, it is already the fourth time to participate in the Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong's mentality is very relaxed. In the women's U-shaped track skill qualification tournament on the morning of February 8, Cai Xuetong scored 83.25 points in the first round of skating, and the second round of trying new moves was unsuccessful, and finally ranked third to advance to the final. As the elder of the four dynasties of the Winter Olympics, she said that she felt like participating for the first time, "Today is very happy, the main thing is to stand on the field and enjoy the Olympic field." Looking forward to the final, Cai Xuetong believes that defending champion Chloe King is still the main opponent, she has a strong competitiveness, but will not put pressure on herself. Cai Xuetong also joked, "Four terms of 16 years, there is no chance to be nervous anymore." ”
On February 10, the women's U-shaped venue skills final attracted IOC President Bach and the recently popular Gu Ailing to watch the final, Cai Xuetong with a normal heart to play her normal level, and finally won the fourth place, which is also her best record in four winter Olympic games. After the game, Cai Xuetong regretted tears, "I am still very satisfied with my overall performance. Sadly, I didn't finish the set of moves I wanted to complete in the third jump, and my luck was a little worse. ”
The Four Olympic Games failed to reach the podium, will they continue to compete next? Cai Xuetong said that he did not think so far at present. "Later, I hope that everyone will pay more attention to this project, and hope to see through the game that I can still be on the field." If I still have the ability, if I can continue to push my limits, or if I can realize my potential, I will continue to play in the Winter Olympics. ”