Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Yanqing, February 10, 2016 Title: I can't just go back like this!
Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Qinou and Lu Xianting
"I can't just go back like that!"
She slowly got up, stepped on the snowboard, step by step, upward. The snowboard was embedded in the snow, and then it was pulled out again and again. A string of horizontal stripes was left on the snow behind her.
This is the only trace of climbing left in this race where everyone competes to rush down.
If this is not done, the road to the Winter Olympics of Chinese Taipei's Li Weiyi will be over. On February 9, in the first round of the alpine skiing women's slalom competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics, she fell and missed the flag gate shortly after she set off. According to the rules, if you miss the flag gate, the contestant can climb back and start again, but the climbing time is also counted in the total score. In the eyes of the earlier champions, such a mistake means the end, and many people will simply give up.
"I've worked so hard for so long, is that how I go back?"
More than a month ago, she had asked herself the same question. It was December 28, 2021, in the city of Kolašin in Montenegro, and she was frustrated to think about whether she should pack her bags and go home after the day's points game. After starting to play points to qualify for the Winter Olympics, she did not reach the passing line of The Winter Olympic points, and the Winter Olympics looked farther and farther away.
In both time and space, Li Weiyi was not convinced.
That afternoon of December 28, she unexpectedly got tenth. On Kolashin's snow field, she, her father, and her teammates stood in the wind to calculate the scores, and found that if she had to catch up with every game, she might be able to catch the last train of the Winter Olympics. That day was 18 days away from the deadline for points calculation, the most recent match was two days later in Aksam merlizum, an Alpine village in Austria.
"Let's go! Decided on the spot to go and go to Austria! ”
At 5 p.m., Li Weiyi, her father and teammates drove two cars on the road. There are not many people, and there are many cars, because all of their "belongings" are in the car, from all kinds of ski equipment to the pot that Li Dad cooked for his two children. Li Weiyi is an athlete and a freshman. For the Winter Olympics, she took a break from school in the first semester after entering the school, and ran to Europe to grab the final window period to get points, "except that the game is a hurry, it is really suffering every day."
At 7 p.m., Li Weiyi was hungry and looked at her father in the driver's seat. "My dad can cook!" I really can't stand staying in Europe for a long time, but it's good to have my dad! But her father had no time to take care of her, and more than 1,000 kilometers of driving was still behind.
At 8 p.m., the tire burst.
"That winding road, it's really bad!" In the winter in Europe, it was dark very early, there were no street lights on that road, and after changing the tires on the road in the dark, Li Weiyi was even hungrier.
At two o'clock in the morning on the 29th, they arrived in Croatian territory and slept for five hours on the road again. That night, they arrived. As soon as she woke up the next day, Li Weiyi got up and went to the game.
As a result, the points did not meet the standard.
"My dad spent another 10 days with me in Europe." Li Weiyi remembers that in the 37 days she took the points, she competed 25 races, and her father drove more than 5,000 kilometers. "The psychological pressure is quite large, I am afraid that I will not be able to get it in the end, and if I try so hard for so long, I will not be able to get it!"
Yes, it would be painful—now, more than a month later, falling on the snow surface of Little Haituo, she felt the same pain.
She qualified for the competition — just five days before the Beijing Winter Olympics points deadline. But she is also the lowest ranked of the 88 contestants in the women's rotation, and according to the rules, she will be the last to appear in the regular competition. When it was her turn to set off, the smooth and comfortable snow surface had been scraped and carved by the blades of 87 snowboards in turn, and in some places only the hard and shiny "shell" remained, the dents on it were difficult to identify, and the gliding would be very bumpy.
At noon on February 9, nearly two hours after the first contestant finished the match, Li Weiyi appeared. The snowboard blade draws a "zi la" on the track that is close to the ice surface instead of a smooth "whack" sound.
After another "cheering" sound, she fell on the track and the person slid down the steep slope.
"I just fell and bled!" It hurts! ”
The place where she fell was in the blind spot of the audience's view, and no one knew where the unknown 19-year-old girl was now lying on the mountain beam. But the audience witnessed the whole process of her fall on the big screen, and saw the ice-like snow mist from the snowboard, which almost drowned her on the screen.
"I'm going to finish, and my goal before I came is to finish. It was so hard to come to the Olympics, I can't just go back! ”
On the screen, people saw her slowly getting up, stepping on the snowboard with her feet, so that the blade of the board was stuck across the snow. Then one step, one step, moving upwards on her side, slowly climbing toward the flag gate she had just missed. The snowboard was embedded in the snow, and then it was pulled out again and again, leaving a string of horizontal lines on the snow behind her.
It's like a ladder.
Cheers rang out — cheers for a girl climbing up in this contest of who is sliding faster. Cheers accompanied her as she began to glide again, as she floated to the top of the hill and slipped into everyone's view; as she slid last across the finish line, her name appeared as the last place on the big screen ranking table.
She finished the race, and the time was more than a minute slower than the champion.
"I'm so tired!" But I'm also very happy, and I'm already very happy to be here! ”
Four years later, she still wanted to go on the road like this, to Milan, to cross the finish line. (End)