Source: China Youth Daily
At the top of Chongli Genting Ski Park, the cold wind whistled with snow particles, and Janice Spitery, who had just fallen to the ground by mistake in the competition, walked to the results waiting area, took out half of the leftover bean bag from her pocket after a little hesitation, smiled and shook it at the camera, and then ate it. The audience around the world who paid attention to the Beijing Winter Olympics snowboarding women's U-shaped track skill qualification competition, watched her calmly eat the bean bag in front of the screen, she happily gave a thumbs up, and completed a "eat broadcast" facing the world on the Winter Olympic field.
Janice excels at facing the camera because, in addition to being a snowboarder, she is also a ski video blogger and runs one of the world's top female ski sports channels on foreign video social media. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, she has a more special status - Malta's first athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics and the only player in the Maltese delegation to participate in this competition.
"After World War II, my grandfather immigrated to the United States from Malta, founded a company that makes skates, and has since grown to make skates for famous figure skaters like Kwan Ying Shan, and we still serve the top figure skaters around the world." Janice said that in addition to the influence of her grandfather, her mother is also a figure skater, her father is a skateboarder, and she inherited her family's "figure skating factor" on the ice rink since she was a child, but during college, she was exposed to snowboarding and fell in love with this more exciting, free and innovative sport. ”
Janice is 29 years old, loves acting, and once had a brief career as an actress and model. When she first started skiing more than a decade ago, she never thought that she could participate in the Olympic Games, or even think that she could have the standard of a professional skater, "I was 18 years old when I touched snowboarding, but everyone told me it was too late." Janice recalls that most skaters start practicing from an early age, and many have unlocked the difficulty she now wants to reach at the age of eighteen or nineteen.
But Janice still loves snowboarding, she wants to know about the sport and the players who are crazy about it, in 2018, she stood in front of the familiar camera and opened her own ski channel, how can she appear more professional in event reviews and interviews with runners? She thought about it for a long time and decided to start competing, "In this, I may be able to understand better what the players are thinking." In order to be able to "get closer" to this enthusiastic and brave group in the competition, she began to devote more energy to professional training, and even with the help of her father, she transformed a Nissan NV200 commercial vehicle into a "mobile house" to facilitate her training from place to place, and slowly, she understood why the sport made everyone obsessed, "Every breakthrough on the field is exciting, I want to stay on the field, and even, I can try to fight for the Winter Olympics." ”
"Something magical happened." Janice won the opportunity to represent Malta at the Beijing Winter Olympics, "Although my grandfather had died before I came to the competition, he knew that I could represent my home country, and I must be very happy." And her followers on social media, "They've been following this journey of mine for the last 6 years and I want people to see that although I started late, I'm really fully committed to whatever age and background, with enough determination and enthusiasm, you can achieve anything and don't feel like 'old people' don't have a chance." She repeatedly stressed, "If you aspire to succeed and pay for it, you can succeed at any age." ”
In the snowboarding world, everyone has different goals for success, but "surpassing oneself rather than surpassing one's opponent" is almost a consensus among skaters. "My wish is to be able to complete the turn 900 degrees." Standing on the Winter Olympics, Janice fell in the first round of the qualifying round, and she completed the first half very smoothly, but when she completed the last move, she fell the snow, she knelt in the snow and covered her face with her hands, I had a great sense of frustration. ”
The bad outcome was already predictable, and she quickly accepted the reality. As she walked from the arena to the results waiting area, Janice had begun to plan the next round of action, "I'm going to try a big trick that I've never tried before." As she was pondering, she suddenly found herself carrying something in her pocket, "Oh my God, it's my bean bag." So her mood became brighter, "I hinted to myself, take a bite, come and have some sweetness, it will heal my mood." So, even if the screen hit a super low score of 7.5, Janice, who had just finished eating the bean bun, had a smile on her face.
Jennifer's authentic and optimistic performance in the face of setbacks quickly led Janice to circle the fans, and the scene about her eating bean buns and the experience behind her ease of being spontaneous quickly aroused curiosity. After the game, the bottom runner became a popular figure in the mixed picking area, "This bun should be red bean filling, is my favorite food in the Winter Olympic Village, I will eat 6 almost every day, two in the morning, middle and evening, but I have a bad appetite this morning, I can't eat anything, I put the bean bag in my pocket, I didn't expect to find it when I was most depressed, I need to give myself a sweet cure." ”
After answering the question about the "bean bag", Janice took the initiative to mention her unfulfilled goal, "I made a mistake, but I still wanted to try 900, I was going to make a desperate bet, but I still have a voice in my heart saying that if I try 900, the probability will still fall, the opportunity to participate in the Winter Olympics on behalf of Malta is not easy to come by, and I want to leave a 'standing' memory on the field." She then added, "But I firmly believe that 900 awaits me in the future." ”
Janice did not hide her inner longing, "The Olympic Games, the whole world is paying attention, every day of the day to do their best, is not it to show our energy and love at this moment?" 」 I really wish it belonged to me on this day. But she admits that she is very grateful for this failure, "If you asked me a month ago what I plan for the future, I might say that this is my final battle, but with so many good players competing, I feel that I have more potential to tap, I think I have more surprises to dedicate to snowboarding, and now maybe it's just the beginning." 」 ”
Janice mentioned that the surprise includes the "ice and snow fever" set off in Malta, although she does not have the ability to compete for gold and silver, but from the time she alone held high the Maltese flag into the venue of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, this country with a typical tropical Mediterranean climate has more ice and snow themes, "I appear in many mainstream media, my social media has also poured into a lot of private messages, many Maltese people are proud of my presence here, they are also inspiring me." 」 She revealed that in order to respond to these kindnesses, she often had to stay up until four or five o'clock in the morning.
There is no snow or fog in Malta, but Janice is looking forward to becoming a bridge, "so that more Maltese people know about ice and snow sports, and let the world know about Malta, a small and beautiful country." "It's not hard to get from Malta to the Alps, and if someone really likes skiing, the distance is never a hard one." ”
This newspaper Chongli February 9
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Liang Xuan Source: China Youth Daily