2:37:348! The first gold of the Chinese team was born. In the 2000-meter mixed relay short track speed skating event of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the "Ace Division" composed of Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin, Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei lived up to expectations and won the championship. As the last stick in the finale of the four-person relay, Wu Dajing successfully led the Chinese team to win the first gold medal of the Mainland Winter Olympics.
After the game, Wu Dajing and others burst into tears on the spot. Only the athletes themselves who have fought the field know how rare this gold medal is in the rapidly changing and fast-moving competition! Athletes struggle without the coaching team behind them, and behind Wu Dajing stands a little-known technical coach.
He was once Wu Dajing's strongest "opponent", the two competed on the same stage many times, winning and losing each other; he had won the Winter Olympic skating championship six times, known as a "genius athlete", rarely met opponents; he was Korean, but he joined the Russian nationality, so he was regarded as a "traitor" by Koreans; he was Wang Mao, the former head coach of speed skating and short track speed skating in China, the most admired athlete, and the two became close friends with each other.
Wang Meng has said many times in sports interviews: "The Chinese (short track skating) team can have him, very lucky. Who is this technical coach who Wang Meng has painstakingly "dug" into China? He is a Coach of Russian Korean Descent, Ahn Hyun-so.
In this article, we will take a look at Ahn Hyun-so, a post-80s man, born in 1985 in Seoul, South Korea (formerly Seoul), with a good family. You can compare what kind of education a child born into a middle-class family in Beijing, China, will receive from an early age. At the very least, it is far beyond the level of his peers in the country, and Ahn Hyun-so is no exception, and his childhood coincides with the rapid development period of South Korea.
Since the 1960s, South Korea has developed rapidly, from a weak and small country in a remote corner of Northeast Asia to a developed country with multinational companies such as Samsung, LG, and Lotte, and South Koreans themselves call this period of development the "Miracle of the Han River". Due to their historical weakness and astonishing economic achievements after World War II, South Koreans have shown a very unique "national mentality", extremely respecting their own people and liking to "steal culture" and belittle other countries.
To understand Ahn Hyun-so's future career, we must know the background of this era.
Due to the higher latitude of South Korea's territory, the sport of ice and snow is more popular than that of the larger continents. Ahn Hyun-so, who has a well-off family who has been sent by his family to learn to skate since the first grade of elementary school, showed amazing talent as soon as he was exposed to the project, and in just two or three weeks, he surpassed the children who had been studying for several months. At that time, his enlightenment coach once confessed to his parents: "This child is more talented than me." ”
From this point on, Ahn Hyun-so and skating formed an indissoluble relationship, and his love of skating has never been out of control. In 1992, the XVI Winter Olympics were held in Albertville, France. When the young Ahn Hyun-so first saw the highest level of ice and snow sports, she must have set herself the goal of standing on the podium one day.
In the next two Winter Olympic Games, the Korean team made rapid progress and became a highly competitive power in the Winter Olympics.
At this time, Ahn Hyun-so also became a handsome big guy, and became a professional short track speed skater with excellent results, successfully joining the Korean national team. In 1998, south Korean athlete Kim Dong-sung shined at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, when some Korean media brazenly claimed that the "Kim Dong-sung era" had arrived, but what they could not imagine was that the so-called "Kim Dong-sung era" ended so quickly.
In January 2002, at the World Short Track Speed Skating Youth Championships, a Korean teenager with an unknown reputation won the championship, and he was none other than Ahn Hyun-so. Ahn Hyun-so was 17 years old that year, and had not yet reached the peak of her career, but many people had already seen that this "seeded player" was unlimited.
A month later, at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in the United States, Ahn Hyun-so won the championships on the men's short track speed skating 1000 meters, which was the first time he had shown his face on the world stage.
But the cruel and beautiful thing about competitive sports is that there is always only one gold medal. For the vast majority of non-professional enthusiasts, it is often only possible to remember the person standing in the middle of the podium, the winner of the gold medal, let alone the fourth place? In fact, Ahn Hyun-so's Olympic debut is not smooth, but he is only 17 years old, and this young player still has unlimited possibilities, followed by the "Ahn Hyun-so era".
In competitive sports, if an athlete is strong enough to crush the athletes of the same era, then we often say that the "XX era" is coming. And the "Ahn Hyun-so era" came very quickly. Since 2003, Ahn Hyun-so has won the World Short Track Speed Skating Men's Gold Medal for five consecutive years, and in 2006, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Ahn Hyun-so alone won three golds and one bronze, winning four medals. At the World Championships the following year, he won two golds and one silver, setting a new personal record, which were the honors he fought for for South Korea.
During this time, South Korea's short track speed skating program has absolute dominance in the world, and not many athletes from many countries can compete with it, especially with Ahn Hyun-so in the Korean team, but unexpected things have happened. Because of this incident, Ahn Hyun-so was almost forced to retire early, and because of this incident, Ahn Hyun-so was soon saddled with the crime of "Korean adultery".
In early 2008, during a non-national team training session, Ahn Hyun-so was injured, and during the high-speed taxi, he slammed his entire body into the wall next to the field, directly resulting in a fracture of his left kneecap and a contusion of the posterior cruciate ligament. By this time, Ahn Hyun-so had to retire from the South Korean national team.
Ahn Hyun-so was injured, and the South Korean national team not only did not give the country 'outstanding athletes' due treatment, but even did not give any financial support to Ahn Hyun-so, who needed a large amount of money for surgery, on the grounds that "not training in the team", which made Ahn Hyun-so completely discouraged by the South Korean national team and tear his face.
Why completely tear the skin off? That involves the "dirty" matter of the South Korean national team, the Koreans "fight outside the layman, fight the inside". Before the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Ahn Hyun-so's family had clashed with the South Korean Ice Alliance.
When the media learned about it specifically, they learned that Ahn Hyun-so had been ostracized and oppressed in the team for a long time, and no male team member was willing to eat with him, and even Ahn Hyun-so could not even carry out normal training for a while.
Ahn Hyun-so was repeatedly hit, and originally decided to quit the national team a few weeks before the Start of the Winter Olympics, but his father An Ki-won rushed to his side and persuaded him, and finally Ahn Hyun-so was able to win three golds and one bronze at the Turin Olympics.
Then we have another question, Ahn Hyun-so is the pillar of the Korean team according to the reason, why is he so excluded? The answer is very simple, Ahn Hyun-so is the "Jin Sui Army", not the "Central Army (Concubine)".
Coach Jeon Mingkui, who has been in charge of the Korean short track speed skating team for fifteen years, graduated from the National Sports University of Korea, is not a special fan of ice and snow sports, and must not be familiar with these two terms. It doesn't matter, we just need to know that this coach named Jeon Myung-kyu has two brushes, but he is engaged in "factions" in the Korean short track speed skating team, focusing on cultivating players who are also graduates of The National Sports University of Korea, and vice versa, suppressing the "non-state faction". The shady scenes that control the list of contestants in the contest and privately decide the winners or losers within the team, and so on.
Since childhood, he has loved skating in his heart, and Ahn Hyun-so, who has a good family, is a person who does not want to be a marionette. It is said that Ahn Hyun-so was repeatedly ostracized because he was unwilling to deliberately "release water" and did not give way to the key cultivation targets in the team. At the Turin Winter Olympics, when the South Korean team won the 5,000-meter event, all the men's team members hugged and celebrated with the men's team coach, and only Ahn Hyun-so clapped and celebrated on the women's side, which almost openly put the fact that Ahn Hyun-so was ostracized in front of the world.
Who knows, in this state, Ahn Hyun-so actually took three gold and one bronze and became a "hero" of Koreans. The "hostility" on Ahn Hyun-so's body overwhelmed him even more.
In 2008, after he was unfortunately injured in training, Jeon Myung-kuei asked him to retire from active duty and go to graduate school to make way for the team's concubines, Ahn Hyun-soo did not comply, and subsequently, the national team did not pay a penny for the surgery required for his injury, and Ahn Hyun-soo has since been completely dead to the South Korean short track speed skating national team.
Unwilling to let his career be ruined, he had to pay for surgery in Russia out of his own pocket, which delayed the selection of the South Korean team preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In April 2009, the South Korean national team was selected, and because Ahn Hyun-so did not play much since his injury in 2008, he was kicked out of the List of South Korean men's short track speed skating teams to play in Vancouver on the grounds of "insufficient overall points".
For comparison, the Chinese and U.S. national teams, which are also competing in the Winter Olympics, only decided to participate in the roster in early 2010. It's hard to say there's no "elusive" force in it. Although Ahn Hyun-so is angry at this time, for the sake of his career, he can still endure a little more.
But even more miraculously, in the two sochi Winter Olympics selections in September 2010 and April 2011, for various reasons, Ahn Hyun-so, as one of the most powerful factions, did not qualify for the Sochi Winter Olympics. This has surprised many skating enthusiasts, and it is unacceptable to Ahn Hyun-so.
Ahn Hyun-so, who has returned to the national team since his injury, tolerated everything and could not even enjoy the treatment of a normal national training ground, just to be able to participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the news of the failure of this selection directly shattered his dream.
In 2011, Ahn Hyun-so was twenty-six years old and at the end of his career. If he misses the Sochi Winter Olympics, he will have to wait until 2018 for the next Time he participates in the Winter Olympics, when he is 33 years old, which is a "slippery" age for professional athletes.
Ahn Hyun-so has mixed feelings at this time, because just three months ago, he had given up a chance, a chance to directly participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics!
Just in April 2011, three months before South Korea completed the roster for the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Russian national team handed an olive branch to Ahn Hyun-so, and their request was very simple, as long as they naturalized Russian nationality. The Russian national team will directly lock up a place for him and provide him with all the training environment and conveniences he needs.
Out of patriotism, Ahn Hyun-soo refused. But when he fell off the list again, he angrily decided to run away from Russia and naturalize Russian citizenship.
In December 2011, Medvedev, then President of Russia, personally signed an order giving Ahn Hyun-so Russian citizenship, and he changed his name to Victor An. It is said that Putin (Judo Hachidan and Taekwondo 9-dan), who was extremely fond of sports, personally met the "Skating Prince" and encouraged him to win glory for the country because he admired Ahn Hyun-so's fame.
In February 2014, Ahn Hyun-so, with a belief in victory, went to the Sochi Winter Olympics as a Russian athlete. It is worth mentioning that in the short track speed skating World Cup in Kolomna in November 2013, in the men's 500m final, Victor An lied to the mainland's Wu Dajing and became the champion. Presumably, neither of them knew that they would meet in Beijing in another form in the future.
In the author's opinion, if the most grand and magnificent opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games is the Beijing Olympic Games, then the Winter Olympics is undoubtedly the Sochi Olympic Games, Russia's thousand-year-old cultural heritage poured out of the brain, and the "broken five rings" are still fascinating.
As the host, Russia sent the largest team in history, including the short track speed skater Victor Ann.
On February 10, Victor first won the bronze medal in the men's 1500 meters, the first time in Russian history that he won a medal in short track speed skating. But for Victor, it was obviously an unsatisfactory achievement. After the competition, many media came to interview the former "prince of short track speed skating", and he sincerely said: "Thanks to the Russian people for their support and encouragement to me, I will definitely win the gold medal for Russia." ”
When South Korean journalists gathered around to interview Victor Ahn, he waved his hand and ignored their shouts of "Ahn Hyun-so, Ahn Hyun-so."
Although the first game was not smooth, Victor did not affect the next play. On February 15, Victor Ann won the gold medal in the short track speed skating 1000 meters event, overpowering the South Korean star, which broke the record of zero gold medals in the history of Russian short track speed skating.
Seven days later, after several rounds of competition, Victor Ann once again stood in the final of the men's 500m short track speed skating and 5000m relay that he was most familiar with, this time, with his desire for victory and gratitude to the Russian national team, he successfully won two gold medals in a row and set a new Olympic record of 5000m. Throughout the Sochi Winter Olympics, Victor Ann alone won three golds and one bronze for Russia.
You should know that the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics are very different, because of the small number of events, each gold medal is precious. In the entire Sochi Winter Olympics, and Russia has won a total of 7 gold medals, it can be said that Victor Ann alone contributed nearly half of the number of gold medals, he used his achievements to repay the Russian national team that had a good understanding of him, and truly proved his strength in short track speed skating.
So far, Victor Ann has achieved a total of six gold medals at the Winter Olympics, which is a veritable "six champions". Of course, it is not surprising that some people say that six gold medals are also ordinary. If you make a comparison, you will know the strength of Victor Ann. At the Sochi Winter Olympics, the entire Chinese delegation achieved a total of three gold medals. At the Winter Olympics, Victor Ann's level can be said to be: one person against one country.
It is worth emphasizing that in the final of the men's short track speed skating 500 meters, it was another fateful battle between Wu Dajing and Victor An, but it is regrettable that Wu Dajing lost to Victor An, who won the gold medal again.
Victor Ann achieved zero breakthroughs for The Russian short track speed skating project, was Russia's "big hero", then President Putin personally awarded him the Fourth Class Of the Fatherland Medal, Victor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-so) reached the peak of his life in Russia.
Ice and snow sports are not popular compared to football and other sports, and the Winter Olympics can be said to be the highest "touchstone" of ice and snow projects. For Victor Ann, six gold medals and two bronze medals were enough to prove his strength.
The Chinese team began participating in the Winter Olympics in 1980, from "going through the motions" to getting stronger and stronger, during which time a legendary Chinese athlete, Wang Meng, became friends with Victor An. They often play together and get acquainted over time.
Victor Ann admired Wang Meng's boldness and righteousness, and Wang Meng admired Victor Ann's skating genius. After coming and going, Wang Meng had a bold idea: Can We poach Victor Ann to China? Wang Meng once spoke bluntly to Victor Ann, but he still politely refused. Although he did not become a coach in China, Wang Meng often invited him to China as a guest.
In 2018, Victor Ann came to Beijing, China with his wife Niu Lina, and Wang Meng took them to eat Peking duck, which made the two praise. Since then, Victor Ann has come to China more and more frequently.
In October 2021, Victor An officially accepted Wang Meng's invitation to serve as the technical coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team. Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei and others met with him, which was really kind and embarrassing. Kind is that several people often do "opponents", the face is very familiar, and the relationship is good. The embarrassing thing is that the opponent of the year has become the coach of today, and I have to say that the creation is made!
Under the leadership of Victor Ann and other coaching teams, in the Beijing Winter Olympics in these days, the Chinese team frequently won gold. After Wu Dajing won the gold medal in the 2000-meter relay, South Korean netizens had a word for Victor An, and when Ren Ziwei and Lee Wenlong won the gold and silver medals in the short track speed skating 1000 meters, the Korean team that was originally the strongest short track speed skater turned out to be a "squib", they sprinkled their anger on Ahn Hyun-so, and many Koreans have stormed the family of Victor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-so).
In order to protect her family, Ahn Hyun-so had to write a long article imploring South Korean netizens not to indiscriminately insult and maliciously leave messages about their families.
The Chinese coach was stormed by the South Koreans, and Wang Mao, the former short track speed skating head coach of the Chinese team, could not look at it, and she publicly stated on social media: Why do they scold Victor Ann, they are completely unqualified! Wang Meng said: I brought him whole from Russia, not from South Korea, after Ahn Hyun-so retired from Russia, there was no platform for him to coach, and China reached out to help...
I have to say that the outspoken Wang Mao (then the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team) was big enough, and for the honor of the country, he did not hesitate to invite An Hyun-so many times. In a live broadcast, Duan Xuan praised Wang Menghui for seeing pearls, and Wang Meng also ridiculed "heroes cherish heroes", in this show Wang Meng gave An Xiansu a high evaluation, saying that he will always be a myth on the ice rink, he is China's "treasure".
The author thinks carefully that it is true, Victor Ahn is the star athlete of the South Korean team, but he was ostracized several times, and even almost ended his athlete career early, it was Russia that accepted him and gave him the stage for competition, Victor Ann was invited to China after retiring in Russia, at this time Victor Ann is a Russian national, and has no relationship with South Korea, so Wang Meng dares to say that you are not qualified to scold.
Instead of reflecting on their own system and employing people, South Koreans have come to the Internet to storm this athlete who once shed blood and sweat for them, which is really ridiculous. Perhaps as many Chinese netizens said: people rely on strength, when they are athletes, they can get gold medals, and when they are coaches, they can get gold medals.
China's rapid progress in the field of short track speed skating, Victor An Gong is indispensable! The author believes that the reason why Ahn Hyun-so came to China is not a betrayal of "Korea", but out of his love of short track speed skating, as he wrote in his retirement letter: No matter when and where, no matter what identity, no matter in which country, I do my best to develop short track speed skating.
I hope that the Chinese team can continue to work hard in the Winter Olympics and win glory for the country!