Xu Mengtao hugged Jia Zongyang, this silver medal is so warm

Author: Liu Xingchen

Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang, Qi Guangpu. When all the dust settled, the three veterans who had passed the age of standing hugged each other tightly.

On the evening of the 10th, the Beijing Winter Olympics freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed team final came to an end, and the Chinese team won the silver medal with 324.22 points.

In the game, Jia Zongyang, the second player of the Chinese team, made a mistake when completing the action with a difficulty factor of 4.425.

Jia Zongyang shouted out in chagrin, tearing his heart and lungs apart. He understood that the gold medal of his dreams had gone far.

But when he walked to the results waiting area, Xu Mengtao, who was already waiting there, gave his teammates a big hug. This hug is worth a thousand words.

Although this night did not come true, the three veterans have already given everything. It is a silver medal with temperature, and its warmth is straight to the heart.

Qi Guangpu

#1

Childhood sports dreams

Xu Mengtao

Born in 1990, Xu Mengtao has been associated with sports since childhood. Xu Mengtao's father is a sports fan, and when he found out that his daughter was very flexible, he devoted himself to cultivating her as a professional athlete.

When she was a child, Xu Mengtao's family set up a barbecue stall, and her father made a simple training ground to help her daughter train.

Initially, Xu Mengtao engaged in gymnastics. In the 9th Liaoning Provincial Games in 2002, 12-year-old Xu Mengtao won 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. However, due to her height, in the same year, Xu Mengtao's father sent her to Chen Hongbin, then a teacher at Shenyang Sports Institute and head coach of the national team, and began to engage in freestyle skiing.

Unlike most domestic ice and snow athletes, Qi Guangpu is from Jiangsu. At the age of 4, he began to learn skills under the guidance of his enlightenment teacher Liu Dezhen, rain or shine.

Only a year later, Qi Guangpu was selected to train in the Xuzhou Skill Team. At the age of 9, he entered the Changchun Freestyle SkiIng Aerial Skills Team and began to specialize in freestyle skiing aerial skills training.

Since then, Qi Guangpu has only spent the Spring Festival at home once. Even if it was a cold weather, he also insisted on training every day.

Jia Zongyang

In 1991, Jia Zongyang was born into an ordinary family in Fushun, Liaoning Province. His father was very passionate about sports, and in the subtle, Jia Zongyang began gymnastics training at the age of 5.

At the age of 7, Jia Zongyang came to Shenyang Sports Institute to further study.

In 2002, by chance, Jia Zongyang retrained in the freestyle skiing aerial skills project. The first time he stood on the jumping platform, he was only 11 years old.

#2

Baptism of injury

The three of them were so similar.

From a child with a dream to the "Elder of the Four Dynasties" of the Winter Olympics, the three athletes are brilliant on the field. They have changed from the "genius players" in everyone's mouth to the veterans who have been in the battlefield for a long time, and in the acceleration, take-off, flipping, and landing again and again, they are firmly moving towards their dreams.

Behind the glorious achievements, the years have passed on them, leaving the mark of injury and illness.

After working on the freestyle skiing aerial skills project, Xu Mengtao's progress rate is amazing. Everyone gave her the aura of "genius", but behind this, there was a shocking diagnosis report of injuries: rupture of the anterior cross band of the knee, sprain of the medial collateral ligament, deformation of the posterior angle of the medial meniscus, multiple bone contusions, joint effusions...

Whenever she stretched freely in the air, her parents who stood in front of the TV were full of worry. Xu Mengtao refused the "request" of the second elder to make her retire, and she always insisted on surviving the darkest moment of the injury.

Qi Guangpu is known for his high technical difficulty, and in the game, this is his magic weapon to defeat strong opponents. As everyone knows, in this already dangerous project, increasing the difficulty means that more attempts need to be experienced in training and competition, and it also means more possibilities for injury.

When he competed in Moscow in 2009, Qi Guangpu had a concussion, which made him deeply appreciate the dangers of the project. But in the game, he will still jump confidently and flash around.

Behind each jump, the efforts that Jia Zongyang needs to make are unimaginable to ordinary people. Over the years, injuries have become his biggest enemy on the way forward.

In an accident in 2015, Jia Zongyang suffered three crushing fractures of his left leg, and X-rays embedded in his legs with 4 steel plates and 22 steel nails were heart-wrenching. This almost ruined his career.

But Jia Zongyang still survived. At the beginning of 2017, he officially returned to the team for training. Perhaps only he can appreciate the hardships.

#3

Three people who tried their best

At the Sochi Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao missed the gold medal as the favorite to win the championship, ranking second. Four years ago in Pyeongchang, she made a mistake in the second jump and missed the winter Olympic gold medal again.

After that, she announced her retirement on social media. But Xu Mengtao, who has always said one thing and one thing, has reneged on her promise this time. For the sake of her dreams, she wanted to fight again.

Also at the Sochi Winter Olympics, in the final of the men's freestyle skiing aerial skills, Qi Guangpu ranked 4th with 90 points and missed the podium.

After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Qi Guangpu retired from the national team. But the love in his heart made him return to the beloved team and continue to fight.

After three years of wrestling with injuries, Jia Zongyang made a big jump at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and finally won the silver medal in the men's aerial skills of freestyle skiing with 128.05 points.

He was only 0.46 points away from the gold medal.

When the freestyle skiing aerial skill mixed group became a new sub-event of the Beijing Winter Olympics, three veterans who did not succumb to fate joined hands to achieve their long-cherished wishes.

Xu Mengtao, Qi Guangpu, Jia Zongyang, they are the strongest combination, and they also tried their best on this night.

It was cold on the field.

So people will remember the persistence of the three veterans and the warm hug.

Source: China News Network