Cai Xuetong was waiting for the result of the game.
"Don't always stare at the winner, the story of the fourth place is just as wonderful." A phrase that an old reporter once hung on his lips was verified again at the Beijing Winter Olympics this time.
On February 10, in the women's U-shaped field final of snowboarding at the Beijing Winter Olympics, 29-year-old Cai Xuetong and 30-year-old Liu Jiayu won the fourth and eighth places respectively, and the youngster Qiu Leng won the 12th place. After the game, the reporter found the story of a "genius girl" trying to pursue her dream in the body of Cai Xuetong, who missed the bronze medal.
From roller skater to snowboard "genius girl"
Born in 1993 in Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Cai Xuetong has been a "tomboy" since childhood. With a small hair, his favorite recreational activity is to go to the park and play roller skating. Don't look at the young age, roller skating is not ambiguous at all, Cai Xuetong's self-evaluation is not modest: "In today's words, it should be 'Wan Ruo YouLong, Fei Ruo Feng Hong, that is called a sa!'" ’”
Because roller skating is too good, 11-year-old Cai Xuetong was "included under the command" of the coach of the amateur sports school, and has since formed an indissoluble relationship with snowboarding. Snowboarding has many small events, and Cai Xuetong describes his snowboarding U-shaped track technique as "the project that flies around in the half-pull pipe".
In the "flying around in the half-pulled pipe", Cai Xuetong showed her talent and won the praise of "genius girl". From winning the bronze medal at the National Games in 2008 when she first competed in an official competition, to winning the gold medal in the women's U-shaped track of the FIS World Junior Snowboard Championships in 2009, the honorary road of "talented girl" has a good start.
The persistence and breakthrough of the "Elders of the Four Dynasties"
As a "talented girl", Cai Xuetong has won too many honors along the way: world championship champion, World Cup sub-station champion, World Cup overall champion... Only the Olympic medal is a dream that she can't dream of. But in the Beijing arena, although Cai Xuetong created his best Olympic results, he still rubbed shoulders with the medals.
At the age of 17, Cai Xuetong participated in the Vancouver Winter Olympics for the first time, and she was the youngest of all the players - the first time she saw such a big scene, Cai Xuetong did not play well, and won the 23rd place with 19.3 points, missing the final.
At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong made a comeback and greatly improved his performance, ranking third with 84.25 points in the first round of the competition, but made a mistake in the second round of the competition and finally won the sixth place. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she advanced her ranking by one place and finished fifth.
Continuous setbacks did not beat Cai Xuetong's self-confidence, on the contrary, she threw herself into the training and competition of the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle with more full emotions, and in the 2021-2022 season, in all three races of the World Cup snowboard U-shaped track competition, Cai Xuetong won a gold and a silver, and lifted the World Cup championship for the seventh time, and her state gradually improved.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Cai Xuetong jumped a high score of 81.25 points in the first jump of the final, which not only made her third after the first round, but also for the last two jumps, which reduced some pressure psychologically. However, defending champion Chloe King was too strong, scoring a high score of 94 points in the first round to lock up the championship. Spain veteran Kaslet rose to second place in the second round with a set of 90.25 points, while Japan's Fukuda Seina squeezed Cai Xuetong to fourth with 88.25 points in the second round.
From standing on the stage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and ranking 23rd, to the subsequent 6th place in Sochi, the 5th place in Pyeongchang, and now to the Beijing Winter Olympics on the doorstep, Cai Xuetong, who has participated in four Winter Olympic Games, has been refreshing his results, although he failed to achieve the dream of "7 crystal balls for gold medals", Cai Xuetong, who achieved a breakthrough of 1080 moves on the Winter Olympic field, still surpassed himself.
In the future, continue to pursue dreams
In the mixed picking area after the game, although Cai Xuetong wore snow mirrors, she could still see tears swirling in her eyes, and she could see her sadness and regret. "I enjoyed the game, from the preparations to the preliminaries to the finals. I really enjoyed skiing, and the sad point today was not that I didn't get on the podium, but that I didn't finish the action I wanted to complete. But the process, I am still very happy. Cai Xuetong said.
Four years of preparation, Cai Xuetong said that she has a good grasp of her training every day, "These four years are really not easy, I try my best to enjoy the sport itself, give myself a very big affirmation, the preparation process has no regrets." ”
Although there were no regrets in his words, it seemed to recall the experience of the past four years, and Cai Xuetong finally choked up a little while saying these words.
For the future, Cai Xuetong, who has become the "elder of the four dynasties", said, "After the Beijing Winter Olympics, I will continue to pursue my dream journey." ”
Cai Xuetong told reporters that the 33-year-old Spanish veteran Casteljet is her role model, "She has always been a role model to inspire me, she is already the fifth Winter Olympics, and she is constantly challenging herself, challenging Chloe, whenever I see her, I will feel that I can too." ”
From the "genius girl" who first emerged in the international arena to the ranks of veterans to now, Cai Xuetong has one thing that has never changed, that is, her love for skiing.
"These four (Winter Olympics) are actually nothing to insist on, my idea is to enjoy skiing with the coach, to push their limits, and indeed we have done it."
Because of love, in the eyes of others, hard work, to Cai Xuetong here has become happy, "I am actually very happy every day, never felt that these four years are painful, is the need to persist." 」 My goal is to push my limits, which is what the sport teaches me, I just want to use my best potential to challenge the hardest moves. ”
Will it be successful in the future? Cai Xuetong told reporters that there is a famous saying in the ski circle - anything is possible! Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Huang Qiyuan reported from Beijing
Proofread by Faye Wong
Source: Purple Cow News