Hirano: Catch up with your dreams

Chongli, Hebei, February 11 (Xinhua) -- Hirano Dream: Catching up with dreams

Xinhua News Agency reporters Zheng Zhi, Liu Bo, Yang Kai, and Dong Yixing

In the official information system, there is a note in the personal resume of Japanese snowboarder Hirano Bumon, "'Bu meng' means walking on top of dreams in Japanese." However, for Hirano Bumon, such a description is a bit too easy, after all, it was not until February 11, 2022, that he was finally able to catch up with his dream.

On this day, 23-year-old Hirano became the men's champion in the men's event of snowboarding U-shaped track skills at his third Winter Olympics.

23 years old, three-time Winter Olympics. Two silver and one gold, people with such achievements are often accompanied by the title of "genius", but the results that produce this title are often based on unimaginable efforts.

Hirano Was born in niigata prefecture village in Japan, the family runs a surf shop, his father Hideko Hirano initially taught his brother Hideki Hirano to surf, but the sea is unpredictable, so that Hideki and Bumon's interest turned to land, the brothers began to practice skateboarding and snowboarding.

The village is a small coastal town in northern Niigata Prefecture, and the presence of sea breezes eliminates the possibility of thick snow, and although skateboarding can be satisfied, high-quality U-shaped venues are in short supply. Hideko Hirano transformed an indoor gymnasium into a large skate park with a 15-meter-high slope and huge air cushions.

"At that time, we only had a small surf shop in our house, so money and time were tight. We didn't have a good training environment, but we built the U-shaped field as much as we could. "The main purpose of building this park is to help children train. ”

"When I was young, I went to school in the morning, I went skiing in the afternoon, I went to dinner when the snowboarding was over, and then I went to skateboarding. I would practice under my dad's strict supervision until 11 p.m. Hirano recalled.

This effort also paid off, he became a contract skater in the fourth grade of primary school, and then broke into the world's vision at many open competitions, the X Games, he became the youngest winner, and even had to learn how to throw champagne on the podium. In 2013, he was rarely selected for the Japanese national team without yet playing in the World Cup.

"After being selected for the national team, I participated in the World Cup and also had the opportunity to explore the Winter Olympics." "Before that, no Japanese had won a Winter Olympic medal in the U-Shaped Venues program, and it would be great if I could be the first to inspire others," he said. ”

The opportunity came quickly, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won the silver medal despite being unable to complete normal training before the games due to injury, becoming the youngest medalist in the history of the Japan Winter Olympics.

But compared to PyeongChang's previous encounters, the inability to complete the training has become insignificant.

In March 2017, less than a year before the opening of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Hirano was seriously injured while competing in the United States. He was rescued in the ICU for two weeks due to liver damage. The lateral ligament of the left knee is also severely damaged.

"After that injury, the fear was still with me, but I had to accept it." Hirano said, "Fear is part of the sport. ”

After only 6 months, he made a miraculous recovery, winning the World Cup Bronze Hill U-Shaped Venue Skills Championship, and then, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

If in Sochi, the 15-year-old Hirano was still in a state of ignorance, in Pyeongchang, the 19-year-old had a tangible goal, "Sean White, there is a lot of pressure to beat him, I really want to win him." But the two-time gold medalist Sword is not old, and won the championship with the last slip.

Picking silver at two consecutive Winter Olympics, Hirano said: "I have been practicing for 4 years in order to be able to go to the next level, which is a little reluctant, but I have done my best within the current ability range."

After the two later met almost early before the Beijing Winter Olympics, and both tried to qualify for the Skateboarding Event at the Tokyo Olympics, Sean White finally chose to concentrate on preparing for the Winter Olympics, and Hirano Bumon was given the opportunity to appear at home, which was also called "two knife flow" by the Japanese media, that is, the double knife combat in kendo. Although he did not qualify for the final, he admitted that he had gained a lot, "after participating in the skateboarding competition, he became stronger and learned to adjust his psychology and control his emotions."

Six months later, Hirano Bumeng stood at the final of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Unlike 2018, because the final appearances are arranged in reverse order of the qualifying round, he will not usher in the drama of being overtaken by the first promotion in the qualifier. Meanwhile, before the Winter Olympics, he became the first player to complete a three-week deflection of 1440 in the competition.

After the tentative first round, in the second round, Scotty James from Australia slid out two 1260s to 1440, scoring 92.50 points to rank first, and Hirano Bumon directly sacrificed the three-week deflection rotation 1440 with the highest difficulty of the game but still trailed slightly behind with 91.75 points, ranking second.

This score caused some controversy at the scene, and Hirano Bumon himself was obviously a little upset.

"No one can come up with the three-week deflection rotation 1440, and it's quite difficult, so I do think it's a little strange." He said, "But it had some good effect in a way, that anger, and made me more focused when I slipped third." ”

In the third skate, the famous players including White were unable to catch up, James failed to extend the lead, and Hirano's only task was to play the role of a surpasser.

As if by some kind of declaration, he chose almost the same full set of movements, three weeks of deflection 1440, and even better. On genting's U-shaped field, the teenager flew high on the last glide of his third Winter Olympics trip, and after landing on the ground, the on-site referee scored a score of 96.00.

It's hard to summarize what it takes to be a Winter Olympic champion, but "genius" and "hard work" alone are not enough to get a teenager from a small Japanese coastal town to hang up the Winter Olympic gold medal, plus fearless determination and, if necessary, anger. From the first time he got on the board to catching up with his dreams, every experience in between was not in vain, and the stars gathered together to finally form the championship podium at his feet. (End)