In tonight's Beijing Winter Olympics women's short track speed skating 1000 meters final, the five-time Winter Olympics "speed skating evergreen", known as the "medal harvester" of the 32-year-old Italian veteran Arianna Fontana tried to launch a challenge to the medal, and finally fell and did not get the podium, which made many sports fans in front of the TV sigh.
Six days ago, Fontana and his teammates won the silver medal in the short track speed skating mixed team relay, becoming the athlete with the most winter Olympic medals in the history of short track speed skating and the first short track speed skater to win medals at the five Winter Olympics. Just two days later, she beat Olympic record holder Suzanne Shultin and world record holder Kim Butting in the 500m race to bring her Winter Olympic medal count to 10. After the match, Fontana excitedly said: "When I was a kid, I just wanted to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal. Now that I've won so many medals, it's simply incredible, and I can't put it into words. ”
Challenging yourself and overcoming yourself is fontana's biggest motivation to persevere.
In Turin in 2006, at the age of 16, she made her debut at the Winter Olympics and won the bronze medal in the women's 3000m relay for the short track speed skating for the host, becoming the youngest Winter Olympic medalist in Italy. In the 12 years since, Fontana has won numerous medals, but his dream of becoming an Olympic champion has never been fulfilled. Until Pyeongchang in 2018, the 28-year-old Fontana finally "climbed to the top" of the Olympic highest podium.
The old Ji Futuo, determined to be in a thousand miles. In the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, there are many veterans like FangTana. While they use their own actions to set up benchmarks for young people, more people can see their persistent pursuit of the Olympic dream.
The veneer "big god" closed the curtain and smiled as the young "fan brother" climbed to the top
In this morning's snowboarding men's U-shaped pitch skills final, the oldest ever participant in the winter Olympics, the legendary American star Sean White, ended his career with an imperfect final jump. At that moment, the applause of the audience was thunderous, and the tears in Sean White's eyes could not help but fall...
As one of the greatest athletes in the history of snowboarding, five-time Winter Olympic veteran Sean White has won the Winter Olympic snowboarding U-shaped pool championship three times, becoming the first snowboard triple in the history of the Winter Olympics. In addition, he has won five summer extreme sports medals and twice won gold medals, making him the first snowboarder to win both summer and winter world championships.
In the snowboard world, Sean White is undoubtedly a "god-like being".
In Turin in 2006, the 20-year-old Sean White came to the Winter Olympics for the first time to stand on the top podium; in Vancouver in 2010, he was full of ambition to defend his title; in 2014, In Sochi, Shaun White, who tried to hit the treble, did not play well, only to win the fourth place. After that, he left the arena for a while to shift his energy to his band and brand. Just when everyone thought that Sean White was no longer beautiful, in 2018, Pyeongchang returned to his familiar U-shaped pool and won his third Winter Olympic gold medal, when the biggest competition he faced came from the young Japanese player Hirano Who had idolized Sean White since he was a child.
Look back to today's Zhangjiakou. The final winner of the gold medal in the project was watching Sean White's "fan brother" Hirano Bumon.
After the race, Sean White silently smiled at the finish line and watched the young athletes perform. Many of them, like Hirano, followed In the footsteps of Sean White into the world of snowboarding. With the final wonderful jump to reverse the championship, Hirano Bumon and Sean White hugged each other tightly after the end of the game.
In an interview, Hirano repeatedly expressed his respect for his idol: "I have always looked for the strength of the challenge in Sean. He's been breaking through himself, and this time too. He's also pushing all the athletes forward. From Sean, I understand that I can only become stronger than myself, and this is the challenge I have to chase. ”
Many netizens were broken by this scene. On the Internet, someone posted a photo of the Hirano brothers with Sean White in their childhood: "A generation will eventually grow old, but there are always people who are young!" ”
Participating in eight Winter Olympics, she said at the end of the rankings: "Beijing is the pinnacle of my sports career."
Six days ago, the Beijing Winter Olympics speed skating women's 3000m competition was staged at the National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon". On the field, there is a "skating grandma" who ranks last in the eye. She is a German veteran who will participate in the Eighth Winter Olympics, Claudia Peschstein, who will turn 50 on February 22 this year. In that match, Peschstein watched Dutch athlete Irini Showten break the Olympic record he had held for 20 years with a time of 3:56.93. So far, the veteran has also equaled the record of the most participation in the Winter Olympics held by Japanese ski jumper Norimi Kasai. At the same time, she also became the woman with the most times and the oldest number of winter Olympics.
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Peschstein was presented as one of the two German flag bearers. In her view, this is an exciting moment that will never be forgotten, a record of eight participations in the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and the peak moment of her career. Even though she finished last among the 20 contestants, when she slid across the finish line, Peschstein still had a big smile on her face: "I achieved my goal, this is my eighth Olympic Games." ”
Love can withstand the long years. Looking back 40 years ago, the 20-year-old Peichstein was also the youngest member of the German team, and when she first stood at the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992, she won the bronze medal for her outstanding performance. In the 30 years since, Peschstein has won five Winter Olympic gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals. Of course, Peschstein has also suffered setbacks, missed the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, and has also declined in form, and it is becoming more and more difficult to qualify for the Olympic Games, but as long as there is a "glimmer of life", Pechtstein will never give up lightly.
On the road to chasing dreams, it has nothing to do with age. Although speed skating has very high physical quality requirements for athletes, although the competitive state has not been as good as before with age, and the distance from the podium has become more and more distant, in Peschstein's view, every breakthrough is a huge challenge to his own sports career: "The Beijing Winter Olympics is the peak of my sports career, and this achievement is more important than all my medals combined." ”
The Beijing Winter Olympics is also the seventh winter Olympic tour of 40-year-old Swiss ski jumper Simon Oman. From the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, he did not miss a single time. In Salt Lake City in 2002 and Vancouver in 2010, Oman won two gold medals each, and for the Beijing Winter Olympics, his biggest goal was to enjoy the game.
Show the happiest side of the competition, so as to drive more people to enjoy the joy of sports. For these veterans, this is both their perseverance and unremitting motivation and the most beautiful interpretation of the Olympic spirit. Even if today's sports career is coming to an end, every shot of them fighting to the end on the field will always be engraved in people's hearts.
Author: Wang Xing
Editor: Li Chenyan