When Zhang Hong, a member of the IOC Athletes' Committee, smiled and lifted the tray containing gold medals in front of Gao Tingyu, from Sochi to Beijing, the two generations of Chinese speed skaters completed each other's inheritance in a romantic way.
On February 12, 2022, in the men's 500-meter speed skating competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China's Gao Tingyu won the championship with a record of 34.32 seconds with a strong personal strength and perfect on-the-spot performance, creating the history of Chinese men's speed skating.
Everything is a clever arrangement of fate. Eight years ago, at the Sochi Winter Olympics, also at the seventh track, Zhang Hong won the women's 1000m championship with a time of 1 minute 14.02 seconds, achieving a breakthrough of zero gold medals in the Chinese Speed Skating Winter Olympics.
From China's first speed skating winter Olympic champion to an IOC member and chairman of the Coordination Committee for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon-do, South Korea, Zhang Hong now has many identities and titles. Among them, Zhang Hong's favorite thing to say is, "I am a speed skater." She said, "I did a good job of speed skating to get so many honors and new jobs." ”
In the past, she carried an ice knife around the world; now, she drags her luggage through sports conferences and forums at home and abroad, and her dress has changed from sportswear to formal wear, behind more appropriate and exquisite makeup, she said, "Transformation, but it is not just as simple as changing clothes." ”
Practice to be a world champion
Some people are born with that kind of athlete temperament. Zhang Hong is such a person, born to be strong, never accept defeat.
At the age of 13, Zhang Hong's height jumped to 1.72 meters, and a modeling company came to the door three times, and Zhang Hong's mother's first question was, "Can our children be international supermodels?" The answer was that "the height of the international supermodel is at least 1.77 meters". "If you can't be an international supermodel, you are simply inappropriate", with such a mentality, Zhang Hong's mother refused the invitation of the modeling company.
At first, Zhang Hong was exposed to short-track speed skating, but as she grew taller and taller, Zhang Hong's physical fitness became less and less suitable for flexible short-track projects. At that time, many coaches of the provincial team identified Zhang Hong as a piece of speed skating material, suggested that Zhang Hong transfer the item, Zhang Hong's mother initially resisted: "I want our family Zhang Hong to win the world championship, our country short track is strong, to practice speed skating can not get the world championship!" ”
In this way, the first few coaches who proposed Zhang Hong's transfer were rejected by Zhang's mother. Xu was a chance, and in the end, Zhang Hong transferred to the speed skating team under the advice of several speed skating predecessors. She really became the world champion and the first Olympic champion in Chinese speed skating.
Let pain be a badge
If sochi's breakthrough is Zhang Hong's highlight, then Pyeongchang's injury is her regret.
After winning the Winter Olympics in 2014, someone advised her to retreat, "You have already won the championship, why do you have to endure pain and injury?" "But Zhang Hong said that 22 years of speed skating is already a part of me (life), and I feel that I deserve to fight again, and I don't want to leave regrets for myself."
In this way, pain and injury became another kind of medal for Zhang Hong.
At the age of 18, Zhang Hong had no menstrual cycle for 11 months. "When my mother took me to the hospital, Chinese medicine and Western medicine had seen it, and there were 12 physiological indicators for ordinary people, and I had 11 lower than ordinary people."
Before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, she had been suffering from the damage to the meniscus of her right leg and the cartilage strain on her knee, and in order to treat the injured knee, Zhang Hong tried various methods, but the effusion extracted from the knee was enough for 6 tubes. Every morning when she got up, the first thing Zhang Hong did was to squat, to see if his knees could support himself to completely squat, unfortunately, the result always disappointed him.
"I'm a Winter Olympic champion, and now I can't even stand running or squats, what else can I do?" Just as a painter can no longer hold a paintbrush, physical pain has caused Zhang Hong to fall into self-denial.
Learn English hard, fight loneliness, and become China's "rainbow"
On the closing day of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Zhang Hong was elected as a member of the IOC Athletes' Committee for an eight-year term. After that, she changed her name on the social platform from Skater to Olympian.
But she still did not want to mention the word "retirement" in public, and in her dreams she dreamed countless times that she was back on the field. "I dream of riding a bike with my teammates on the training ground, but every time I open my eyes and find myself alone, I feel a little lost."
After leaving the arena, Zhang Hong changed her mobile phone, and the photos of the athlete period disappeared. She said, "Since I chose to leave the game on this day, I have to start over. ”
Athlete Zhang Hong is used to "winning", the most unconvinced thing she is to lose, but she changed her identity, but the blow followed, "(Meeting) Why can others understand, I can't understand, sometimes back in the house I will even secretly shed tears," Zhang Hong said, "Although I am a person attending the meeting, but on some level I represent Chinese athletes, China, this pressure is invisible and huge." ”
She began to study foreign languages harder, "as long as I spend time in Harbin, I spend at least 3-5 hours a day studying at English schools." The pressure of language has become the driving force for her to learn and improve, Zhang Hong said, "Athletes like to meet the challenge, even after I left the field, when learning English to face the pressure of international work, in fact, I am using sportsmanship to challenge it and overcome it." ”
In addition to the language barrier, psychological loneliness has also become a challenge that Zhang Hong must overcome. The first time I went to Lausanne alone for an international conference, before leaving, Zhang Hong dragged on to the last second, reluctant to leave, "because I did not dare to imagine how to spend a week in a strange city, only a Chinese environment, and I did not want to show my sad and cowardly side." ”
IOC members come from different countries and regions, in different programs. Here, Zhang Hong gradually realized that the Olympic Games is not only about competing for gold and silver, but also the inheritance of culture and the power of condensing the world. Carrying a greater sense of mission and responsibility, Zhang Hong stood on another biggest stage after retiring, representing the strongest voice of Chinese athletes.
Written by Xu Sijia
Editor/Li Xu Liang Lina
Visual/Wang Ye