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On February 12, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics speed skating men's 500m final was held at the National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon", and China's Gao Tingyu set a new Olympic record with a time of 34.32 seconds and finally won the gold medal, which was also the fourth gold medal of the Chinese delegation at the Winter Olympics. Gao Tingyu also became the first athlete in China's men's speed skating event to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Gao Tingyu was born in December 1997 in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province. He began learning to skate at the age of 8 and showed great talent. After graduating from elementary school, with the support of his family, Gao Tingyu went to the Heilongjiang Provincial Speed Skating Team for a trial training, but he was too young to be selected. However, he missed the provincial team and was called into the Mudanjiang City team by Liu Deguang, the coach of the Mudanjiang Speed Skating Team. Subsequently, Gao Tingyu grew rapidly and soon completed the leap from the city team to the provincial team to the national team. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, 21-year-old Gao Tingyu made a splash by winning the bronze medal in the men's 500 meters of speed skating, becoming the first Chinese male athlete to win a speed skating medal at the Winter Olympics. Although history was created 4 years ago, Gao Tingyu was not satisfied with his achievements at that time: "I still want to stand next to me, every athlete thinks so, I want to win gold medals, the color is similar, but the meaning is different." ”
With a desire for gold medals, Gao Tingyu began to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, but he experienced bumps along the way. In the 2018-2019 season, 6 World Cups participated in 5 races, and the season best was only 5th. At the beginning of 2020, Gao Tingyu's old waist injury recurred, and he could only temporarily return to heilongjiang province for rehabilitation, spending a full 8 months of treatment. In 2021, Gao Tingyu, who has recovered from injury, finally ushered in an outbreak. In September, he broke the national record for the men's 500m of speed skating held by him with a time of 33.83 seconds in the China Cup Speed Skating Elite League. Then in the men's 500m of the Speed Skating World Cup in Poland in November, he won his first World Cup gold medal.
On January 30, the Chinese sports delegation announced the two flag bearers of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Namely Gao Tingyu and Steel Frame Snowmobile Athlete Zhao Dan. Gao Tingyu, who was excited, said on the social platform: "I will definitely not live up to this trust and will strive to show my best side on the field." Today, Gao Tingyu has fulfilled his promise and successfully collected gold. After the game, talking about his record-breaking performance of 34.32 seconds, Gao Tingyu also revealed that due to a leg strain the day before, the final did not slide out of his best result, and he also confidently said: "Ice Ribbon" is a faster ice rink in the plain, where the Olympic record is not broken, and the champion is equal to Bai Na.
Gao Tingyu's victory not only created the history of Chinese men's speed skating, but also made him the first athlete in the history of the Chinese Olympic delegation to win gold in the opening ceremony after serving as the standard-bearer of the opening ceremony (including the previous Winter Olympics and Summer Olympic Games in which China participated). For his gold medal to break the so-called "flag bearer curse", Gao Tingyu said that there is no magic spell, "the slide on the field is finished."
Shortly before Gao Tingyu's match began, the quarter-finals of the women's team pursuit of speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics in China were staged, and the Chinese team composed of Akhnar Adak, Han Mei and Li Qishi missed the semi-finals. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the Chinese women's team won the fifth place in the speed skating women's team pursuit, creating the best result in the history of the chinese team in the event. On February 15, China will compete with Norway for fifth place.
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At the Beijing Winter Olympics, we participated in our own individual competitions, as well as our team competitions, and also played our role to the maximum. Today's group project, I think we are still very satisfied with the cooperation, because we are also working very hard to do this before. Maybe today's result may not be a very satisfactory result for the three of us, but I think the three of us have played to the best.
—— Chinese speed skater Ahnal · Adak
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