Beijing time, February 12: In the beijing winter olympics speed skating men's 500 meters final at the end of the national speed skating hall "ice ribbon" this evening, Beijing time, mainland athlete Gao Tingyu skated 34.32 seconds to break the Olympic record and win the gold medal. This is a historic breakthrough achieved by a mainland male speed skater who won the first Olympic gold medal. This victory is reminiscent of China's first world championship in ice and snow at the 1963 Speed Skating World Championships represented by Luo Zhihuan, represented by Luo Zhihuan. Today, The Chinese men's speed skating finally won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics, and on this special day, we will talk about the things about Chinese speed skating.
Today is the eighth competition day after the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and according to the schedule, the gold medal in the men's 500 meters of speed skating will be decided today. Gao Tingyu won the bronze medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and won the first Olympic bronze medal in the speed skating event of the Chinese male athletes. A total of 30 runners competed in the men's 500m final today, and all of them will decide the gold medal at the end of the round. China's Gao Tingyu and Yang Tao played in the seventh and eighth groups respectively. Gao Tingyu showed amazing explosive power from the start, running 9.42 seconds in the first 100 meters and finally sliding out of 34.32 seconds to break the Olympic record. None of the 16 players from the next 8 groups could surpass Gao Tingyu's performance, and Gao Tingyu won the gold medal and became the first Chinese men's olympic champion in men's speed skating.
Today's competition CCTV invited Zhang Hong, the champion of the women's speed skating 1000 meters at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, a member of the International Olympic Committee, as a commentator. The gold medal that Zhang Hong won in Sochi was the first Olympic gold medal in Chinese speed skating, and coincidentally, Zhang Hong also set off in the seventh group when she won the gold medal at that time, and she waited for more than an hour at the scene until the end of the last group to make sure that she got the gold medal and won the gold medal that entered the history of Chinese sports. Zhang Hong, as a commentator, also cheered at the scene to witness Gao Tingyu's winning process, and in the evening, Zhang Hong personally presented Gao Tingyu with an award in the award square in Beijing to complete a kind of inheritance.
These four years can be described as difficult for the 24-year-old Gao Tingyu, who won the bronze medal in the 500 meters at the first competition of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to achieve a historic breakthrough in Chinese men's speed skating. At that time, people were full of expectations for his winter Olympics at his doorstep four years later. Gao Tingyu, who was in the ascending period, suffered a serious injury, and in order to better rest, he even left the national team to return to Heilongjiang Province to live a "four-point and one-line" life. Due to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, the plan of external training was forced to be cancelled, and the coaching team also changed, all of which laid hidden dangers for the preparation for the Winter Olympics. In September last year, Gao Tingyu participated in the national competition in Xinjiang, and skated the third fastest result in the history of men's speed skating in the 500 meters on the plateau ice rink, breaking the national record. Since then, the first world cup match in Poland has broken the field record and won the first world cup sub-station. Due to injuries and other reasons, he did not participate in all the World Cup matches to ensure that he qualified for the Winter Olympics and then returned to China to prepare. He attended the opening ceremony as the flag bearer of the Chinese delegation, and even uninstalled WeChat in order to concentrate on today's competition. Aside from training, his only way to relax is to sleep. Winning the gold medal today is sure he can get a good night's sleep.
From Takato Tingyu's victory today is reminiscent of many things that belong to Chinese speed skating, and in 1963, the Speed Skating World Championships were held in Karuizawa, Japan. At that time, China was very difficult, our team was through Hong Kong to Japan to participate, because there was no diplomatic relations between China and Japan at that time, until the last moment before the competition, our athletes only got a visa to go to Japan to compete, after arriving in the local area, they encountered hired drivers who were detained, poor accommodation conditions, training obstruction and other adverse effects. On that unusually difficult day, our athletes overcame all odds and Luo Zhihuan won the gold medal in the men's 1500 meters, which was also the first world championship in the Chinese winter event. This year, Luo Zhihuan served as the first torchbearer of the Winter Olympic Torch Relay and the flag bearer of the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony. Wang Jinyu's fifth place in the men's individual all-around at the 1962 World Championships is still the best result of a Chinese male athlete in the speed skating World Championships. Luo Hongtao, a famous CCTV sports journalist who appeared as a guest in a sports talk show on CCTV in 2019, replied to the host's question "Which moment do you most want to go back to to witness the history of Chinese sports", her answer was to go back to Karuizawa in 1963 and want to see how the predecessors achieved a breakthrough.
59 years later, the current China is no longer the same as it was then, and today Gao Tingyu has finally completed the wishes of generations of Chinese speed skaters at the National Speed Skating Hall . His result is also the "Ice Ribbon" men's 500m speed skating record. From Zhao Weichang, who led the Chinese team to participate in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1980 with a five-star red flag, to Gao Tingyu, who led the Chinese team into the Bird's Nest this year, The Chinese male speed skater finally stood on the highest podium of the Olympic Games, and for the first time engraved the Olympic speed skating record with the name of Chinese. Ye Qiaobo, who achieved zero breakthroughs in medals for the Winter Olympics for China in 2014, witnessed Zhang Hong win the championship on the spot, and today Zhang Hong witnessed Gao Tingyu winning the championship and presenting the award. We must also praise the ice of the "Ice Ribbon" for being so good, and all the competitions currently playing have broken the Olympic record and are difficult to do for the Plains Ice Rink.
The Winter Olympics are still continuing, speed skating also has a gold medal, the men's 1000 meters event a few days ago failed to play well in the 1500 meters of Ning Zhongyan will once again attack the podium. I believe that Gao Tingyu's victory today can inspire him. 59 years later, from Karuizawa to Ice Ribbon, China's speed skaters have finally realized their dreams, and they believe that our speed skating will be better in the future.