Why did Zhang Hong present the award to Gao Tingyu? Behind it is the heritage story of Chinese speed skating

On February 12, Gao Tingyu won the Olympic record in the men's 500m final of the Beijing Winter Olympics speed skating, becoming the first Chinese male athlete to win gold in the speed skating event of the Winter Olympics. In the awards square that night, Zhang Hong, Gao Tingyu's predecessor and the first Chinese champion of speed skating at the Winter Olympics, presented him with a gold medal, which symbolized the scene of inheritance that was moving. The official website of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee published an article to reveal the reasons for this, and it turned out that all this was temporarily obtained by Zhang Hong.

Gao Tingyu hung a gold medal on his chest. Beijing Daily client reporter Fang Fei photographed

After the celebration, she urgently contacted the International Olympic Committee, hoping that as a member of the IOC Athletes Committee, she would go to the award square to present the award to the champion - at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Zhang Hong won the speed skating women's 1000m championship, achieving a breakthrough of zero gold medals in the Chinese Speed Skating Winter Olympics. Coincidentally, she, like Gao Tingyu in this competition, also set off in the seventh group.

With such a coincidence, in the awards square that night, Zhang Hong lifted the tray with gold medals in front of Gao Tingyu as she wished, from Sochi to Beijing, two generations of Chinese speed skaters completed the inheritance.

Zhang Hong said in an interview that although she has been away from the field for 4 years, she is still excited to see her former teammates become the world's best speed skaters, "In Beijing, in the ice ribbon, we have the best athletes, we have the best speed skating rink. This moment proves that we are a big country of ice and snow, and this moment belongs to our speed skaters. Zhang Hong also said that Gao Tingyu has been plagued by injuries in recent years, and the pressure on his body is very large, but in the end he overcame everything, "At this moment, he is the best!" He's better than me! When he stands on the podium today, he must know how right he was to choose the speed skating event when he was a child. ”