▲ On February 5, in the mixed team relay final of the short track speed skating event of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics held at the Capital Gymnasium, the Chinese team won the championship. Wu Dajing celebrates after the game Photo/Xinhua News Agency
What did he go through in the four years from Pyeongchang to Beijing? Everyone was talking about Wu Dajing, and he hadn't hidden it, but even his mother didn't seem to know what he had been through in the past four years.
In the short-track speed skating 500-meter showdown that opens at 19:00 on February 13, will people see a Wu Dajing who pours all his strength into the ice knife and sprints all the way to win gold? If he wins the championship, will he break the long-established silence and release all his emotions by roaring at the sky, as he did four years ago in Pyeongchang?
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Xu Mei
"Wu Dajing is glad that he did not give up on himself", "Wu Dajing said to Ren Ziwei, go!" "Wu Dajing brushed gifts to Wang Meng and was kicked out of the live broadcast room", "Wu Dajing has the feet of two fifty-year-olds"...
Wu Dajing's topic flew all over the place. Even with the top streams such as Gu Ailing and Yusheng Jiexin, Wu Dajing, who stood up for gold in the 500-meter showdown of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, is still the hottest focus on the ice.
After winning the first gold medal for the Beijing Winter Olympics for the Chinese delegation with his teammates, he choked up and said, "This gold medal is very relieved, we have experienced too much in the past four years", "Thank you for the team did not give up on me, I did not give up, my family did not give up on me, always gave me encouragement, gave me the best support and the best companionship." ”
▲ On February 11, the men's 500m preliminary round of the short track speed skating event of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing was in the competition
"Sometimes I feel as if this son is strange," Wu Dajing's mother looked delicate and feminine, and when she was interviewed by NetEase Sports's "Beyond the Boundary" column, she didn't even know which competitions my son was going to participate in at the Beijing Winter Olympics, "I don't know, I didn't ask, I tried not to bother him before the game." ”
Only when the son takes the initiative to initiate a video call, the parents can see the children who have not met for a long time, in addition to "pay attention to safety", the others also try to ask as little as possible, only through the time of the video call, quietly calculate the son's schedule in the heart, "After training, sitting on the shuttle to play video for us, it is more than 10 o'clock, then it will be over." ”
Wu Dajing's mother calmly spoke of the heartache of many parents of top athletes, their children played for the country, because of their outstanding achievements, they were known to the chinese people and surrounded by the media, but the parents could only look at it from a distance, just like before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Liu Xiang's mother had not met her son for nearly half a year, and could only see the appearance of the child through TV advertisements and outdoor big screens.
In Wu Dajing's mother's heart, her son is still a child, and when she grows up to 14 years old, she will leave home, go farther and farther away, and only return home during the holidays, and she will feel that her son is "too mature to be like a child." ”
▲ On February 7, the men's 1000 meters final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China's Ren Ziwei won the championship. Ren Ziwei (front middle) and teammates Wu Dajing (front left) and Li Wenlong (front right) celebrate after the game
After the Beijing Winter Olympics team relay to win the championship, 29-year-old Fan Kexin hugged the 28-year-old Wu Dajing tightly, in an interview, Wu Dajing has also been putting his left hand on her shoulder, they are the oldest athletes of the women's team and the men's team, respectively, in the short track speed skating this sport of hard racing, the veterans feel sorry for each other, and know each other how difficult it is to persist for another four years after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and usher in the bloom of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Fan Kexin said, "When we train every day to go down the ice, there is blood in the throat, and the championship we have won is worth it!" Ren Ziwei looked at the choked big brother and tried to keep his own calm, "He has participated in three sessions, I relax a little." In the following competition, Ren Ziwei gradually felt why it was difficult for the famous player to calm down, after winning two gold medals in a row, he was sentenced to fail to qualify for the 1500m final for fouls, he admitted that "he thinks more", "I am still not suitable for hot search, or treat me as a small transparent bar!" ”
Ren Ziwei's heart in the past few days, Wu Dajing has been gone for four years. After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing enjoyed the attention and admiration that only a top athlete could get, but also shouldered the weight of fame.
▲ On February 22, 2018, Wu Dajing celebrated his victory after winning the men's 500m short track speed skating final at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, people often saw him in variety shows and commercial events, and an athlete became a star, and every move was amplified. This is the biggest psychological challenge for every famous competitor.
The epidemic and waist injuries have made it more difficult for him to spend the two years approaching the Beijing Winter Olympics. These accumulated into blocks in his chest, which were difficult for outsiders to know.
In September 2021, he hurried back to the team, because of the waist injury can not be systematically trained, all the previous training has been pulled down, the international competition points ranking is low.
Before the new season, he led his teammates to swear in front of the national flag, "Carry out the order, dare to fight and win." "The media camera was focused on every start he made...
At the end of October of that year, the Capital Gymnasium welcomed the short track speed skating World Cup, which was also the qualification tournament for the Winter Olympics. Wu Dajing skated a time of 40.014 seconds in the second round of the group stage, which is also the fastest speed of the World Cup in Beijing. But he was sent off the field for snatching in the final and did not get a ticket to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
After that, he fought two more races, and he didn't win the championship, "Later, I began to doubt myself!" ”
▲ On November 27, 2021, in the final of the men's 500m Group A of the 2021-2022 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, Wu Dajing (center) won the championship with a time of 39.878 seconds
On the evening of November 27, 2021, Beijing time, the short track speed skating World Cup in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, began the third day of competition, in the men's 500 meters final, Wu Dajing finally won his first gold medal in the single event of the season. 39.878 seconds! The King of Sprints announced the return of the king with the world's best of the season. This stop also fully demonstrated Wu Dajing's absolute dominance in the 500-meter event, and he was the first in the group in each of the first four rounds. After winning the championship, he ignited the arena with passion and roar, which is the declaration of his domination of the track in people's minds.
▲ On February 5, in the mixed team relay final of the short track speed skating event of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics held at the Capital Gymnasium, the Chinese team won the championship. Wu Dajing celebrated after the game
In the CCTV documentary "Man in the Olympic Year", Wu Dajing, who went to the Beijing Winter Olympics, said, "My real competitor is myself, designing my own goals, adjusting my competitive state, the world record is still my own, first of all, I have confidence in myself, and then I will break through!" ”
If you remember his roar at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, at 19:00 tonight, please pay attention to the short-track speed skating 500-meter showdown, and you will see a Wu Dajing who pours all his strength into the ice knife and sprints all the way to win gold.
If he wins the championship, will he break the long-established silence and release all his emotions by roaring at the sky, as he did four years ago in Pyeongchang? Read his four years, right here.