Source: Sports Weekly
The men's 500m is one of the most competitive short track speed skating events at the Winter Olympics, and no athlete in history has ever been able to defend his title at the Winter Olympics, and even two athletes have won medals in this event for two consecutive Winter Olympics, but Wu Dajing is one of them. In 2014, Sochi won silver, in 2018 Pyeongchang won gold, in 2022 Beijing, what will be waiting for Wu Dajing?
When the calendar flipped to the second match day of the beijing Winter Olympics short track speed skating, "Wu Dajing strives to defend the title" appeared in almost all Chinese media's preview of the day. But for the matter of defending the title, Wu Dajing was somewhat contradictory in his heart before the game. After the first three races of the World Cup, Wu Dajing, who has not stood on the podium in the 500-meter event, admitted that he has "no confidence in himself." But in the finale of the World Cup, Wu Dajing slipped out of the world's fastest performance of the season and won the championship, which also made him realize that "the biggest opponent is still himself". But while rebuilding confidence, Wu Dajing has always reminded himself that in today's 500-meter field, even if he is the defending champion of the Winter Olympics, he needs to "fight" more than "defending".
The situation in the 500-meter race was indeed as fiercely competitive as Wu Dajing expected. In the preliminaries and quarterfinals, Wu Dajing successfully broke through from his group, but unlike Pyeongchang four years ago, Wu Dajing, who once made his opponents invisible to the "tail lights", could always feel the imminent approach of his opponents behind him. In the semi-finals, Wu Dajing formed the "Death Group" with South Korea's Huang Daxian, the second fastest result creator of the season, and Liu Shaoang, the world champion, and he was divided into 3 lanes near the outside, which also made him in a very passive situation since he started. The 500-meter race was only a short 4 and a half laps, and there was not much time left for Wu Dajing. A collision accident in front of the opponent, coupled with his own unsuccessful overtaking, Wu Dajing's final ranking was fixed in the third place in the group of the semi-finals, and he failed to advance to the final of Group A. Even in the Group B final, Wu Dajing was still the first to cross the finish line, but this result may be difficult to say satisfactory for him who bears the hope of defending his title.
Unlike the choking and excitement after the 2000-meter mixed relay race, Wu Dajing, who stood in front of the microphone this time, was calm, but it was not difficult for everyone to read his regret and fatigue from his somewhat muffled voice. "Regret" is the word That Wu Dajing said the most when reviewing the game, after all, the distance between him and the Group A final was only 0.016 seconds. "It's a pity, I originally wanted to enter Group A to compete with the world's top opponents and achieve better results in my own country." The two teammates Ren Ziwei and Sun Long stopped in the quarter-finals, which also added a little pressure to Wu Dajing, and in the semifinals, he felt that he still slid too "tightly".
And the word "exhaustion", although Wu Dajing has never mentioned it positively, is revealed in his mood of the ups and downs of the Beijing cycle. In the past four years, although Wu Dajing, a leader in China's short track speed skating, has made many public appearances and received many interviews, he has rarely explained in detail about his injuries and difficulties encountered in training, and has chosen to bear it more than one person. What the outside world does not know is that when everyone had high hopes for Wu Dajing's defense of his title, his goal was once only to stand on the Olympic field. "At first, I felt that being able to participate in the Winter Olympics was the goal, and then when my body could train with a lot of intensity, I raised the goal again." A year ago, Wu Dajing admitted that his goal was still to rush gold at the Winter Olympics, but with the passage of time and the change of physical condition, Wu Dajing's goal also changed. On the third trip to the Winter Olympics, although Wu Dajing also expected good results, he had regrets about not being able to reach the final of Group A, but he accepted it more calmly.
Before the start of the Winter Olympic season, Wu Dajing's coaches and teammates hoped that he would "enjoy the game", which was also one of the goals of Wu Dajing's third Olympic trip. But for Wu Dajing in the Beijing cycle, how easy is it to enjoy the game? After Pyeongchang returned with honors, Wu Dajing was the "banner" of China's short track speed skating team during the Beijing cycle. He set a new 500-meter world record in the Beijing cycle, he is the goal that his teammates in the team challenge are looking forward to catching up, and he is the main gold competition in the International Competition of the Chinese team and the object of everyone's attention. There is always expectation, there is always pressure, Wu Dajing wants to fully enjoy the transcendence and sprint on the ice rink, almost become an impossible thing. After working with his teammates to win the gold medal in the mixed relay that was of great significance to both the Chinese delegation and the short track team, and after ending the 500-meter race with the pressure of defending the title, the burden on Wu Dajing's shoulders was slowly lifted. In the final 5,000-meter relay final, can Wu Dajing truly "enjoy the game" as he wishes?