Long wait! After 12 years of perseverance, Xu Mengtao finally won a golden Olympic gold medal! On February 14, 2022, Beijing time, in the winter Olympics freestyle skiing women's aerial skills final, China's Xu Mengtao withstood the pressure and finally won the project championship with 108.61 points as he wished.
After winning the championship, Xu Mengtao shouted loudly to the audience around him: "Comrades, we have won!" "This scene is touching. For this championship, Xu Mengtao struggled for 12 years, from a 19-year-old girl to a 31-year-old.
This championship is made up of Xu Mengtao's endless efforts and countless failures. How many people know that behind the glory of the championship is also full of bitterness - 4 years ago, at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao also accidentally fell because of mistakes and had to wash her face with tears.
In the second round of the final of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao fell to the ground when she landed. After an unexpected mistake, she burst into tears and kept wiping the tears from her eyes with a towel (above), a scene that made people look heartbroken.
Looking closely at Xu Mengtao's fall 4 years ago (below), it is almost the same as the fall of Xu Mengtao's teammate Kong Fanyu in the just-concluded project final - all of them are not high enough, resulting in an imbalance in the body when landing.
Kong Fanyu repeats the mistakes of Xu Mengtao 4 years ago, may have had the experience of the mistakes of the last Olympic Games, this time Xu Mengtao has full psychological preparation, in her words: if you win the battle, you will always be afraid of losing the battle.
Recently, Xu Mengtao accepted an exclusive interview with the domestic media "Beyond the Boundary", talking about the mistakes made 4 years ago, Xu Mengtao said a rather philosophical word! She said that after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, she continued to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and she had a kind of calmness in her heart.
She said, "That is to say, I have fallen, and that's how the battle was fought." You always win battles, and you are always afraid of losing them. But if you do lose in the big game, you may think that's the most I can do. "Yeah, it's a big deal to fall again, and I feel at ease when I think of it."
Xu Mengtao said that she is an optimistic, strong execution person, all bad things as long as 2 days she will pass. She said that when she was a child, she often imitated the athletes standing on the podium to win awards, although it was only imitation, but she said that the belief in the championship has been rooted in her heart since then, prompting her to persevere, "If you insist on one more session, maybe it will be complete!" ”
Talking about her childhood, Xu Mengtao said that the family was crowded in a 36-square-meter house, her mother worked to earn money, and her father took her to study (she couldn't help but cry when she said this).
She also said she hadn't been to kindergarten, she hadn't seen cartoons much, and her family showed her only sports channels. At that time, her idea was to train well, and in the future, she would not have to let her parents suffer anymore, but to live a better life.
Today, Xu Mengtao's wish has finally come true, and the family's persistence for more than 20 years has finally been rewarded.