Since 1980, many stars and champions have emerged in China's more than 50 years of Winter Olympic participation. Ye Qiaobo achieved a "zero breakthrough" in Winter Olympic medals for China at the 16th Winter Olympic Games in 1992, and since then, Chinese ice and snow athletes have begun the process of competing for gold and silver in the Winter Olympics.
Ye Qiaobo's heroic posture in the 1992 Winter Olympics
More than 50 years ago, skating and skiing were still niche events in the mainland, mainly professional teams in Heilongjiang, Jilin and other places were carrying out training, and the conditions were very difficult. Ye Qiaobo was selected to join the speed skating class of Changchun Sports School at the age of 9. After just over a month of training, she broke the Changchun Children's Group record of 500 meters; a year later, she won the first place in the 3 events of the Jilin Provincial Children's Group. In 1976, Zhang Jizhong, the captain of the Bayi speed skating team, and Xiao Hanzhang, the coach, went to Changchun to select athletes, and Ye Qiaobo was selected to join the army at the age of less than 13, becoming the youngest athlete in the team.
In 1992, Ye Qiaobo won the first Winter Olympic medal for China
After entering the Bayi speed skating team, Ye Qiaobo began more professional training. At that time, there was no indoor ice rink, only on the lake or on the river to skate wild ice, in order to find a place where you can train on the ice as soon as possible, Ye Qiaobo, who is less than 13 years old, and his teammates sat in an open-top car in a low temperature close to -40 ° C, and trained in Heihe, Nenjiang, Hailar, Qiqihar and other places, and each class was 3 hours a slide. "We have to drive for half an hour every day to get to the training site, there is a cold wind of five or six levels outside, and when we get to the place, we are frozen unconscious, but we have to train immediately." Recalling the scene at that time, Ye Qiaobo was deeply touched, "At that time, I was the youngest, and I was crying and training almost every day. So, she has two nicknames: "Crying Ghost" and "Desperate Sanlang".
This pair of skates once followed Ye Qiaobo through thorns
Ye Qiaobo said: "At that time, the conditions were very difficult, and in the morning, the quilt was covered with a layer of frost, and the skates were frozen on the ground and could not be picked up. ”
Even so, 8 to 10 hours of training every day from morning to night has almost run through her 21-year athletic career.
After unremitting perseverance and hard work, Ye Qiaobo finally got the reward - in the 1991 World Women's Speed Skating Championships 500 meters, she won her first gold medal; in March of the same year, she won 5 silver medals at the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, and was called "China's Silver Girl" by foreign media.
Leaving the Winter Olympic Games, but still associated with the Winter Olympics, Ye Qiaobo currently serves as a member of the Athletes Committee of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee
In February 1992, Ye Qiaobo participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time in Albertville, France. In the 500-meter speed skating competition she was good at, when she slid from the outer road to the inner road to implement the overtaking, because the inner road players did not give way according to the rules, the two ice knives and bodies collided twice, and finally Ye Qiaobo won the silver medal in the event in 40.51 seconds, winning the first medal in the history of the continental Winter Olympics.
Recalling the scene of that year, Ye Qiaobo said with regret: "The referee at that time was from the United States, and he naturally helped the American players win the championship, so as soon as the game was over, he went down from the middle of the field to the underground passage and hid, we wanted to complain but couldn't find him at all, and I was wearing an ice knife and couldn't chase on the lime field." Because the mainland ice sports developed late, lack of experience in participating in international competitions, the peers present did not understand the rules of the competition in this case, worried that if the appeal was re-skated, in case the results were not satisfactory, they would lose the silver medal that had been handed, and simply gave up the appeal. Later, everyone learned that if there is a rematch, the final result is the best place in the two competitions. ”
In 1992, at the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships in Norway, Ye Qiaobo won the gold medal in the women's 1000 meters and won the women's all-around crown, becoming the first short distance speed skating all-around champion in Asia.
In addition, she created the 500-meter Grand Slam, a rare one on the world's ice.
Ye Qiaobo, China and Asia's first short distance speed skating all-around world champion
From 1979 to 1994, Ye Qiaobo won a total of 133 medals in major speed skating competitions at home and abroad. She was the first Chinese to raise the five-star red flag at the Winter Olympics, and was later awarded the honorary title of "Top Soldier in Sports" by the Central Military Commission.
The accident of the Albertville Winter Olympics made Ye Qiaobo give up the idea of retreating from the rapids, and resolutely decided to fight with injuries to the next Winter Olympics. At the 17th Winter Olympics, the goal proposed by the Chinese delegation was to strive for a "breakthrough of zero" for the gold medal, and Ye Qiaobo had high hopes. However, due to the long-term overload training, Ye Qiaobo was very seriously injured at that time, and even so, she still insisted on training and participated in the competition with an injury.
Ye Qiaobo has served as the Olympic torchbearer six times
Ye Qiaobo said: "The country needs me, I will not hesitate to top it, as long as I can represent the country on the field of the Winter Olympics, I feel particularly honored and proud, so I was like a warrior on the battlefield at that time, working hard for the honor of the motherland, I have an unshirkable responsibility." ”
On February 19, 1994, Ye Qiaobo lost the women's 500 meters at the XVII Winter Olympics and missed out on the top 10. But a few days later, she came on again, gritted her teeth to complete the 1000m race and won 1 bronze medal.
"For this bronze medal, I'd rather let this leg be scrapped!" Ye Qiaobo told reporters, "I really don't know if I can stand up during the operation, but when I think of the bronze medal that I have worked so hard to get, I feel that it is worth it." ”
On February 23, 1994, Ye Qiaobo ushered in the final 1,000-meter race of his ice career. A bronze medal, almost paid for one leg
Ye Qiaobo created one miracle after another in the history of China's ice and snow sports with the spirit of never giving up and never giving up, and the "Qiaobo Spirit" also became a representative interpretation of the spirit of sportsmanship at that time, and the "women's volleyball spirit" inspired and inspired generations of people. Nowadays, Ye Qiaobo continues to accelerate, catch up and surpass in another runway of his life, participate in the preparation of the Winter Olympic Games, promote the "North Ice South Shift, North Snow South Exhibition", and devote himself to public welfare activities... In her story, there are not only those historical moments that will never fade, but also the "Qiao Bo spirit" that never leaves.
Recommended by Modern Reading magazine
Beijing Sport University Press, Historical Evolution and Practical Enlightenment of the Winter Olympic Movement
Editor: Liu Junyi
Original title: The "Qiaobo Spirit" of The Sports Elite Ye Qiaobo
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