The Paper's reporter Pu Yaolei and Ma Zuoyu sent it from Chongli
Before standing on the highest podium, Xu Mengtao closed her tearful eyes and screamed in the sky.
This gold medal, she waited too long, and now finally as she said, "God has seen my efforts."
Before this gold medal, her sports career had brought her too much pain: knee ligament tears, ligament ruptures, meniscal removals, ankle and elbow injuries...
The blow after the defeat at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics almost made her choose to retire, but her response was: insist, insist, and insist.
"Thanks to Xu Mengtao four years ago. Thank you for these four years, step by step, you have come to this day. ”
After the game, Xu Mengtao still couldn't believe all this.
Dreams come true
On the day of the final, the lowest temperature in the arena reached minus 25 degrees Celsius, but at the moment when Xu Mengtao's final jump score was revealed, the audience boiled over.
Along with the applause and cheers, there were also many Chinese journalists in the mixed interview area, and some even shed tears. "It doesn't feel cold at all." A reporter said.
Yes, this historic moment was enough to make everyone present excited and excited - the first gold of the Winter Olympics in the Chinese women's freestyle skiing aerial skills project was picked by Xu Mengtao.
And from her performance, you can also see what this gold medal means to her. After finishing the game, she shouted to herself, "It's so beautiful", and the tears and shouts afterwards made everyone even more moved.
In the melting mood.
"Now I still feel like a dream at this moment, unreal, and need to be precipitated." When asked how she felt at the moment, Xu Mengtao's body had come to the reporter, but her mind seemed to be still immersed in the arena and the podium.
She said that in this final, she did the "immersive" game. It's true," [in the game] I don't know how many points the contestants jumped in front of me, and I didn't care about anyone. Even after the game was over, after receiving a souvenir with the runner-up and the runner-up, she had not yet figured out who was the runner-up and who was the runner-up.
"I just want to shout it out, I just want to be happy, I'm excited, I don't want to sleep anymore, I hope this happy moment will pass a little slower." 」
At this moment when the dream came true, Xu Mengtao hoped to savor every second of happiness.
"February 14 is a special day. I decided to set my wedding anniversary on February 14 and I would have a baby on February 14. In the face of reporters, Xu Mengtao also joked.
But in detail, it seems that there is really a sense of "destiny": "The first World Cup in my life was on February 14, 2009; the first Olympic medal in my life was February 14, 2014 at the Sochi Winter Olympics; the moment I made history (winning gold) in my life was February 14, 2022." ”
Xu Mengtao held up the "Golden Pier".
Full of injuries
In a fateful day, Xu Mengtao harvested the peak of her career - she has won many international competitions such as the World Cup and the World Championships, and with this Olympic gold medal, she achieved a grand slam of her career and created a new history of snow sports in China.
But only she herself knows how much hardship is behind the realization of such a "life".
Many veterans of different projects have suffered from injuries, and Xu Mengtao, 31, is no exception. After winning the gold medal, she and the reporter counted their own encounters in several Winter Olympic cycles.
"Before the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the anterior cruciate ligament of the right leg was ruptured; before the Sochi Winter Olympics, the medial collateral ligament of the right leg was torn and the cervical disc was herniated; before the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the anterior cruciate ligament of the left leg was ruptured..." And this is only a "simplified version" of the description, without adding the "small injuries" compared to ankle and elbow injuries.
After the 2016 Winter Games, when she underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in her left knee, Xu Mengtao removed 60% of the meniscus on the outside of her left knee, and after the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she underwent surgery again and removed 60% of the meniscus on the inside of her left leg – during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao played with the steel nails in her legs and did not perform surgery to remove the nails until after completing the competition.
Today, in the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao actually wears nails in her legs. "Now the legs are all absorbable nails, which is fine." Facing the reporter, Xu Mengtao said lightly.
For Xu Mengtao, whose career has been continuously affected by major injuries, the key Beijing Winter Olympics cycle has been considered "lucky". As she gets older, "these four years are relatively healthy four years."
To this end, she specially thanked the coaching team for its scientific training arrangements, thanked the security and medical team for its effectiveness in preventing and treating injuries, and she was even more grateful to herself who insisted on fighting another Winter Olympics after suffering a mistake and losing cards at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
"The last (Winter Olympics) I really went back to China in a gray state, and immediately after I went back, I had meniscus surgery, and when I lay on the hospital bed and watched my two legs do the surgery, I was really special..." Speaking of this, Xu Mengtao choked.
"I had my teammates come to see me, and I was playing with general anesthesia and shivering in bed. At that moment, I was thinking about whether I wanted to stick to Beijing, and if I insisted on it for four years, could you do it? ”
Xu Mengtao did.
"Thank you to Xu Mengtao four years ago, you walked out of that period of trough and continued to move forward, chose the dream, chose the love, chose to continue to engage in this charming and challenging and very hard project, thanks to these four years, you have come to this day step by step."
Fight to the limit
Being able to participate in the Fourth Winter Olympics and come up with an extremely strong physical state, Xu Mengtao is actually not just "lucky".
Her health, her abundant energy, is actually spelled out by herself.
Training in Qinhuangdao in the summer outside the snow season is the custom of the air skills team, and after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao, who gradually recovered from injury, also quickly threw himself into "devil training".
Without a snow field, she jumped into the pool thousands of times from the high platform, and jumped to Xu Mengtao herself feeling "desperate", but even at such a moment, she did not allow herself to stop.
"No one knows how I came over in the past four years, I am really 'playing' every day, especially when I was training in the Qinhuangdao pool last summer, I changed the pattern to practice, no matter what the weather or what state, these actions were practiced over and over again, and the coach scored me more strictly."
And it was such high-intensity training that Xu Mengtao actually felt that it was not enough.
During the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, in addition to the training of the project itself, Xu Mengtao said that she also attaches great importance to the exercise of physical fitness, and after practicing "diving", she also has to carry out boring running and other physical exercises.
Smiley Xu Mengtao.
"I felt like I could make myself stronger, and what underpinned me at the time was that I didn't want to be an athlete who relied on the old and sold the old."
How fiercely Xu Mengtao fought, everyone looked at it. When she practiced later, as a veteran, her 3,000-meter performance was 12 minutes and 18 seconds, ranking fourth among the 600 people in the entire Chinese ice and snow. Her physical performance also ranked first in the adult group of the entire women's aerial skills team.
"I hope that no matter how old you are, what kind of achievements, they are all starting from scratch, everyone is the same, there is no distinction between three, six, nine, etc. in front of competitive sports, more practice can get more, and strong can protect themselves."
"Although the process was hard, after passing this process, I really became stronger, my special endurance also improved, and being able to finish the race smoothly today and play such a performance also proves the importance of a strong and healthy body." Xu Mengtao said.
Xu Mengtao achieved a Grand Slam.
Thanks for all
After winning the silver medal in the previous aerial skill mixed team competition, Xu Mengtao's heart has been holding back a lot of energy: "At the moment of the award, I really have a bit of a 'defense', because at my doorstep, I really hope to raise the national flag and play the national anthem." At the award ceremony, her tears were full of reluctance.
Fortunately, this wish was finally realized in the women's individual event, which was her dream for many years, and she always longed to use a gold medal to justify her team.
"Before, some people joked that our team was a 'cashier', especially the women's team, constantly taking silver, silver, silver. In 2014 (the Winter Olympics), I was also a part of the silver medal. ”
"Finally today at the doorstep of the breakthrough of history, I am very happy, without the efforts of the predecessors, without the efforts and help of everyone, I would not have become this lucky person."
Xu Mengtao said that her dream of winning the Winter Olympics was only 5 years old, it had sprouted in her heart, gradually took root and grew stronger, and eventually became the most powerful belief that supported her all the way to today.
Now her achievements will also be recorded in the annals of history, and will become the best motivation and reference for future generations. "Before the window paper was broken, everyone was trying everything to adjust and break through. Now after breaking the window paper, we will be better able to sum up and distill the best experience of the game. ”
From the green onion young general in 2010 to today's "Four Dynasties Elders", Xu Mengtao said that he is now more experienced and more able to adapt to the competition environment and psychological pressure, "to balance and shield other factors, which is also an ability."
Time has brought her injuries and age, but also given her a smoother mentality and firmer determination. Dream, faith, self-discipline, these are the three elements of xu Mengtao's eyes as a champion, and now she has done it.
"Thanks to everyone for their support of me, I saw some netizens joke that let me win the championship, I would rather not eat for three days, or even be single for three years..."
"In short, it is gratitude, gratitude for all. I just want to say, don't give up your efforts, your efforts may not help you immediately, but you will definitely help you at the most critical time. ”
Xu Mengtao's name was given by her aunt and storytelling artist Liu Lanfang, taken from the allusion related to The Taohuayuan Chronicle of "meeting Tao Gong in a dream, laughing at the red dust", which means to bless Xu Mengtao to be able to live happily and carefree like in Taohuayuan.
However, compared with the leisure of escaping the world, the happiness after challenging oneself in the face of difficulties is more touching.
"God saw my efforts, saw my efforts." Tears slid down Xu Mengtao's eyes, and the sweetness of this moment was the reward she deserved.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas