Jia Zongyang, the elder of the Four Dynasties Image source: Xinhua News Agency
On February 16, at Genting Ski Park, Qi Guangpu, a 31-year-old "elder of the Four Dynasties" of the Winter Olympics, wore a national flag and shed tears and enjoyed the congratulations of the audience. In the crowd, Jia Zongyang, also 31 years old", was also applauding him and shedding tears.
Qi Guangpu's tears were joyful, and Jia Zongyang's tears might be more complicated. Regrettably ending his fourth Winter Olympic trip, he tried his best, and he also deserves our highest respect.
Jia Zongyang will always remember the day he first stood on the jumping platform.
He was 11 years old that day, and even though he had rehearsed it ten thousand times before that, he was frightened the moment he stood on stage. "When I was training on land, I practiced the technical movements repeatedly for a long time, and I was quite confident, but the first time I stood at the starting point and wanted to jump, I said that I didn't dare to jump anything." Jia Zongyang laughed.
Jia Zongyang was born in 1991 in Fushun, Liaoning Province, an ordinary family, Jia Zongyang's father Jia Tongcai is a crane worker (bridge crane operator), Jia Zongyang's family has no athletes in three generations, only Jia Tongcai himself is particularly fond of sports, so Jia Zongyang was sent to the sports school to practice gymnastics. In 2002, the Shenyang Sports Academy freestyle skiing aerial skills team recruited athletes, just like this, Jia Zongyang turned the project with the mentality of trying it out, and he did not expect that this jump was 20 years.
The sixth place of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the third place of the Sochi Winter Olympics, the runner-up of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, this is Jia Zongyang's first trip to the Fourth Winter Olympics, and perhaps the most difficult thing for him to calm down is the jump in Pyeongchang.
After the Sochi Winter Olympics, Jia Zongyang almost "disappeared" for three years due to serious injuries. But he eventually caught up with the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and fought until the last minute. In the last jump, Jia Zongyang slid, took off, rotated, and landed, but in the end, he still passed by the gold medal with a gap of 0.46 points.
"How good it would be if it was a gold medal..." Jia Zongyang kept repeating this sentence after the game. During the preparation cycle for PyeongChang, he often dreamed of winning the championship or making mistakes, and then woke up from the dream. "To be honest, training so hard every day, so many injuries, who wouldn't want to be on the top podium?"
In the mouths of his teammates, Jia Zongyang is "Old Jia", a "genius player who can learn no matter what the coach teaches", but like all aerial skill athletes, injuries are the difficulties he must experience - flying and landing day after day, so that the knees of air skill athletes are under pressure several times more than their weight, and if they are not careful, they will be seriously injured.
Jia Zongyang's heroic posture in the air Image source: Xinhua News Agency
After the Sochi Winter Olympics, Jia Zongyang had a crushing fracture of his tibia, fibula fracture, and medial ankle joint in a training session, and his legs were implanted with 2 steel plates and 22 steel nails, but Jia Zongyang still overcame the injury and won a silver medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. In the mouth of netizens, Jia Zongyang was called "Iron Man".
But "Iron Man" also has moments of vulnerability.
Six days ago, Jia Zongyang made a mistake in the mixed team final, and the Chinese team missed the gold medal and won the silver medal. "I chose the action that I was most sure of, I practiced it every day for four years, but the moment I landed, I don't know, why I can't control it... I'm sorry..." Jia Zongyang kept repeating "I'm sorry."
But both teammates and netizens said to Jia Zongyang: You don't have to say sorry again.
Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang, Beijing... In the past 12 years, Jia Zongyang has experienced highlights, hopes, lows, injuries, and regrets, and has come to this day, Jia Zongyang is worthy of everyone who supports and believes in him, and is worthy of the love in his heart.
Upstream journalist Bao Jing