On the evening of February 13, the scene of a Chinese girl kissing the ice surface after the game touched countless people:▼
She is Fan Kexin, who won the bronze medal with teammates Han Yutong, Qu Chunyu, Zhang Chutong and Zhang Yuting in the short track speed skating women's 3000m relay. After winning the gold medal in the women's 3,000m relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Chinese women's team returned to the podium after 12 years.
After the game, Fan Kexin knelt down in the center of the venue and kissed the ice surface:
"I am grateful that the motherland is so strong, that we can host the Winter Olympics, that we can stand in front of the people of the whole country to show ourselves, and then there are so many people who support us, so I am a kind of gratitude (mood) to kiss the ice surface." 」
In addition to this bronze medal, fan Kexin won the gold medal with his teammates Qu Chunyu, Ren Ziwei and Wu Dajing in the short track speed skating men's 2000m mixed relay event on February 5!
Born in 1993, Fan Kexin is the oldest athlete in the entire short track speed skating team, and like 28-year-old Wu Dajing, she has participated in the Winter Olympics for the third time this year, and Fan Kexin has been waiting for this Olympic gold medal for 12 years.
Fan Kexin is a cold girl who came out of the Qitaihe River in Heilongjiang, her growth process makes people tearful, we can see from it: poverty, illness, persistence...
1
I want to learn how to skate
If you can work hard, you won't charge money
Fan Kexin was born in 1993, and when she was in elementary school, her family lost money in business. In addition to his brother staying in his hometown to go to school, his parents took Fan Kexin to Qitaihe to join relatives.
At that time, the whole family only had a total of 300 yuan, and they spent 130 to rent a 6-square-meter tin room. His father had the art of repairing shoes, and in order to feed the family, his father began to repair shoes for people. The family of three eats, lives, and repairs shoes in a small tin room.
One year Chinese New Year's Eve night, there was no business in repairing shoes in the cold, and there was really no money in my pocket. The dumplings eaten at home that night were also sent by the kind neighbor next door.
Although the family conditions are very bitter, the parents still sent the active Fan Kexin into the dance class, just a week after studying, Fan Kexin told his mother not to learn, he did not like to dance. In fact, because the dance class has to pay 150 yuan for clothing, Fan Kexin knows that it is difficult for his parents to earn money and does not want to increase the burden on his parents.
Relying on his father to repair shoes to make money is not enough to support the family, his mother often took Fan Kexin to pick up garbage, Fan Kexin recalled that when he was a child, he said:
"At that time, I couldn't even afford to buy pants, so my mother picked them up from the garbage heap, washed and sewed them up, and gave them to me to wear."
A neighbor aunt suggested to the Fan family that they could go to the stadium to see, where a group of children had been training, perhaps as an opportunity.
Fan Kexin came to the stadium and met Ma Qingzhong, a short track speed skating coach, and led the team members to train. After a simple test of Fan Kexin, Coach Ma felt that she was in good physical condition and agreed to accept her.
However, not to mention the tuition fee, the price of a pair of skates is equivalent to the living expenses of their family for a year.
Fan Kexin asked Coach Ma how much it cost to learn to skate, and Coach Ma told her: If she can work hard, she will not charge money.
Coach Ma not only did not charge tuition, but also spent 150 yuan to buy a pair of second-hand skate shoes for Fan Kexin.
Fan Kexin cherished this opportunity and began a hard training career. Get up at 4 a.m. every day to train, go home to breakfast after practicing, and then go out to school; go to class from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., train at 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, and then make up homework, go home at 6 o'clock to eat, and go to bed upside down.
One night, the mother inadvertently found that Fan Kexin's body was bruised and purple, there were many scabs on the feet, and even some places had suppuration, the mother was very distressed, and persuaded her daughter not to practice, which was too sinful!
Fan Kexin was very insistent: "No! No! I want to practice! This is a life-changing opportunity for Fan Kexin.
2
Do not be confined to poverty and sickness
She flipped through adversity
Fan Kexin's mother said that when she first learned speed skating, the conditions were not good, and she was training on the outdoor ice rink:
"My deepest impression of my daughter since she was a child is that she has worked hard and has the strength to not accept defeat! If other children skate 50 laps when training, Fan Kexin will at least skate to 100 laps, and my daughter will leave after others leave the training ground. ”
Seeing that her daughter has talent in this area and is so desperate, her parents fully support her and work in the dark even more early; her brother in her hometown also goes out to work early, and the whole family works together.
In 2003, another Bó Lè appeared. Coach Meng Qingyu of Harbin went to Qitaihe to select the team members and selected Fan Kexin.
Coach Meng, who is a miner, is also the enlightenment coach of many world champions such as Zhang Jie, Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Wang Wei, Liu Qiuhong and so on. With his own strength, he has built the small City of Qitaihe into the hometown of China's Winter Olympic champions. It is a pity that Coach Meng failed to witness a more brilliant moment of short track speed skating in China, and in August 2006, on the way to Harbin, Coach Meng unfortunately died in a car accident at the age of 56.
Fan Kexin still remembers that if he wanted to skate better and faster, he needed a good pair of skate shoes, but his family could not afford it. It was Coach Meng who paid for 2500 to give her a pair of ice knives.
In the second year of training in the provincial city, Fan Kexin won several first places in the national primary school short track speed skating competition. Fan Kexin's road in front of him gradually became clear, entering the provincial team, the national team, representing the country to participate in world competitions... While winning glory for the country, we can also improve family conditions.
But fate played a joke with her. In January 2008, at the 11th National Winter Games in Qiqihar, Fan Kexin, who had high hopes, found nothing.
During that time, Fan Kexin often felt weak in her limbs, she couldn't see the blood on her face, and her legs and feet often couldn't make it strong when training, so she didn't tell anyone about it.
Until the holiday Fan Kexin returned to Qitaihe, even the stairs could not climb up, and her mother took her to see the city hospital and was diagnosed with anemia, but could not find out the specific cause.
The doctor advised that according to the current physical condition of Fan Kexin, he could no longer train.
Her parents advised her to recuperate at home and not to return to the team. Fan Kexin thought she was okay, and she forced her father to ride on her neck to do a squat, and then let her father carry a bag of rice. She gritted her teeth and said that the usual training was much heavier than this, and as a result, with the addition of the rice bag, Fan Kexin fell to the ground.
When the parents were helpless, Coach Ma arrived.
At this time, her mother could not cry, and Fan Kexin hid in the toilet, crying while pleading:
"I'm going to skate, I'm going to be skating. I must insist on sliding, skating for so many years, if I give up halfway through this life, and the entry notice of the national youth team has been sent to the coach, I will definitely be able to enter the national team in the future, and I will win the gold medal..."
Coach Ma immediately took Fan Kexin to the provincial capital and asked his friends in Harbin to contact the best hospital. Fan Kexin was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia in adolescence due to chronic malnutrition and overloaded training.
Fortunately, in time for treatment, Coach Ma took her home again, with the drug for food supplementation, after more than half a year of conditioning, Fan Kexin's physical indicators returned to normal.
In 2009, Fan Kexin returned to the provincial team for training, and was selected for the national youth team in the same year. In 2010, Fan Kexin, who had just turned 17, was officially called into the national short track speed skating team and became teammates with Wang Meng and Sun Linlin, who were also from Qitaihe.
3
"As long as the country needs me,
I will definitely continue to slide."
Almost everyone who knows Fan Kexin has the same impression of her - she is too tenacious!
Fan Kexin wrote such a passage - it was a slight wound with swollen bones, and it was a battlefield that could not get off the line of fire. Every knife is incredibly important, and every shot is fully committed. Fighting, never said, hard work is the last word!
Under the persistence of her dreams, her strength has also improved rapidly, and her debut is the peak!
Five months after Fan Kexin joined the national team, the 17-year-old won the women's 500 meters championship at the 2011 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships and the women's 3000 meters relay championship for her first appearance, and then became the five world championships champions, becoming the leader of China's new generation of short track speed skating after Wang Mao.
The life of Fan Kexin's family has also changed dramatically:
"When I was a child, the conditions at home were really bad, I also had an older brother, and the four of us lived in a 10 square meter room, spent many years, and then moved many times... Sometimes when I go back from vacation, I see my family working, when I see them repairing shoes and bicycles for others, my heart will be very sad, I don't know what to say, my brother dropped out of school very early, but also for my skating expenses are working hard, the family is fighting for me, I should also fight for the family. ”
But Fan Kexin lacked only one Winter Olympic champion. In the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics short track speed skating women's 500m semifinals, Fan Kexin accidentally fell and missed the final; at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, he was convicted of fouling and missed the gold medal again in the 500m semifinals.
In order to realize her dream of winning the Winter Olympics, she chose to continue to insist.
On the evening of February 5, the short track speed skating mixed team 2000m relay final, composed of Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu, Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei and Zhang Yuting, won the championship, which was the first Winter Olympic gold medal won by Fan Kexin, who had entered the national team for 12 years.
After winning the championship, Fan Kexin hugged the 28-year-old Wu Dajing tightly, as the oldest athletes in the women's and men's teams, the veterans felt sorry for each other, and they all understood how difficult it was to insist on the bloom of the Beijing Winter Olympics for another 4 years after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics:
"Every day I train for the gold medal (it) just stands in front of me, I just rush forward!"
"I've been waiting for this gold medal for too long and I'll always believe in the team, always believe in this team. I have been in the national team for 12 years, thanks to the country, thanks to everyone, when we train every day under the ice, there is blood in the throat, and the championship we have won is worth it! ”
After Van Kexin won the bronze medal in the women's 3,000m relay on February 13, she kissed the ice, and in a post-race interview, she said it was a new beginning and not a sign of retirement.
For the future, Fan Kexin's attitude is - "I am only 29, I still love short track speed skating, as long as the country needs me, I will definitely continue to skate." ”