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Edit | Xiang Rong
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On the evening of February 16, in the men's 5000m relay final of short track speed skating, the Chinese team accidentally fell on lap 13 and finally ranked 5th, missing the medal.
This is the final battle of Wu Dajing at this Winter Olympics. The audience sighed for such a result, hurt him, and felt sorry for him. He's 28 years old and "treats every game like the last". Time has become more and more luxurious for him.
After the game, Wu Dajing said, "This game is going to the gold medal. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the Chinese team won bronze and silver medals in this event. The two overtakings in this game were completed by Wu Dajing, who once took the team from fifth to third. However, due to the accidental fall of his teammates, even if he chased after him with all his might, he could not save the decline. He said, "As a team game we gladly accepted. ”
"There were some accidents in the middle, but overall it was a good performance!"
This is the second time he has "accepted the result" at this Winter Olympics, the last time when he missed the title of men's 500m short track speed skating title four days ago.
Just like the last time, Wu Dajing in the TV camera, with regret visible to the naked eye, turned away lonely.
On the night of the 5000-meter final, Wu Dajing posted an open letter on Weibo, in addition to thanking the country for its cultivation, teammates and relatives for their support, he also thanked the short track speed skating of "accompanying each other for twenty years" and bringing him the texture of life. In the letter, he admitted that he had considered retiring after the Beijing Winter Olympics, but the moment he stood on the field, he found himself reluctant to say goodbye. "As long as the country needs it, as long as my body allows, I will always stand on the ice rink." Never admit it. ”
He is probably one of the athletes who has stimulated the most "heartache" emotions in this Winter Olympics. In the past few days, the hot search keywords about him are: Wu Dajing tried his best, Wu Dajing fell off the track, Wu Dajing cried and said that his dream was fulfilled, Wu Dajing cried, was completely broken by Wu Dajing's comment area, and was distressed by Wu Dajing...
The first upsurge occurred on February 5. That night, in the short track speed skating mixed team relay final, the Chinese team composed of Wu Dajing and others took the lead in crossing the finish line and won the first gold medal of the Chinese sports delegation at the Winter Olympics. In an interview after the game, Wu Dajing choked up: "This game is also very relieved." There's been so much going on in those four years. On the first day of today, the dream came true. "Finished speaking, covered your face and wept.
Sport is a peacetime war where people worship the strong. Four years ago, when Wu Dajing won the only gold medal of the Chinese delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics, he was saddled with the most expectations and the greatest pressure. Wang Meng, a former member of the Chinese short track speed skating team, said in the commentary of the event: "In the past four years, no one knows what he has experienced. She called Wu Dajing the flag of China's ice and snow, "as long as he stands there, everyone will chase after him, and there will always be a run." ”
On February 13, an accident occurred on this ice and snow flag. In the men's 500m semi-finals of short track speed skating, with a difference of 0.016 seconds, Wu Dajing failed to reach the Final of Group A and missed the medal - folding on the best event, like a malicious prank by fate.
It was a game that made the audience sigh, and the complicated mood was mixed with heartache and regret. On the field, South Korea's Huang Daxian collided with Canada's player, and when he fell, he raised his ice knife, followed by Wu Dajing. He only reached the Group B finals.
Short-track speed skating and collisions have always been easy to get out unexpectedly, often creating tragic heroes. But this time, Wu Dajing did not collide, but he was out of the game, and the taste was probably difficult to describe in words. In front of the camera, he just decently said: "Whether this game is good or bad has passed, no matter what kind of result has passed", he "accepts this result".
"Whether it's good or bad, it's over, accept regret."
Wu Dajing is the first Chinese man to speed skate in short track. Zhu Xuesong, director of the Jilin Provincial Ice Sports Management Center, who was once Wu Dajing's coach, said that Wu Dajing's "talent" is not physical fitness, but in the mind. In an interview with People magazine, Zhu Xuesong said: "You can't teach a person how to skate with language, compared to the feelings of the body, the language is very shallow. I can explain to you in all kinds of language how to skate the fastest, but only a child with a strong thinking ability like Dajing can realize the ultimate Path. ”
But Wu Dajing was not a genius. The labels attached to him are "desperate" and "veteran". Perhaps because of this, the audience applauded his efforts to turn the tide and regretted his final inability to return to heaven.
His story from childhood to adulthood has been cherished by the media: the first time on the ice rink, he fell down 107 times outdoors at more than minus 30 degrees; his parents specially bought large ice knife shoes for him in order to save money, and the shoes after that were eliminated by other children; breaking into the national team, he could only give the female team members sparring, "long distance Zhou Yang sister over me, short distance Fan Ke new me", he described in detail to the media, Zhou Yang every time he surpassed him, he had to look at him, there was contempt in his eyes, "I want to beat her in my heart." He once described the state of mind during that period in CCTV's "Face to Face", "collapse every day, collapse every day", "That time was too difficult, others were 24 hours a day, I felt that I was 48 hours." ”
Wu Dajing's parents were interviewed
The turning point came in 2012, and after losing the short track speed skating World Cup, Wu Dajing made a training plan for himself for more than a decade. He recorded his training, repeatedly reviewed and pondered the technique, and half a month later, coach Li Yan returned, surprised by his progress, and he began to get more guidance and opportunities.
For example, those poignant stories told from the mouth of her mother, Lu Yuxiang. In the variety show "My Family's That Boy", Lu Yuxiang said: "Although Dajing was born to me, some things seem to matter if we say it, because the state cultivates him." In order not to disturb their son's training, they never took the initiative to call Wu Dajing. After the age of 14, he was no longer with his parents, his mother thought of him, and could only carefully send him a WeChat, guard the mobile phone and wait for him to finish training, and take the initiative to contact his parents.
These bitternesses are only noticed once every four years. In the more than 1,400 days between the Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing, like many athletes, trained silently and persistently, using more than ten hours of sweat every day to exchange for 40 seconds of opportunity to challenge himself on ice.
For athletes, the amount of opportunities is different every four years.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Wu Dajing almost won the short track speed skating men's 500m event. Veteran Victor Ahn (formerly known as Ahn Hyun-so) surpassed Wu Dajing at the last minute. Wu Dajing slapped his head in chagrin, and he later reflected in an interview with Beijing Satellite TV: "Losing is losing in lack of self-confidence, his mentality fluctuates, and his desire for gold medals is not as big as An Xiansu." ”
At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Wu Dajing won the silver medal in the short track speed skating men's 500 meters event
He was 20 years old, and the public may not remember the runner-up — yes, competitive sports are so brutal. But in the sports world, people noticed him and began to look forward to it, 20 years old is so powerful, 28 years old to pay back? Perhaps, in 2018 and 2022, he will be the leader of the short track speed skating track.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, 24-year-old Wu Dajing lived up to expectations and won the championship medal; that year, the WeChat group of the Chinese short track team preparing for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was called "Tiger's Mouth Pulling Teeth", coach Li Yanqi. It was indeed a difficult time to pull teeth, and for 13 consecutive days, the Chinese delegation did not win a single gold medal. In the Olympic Village, the athletes of the Chinese delegation met each other and always cheered for each other, and in Wu Dajing's eyes, refueling was pressure. On the last day of his game, in order not to be disturbed, he simply turned his mobile phone into flight mode, did not look at any external information, and when he met his teammates on the road, he walked with his head down.
Later stories, everyone knows. He rushed forward like crazy, not only winning the championship, but also breaking the world record with a time of 39.584 seconds.
He became the only gold medalist for the Chinese delegation at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Since then, honor and pressure have followed him closely. On the field, he was described as "clean". In life, he always behaved modestly. After returning from the PyeongChang victory, he said to the assistant coach, "If you find that I have changed, or find that I have won the championship, how can I be different from others, tell me and deal with me as soon as possible." "I'm afraid to give me too much credit, I'll have some bloat."
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, 28-year-old Wu Dajing did not make it to the Group A final of the men's 500 meters of short track speed skating, but he is still the world record holder and Olympic record holder. He is still at his peak – two months before the Beijing Winter Olympics, he had just won the gold medal in the men's 500m final at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. In interviews after the 500m final and the 5000m relay final of the Winter Olympics, he showed maturity and restraint. He comforted his teammates who made mistakes and expressed his determination to continue to serve the country in the future, "If my body allows, I will continue to insist, short track speed skating is my career and my last dream." But no one knows whether in four years' time, 32-year-old Wu Dajing will be able to appear in Milan, Italy, and whether he will be able to surpass his 28-year-old self.
Behind the thoughtfulness and steadiness, as a top athlete, Wu Dajing is still eager to win. He said in a post-match interview that what impressed him most about the Winter Olympics was still the moment when the mixed team relay won the championship on the first day, "taking the first gold and giving a sample to the Chinese delegation, which is the most worth showing off." ”
The public's expectations of Wu Dajing are different from those of the young man with the white horse and silver gun, and what they hope to see in him is not the explosive power of youth, but the king, steadily and constantly surpassing, as he did this night - on the unfavorable fifth road, difficult but successful in two consecutive places. It's just that fate is sometimes so elusive that it often requires luck between effort and success. It's a project full of surprises. This night, when the accident really came, everyone was silent.
To some extent, the situation of Wu Dajing in 2022 is somewhat similar to that of Liu Xiang in 2008. It also made great achievements, carried great expectations, and then this expectation fell short to a certain extent. Fortunately, in today's public opinion field, the public has more tolerance and understanding for athletes, which is finally no longer a story of "beautiful people from ancient times like famous generals, not allowed to see white heads in the world".
After the 5,000-meter race, several runners from the champion Canadian team hugged and celebrated, and the camera captured The figure of Wu Dajing streaking behind them - on social media, people speculated about his complicated emotions at that moment. A netizen mentioned a passage written by Keigo Higashino: "The vast majority of players finally dreamed of breaking the field due to poor strength, and many players had enough strength, but they lost because of unexpected fate." At that moment, the expression on their faces seemed to condense the whole life so far. ”
In the shot, Wu Dajing's mouth slammed up hard, the corners of his mouth went down, and then quickly opened his mouth slightly, slowly sliding to the edge of the arena, quietly taking off his shoes, and walking out of the arena tiredly and slowly.
(Source: Tencent News)
* Some images are from the internet