Four dynasties of elders, one dynasty to realize the dream. Xu Mengtao's gold medal. It is forged by hard work and faith.
Text/ Wang ShiDong
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Xu Mengtao, freestyle skiing women's aerial skills gold medal!
On the evening of February 14, Beijing time, in the final of the freestyle ski women's aerial skills, Xu Mengtao, the elder of the Four Dynasties, went out again. In the first round of performance, Xu Mengtao, who appeared in the 10th place, won the second place with a high score of 103.89, second only to the American Ashley 0.03 points.
In the second round, Xu Mengtao, who had already advanced to the final round, chose to save his strength and did not play. At the same time, China's Kong Fanyu also successfully met the final of the DivisionAlcient University with a score of 102.71.
In the finals, Belarusian athlete Khushkova scored a super high of 107.95 points, putting great pressure on the players who followed. Australia's Laura and Kong Fanyu have lost one after another.
Xu Mengtao resisted the pressure, held his breath, jumped, and landed! "Xu Mengtao stood still, she has done her best, the persistence of the four Olympic Games, she has never stopped the desire for victory."
With 108.61 points, in first place, she is one step closer to her dream!
Xu Mengtao, the elder of the Four Dynasties, finally won her first Olympic gold medal.
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, every Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao has tried her best, but always missed the gold medal.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao won the Olympic gold medal of his dreams!
01
Effort, sickness and struggle
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Han Xiaopeng won the men's freestyle skiing aerial skills competition, becoming China's first winter Olympic champion in snow sports. Since then, freestyle skiing aerial skills have become one of the important gold-winning teams of the Chinese sports delegation.
Xu Mengtao, as a rising star, has perfectly inherited the glory of the project, but as a national champion, 27 World Cup champions, and Olympic silver medalists, she has not won the coveted Olympic gold medal.
All along, "winning with difficult moves" has been the magic weapon for Xu Mengtao's excellent results in competitions.
Dustin Wilson, the head coach of the Chinese team's aerial skills, said that she will make the history of the sport, in fact, she has made history, and she has come up with the difficulty of the movements of male athletes in the women's event.
Through such a "desperate" way of playing, Xu Mengtao created history and brought many achievements to the Chinese team. But at the same time, she also left countless injuries to her body: rupture of the anterior crossbel of the knee, sprain of the medial collateral ligament, deformation of the posterior angle of the medial meniscus, multiple bone contusions, joint effusions...
In an interview with CCTV, the makeup artist modeled Xu Mengtao, who "never wears makeup", and when it came to the operation, she whispered "He set the time for me to take the nails", and the makeup artist asked: "Where are the nails?" Xu Mengtao said two words lightly - in the legs.
Twelve years of journey, Xu Mengtao thought about retiring: her parents are getting older, she also missed many days with them because of competition and training; she is full of injuries and is no longer at the best age of professional athletes.
Xu Mengtao's mother, Wang Fengli, said: "After encountering so many injuries and so many setbacks, she never bowed to difficulties and always maintained a sunny and positive attitude."
Xu Xuejun, the father, said, "She hasn't spent the New Year at home for twenty years."
She could not accompany her parents for a long time, so she could only send money to her family to "let them buy something they wanted", speaking of this, Xu Mengtao smiled a little helplessly, after all, outside the arena, she can do very limited.
At the last PyeongChang Winter Olympics, she bravely prepared to challenge the difficult three-week platform action, but in the end she failed and fell heavily on the snow.
After the game, she did not want to leave the field for a long time. For three days, Xu Mengtao locked herself in her dormitory and did not even go to dinner. After Pyeongchang, she revealed her decision to retire in her WeChat circle of friends.
But in the end, Xu Mengtao did not leave, she chose to continue to stand on the field, relying on her persistence in her dreams and her desire for victory.
In a long conversation with her parents, she cried and said, "I've been holding out for so many years and there's no turning back." The Chinese women's freestyle aerial team has never won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, and I want to make this history."
At the home of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao, who did not accept defeat, is ready to try again!
02
The mutual achievement of gymnastics and skiing
In the careers of many athletes, they have the experience of switching projects. The same is true of Xu Mengtao, who first came into contact with sports, not mainly focusing on skiing, but practicing gymnastics. He began training at the age of 4 and was selected for the Liaoning Provincial Gymnastics Provincial Team at the age of 8.
Her childhood gymnastics coach Zhang Liping commented on her: "Tao Tao is the hardest one in training, and among the same batch of children, she is also the one who understands my training ideas the fastest."
"Children are very naughty when they are young, and many children are not particularly obedient. But Peach is different, she will do whatever I say, and she will never back down because of the hard work of training. At the time, I thought this kid was a piece of material and would definitely be a great athlete in time."
Hard work, sensible, able to bear hardships, high understanding, coupled with excellent physical talent, Xu Mengtao was born to be a seedling of an excellent athlete.
In 2002, although it had achieved a good result of 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze at the Provincial Games, with the growth of height, the advantage of practicing gymnastics in more than 1.60 meters was not great.
After much thought about it, in August of the same year, Xu Mengtao studied with Chen Hongbin, a freestyle ski instructor at Shenyang Sports College, and began training in the freestyle skiing project, which lasted for 20 years this year.
Due to Xu Mengtao's excellent physical talent and gymnastics foundation, from the moment she entered the team, she became the object of key training. Between the real contact projects, Chen Hongbin showed "Little Peach" a video of the freestyle skiing aerial skills competition.
With the humor unique to Northeasterners, "Little Peach" is a sentence "Old and dangerous!" Coach Chen Hongbin was amused. However, Xu Mengtao then said to the coach: "Any project is dangerous, practice must be practiced well, coach you can rest assured, I will definitely win glory for the country!" 」
Speaking of the promise, Xu Mengtao will definitely find a way to do his best to achieve it.
In 2006, the Turin Winter Olympics. Han Xiaopeng won gold at the Olympics and became the first person in China to win a gold medal on the snow. At the same time, Xu Mengtao became the national champion. In the National Freestyle Ski Aerial Skills Championships, she won the first place in the individual and the second place in the team.
Many of Xu Mengtao's life events occurred in the year of the Winter Olympics. Long before becoming on the stage of the Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao had a wonderful fate with this ice and snow event.
2010, Vancouver Winter Olympics. Xu Mengtao became one of the members of the Chinese team's Winter Olympic team and participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time.
2014, Sochi Winter Olympics. In the women's final of freestyle skiing aerial skills, Xu Mengtao won the silver medal with a score of 83.50 points.
In 2018, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Challenged difficult moves to make mistakes, but regretted missing medals because of mistakes, and she added new injuries. New injuries and old pains coupled with the defeat of the Winter Olympics, she wanted to retire several times, so she gave up the dream of competing for gold.
Before the Pyeongchang competition, Xu Mengtao put down his words: "On February 16, 2018, I retired from playing without winning the first gold medal for the Chinese delegation today."
2022, Beijing Winter Olympics. Xu Mengtao "reneged on her promise", and she did not retire because of a defeat. Fortunately, she appeared on the field of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the team event on February 10, the Chinese team missed the gold medal due to Jia Zongyang's mistake on landing. Jia Zongyang was in pain because of remorse and self-blame, and Xu Mengtao hurried over to give him a hug. Perhaps feeling empathy and knowing the taste of "regret", Xu Mengtao took on the responsibility of comforting her teammates.
Compared with four years ago, Xu Mengtao has become more mature and strong, and the "Elder of the Four Dynasties" has to carry the beam of the Chinese team.
Twenty-eight years of sports career, twenty years of professional sports career, in 2022 Beijing, she finally realized her dream at the age of thirty-two.
From now on, she is the Olympic champion Xu Mengtao.
Note: Article references
1. "Xu Mengtao, the elder of the Four Dynasties", there is still a chance to win gold in the Olympics! " , Beiguang People Weekly
2. "The smiling Xu Mengtao returns to the world number one, with her scarred legs", the surging news
3. "Xu Mengtao Ice and Snow Dream Chaser", People's Consultation