On February 16, the last competition day of short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics, two golds were born.
At the quadrennial event, it was not only the champion athletes who brought fire, but Also Wang Meng, who created the "nagging style" commentary, also became the brightest star outside the field.
Wang Meng, 38 years old, retired for 8 years, served as the head of the national coaching team for one season from 2019 to 2020. She has no outstanding appearance, has short hair from the athlete period, and the air becomes dark when she speaks.
The commentary is even more remarkable. At the critical moment, she began to pat the table, pulling her voice to the field to "point fingers": "Steady! Dajing "Slip up! Leave the glue to someone else.".
Wang Meng excitedly "pointed fingers" when explaining
Passionate, this is a sports commentator plus points weapon, this year's short track speed skating commentators Huang Jianxiang and Yu Jia in the main football, basketball explanation have been excited to break the sound. But Wang Meng has gone beyond that – she is not in accordance with the rules, professional and confident, and dominates everything.
Before the results of the 2000-meter mixed relay were announced, she was the first to announce: "My eyes are the ruler." I tell you guys you definitely won. When Li Wenlong fell in the semi-final relay and everyone fell into depression, only she boosted morale: "Don't worry, there will be a penalty for kicking the knife." Even Huang Jianxiang next to him said: "Several times you have made a judgment before the referee, I will pinch the sweat for you, if not, you will jump into the pit yourself." ”
Wang Meng shouted in the live broadcast room: "My eyes are rulers, I tell you!" Definitely won! ”
It was as if she had never learned to leave room for herself. When he was an athlete, Wang Meng was known for his distinctive personality, openly choking the head coach and dissatisfied with the referee.D. When Turin won the first Olympic gold medal, before the Italian-speaking host announced who was the champion, Wang Meng jumped on the podium and waved to the audience.
From the ice rink to the commentary room, Wang Meng is so dragged, what qualifications does she have?
She has a big grin on her face, and she does things like the legendary battle of her backhand sliding to win the championship, looking effortless. But behind the talent, she loves to think about everything related to the ice rink:
When she was a team member, others spent 10 minutes sharpening ice knives, and she spent 1 hour a day to become an equipment expert in the team;
After retiring from the army, she observed the system and problems of short track speed skating and proposed to the IOC;
Later, as a coach, she did not bring an interpreter in the Netherlands, and consulted the referee for 2 hours on the "kick knife rules".
At least 9 years have passed since the "Mao Era", and Wang Meng, who is active in the public eye, reminds people that she is still in the ice rink and has never left.
Wang Meng, who was full of spirit during the athlete period (Source: Visual China)
Genius
The record set by Wang Meng has pulled the peak of the short track speed skating to a height that no woman has yet surpassed. Some ice fans summed up Wang Meng's achievements at his peak in his twenties:
"Four gold medals were won in two Winter Olympics;
Seven times broke the women's 500m world record;
In 2008, he broke the world record he set three times in an hour and a half;
Women's 500m skates into 43 seconds first person"
Wang Meng is naturally a sports genius. Before entering the sports school at the age of 10 to practice short track speed skating, she practiced table tennis and was praised for her talent. Ma Qingzhong, an enlightenment coach, commented that she can win the world championship no matter what she does - "comprehensive (quality) is not only her explosiveness and fast skating, but also her stubborn and unwilling to lose personality and understanding of the coach's intentions and other comprehensive qualities."
Such talent, Wang Meng just entered the national team coach Xin Qingshan believes, by a "sense of ice" left. Her skating posture is not good, shaky, and looks arbitrary, but it has a great sense of ice. Later, this feature was embodied: she can pedal ice at the most suitable angle, not light or heavy, and save effort, and she can slide farther than others when she pedals ice once.
Wang Meng's "ice feeling" is excellent, and he has a super talent
Wang Meng said in the program that his talent is reflected in the "joint", whether it is the ankle joint, knee joint, hip joint, the support ability is very strong, so the movement is flexible. At the same time, the waist is thick and straight - "strong core strength".
Starting with winning the gold medal in the 500 meters at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, short track speed skating entered the Wang Mao era. In this sport that emphasizes "cornering" and transcendence, the above abilities make her invincible.
The short track of 111.12 meters has two long bends, and whenever a bend is made, the runner needs to crouch down, touch the ice on his side, and slow down to prevent slipping by mistake. But Wang Meng hardly will.
Her ice fans have a unanimous observation: "Wang Meng often does not have to touch the ice with his hands when crossing the bend." With her physical strength and the balance of her legs, she pressed the innermost channel and floated all the way through with strong control of the field.
Wang Meng did not have to touch the ice with his hands, and crossed the curve with his back hand
One statement has been recognized by the industry: as long as Wang Meng starts smoothly, the 500-meter championship has basically been pocketed.
This is indeed the case. With the exception of one fall at the start of a bulgarian race, she won the women's 500m gold medal in almost all of the world's major competitions for the next four years. In 2008, at the World Championships held in South Korea, Wang Meng alone won the 500 meters, 1000 meters, 1500 meters triathlon and an all-around gold medal.
She has become the "big devil" of the short track speed skating world, and she is only a few Olympic gold medals away.
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, China's two major gold points failed to rush gold, and the pressure fell on the short track speed skating team. Wang Meng took the lead and defended the women's 500m event. The episode at the time proved her absolute superiority in the project: with two laps left in the 500m final, she was a long way ahead of second place, but she slipped too fast and hit the soles of her feet.
Coach Li Yan hurriedly used gestures to draw on the side, which means that it is better to slide slower and stabilize.
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Short Track Speed Skating Women's 500m Final, Wang Meng Competition (Source: Visual China)
After winning two gold medals, she suffered from a severe cold during the Olympics and had difficulty training. The competition has strict control over antibiotics and other drugs, and Wang Meng, who coughs and coughs until he vomits, can only hang a little drip and drink chicken soup cooked by the team doctor.
There is one women's 1000m left. She said to the coach: "If not, I will let Zhou Yang pass me." I can't slide. ”
But after the start of the 1000m final, Wang Meng insisted on skating in the front. Even when she was blocked by South Korean team member Park Seung-ji with her hand outstretched hand, she still steadily surpassed in the outer lane and won the championship by a slight advantage. She later recalled: "When I held my coach [after winning the championship], I felt like I was out of breath and couldn't breathe at all. ”
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the short track speed skating women's 1000m final, Wang Meng was unwell and interfered with by South Korean players in the competition, but still steadily surpassed the championship
Men's short track speed skater Apollo commented before the game, "Despite the poor physical condition, Wang Meng can make up for it through other links, which is her most terrifying place."
Sharp edges on ice knives
Standing among the many halo-blessed Olympic champions, Wang Meng was a bit maverick.
She is an athlete trained under the traditional path of China – training in the dark in the ice and snow of Heilongjiang, eating group meals, and working hard to change her destiny. But on the other hand, the self-confidence and sharpness of Wang Meng's body are somewhat in contrast to the children who have been educated hard and low-key since childhood.
Few Chinese athletes are like her, cutting through the camera: "With the competition I participate in, they just need to compete for second." 」 When they finish second, they can celebrate like champions. Because in this life, they can only take the second. ”
Wang Meng: I don't allow others to slip in front of me
It is difficult to trace the origin of the formation of personality. But when she came along with her favorite short track speed skating event, the stinging of her head couldn't help but rise.
At the 10th National Games in 2005, Wang Meng participated in the 500-meter race with the hope of winning gold. Before she could reach the finish line, she was sent off by the referee. Wang Meng, who was angry, ran to the technical representative theory, did not fight for the result, and threw the ice knife and helmet on the spot.
Later, in an interview, she explained that she wanted to tell the referee: "In the future, when you judge me Wang Meng, you have to look at the point, but when the sentence is not judged, it is not possible to judge me casually." ”
This momentum seems to be unique to her, in the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics women's 3000m relay, the Chinese team was dissatisfied with the penalty, Wang Meng ran to repeatedly theorize with the referee: "I just want to tell others that the Chinese team is not easy to mess with." ”
When the Vancouver Winter Olympics rose to fame, she revealed that Turin's experience gave her a mission: "Didn't the referee judge me? I let you not keep up with me, let you which country, even the shadow of my ass can not see, I see how your referee sentenced me? At that time, she secretly decided that the Korean team had six gold medals in Turin, three for men and three for men and women, and in four years, the Chinese team would win all the gold medals for women.
Wang Meng set himself a goal to win all the gold medals
Former coach Xin Qingshan said that Wang Meng's head is very smart, "as long as I recognize that thing, I will come, and if I don't recognize that thing, I will not recognize it." This makes her a rare athlete.
Teammate Zhang Hui (Vancouver Winter Olympics 3000m relay champion) remembers that in addition to training, Wang Meng spends a long time sharpening his knife every day, and his research on ice knives exceeds that of ordinary team members. "We sharpen the knife only as a part of the daily life, and we basically don't study the data after grinding. But she was the only one who had to conduct a comprehensive screening and examination of the knife. ”
The meticulous daily work allowed Wang to gradually find the most suitable 17.25-centimeter ice knife for herself – a size she pioneered. In the past, as with contact lenses, the normal scale of ice blades increased by 0.5, with 17 cm and 17.5 cm being the choice of most female athletes. Grinding and grinding, she became the equipment master of teammates Zhou Yang, Li Jianrou and others.
After the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 26-year-old Wang Meng continued a new Olympic cycle, and relay teammates Zhang Hui and Sun Linlin chose to retire.
CCTV commentator Liu Xingyu later asked her, why didn't she think of retreating like Zhang Hui? Wang Meng replied: "If I can still stand on the ice rink at the age of 40, I will feel very happy." There is no need to prove through athletic performance how many medals and gold medals we can still win. ”
What is even more valuable is that in the face of adversity, Wang Meng's love and tenacity for short track speed skating have not diminished at all. In 2012, she was sent to Heilongjiang Province to train in Canada , where she was banned for two years for a 2011 clash with team leader Wang Chunlu in Lijiang.
In 2011, Wang was banned for clashing with team leader Wang Chunlu in Lijiang
A whiteboard hanging in the provincial training room reads her almost masochistic training plan:
Girls practice core strength, and the weight of different instruments is 70, 80, 85, and 90 respectively. MENG refers specifically to Wang Meng, listed separately, corresponding to the weight of 85, 100, 110, 120.
American short track speed skater Catherine said of Wang Meng: "As girls, we don't want to hear people say ' I'm sorry I didn't mean to stand in your way'. This is the reason why I respect Wang Meng so much, she is desperate to fight for victory. ”
In March 2013, Wang Meng returned to the World Championships and won four gold medals in one fell swoop. The official website of the World Championships wrote for her: "There is no doubt that Wang Meng is the most successful short track speed skater of all time... It was all created shortly after a comeback of two and a half years away from the game, strange, really strange. ”
Stand on the ice rink
Buddha has a magic coincidence, every time on the eve of the Olympic Games, the Chinese short track speed skating team will lose a major general. Liu Qiuhong in 2010, Zang Yize in 2018, Han Tianyu in 2022.
Wang Meng fell behind on January 16, 2014, when he was trained in the team , a week away from Sochi , Russia.
She once described the experience lightly: after being knocked out of the track by the male team, her body turned around, her feet remained on the ice, and then she was carried to a stretcher, and her shoes could not be taken off; after the temporary plaster cast was applied, the whole audience was confused, "I can't see my ankles"; then sent to take a film, people have not yet come down from the CT machine, there is already crying outside.
The results showed that Wang Meng had fractures of his ankle bones on both sides.
On the eve of the opening of Sochi, Russia, Wang Meng was injured during training in the team, fractured his ankles on both sides, and regretted missing the game
After rubbing shoulders with the Olympics, the 30-year-old Wang Meng slowly faded out of the arena. She once said with tears in her eyes: "In the team test match before Sochi, I skated a world record in the 1,000 meters. But this record was skated by South Korea's Shen Shixi in Calgary, Canada, which is a highland ice rink, and the result on the plain ice rink is very fast. If I slipped out of Sochi, no one, no one would surpass. ”
The regrets and pains of that year, now she rarely recalls to the public - "not that she does not want to say, but does not want to rely on these to win everyone's sympathy and attention."
Since 2016, she has been active in promoting ice and snow events, happily participating in many sports variety shows. She even participated in the comedian conference, learned to talk about crosstalk, and from then on "never listened to Yue Yunpeng again, and put her own crosstalk in her headphones." ”
In an interview, someone pointed out that Wang Meng was still reluctant to retire. She denied it, saying it was just a pity.
But Wang Meng went on to say: "After the athlete's career is over, you must stand on the ice rink, no matter what kind of identity. Stand on the ice rink and let the whole world see that we are still in the short track speed skating world. ”
At the end of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic cycle, Wang Meng was hired as the head coach of the Chinese speed skating team in May 2018 and became the head coach of the speed skating and short track speed skating national training team in 2019.
From the player to the coach, she said to the outside world with great enthusiasm that she wanted to set up a "death squad". The coaching philosophy is "strict", "torturing them endlessly, and every day makes them feel challenged to their limits".
She also introduced a large number of international talents. Kim Sun-tae, a South Korean who twice coached in Changchun and discovered famous players such as Zhou Yang and Han Tianyu, was invited back to China by her again to become a member of the national coaching team. Ahn Hyun-so, a world star who has never had coaching experience before, was also persuaded to transfer to the Chinese coaching team. According to media reports, Wang Meng's footprints have spread all over the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and other places, "what I want to do is to bring in the most useful talents and complete the goal together."
Wang Meng hugged and encouraged the team members when coaching (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Like when he was studying ice knives, Wang Meng led the team to expand his thinking and learn from other projects. "We're still studying Su Bingtian, like how did his explosive power come from?" Is athletics and skating related? It is really helpful to study it. ”
In 2020, Wang Meng, who coached for one season, stepped down. The head coach was replaced by Kim Sun-tae, who led the Korean team to gold.
In the latest interview, she said she is running a sports MCN agency that recruits only athletes and provides employment for retired athletes.
In another six months, the "immersive" commentary competition caught up with the era of short videos, allowing Wang Meng to turn the fire again. Many spectators used her as a connection to the arena, feeling her love, and asking her while playing: "Why is short track like this?" ”
In eight years, Wang Meng's small hand was on his back, bringing short track speed skating into the field of vision of more people.
Wang Meng as torchbearer for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics (Source: China News Service)
Four years ago, she explained her reasons for actively promoting ice and snow projects, "I want short track to be more than just a team that is hot every four years. In addition to once every four years, there is a constant heat."
Now, she was closer to the wish she had made.
Author | South Wind Window reporter Zhu Qiuyu
Edit | Pan-fried
Typography | Xiwen