The term "flip over and grab the bar" is probably something that few others except veteran gymnastics enthusiasts and professionals can understand what this means, but it has another familiar name - "Mo-style flip".
This action is not only one of the 36 gymnastics moves named after Chinese athletes, but its founder Mo Huilan has won many championships in international gymnastics events with such a "housekeeping skill".
Difficulties abound, never give up
Born in 1979 in Guilin, Guangxi, Mo Huilan was selected for the national gymnastics team at the age of 11 with outstanding talent and unremitting efforts. After several years of hard training, Mo Huilan successfully won five gold medals at the Hiroshima Asian Games and won China's first women's balance beam world championship at the 1995 World Gymnastics Championships.
But who would have thought that such a world champion would almost lose out on the national team that year?
In 1990, Mo Huilan and her twin sister Mo Huifang were recommended by the Guangxi Provincial Gymnastics Team to participate in the training of the national team. But at that time, Mo Huilan was not the one who was favored by everyone, because she developed late and had poor physical fitness, but her sister Mo Huifang, who was known for her bouncing power, was deeply loved by the coach.
Since only 10 young athletes on the training team will eventually be selected for the national team, everyone strives to reach the top 10 in each test. In a test of daily jumping power, Mo Huilan's performance just ranked tenth, and the coach's praise made her see the hope that she could be selected for the national team, and since then, the seed of "entering the national team" has been deeply planted in Mo Huilan's heart.
For an 11-year-old child, the pain of leaving home, the pain of training and the mental blow brought about by the criticism of the coach have caused a huge change in Mo Huilan's personality. Under such pressure, she gradually changed from a lively and cheerful little girl who loved to behave.
But the change in personality doesn't mean she's been knocked down by tremendous pressure. Although the days of training were hard, and the various heavy subjects and the training she did not like were "torturing" her every day, this strong girl did not give up lightly. Despite the bitterness of the process, she always silently guarded the first seed in her heart, quietly waiting for it to grow and sprout.
Thrilling finalists, dream results
The process of entering the national team is not smooth, at the end of the selection conference, the national team finalized and announced the final list of national team, Mo Huilan struggled to find his name in it, but there was only one sister in the list who was one word away from his own name.
Silently guarding finally had to wait until the flowering seeds seemed to be suddenly dug out by roots, Mo Huilan could no longer bear the sadness in her heart and rushed out of the conference room door crying. Fortunately, at this time, a person rushed out and saved this seed to death, that is, the leader at the time, Qian Guidance, who saved Mo Huilan on the grounds that Mo Huilan's physical development was not yet complete and his potential may not be fully developed.
In this way, after some twists and turns, the seed in Mo Huilan's heart finally waited for the day when it broke through the ground and blossomed into a gorgeous flower.
At the 1994 World Gymnastics Championships, Mo Huilan successfully won the gold medal with her standard smooth technical movements and her self-created "Mohs flip". The narrator's "everything in book" in her action evaluation (such as textbook standards) is a huge affirmation of Mo Huilan's gymnastics career of more than ten years.
"Mo-style flip" is also included in the gymnastics group G action (the highest difficulty level in the high and low bars), and its difficulty has made no one dare to try it for many years, and even once it was considered that the action was banned by the INTERNATIONAL Sports Federation due to the high difficulty coefficient. It was not until 19 years later that another gymnast, Yao Jinnan, successfully completed.
Peak frustration, phoenix nirvana
Mo Huilan, who was at the peak of her career, did not expect that the trough of her gymnastics career would come so quickly. At the 1994 Asian Games, Mo Huilan made a mistake on the balance beam he was best at, missing out on the all-around champion. Later, at the 1996 Atlanta competition, Mo Huilan, who was close to a professional gold medal Grand Slam, lost on the balance beam and uneven bars, missing out on the championship.
The stronger Mo Huilan naturally could not accept this reality at first, and the tears became her companion every night. However, even the strongest giants have their own limits, and when Mo Huilan packed up and returned to the training ground, she found that she was still lingering on the previous defeats, coupled with the changes within the gymnastics team, she finally chose to retire.
Retired Mo Huilan returned to his hometown after many years and lived a carefree life, where there was no coach supervision, no harsh training, and everything was so peaceful.
But the stronger Mo Huilan is not satisfied with such a life, just when the American gymnastics team threw an olive branch to her, and she is eager to use knowledge to change the trajectory of her life. After thinking about it for a long time, she finally refused the hiring of a high-paying coach in the United States and decided to enter the journalism department of Chinese Min University to enrich her academic qualities.
In college, Mo Huilan faces new challenges. In the face of peers around her who are completely different from her growth trajectory, Mo Huilan seems to have returned to the time of the national team training, huge pressure and tasks pressed on her, and the weak knowledge base made her tired.
But at this time, as a world champion, Mo Huilan was more calm and composed, and began a new journey. In Mo Huilan's words, the biggest obstacle in the process of reading is that she can't clearly feel her progress and regression as she did when practicing gymnastics, and everything seems to be so quiet. And the only thing she could do was work hard.
Finally, Mo Huilan succeeded in her studies, and successfully signed a contract with Phoenix TV to become a journalist in 2002, creating a new stage for her life.
As a sports journalist, Mo Huilan took the initiative to contact and learn many other sports in order to further improve her professionalism. Racing, golf, tennis... After retiring from the army, Mo Huilan seems to be gradually drifting away from gymnastics, but more and more sports have gradually enriched and expanded her life circle. In addition to work and sports, she also actively participates in public welfare activities and contributes to society.
In the process of exploring life and enriching herself, she also harvested her own love. In the process of practicing racing, Mo Huilan met her husband, who is also a professional racing driver, and in 2014, she owned their love crystal "Little Pudding".
Her efforts and persistence also benefited her in the process of pursuing the beauty of life, and the combination of sportsmanship and cultural accumulation made the world champion finally become an intellectual and elegant celebrity.
Missing the gymnastics all-around champion twenty years ago may be a thorn in Mo Huilan's heart, but now she has a rich circle of life, sports circle and spiritual level, and she has become an all-around champion of life. This strong and brave girl who did not accept defeat also became her own champion after thousands of sails.