▲ On February 14, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics freestyle skiing women's aerial skills final, The Chinese team's Xu Mengtao won the championship
In the competition of the world's top players, we can see the best qualities of human beings: tenacity, bravery, fraternity, unity and so on. Behind the competition is actually the people's hearts, the Beijing Winter Olympics are coming to an end, and the joy and bitterness, touching and sighing between them are worth remembering.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Li Nanfei
Photo / Courtesy of Xinhua News Agency
Editor / Xu Mei Chen Yafeng
I am a person who loves to watch competitions, especially during the epidemic, watching competitions has almost become a way to feel that "the world is flat". For example, last year's European Championships and Summer Olympics, this year's Beijing Winter Olympics. At this time, we are already looking forward to this year's World Cup.
The competition is to participate in many countries and have a long schedule. To fully see the collision and exchange between various skin colors, there must be an opportunity to understand other countries. The Olympic Games are a big competition within a big game: the most participating countries and the longest schedule. In this divisive and troubling era, the Olympics can still provide the "we" imagination.
A total of 91 countries and regions participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics, of which Haiti and Saudi Arabia are participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time. In Portugal, the number of contestants sent this time reached the highest number since 1988 - 3! These countries, which have only a few participants, are often the happiest when they enter the opening ceremony, grinning at the camera. Benefiting from the rich communication matrix, the participating teams can be seen by audiences all over the world in the online platform, whether they are alone or in a round.
▲On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. Portuguese delegations entered
I often think of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That summer, Chinese audiences witnessed Bolt easily set a world record with a smile before sprinting; is watching Isinbayeva challenge the world record even after the championship had already been decided; and Phelps set seven world records and won eight gold medals.
Those tears and joy transcend national borders and connect with all people. As an audience, regardless of geography and belief, what you witness at that moment is the speed and height of all mankind, the most intuitive faster, higher and stronger. In the competition of the world's top players, we can see the best qualities of human beings: tenacity, bravery, fraternity, unity and so on. In the Olympic Games, there are naturally mean and dirty, but it is precisely because of the common meanness that nobility is precious.
▲ On February 6, Beijing, the TV broadcast the news screen of the "Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics - Children in the Mountains Singing the Olympic Games". Children from the Fuping Mountains of Hebei Province sing Olympic songs in Greek Photo/Visual China
For the past two weeks, I've watched the Winter Olympics with relish every day. Thanks to the Hosting of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the domestic online platform has bought the broadcast rights to all the events. Following the schedule, you can watch, broadcast and make reservations at will, and the venue also has commentary. In this regard, I learned about many unheard of winter events, such as the ever-changing snowboard obstacle course chase, such as the thrilling alpine skiing super slalom, such as the athletes who fall and fall and have to flip out of the style of ski jumping, such as the steel frame snowmobile that accidentally crashes into a concussion, and the winter biathlon that seems to be a Viking parade in the forest.
Behind the competition is actually the hearts of the people, the Beijing Winter Olympics are coming to an end, and the joy and bitterness, touching and sighing between them are worth recalling-
Matryoshka dolls with a short flowering period
The figure skating women's singles event, which ended on the evening of February 17, was quite dramatic. The Russian-Austrian team failed to take the top three, and the most watched "K treasure" Camilla Vallieva handed over the worst performance of the season in the free skate. She looked flustered and out of control, making several jumps and whirling after landing on the ground. She slipped from first in the short show to fourth in overall scores.
This also means that the figure skating women's singles can hold an award ceremony. The day after the team event was revealed to have tested positive for a drug sample taken by Camilla Vallieva at the end of December last year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the IOC's appeal against the Russian Olympic Committee on the matter, and although the Russian Olympic Committee team won the gold medal with a total score of 74 points, the award ceremony was postponed. The International Olympic Committee issued a statement saying that if Vallieva won the top three in the women's singles competition, the women's singles award ceremony would not be held during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
▲ On February 17, the Figure Skating Women's Singles Free Skating Competition of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee's Kamila Vallieva made a mistake in the competition
K Bao, a 15-year-old talented figure skater, left the Winter Olympic Ice Rink crying after the final. Another crying reluctance to take the stage at the ceremony to award souvenirs was runner-up, 17-year-old Russian sasha (Alexander S. Thompson). Trusova). She cried and shouted offstage: "Everyone has a gold medal, I don't have one." I'm not going to come back to the Olympics. ”
In the three Olympic cycles in which Russia dominated women's figure skating, it is an obvious fact that the Sports Career of Russian women's figure skaters has only one Olympic cycle, and the peak period is only two years. K Bao, who is considered a young genius, and Sasha, who has opened a new era of technical difficulty in women's singles, may not have the next Olympic opportunity.
The camera swept several times to the audience of Zagitova and Medvedeva, the champion and runner-up of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. With her astonishing difficulty, Zagitova broke the record five times and was affectionately called "Acrobatic Baby" by Chinese audiences, and Medvedeva received the nickname "Meva".
Such a scene is inevitably lamentable. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, the men's singles and doubles figure skaters who stood on the podium can still see their figures this year. Yu Sheng, Uno Masami, Jin Boyang, Chen Wei, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, and others have all experienced two or three Olympic cycles. But this decade of Russian women's singles players, all retired after winning gold at the Olympics, have only one Olympic cycle in their sports careers, and the average age of winning gold is not yet 16 years old - 15 years old is the minimum age at which figure skaters can be promoted from the youth group to the adult group.
After the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, South Korean star Kim Yeon-er and Japanese veteran Asada Masayoshi retired, figure skating women's singles bid farewell to the Asian era, and Russian athletes completed the domination of figure skating women's singles with a high degree of difficulty that players from other national and regional associations could not match. Currently, only Russian women can complete the four-week jump on the field. In the case of Sasha, she is not only the first female athlete in the world to jump out of the four-way jump, but also mastered five kinds of four-way jumping, and her killer skill is to arrange five four-way jumps in free skating, which is more difficult than most male players. The continuous accumulation of technical points has caused a gap between the Russian players and other players. In this figure skating team competition, K Bao's single technical score exceeded the total score of many players.
Figure skating women's singles is not Russia's traditional strength. In 2007, after Sochi successfully bid for the Winter Olympics, Russian figure skating coaches began to select materials throughout Russia, often rushing to the cold frontier to select seedlings and forging them with unique training methods. In 2010, Russian girls began to emerge in the figure skating youth category, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia won its first women's singles title.
▲ On February 17, the Figure Skating Women's Singles Free Skating Competition of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee's Anna Serbakova won the women's singles championship
Russian coaches prefer small and young female players, and the famous jump expert Mishen (Pushhenko's coach) once explained that petite, flat girls have the least resistance when they are stuck in the air, and they are also the most able to get high-speed rotation, which is very helpful for completing the four jumps. The difficult jump of the Russian women's singles maximizes the use of the girl's soft body that has not yet developed, supplemented by the minimum age of 15 years old to enter the adult group, reaching the peak of technology in two or three years, that is, completing the domination of this project. K-Po has broken the world record three times since being promoted to the adult category in October 2021.
"Acrobatic baby" Zagitova achieved a Grand Slam a year after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, after which she failed to carry the development barrier and announced her retirement at the age of 17. In order to prolong her sports career, Medvedeva "Meeva", who was dissatisfied with the Olympic silver medal, did not hesitate to leave Russia and switch to the famous Canadian coach Brian Oser. Despite this, the adult Meva has not been able to break through the jump difficulty and has faded from the podium for nearly two seasons.
No matter what method is used to delay development, the peak of figure skating in The Russian women's singles is extremely short-lived, often less than two years. The lament for the Russian female players probably also comes from this, they have obvious talent and exquisite skills, if there is a longer development cycle, they will show a more mature gliding and moving artistic expression, presenting a timeless performance that can be called "work".
But they don't have that chance. Compared with Kim Yeon-na's two Olympic tours and Asada's 11 adult seasons, the Russian girls who have stubble after stubble have peaked their debut and retired after winning the championship. Even if there is no reluctance in the heart, it is forced to give way to younger new players.
"I'm so powerful" Kong Fanying
If you've seen the Alpine Skiing Women's Giant Slalom at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 7, you'll probably be impressed by the commentary: "After this race, we will continue to pay attention to Kong Fanying's Alpine Skiing Women's Super Slalom, Slalom, Downhill, All-Around and Mixed Team Competitions." ”
Eight days later, Kong Fanying achieved the first effective result of a Chinese female athlete in the Olympic downhill event. "I think I'm amazing! I actually slid down! She said to the camera, "I definitely have to participate in the whole project, I am so good!" ”
▲ In the men's alpine skiing competition held on February 7, China's Xu Mingfu successfully completed the race with a time of 1 minute 56.93 seconds, ranking 36, filling the gap of the Chinese legion in the project. This is the first time that a Chinese athlete has taken the track of the Alpine Skiing Event at the Winter Olympics. IOC President Bach also presented Xu Mingfu with a commemorative Olympic watch to cheer him up Photo/Visual China
After the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the State General Administration of Sport announced the "Implementation Outline for the Participation in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics", which clearly put forward the goal of "comprehensive participation, comprehensive breakthrough and comprehensive driving", and comprehensively established teams and participated in all 109 sub-events of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, encouraging the majority of athletes and coaches to play every points race and qualification match with a decisive victory posture.
On January 7 this year, less than a month before the opening of the Winter Olympics, Kong Fanying finished the women's super giant slalom INTERNATIONAL Snow Federation points competition held by Reitlam in Austria, and the points reached the standard and qualified for the women's giant slalom at the Winter Olympics. At this point, the Chinese alpine ski team "unlocked" the winter Olympics alpine skiing competition qualifications, Kong Fanying played in all women's events, Zhang Yangming and Xu Mingfu participated in all the men's events, and the three of them were the athletes with the most participation in the mainland of the Winter Olympics.
Alpine skiing, also known as Alpine skiing, allows athletes to reach the finish line at the top of a snowy mountain and cross obstacles as fast as they can. Due to the extremely fast speed of sliding , sometimes more than 100 km / h , in the event of an accident, it can have a great impact on the body. In this project, which was founded in Switzerland, China is currently at a relatively backward level.
Four years ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Kong Fanying finished 55th in the Big Slalom and failed to finish in the Slalom. It was a snowy quality that was unfamiliar to her, "I hope to return home to have such a venue that will help us train and have a better performance in 2022," she said.
In December 2020, the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing, Beijing, was completed. After training there, Kong Fanying sent a Weibo post: "Yan Que An Zhi Hong Hu Zhi Ya." After that, she competed abroad continuously, and saving enough points to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics became her only goal.
▲ On February 11, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Alpine Skiing Women's Super Giant Slalom Competition, China's Kong Fanying in the competition
On February 17, as the only Asian athlete, Kong Fanying completed the alpine skiing women's all-around event. This is her fifth competition, the third time to set a Chinese team record. Although it has been said that the participation in the whole project and the high concentration of attention on the field are exhausting, on the slopes, Kong Fanying has increased the forward tilt angle several times and dared to slide and dare to rush.
The biggest rival, the deepest friendship
On February 14, in the deciding round of the women's aerial skills final of freestyle skiing, China's Xu Mengtao made her penultimate appearance. After the last round of moves, she was second behind American star Ashley Caldwell.
In the decisive round, Xu Mengtao successfully challenged the most difficult action of women in the world today, and the score temporarily ranked first. Whether it's gold or silver, it depends on Caldwell's final jump.
Caldwell landed on the wrong ground and landed on his back. But she didn't wait for her score, so she rushed to the waiting area to hug Xu Mengtao. With a smile on her face, she shouted to Xu Mengtao: "Taotao, Olympic champion!" (Peach, Olympic champion!) Xu Mengtao hugged Caldwell tightly and cried, and Caldwell gently patted her on the back.
▲ On February 14, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics freestyle skiing women's aerial skills final, The Chinese team's Xu Mengtao won the championship. Xu Mengtao (right) hugs American Ashley Caldwell
They are old acquaintances, and they have all participated in four Olympic Games. Caldwell won gold at the last Olympic Games and also witnessed Xu Mengtao, who was ranked no. 1 in the world at the time, lose the medal due to mistakes. They've been fighting each other for more than a decade, and in this niche global arena, final showdowns often take place between them. Sometimes, they look more like family, belonging to the freestyle skiing family.
A few minutes after the two separated, Xu Mengtao ran to hug Caldwell with tears in his eyes. Caldwell closed his eyes for a few seconds, then exclaimed, "So proud of you!" (So proud of you!) ）”
The scene circulated on social media at home and abroad. People express their inner feelings in different languages, praising this as the most beautiful friendship and love, the true Olympic spirit, sports unite people, and sportsmanship transcends national borders.
"Peach has been working harder than I have." Caldwell, who is three years younger than Xu Mengtao, said, "I have a lot of respect for her. Winning a gold medal in my own country is an incredible achievement and this scene brings me to tears. Of course, there was also the sadness of my mistake in the tears, but it was the worst result I could get, and the best result. ”
Four days ago, Xu Mengtao and Caldwell played in the freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed team competition. Because of a mistake by Jia Zongyang, the Chinese team lost the lead.
Xu Mengtao rushed forward and hugged Jia Zongyang. "I know that no one is more upset than Jia Zongyang at that moment, no one wants to land like that in the final, I hugged him to make him feel a little relieved, he felt bad." She said.
▲ February 10, 2022, Zhangjiakou, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed team competition, Xu Mengtao comforted teammate Jia Zongyang who made a mistake Photo/ Visual China
"Old Fang" and "Big Check"
This is Arianna Fontana's fifth time participating in the Winter Olympics, and she has received one gold and two silver. Specifically, the Italian athlete once competed with Wang Meng, who always called her "Lao Fang" when explaining, and Lao Fang and Zhang Yuting, born in 1999, met in the final. No wonder Wang Meng saw it and said that he also wanted to prepare for the next Winter Olympics - he didn't expect that someone had skated five times and could still get a gold medal.
▲ On February 7, the women's 500m final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Italy's Arianna Fontana (front) rushed to win the championship
On February 7, the flowing and confident Fontana defended her title in the women's 500m final of the short track speed skating event. After winning the championship, she rushed to the sideline to celebrate with her husband, Anthony Lobello Jr., who is also a coach. For Tana, the gold medal proved that she had made the right choice.
▲ On February 7, the women's 500m final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Italy's Ariana Fontana kissed and celebrated with her husband after winning the championship
Fontana has repeatedly revealed that the Italian Ice Association does not support her to compete and does not want her to choose her American husband as a coach. "After winning the championship I saw some Italian Ice Association officials in the corridor, they didn't come over, in fact they would be better off staying away from me." Fontana said in a post-match interview, "I firmly believe that I was right to choose Anthony as my coach years ago and the gold medal proved that this was the best option. ”
Fontana is the athlete who has won the most Olympic medals in short track speed skating, with a total of 11 medals. The 31-year-old, who thought he would win three Olympic games in Turin, Vancouver and Sochi, failed to do so. She thought about retiring, worried that the chances of winning the Olympic gold medal were getting smaller and smaller, "mentally tired, although the body was ready to run again, but the mind was not." ”
But the desire of the heart overwhelms the tiredness. On December 10, 2017, two months before the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Fontana posted a childhood photo on social media. Little Fontana, dressed in a red skating suit, skates, and a fuchsia helmet, set off with a smile. "I still remember that moment, decided to follow my heart and never forgot. Because whenever I was suspected and told I couldn't do it, I thought about that moment. She wrote.
"I don't even know how to describe the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, it was like a highlight of my life." She won her first Olympic gold medal in PyeongChang, where Anthony was her coach at the time.
Anthony is an American short track player who competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He began dating Fontana in 2012, and two years later the two married, and Antoni changed his nationality to represent Italy at the Sochi Winter Olympics. After Retiring, Anthony became Fontana's coach. After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Fontana rested for a year. Because of the contradiction with the Italian Ice Association and the coaching staff of the national team, she moved to Hungary to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In Beijing, asked several times if she would attend the next Winter Olympics in Italy, Fontana made it clear that some things about her and her family had to change and that she didn't want to be in a similar situation again.
Four years later, Fontana was 35 years old, a staggering age in short track speed skating. However, at the Capital Gymnasium on February 16, there was a Canadian athlete charles Hamelin known as "Dacha", who is 36 years old this year. Together with his teammates, he won the men's 5000m relay in short track speed skating.
▲ On February 16, Charles Hamelin of Canada won the men's 5000m relay championship in short track speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics with his teammates Photo/Visual China
Also on this day, in the women's 1500m final, Fontana won silver, Cui Minjing won gold, and Shultin was third. The three female athletes with the strongest short track speed skating in the world in the world have played three finals at the Beijing Winter Olympics and have won three gold medals.
One for each person, congratulations to each other.
▲ On February 16, the women's 1500m final of the short track speed skating event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, champion South Korea's Choi Min-jing (middle), runner-up Italy's Ariana Fontana (right) and runner-up Dutch Suzanne Schultin took a group photo after the competition
People who don't compete are busy exchanging badges
The Japanese television station that came to cover the Winter Olympics posted "No... I'm sorry...". There were too many people knocking on the door to change badges, and they had no badges to exchange.
The exchange of badges is even in the Olympic Games has a tradition of hundreds of years, athletes, staff and spectators from all over the world exchange badges, appreciate the badge design of different countries and regions, strengthen exchanges, and narrow the distance. The original coat of arms consisted of cardboard and ribbons to identify members of various countries, and gradually evolved into a pin-style coat of arms.
Various countries and regions, various events (Winter Olympics, Summer Olympic Games, Championships, etc.), as well as various event stakeholders, have produced their own unique badges. In the exchange, the badges of the previous Olympic Games are the most popular, and the older they are, the more precious they are. The emblems of the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have all appeared in this year's badge exchanges.
▲ On February 5, after the 2022 Winter Olympic Curling Mixed Doubles Round Robin Tournament in Beijing, Chinese players Fan Suyuan (second from left) and Ling Zhi (third from left) presented Olympic commemorative badges to the United States players Christopher Pulis (first from left) and Vicki Pesinger and took a group photo
The most popular badges come from the Japanese media. The emblems of Japanese television mostly use their own anime images: TV Tokyo is Pikachu, Fuji TV is Luffy, TV Asahi is Doraemon, and the badge of the print media "Yomiuri Shimbun" is a lucky cat.
The Olympic Games are not only an exchange between athletes, but also an interaction between volunteers, sponsors, media, broadcasters, etc. from all over the world, and changing badges is the easiest way to communicate. Even if the language is not the same, it only needs to be pointed out and replaced with a badge. The Olympic badges that hung on the straps of their documents seemed to be glittering medals of friendship.
"Come on! Lao Wu! ”
On February 10, in the women's U-shaped field skill final on snowboarding, 24-year-old Chinese player Qiu Leng made his first appearance. After she finished gliding, she opened her hands to the camera, and the palms of each hand read: "Come on"! "Lao Wu"!
Lao Wu is her teammate Wu Shaotong, who made a mistake in the previous day's qualifying round and failed to advance to the final. "We grew up together and I know how hard she worked. I think there's an expression that we're fighting together, so writing 'cheers' to my hands before the game, I don't think I need to deliberately say anything to the other person, we know that it can comfort each other. Qiu Leng said. After the game, she @ Wu Shaotong on Weibo said: "In the future, we will work together! Serious girls are so cool! ”
▲ On February 10, the final of the women's U-shaped field skill of snowboarding at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Qiu Leng, a Chinese player, wrote "Lao Wu Cheer" in his palm to cheer up his teammates Picture/Visual China
Qiu Leng and Lao Wu are one year apart, both from the Harbin Institute of Physical Education, and have participated in international competitions since 2017. Interestingly, Qiu Leng left three photos with the legendary snowboarder Sean White in these international competitions, these three photos, she shared once during the 100-day countdown to the Winter Olympics, and shared again during the game, and her love for idols was overflowing.
This is Qiu Leng's second time participating in the Winter Olympics, and the result of 12th place is already a big breakthrough. Now, she still seems to be looking forward to the future: "Don't be discouraged, go to love, do what you love, and snowboarding has always been a sport I love." 」 "I will definitely participate in and prepare for the third Winter Olympics!" ”
That's how the Ice Boss was made
Seeing Norway leading the medal table, I was a little confused. I watch the Winter Olympics every day, and I don't see a single Norwegian championship game. It turned out that most of their gold medals came from cross-country skiing and biathlon. The first metal of this Winter Olympics was Norwegian's Theresie Joheyug, while another Norwegian female athlete, Matt Olsb Reseland, is the only triple crown winner of the Winter Olympics so far.
▲ On February 5, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics cross-country skiing women's double pursuit (7.5 km traditional technology + 7.5 km free technology) competition, Norway's Theres Johaiyuga won the first gold medal of the Winter Olympics
On the IOC website, cross-country skiing is considered the most endurance-intensive sport in the Olympic Games (summer and winter). Since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, only five events have survived to this day, and cross-country skiing is one of them.
Norway's supremacy in skiing is, of course, first and foremost due to its unique natural environment: the narrow border adjacent to the Arctic Circle is run by the mountains of Scandinavia, and there are many mountainous fields, and half of the country is alpine skiing.
Norwegians describe themselves as "born with skis". Devon Kershaw, a ski world champion who has lived in Norway for many years, once told the media that if the temperature does not drop below minus 15 degrees Celsius, the children spend 80% of the day outside, and they feel that it is "strange to stay in the house".
Meanwhile, there are nearly 12,000 sports clubs in Norway. The clubs are required not to rank children under the age of 12, or even record scores, so that children can fully enjoy the fun of sports rather than compete.
▲ On February 11, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing biathlon women's 7.5 km sprint race, Norwegian Matt Olsb Reseland in the race
From the professional work of national sports organizations to corporate donations, top-down support is an important driving force for the development of sports in Norway. National lottery company Norsk Tipping spends 64 percent (about $400 million) of lottery revenue each year to fund 55 sports federations in Norway, while Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke not only sponsors the national cross-country skiing team, but also asks company employees to take the initiative to participate in sports. If a company employee exercises 10 hours a month, they get a three-day camp trip: training with national team athletes.
Kjell Rokke's explanation for the move is that strengthening exercise can reduce employee sick leave, so the money saved for the company can be used to fund the national team.
Before the Winter Olympics, we fulfilled the promise of "300 million people on ice and snow", and President Bach also praised China for bringing ice and snow sports to a new era. But to catch up with the boss of the Winter Olympics, we also need the efforts of all sectors of society!