Today, February 20, 2022, the closing day of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In this article, I would like to send a farewell to athletes from all over the world, especially those who did not stand on the podium, but also have a thriving life.
Wen | sleepers
Edited | Golden Stone
「TaoTao，I’m so proud of you！」
This is perhaps the most moving hug on the Olympic field.
On the evening of February 14, in the final round of the freestyle ski women's aerial skills final, China's Xu Mengtao made her penultimate appearance, and she successfully completed the most difficult action for a female athlete - this is the fourth Winter Olympics she participated in, in the previous six Winter Olympics, Chinese women won five silver medals in this event, but whether Xu Mengtao can win this gold medal, the fate is in the hands of the last American athlete Ashley Caldwell . In both the first two rounds of the qualifiers and the final, Caldwell was narrowly ahead of Xu Mengtao.
Caldwell chose a move of the same difficulty as Xu Mengtao, but made a mistake when landing, and finally failed in the last moment of the competition, ranking fourth in the overall result and missing the podium, while Chinese athlete Xu Mengtao won the gold medal and completed a breakthrough in history.
But surprisingly, Caldwell's first reaction, who "lost" the gold medal, was to run to Xu Mengtao, waving his arms and shouting, "TaoTao, Olympic champion!" She hugged the excited Xu Mengtao and shouted with joy on her face: "I'm so proud of you!" You did it！ In your own country！」
The Olympic arena is often considered to be the most brutal arena of competitive sports, but this rare scene of "frustrated" congratulations to the "winner" moved everyone - this is also Caldwell's fourth Winter Olympics, before the Beijing Winter Olympics, she and Xu Mengtao, have never won an Olympic gold medal, they are both fierce rivals and close friends.
Caldwell began practicing gymnastics at the age of 4 and later fell in love with skiing, and at the suggestion of her mother, she combined these two hobbies to embark on a career path of freestyle skiing. At the age of 13, she moved from her hometown of Virginia to upstate New York to begin full-time training.
Winning an Olympic gold medal has always been her dream. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, she finished 10th. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she prepared a super difficult move, but in the last training before the competition, she was accidentally injured by a strong wind, when she fell heavily on the snow and broke the joint between her collarbone and shoulder, but she did not withdraw from the competition and finally finished 17th.
When Caldwell woke up after the accident, the first image that came to her mind was of herself doing aerial maneuvers, and she knew how much she loved skiing, "even if it hurt my heart and my shoulders, I still wanted to do it." Success or failure, it doesn't matter that much, because I really like it."
Later, Caldwell underwent shoulder repair surgery and then stood on the World Cup podium five times, and she had a motto that said, "It's go big or go home," to either get stronger or go home. But it is such a person who also pursues excellence and aspires to Olympic gold medals, after losing the championship by mistake, he takes the initiative to embrace his opponent at the first time and celebrates for his opponent from the heart.
The televised signal transmitted the embrace to many corners of the world, and countless viewers expressed their feelings on different social networks, as one journalist from NBC commented: Their embrace embodies true sportsmanship, sports, and brings people together in a way that is truly united, not political or anything else.
Caldwell, 29, said, "I have a lot of respect for my opponents, and they respect me too." Because only we know how hard this sport is. Ending the game with a hug, I can't think of anything better than that."
Caldwell and Xu Mengtao hugged
Thanks bean bun for letting us see her story
The first thing that Came to the attention of Maltese snowboarder Jenise Spiteri was a bean bag.
On February 9, in the Beijing Winter Olympics snowboarding women's U-shaped track skills qualification, Spitery, who represented Malta, made a mistake on the first slide, scoring only 7.25 points (out of 100 points), and in such a moment of extreme frustration, she actually pulled out a bean bag - since coming to the Olympic Village, she has eaten 6 bean bags a day, two in the morning, two at noon, and two in the evening. On the morning of the official competition, she was too nervous to eat breakfast, so she carried a bean bag in her pocket, at this time, she needed to "come to some sweetness", so she took out the bean bag and ate it, and after eating, she smiled at the camera and gave a thumbs up for the bean bag - after that, netizens affectionately called her "Little Sister Bean Bag".
Janice Spitery eats bean buns between games
Later, everyone found that the experience of this "bean bag sister" was not simple.
Spitery was born in the United States, her mother was a figure skater, her father was a skateboarder, and she was exposed to ice and U-shaped pools since she was a child, but it wasn't until she was 18 years old that she was exposed to snowboarding for the first time. The first time she came into contact with the project, she fell in love with it.
Learning to ski so late, it was almost impossible to represent the United States in the Olympics. At the suggestion of a friend, she decided to compete in points and the World Cup to see if she could represent her grandfather's hometown of Malta.
She's older, has no eye-catching grades, can't find a sponsor, and has to save money — In the past 11 years, Spitery has worked a lot and run dragon sets on the crew. In order to save rent, she basically slept in the car, at the beginning it was a commercial vehicle transformation of the "caravan", no air conditioning, no refrigerator, cold in winter, water is frozen, toothpaste is also frozen. When she sleeps at night, she does not dare to keep warm, but lies in her sleeping bag in her clothes, because she does not want people to find out, after all, for a girl who is only 1 meter 6 tall, it is not safe to live alone in the car. During training, in order to save the cost of the cable car to and from the mountain, she hiked for 1 hour a day and climbed to the U-shaped pool on the hillside to practice.
Six months before the start of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Spitery injured her Achilles tendon and meniscus at the World Cup in New Zealand, and she was injured in the competition but failed to qualify for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. She was 26 years old that year, and soon after, Chloe King, the talented American girl who won the Winter Olympics in that event, was only 17 years old.
After 4 years, Spitery did not give up, and finally, 17 days before the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the 30-year-old qualified for the competition. It was her first Olympic Games, and she was also the first athlete in Malta's history to compete in a snowboarding competition at the Winter Olympics, and in the end, Spitery finished with a qualifying score of 21.
Spitery's version of "One Man's Winter Olympics" touched many people, and in an interview she told her story this way: "When I decided to do this sport, people said you were too old, too poor, and you didn't have the skills, and all the conditions I lacked were very bad for me — poor, I lived in the car, I lived in the mountains. Too old, then I train hard every day. I always believe that all these challenges I face, as long as I am hungry enough to improve, as long as I keep trying, I can achieve my goals."
By the way, there is another important piece of information to add about this "little sister of bean buns" - she prefers to eat hemp dumplings over bean buns, "fried, sesame seeds on the outside, very chewy, inside is bean paste, I can eat 100."
Spitery and her motorhome Image source Spitery social media screenshot
A winter Olympic journey to a tropical country
"Jamaica Four Snow Team" is like a code word for the Winter Olympics.
The story begins in 1988. 34 years ago, Jamaica, the country where "the only place with ice is the refrigerator," formed a snow team to compete in the Olympics. The idea came from Sam Clayton Jr., a track and field athlete who dreamed of sprinting at the Summer Olympics, but was unexpectedly defeated in the trials. He was very reluctant and did not want to wait another four years, saw a ski poster, and came up with a very bold idea - to participate in the Winter Olympics.
How hard is it for athletes from a tropical country to compete in the Winter Olympics? The first is the project, now learning to ski is not realistic, can not find snow, Sam Jr. fancy to the snowmobile project, snowmobile needs explosive power and team cooperation, explosive power he has, the team can be formed now - soon after, two athletes who also lost in the sprint qualifiers, and Jamaica's best cart competition master joined Little Sam's team.
When people are together, training is also a problem. Without a snowmobile, Sam Jr. made it himself, using a trolley around the tin as a snowmobile, and when there was no snow track, he replaced it with a hillside and lawn, and in order to find the feeling of being in the snowmobile, the four of them often shrunk into the bathtub together to simulate snowmobile driving; in order to experience the "cold", they also locked themselves in the cold storage.
In this way, they signed up for the Calgary Winter Olympics. The four-person snowmobile was expensive, starting in hundreds of thousands of euros for a race car, and it wasn't until a week before they qualified that they bought a second-hand race car with funding.
At that Winter Olympics, this "wild" snow team was unsurprisingly in the bottom, in a corner near the end, their car overturned, after the snowmobile stopped, these athletes did not wait for rescue in place, they and coaches, staff, limped to the end of the car.
Source movie "Light Ride on Ice"
In 1993, this true story was adapted into the movie "Light Ride on Ice". There's a line in the movie that goes like this—
"It doesn't matter if they take first or fiftieth, but they have the right to represent their country, they have the right to line up and go into the stadium, which is the greatest glory of every athlete and the spirit of the Olympics."
Winston Watts, a four-man snow team member at the time, said in an interview, "I still watch it a lot now, and I feel the same every time I watch this movie now, I see it the same as the first time I watched it." I know we don't perform well enough, but I don't think we're going to stop. We'll tell the whole world that we still love the sport. And we're here just to show the world: Look, Jamaicans are still alive!"
At this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, Jamaican athletes signed up for three bobsleigh events — the men's four-man bobsleigh, the men's double bobsleigh and the women's single bobsleigh — for the second time in 24 years, with Shanwayne Stephens at the helm. In an interview with the BBC, he said that he was greatly influenced by "Light On Ice", "I loved that movie when I was a child, it taught me never to give up on my dreams." 」
On the morning of February 19, Jamaica finished last after the two-round preliminaries for the men's four-man snowmobile, but that didn't stop them from being the focus of the race – the only regret is that Sam Jr., who led Jamaica to the Winter Olympics for the first time, never saw this scene again, two years ago, on March 31, 2020, when he died of complications from COVID-19 at the age of 58.
Jamaica Four Snow Racing Team Image source Visual China
At the place where the cousin fell, set off again
In the men's single bobsleigh competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 6, the most talked about player was Saba Kumaritashvili from Georgia for the simple reason that he was a brave man.
In 2010, Saba's cousin Nodar Kumaritashvili had an accident during his last training session before the Vancouver Winter Olympics when his sled lost control in the last corner and hit the side wall of the track at a speed of about 143 km/h, killing Nodar at the age of 22.
This is the first death tragedy on the track in the 35 years since bobsleigh entered the Olympic Games.
When the accident happened, just a few hours before the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the track was heavy and silent. At the opening ceremony, Georgian athletes were wrapped in black neck scarves when they entered, and black cloth strips were hung on the national flag, and Jacques Rogge, then president of the International Olympic Committee, burst into tears, and the audience observed a minute of silence, and the Flag of the Olympic Committee was lowered to half-mast in mourning.
Vancouver Winter Olympics opening Georgian athletes admission photo source Visual China
At that tournament, Germany's Felix Locke won the gold medal in the men's singles bobsleigh, and then he melted his gold medal into two and flew to Georgia to give one to Nodal's family.
At the time, Saba was only 10 years old.
In Georgia, the surname "Kumaritashvili" is synonymous with sledding. Saba's great-grandfather brought bobsleigh to Georgia as the country's first bobsleigh instructor, while Saba's father was president of the Georgian Bobsleigh Federation.
"Every generation in our family has at least one bobsledge." Saba sees it as his mission.
Twelve years later, Saba was as old as his cousin Nordar, also 22 years old, and he decided to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics, the same event as his cousin, single sledding.
When he learned that Saba was going to compete, a lot of reporters asked him if the decision was related to Nordal, and Saba said, "This is really one of the important reasons, I want to compete in the Olympic Games, I think about Nodal, I think about him all the time." After Nordal, I don't want the sleigh to die out in Georgia. I want it to go on."
On February 6, Saba completed his last skate at the Winter Olympics, ranking 31st. After the game, he was happy, waving his fists to celebrate, "I've done what I need to do".
On Feb. 7, he posted a photo with his cousin Nordar on social networks, saying nothing and typing only three dots. In that photo, he was still a small child, and Nodar's arm was resting on his shoulder.
Screenshot of Saba and Cousin Nordar (far right) from Saba's social media
One family, two Olympic flag bearers
Four years ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the flag bearer of the Puerto Rican delegation was charles Flaherty, the first athlete of the century to represent Puerto Rico in the Winter Olympics, and four years later, his brother William Flaherty took over the flag in his brother's hands, but their story did not stop there.
When William was 3 years old, he was found to have yellowing of the corners of his eyes and then taken to the hospital, where doctors initially thought it was a liver problem, then suspected leukemia, and was eventually diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistosis (HLH), a rare disease in which the immune system attacks human organs. In William's case, the immune system targeted his liver and bone marrow. Doctors had predicted that he would not live to be 4 years old.
But Neither william's family gave up. After 3 months of treatment, the medical staff suggested that a bone marrow transplant was needed for William's full recovery, and the eligible donor was William's brother Charles, who was less than 8 years old. Charles and William had a good relationship, and despite the pain they endured together in the hospital, Charles could always make William giggle.
After 10 days of transplantation, William could go home, but his immune system was completely out of service. The first thing Charles did every day when he came back from school was to immediately strip naked and jump into the shower, disinfecting everything they touched before giving it to William. Because of the overdose, William's kidneys were severely damaged, he was like a "bubble boy", any slight cold would make him go to the hospital, he also began to loosen his bones, and his teeth began to fall out.
From the time William was 6 years old, the family spent some time in Colorado every year, and it was there that Charles and William fell in love with skiing. Skiing was not only a pleasure for William, but also a means of rehabilitation — he needed to bask in the sun, get some fresh air, enhance his workouts, and skiing was just right.
In 2018, his brother Charles participated in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics image source CCTV "Panoramic Winter Olympics" program screenshot
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, 18-year-old Charles became the only athlete in Puerto Rico to compete, and William was proud of his brother, and they agreed to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics together.
This year, Charles failed to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics because of his participation in a space exploration project, but William came. Over the years, William underwent 75 blood transfusions and more than 20 surgeries, he had surgery to remove a tumor on his right side of the face, the left mandible was hollow, and there were almost no bones to tie his face and teeth together — beijing was his last chance if he wanted to compete in the Olympics, because, after returning from Beijing, he would rebuild his left chin, which would prevent him from participating in any competitive sports.
At the Winter Olympics, the 17-year-old boy competed in the alpine skiing men's slalom and men's giant slalom events, finishing 44th and 40th respectively.
In an interview, William called the pain of growing up a "slight inconvenience." When he finished the race, his mother was waiting for him at the finish line, and the mother and son laughed and teased each other, and the mother described the experience of these years to ESPN, "Our life is like a series of puzzles, there are some incredible tragic moments, but there is also pride and hope." 」 She said she was proud to have children like William and Charles.
Screenshot of CCTV's "Panoramic Winter Olympics" program
That fourth place, is a legend
At this Winter Olympics, an interesting coincidence occurred in the figure skating men's singles and freestyle skiing men's snowboard U-pool track competitions: two athletes who can be called "legends" of these two sports eventually finished fourth – the former is the Japanese athlete Yusuke, and the latter is the American athlete Shaun White.
Long before coming to Beijing, Sean White announced at a press conference, "The Beijing Winter Olympics will be the last competition I will participate in."
On the morning of February 11, the veteran who is about to turn 36, a legend in the snowboarding world, completed the "last jump" of his sports career at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and although there were mistakes in the action, when he walked off the field, the audience applauded thunderously, and most of the athletes who had finished the race were waiting for him on the sidelines to show their respects – after all, many of them began practicing snowboarding because of Sean White.
Born into an ordinary Irish family in California, Sean White was diagnosed with congenital heart malformations shortly after birth, and doctors say his venous blood may be mixed with arterial blood, and the chance of surviving to the age of 20 is only 10%. Before the age of 5, he was twice sent to the operating table for heart surgery.
At the age of 6, he began practicing snowboarding, and when the ski slope did not teach children under the age of 12 to ski, his father taught himself with him, and as a result, he learned much faster than his father. At the age of 13, he became the youngest professional snowboarder in the United States. At the age of 15, he began to sweep U-shaped pool competitions and obstacle course competitions in many events such as summer and winter extreme games (X Games), and won the world championship of all snowboard events except the Winter Olympics.
At the age of 20, Sean White competed in the Olympics for the first time. It was the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and he slid a high score of 46.8 (out of 50) in the first round to win the gold medal. Four years later, at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, he once again scored a high score of 46.8 in the first round, challenging the most difficult action in the history of the snowboard U-pool competition at that time, Double McTwist 1260, to refresh his results and win the gold medal with 48.4 points. Because of his long red hair, he was known as the "flying tomato".
Sean White won the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin from Visual China
In the world of snowboarding, it was the time of Sean White, whose height was the height of the sport, and his opponents said of him: "When he slides to the bottom of the slope, there is no trace of wear, the movement is always clean and clean, the explosive force is perfect, and then the body slides to the top, easily making a move that I can't do in my life." 」
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, everyone expected this "flying tomato" to achieve three consecutive Olympic championships, but he ranked fourth due to his action mistakes. "An era has come to an end." After all, in PyeongChang, 4 years from now, he will turn 32 – "Snowboarding is a stage for young talents, have you seen a couple of old guys in their 30s still fighting for gold and silver?"
But four years later, the soon-to-be 32-year-old Sean White returned. In the final jump of the final, he chose the extremely dangerous move Back to Back 1440 and completed two consecutive victories with a super high score of 97.75 points - in training before the Olympics, he was seriously injured by this action and had 62 stitches in his face.
He became the "Triple Crown" of the Winter Olympics' men's U-shaped track skills, and people came back singing praises about him as an unborn genius and eternal legend in the sport – but coach Bud Keane, who had worked with him for a decade, put it this way: "Mix the talents of Michael Jordan or Rocky with the diligence of Tiger Woods and you get Sean White."
Sean White himself said, "Airport security searched my luggage for Olympic gold medals and a lot of cash, but they couldn't find my bruises."
This year, Shaun White, who is about to turn 36, attended his fifth Winter Olympics and even found it hard to believe, "Sometimes I really want to pinch myself to make sure that at my age, I can still stand on the stage of the Winter Olympics." 」
He once calmly described the picture of his decision to retire: one day on the cable car to train, I looked at the majestic mountain, there was no one around, quiet, the sunset was shooting from afar, it was that moment, I realized - it was time, it was time for me to retire.
But when he finished the final jump in Beijing, he choked up several times and had tears in his eyes. In the post-race mixed zone interview, he cried so much that he couldn't finish the interview, and he had to finish the final interview with tears: "I want to thank everyone who watched the game, thank you, thank you snowboarding, this is the love of my life." 」 After the interview, Sean White turned around and bowed deeply in the direction of the U-shaped pool.
Sean White Image Source Visual China
Once the "youngest",
The current "oldest"
At the women's speed skating 3,000m at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 5, Germany's Claudia Pechstein finished 4 minutes and 17 seconds, more than 20 seconds slower than first place — she is 49 years old, the oldest woman to participate in the Winter Olympics so far.
But 30 years ago, she was the "youngest" – at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and Peschstein was only 20 years old, the youngest player on the German team at the time.
Peschstein's 29-year history of participating in the Winter Olympics can be called a personal growth history of a speed skating legend .
At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, she won the bronze medal in the 5,000m speed skating;
At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, she won two medals, a bronze medal in speed skating in the 3000 meters and a gold medal in speed skating in the 5000 meters;
At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, she won two more medals, a silver medal in 3,000 meters speed skating and a gold medal in speed skating in 5,000 meters, and broke the world record for women's speed skating in 5,000 meters;
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, she won gold medals in the 3,000m speed skating and 5,000m speed skating awards, and broke the Olympic records for both events.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, she was 34 years old and still won two medals, a gold medal in the team pursuit and a silver medal in the 5,000-meter speed skating.
For five consecutive Olympic Games, Peschstein won a total of nine Olympic medals, including five gold medals.
But in 2009, Peschstein suffered "the heaviest blow of her career", when the International Skating Federation (ISU) analyzed the athlete's biological passport and concluded that Pehistein had abnormal levels of reticular cells in her blood, suspecting that she had artificially increased the number of red blood cells to improve speed and endurance, according to German media.
She appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Court, and it was not until early 2010 that an expert report from the German Association of Hematology and Oncology clarified that the abnormal values in Pechtstein's blood were inherited defects from her father.
Because of the suspension, Peschstein missed the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Many people think that she should retire from the army, but Peshstein did not stop, she still participated in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in Sochi, she is 42 years old, and also won the fourth place in the women's 3000 meters speed skating.
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics this year, Peschstein was one of the standard-bearers of the German delegation. On the second day of the opening ceremony, she competed in the women's speed skating 3,000 meters, and finally ranked last out of all 20 participants – it was also in this Olympic Games that Peschstein held the Olympic records for women's speed skating in the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters, which was broken by Dutch athlete Irini Showten. And Irenay was a full 20 years younger than her. At this time, it has been exactly 20 years since she set these two Olympic records.
There was no better legacy, and Peschstein slid her arms high across the finish line, and the audience applauded her – a victory of her own.
Peschstein Image source Visual China
「together」
Before coming to Beijing for the Winter Olympics, Tessa Maud, an 18-year-old American women's snowboarder, had no idea that she would become a star in Beijing.
Tessa's athletic performance is average, she is a fledgling newcomer, but she is a cute little girl who is curious about many things - at the opening ceremony, she used her mobile phone to photograph the interaction with the volunteers, she used her Chinese to say "nihao", and the volunteers shouted to her: "Welcome to China!"
Back at the Olympic Village, she repeatedly watched the video of the opening ceremony, and was very touched when she heard the phrase "Welcome to China", and then she uploaded this video to the short video website, and the next day, countless "Welcome to China" from China burst her comment area.
Before that, she had already recorded her daily life in the Olympic Village with a short video, she would secretly photograph the ice pier in the distance of the training ground, and she would also take photos with the Olympic Rings excitedly like a tourist. Back in the dormitory, in a tone of surprise, he showed everyone the electric mattress in the athlete's room and exclaimed, "very cool."
She has also become a famous eating blogger in the Olympic Village, including diced kung pao chicken, poplar nectar, dried cauliflower, egg fried rice, roast duck, flapjacks, grapes... While eating, pupil earthquakes, often order more, but will not be wasted, can not finish eating and packing away - this Winter Olympics, there are many athletes like Tesa, with a short video, let people in different corners of the world, see an Olympic Games that seems to be around.
The day before leaving the Olympic Village, Tessa, who had packed her bags until she collapsed, said to her phone camera, "I'm leaving tomorrow. Many netizens left messages telling her that she was welcome to come back to China, and some people suggested that if she had the opportunity, she could come to Beijing to eat a more delicious roast duck.
The Olympic Games under the epidemic, whether it is Tokyo or Beijing, have listed "Together" as the new Olympic slogan, and the Olympic Games have never been just a game, a competition, but a grand cultural exchange for all mankind. Every four years, athletes from different countries and races around the world come together to fight, laugh, cry and share the beauty of competition.
And these moments recorded and disseminated by Tessa Maude, daily, trivial, and plain, let us see the specific appearance of "together" - although the virus is raging, there are always some things that belong to all mankind, the relationship between people can really be simple, and the earth is still a village.
Image source Tessa Maude social media screenshot