The so-called beauty is the moment when the stars flash, and two different eras suddenly meet across the distance of the years. Beauty is the abolition of chronicles, a confrontation with time.
February 20, 2022, the closing day of the Beijing Winter Olympics. With this article, I would like to bid farewell to the veterans of the Winter Olympics from all over the world, especially those who have not stood on the podium but also have a vigorous life...
According to statistics, as of February 18, a total of 2898 players from various countries participated in the competition.
The youngest is 15-year-old Russian freestyle skier Alexandra Grazkova (born 15/3/2006); the oldest is German speed skater Claudia Pechtstein (born 22/22/1972) who is about to celebrate her 50th birthday.
In this Winter Olympics, 70% of the players between the ages of 21 and 30, while there are only 26 players over the age of 40...
49 years old / Claudia Peschstein
After appearing in the speed skating women's 3,000m final on February 5, Peshstein, the 49-year-old, the oldest athlete in beijing, became the most frequently participated in the Winter Olympics, and she has participated in eight Winter Olympics like Legendary Japanese skier Norimitsu Kasai.
Peschstein first competed in the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, in 1992. The 49-year-old, who served as the flag bearer of the German team at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, has won nine Olympic medals, including five, in her long and controversial career — in 2009, Peschstein was banned for two years for failing a doping test, but she has denied taking performance-enhancing drugs, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld a two-year ban.
In the final on February 5, Peshstein finished last, but she still smiled and raised her fists to celebrate – Pehistein stood on the same line as China's 22-year-old Adaq, a pair of athletes with a 27-year-old age difference, symbolizing spiritual inheritance.
47 years old / Tog Nergau
Norwegian curler Tog Nerggaard, 47, the oldest male athlete at the Beijing Winter Olympics, was born on December 12, 1974, for his sixth time.
Torg Nergau first competed in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, when he won a gold medal for Norway with his teammates, and at the Beijing Winter Olympics he and the son of the champion teammate at the time, Monus Vogberg, played for Norway again, and although he ultimately missed the final four, participation was more important to experience, "I always want to be able to have fun, I think that's the most important thing." ”
47 years old / Jennifer Jones
After winning the women's curling title at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, 47-year-old Canada's Jennifer Jones returned to the Winter Olympics for the first time in eight years. "Hopefully I can do my best on the track and be on the podium. It's obviously a big challenge, but I'm going to give it my all and enjoy the game. ”
Jennifer Jones is also the first female captain in Canadian history to participate in the Winter Olympics twice, and the first female curler in the history of the Winter Olympics to win the championship. Captain and fourth baseman, Jones is a legend of Canadian women's curling, leading Canada to multiple world championships. In his nearly 30-year career, Jones has played at the Scottish Hearts Tournament 14 times, reached the podium six times and won two World Championships.
In the Beijing Winter Olympic Round Robin, Canada and the final champion of the British team, the runner-up Team of Japan have the same record, the relationship between winning and losing forms a series of sets, and finally regrettably missed the final four in the curling basic skill examination that compares the throwing deviation value, and Jennifer Jones also did not have the opportunity to stand on the podium again in the Beijing Winter Olympics...
46 years old / Jacqueline Mouran
On February 10, 46-year-old Brazilian Jacqueline Moran completed the women's 10 km (traditional technique) of cross-country skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics with a score of 82, making her one of the few athletes to have participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Jacqueline Mouran is also the first Brazilian athlete in history to participate in eight Olympic Games: she has previously represented Brazil as a mountain biker at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Beijing and Tokyo, and as a cross-country skier in Turin, Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing.
She has seen the beauty of winter and summer in the "City of The Two Olympics", "Just like last time, China has made great preparations for the Olympic Games, the competition area here is beautiful, the event organization is well organized, the facilities of the Olympic Village are also very complete, and it is amazing to be able to come to China again to compete!" ”
"I'm 46 years old, and I've achieved the best results of my sporting career and it feels like everything is going in the opposite direction." Jacqueline Mouran said she also aimed for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, "I love sport, it has become a way of life for me. I don't know why, the flame in my heart is still burning, I am still very eager to participate in the Olympics. ”
41 years old / Brad Gough
After 16 years of fighting in the Winter Olympics, the 41-year-old Canadian star Gu Xiu once again took the podium. On the afternoon of the 18th, the Canadian team led by Turin Winter Olympic champion Gu Xiu defeated the defending champion United States 8-5 and won the bronze medal in men's curling at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
18 years old contact curling, 25 years old for the first time to participate in the Winter Olympics gold medal, become a legend; because the Canadian curling talent, in Canada to qualify for the Winter Olympics as difficult as the Chinese table tennis players to qualify for the Summer Olympics, Gu Xiu a 16 years apart, 41 years old to fight the Winter Olympics to win the bronze medal, continue the legend.
Curling power Canada participated in the mixed doubles, men's and women's winter Olympics, but the mixed doubles and women's did not qualify for the final four, only Gu Hugh as the captain of the men's team led the team to get a bronze medal, which is the worst record of Canada with more than 1 million curling population and more than 1,000 curling clubs in recent Winter Olympics. After the game, many members of the Canadian team were excited and tearful, and Gu Xiu said: "After many years, looking back on the long road of life, I will see the bronze medal next to the gold medal 16 years ago, and I will be excited by my own unrelenting efforts." My children will also see and will know what it takes to reach their dreams with the effort and focus. ”
41 years old / John Claret
At 41, Frenchman John Claret has yet to win a game. At the age of 41 and 30 days, when he first appeared on the podium of the Winter Olympics in his life, he also received a silver medal for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In Claret's long enough athletic career, he never took first place. In 1996, he began to participate in the international snow federation competition, the first game ranked 32nd, the champion and runner-up are "post-70s", he is still young; in 2003, he participated in the World Cup for the first time, a season down, the total number of points ranked 140, it is okay, he is still young; in 2010, his first Winter Olympics failed to finish, it was okay, still young...
From a teenager to an "experienced veteran", Claret has indeed become a world-class athlete, but he is always a little bit away from the top. The Olympics, three times, the best result was the men's downhilling of Pyeongchang 18th...
In Yanqing, Beijing, Claret became the oldest alpine skiing medalist in the history of the Winter Olympics. Everyone was asking, didn't he think the return was a little late? "I don't think it's too late, my mother still calls me 'young boy.'" The 41-year-old "boy" hangs his first Olympic medal around his neck, "My mother said that when I was a child, I did everything a little slower than others, learning to walk, learn to talk, change teeth, including later marriage." It seems that my athletic career is the same. ”
40 years old / Simon Aman
The 40-year-old Swiss legendary Simon Aman is an iconic ski jumper, and the Beijing Winter Olympics is his seventh winter Olympics.
At the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics, Simon Oman won the individual events of the standard and big jumps respectively, such a heroic performance, coupled with his resemblance to the classic image of the novel Harry Potter, he was later nicknamed "Harry Potter ski jumping". In 2015, Simon Aman was injured in an accident during a race, but after a period of rest, he continued his ski career.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Winter Olympic four-gold medalist Simon Aman ranked 25th in both the individual standard platform and the big jump, and did not win a medal in his seventh winter Olympic trip, "In terms of results, I have not pursued more." "Maybe in terms of the number of times he competes, he wants to go further.
40 years old / Nick Baumgartner
On February 12, in the Beijing Winter Olympics snowboard sledge chasing mixed team competition, the United States team won the gold medal, for the United States team won the gold medal by 40-year-old male athlete Nick Baumgartner and 36-year-old female athlete Lindsay Jacob Baylis, the oldest team in the competition, Baumgartner is also the oldest athlete in the U.S. delegation.
"We're babies in the 80s!" When asked about his age after winning the gold, Jacob Belles, the patriarch of the Five Dynasties of the Winter Olympics, laughed and said. Baumgartner said: "We accept the fact that we are us, but we look younger than everyone else. ”
Mixed groups won the gold, and Baumgartner cried with joy. He also became the oldest skier to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. "Today's tears are different, these are tears of happiness. When you have had frustration and disappointment, you can appreciate how wonderful it is today. "Previously, Baumgartner missed the final of the individual project and was sad and wept." It's amazing, it's unbelievable! That's why when you're in the face of adversity, you can't give up, you have to move on because good things are coming. ”
Each step we take determines the final outcome, and our steps are moving towards the end of our own choosing. Forty years of life, the year of not being confused, in the eyes of us ordinary people is the age that needs to be stable, and these veterans who are harder, more determined and more outstanding at the Beijing Winter Olympics have extended their personal professional sports cycle under the illumination of the five-ring spirit of "higher, faster, stronger and more united" with their heartfelt sincerity and love.
What cannot be endured in life is not existence, but the inability to be self. The ultimate pursuit is always hazy... Milan Kundera said that life is not worth living without a little madness, and let the voice of the heart guide it, why fry each of our actions like a piece of cake on the pan of reason?
Text/Wenji Finishing
Photo: Xinhua News Agency