At the age of 29, Yao Di's dream of gold medal at the National Games came true

As the captain of the Tianjin women's volleyball team, second setter Yao Di played a remarkable role in last night's final. Finally defeating the Jiangsu team, she finally won the gold medal of her dreams when she played in the National Games for the second time. After the game, Yao Di couldn't help but sigh: "Finally won the first National Games gold medal in my life, when I was 29 years old." ”

At the 2013 Liaoning National Games, Yao Di was still a young player, and she finally failed to enter the 12-person roster of the Tianjin women's volleyball team in the final stage of the National Games. When he heard the news, Yao Di cried very sadly in the training hall. 4 years later, the Tianjin women's volleyball team experienced a difficult stage of alternating the old and the new, the overall strength declined significantly, although Yao Di did his best as the main second setter, but the Tianjin women's volleyball team still failed to break into the top four. Before the start of this National Games, Yao Di showed confidence and domineering as the captain, bluntly saying that the current lineup configuration of the whole team is very good, and now it is the best opportunity for everyone in the team to win the National Games championship. Although he unfortunately lost to Jiangsu in the first round of the round robin, Yao Di still led his teammates to achieve an eight-game winning streak and finally won the gold.

After returning from the Tokyo Olympic Games, Yao Di carried out a high-intensity closed preparation with the Tianjin women's volleyball team, gritted his teeth and overcame the difficulties of injury, and was able to show his best state in the final stage of the National Games. "After returning from the Olympic Games, the atmosphere of Tianjin team training during this period was particularly good. I haven't experienced such a large intensity of training in years, and the technical class takes about 5 hours, but every athlete perseveres. Although my leg injury was a little difficult, I insisted that I did not fall behind, and our hard work in the training phase was not in vain. ”

As a captain, Yao Di feels that he has also gained more growth in the past two years and has a new understanding of "captain". "I started as captain in 2019 and for me, 'captain' is a mission and responsibility. Now I'm still the oldest member of the team, and I'm going to lead the young guys up the ladder. After this National Games, we will have some fresh blood to join, for me, the 'captain' must be more of a good self, set an example for everyone. ”

Source: Tonight's newspaper