"Winning the Olympic Championship or participating in four Winter Olympics is not the ultimate goal of life for me." I thought if I could get a Grand Slam, why couldn't I have another round? What prevents me from continuing to fight is not age, but whether I still have a love and dream for sports in my heart. ”
The Beijing Winter Olympics have just ended more than a month ago, and many of the athletes who participated in the competition are still in the adjustment period, but our St. NOVA freestyle ski men's aerial skills champion Qi Guangpu has already set his sights on the Milan Winter Olympics four years later. In this issue of "Good News in the Sports World", the special host, Olympic champion Xu Lijia, takes you close to the Olympic "Four Dynasties Elder" who claims to be very young, and listens to him tell us the story before and after winning the Olympic championship.
On February 17, the champion China's Qi Guangpu was awarded the medal at the ceremony. On the same day, the awarding ceremony of the men's aerial skills medal for freestyle skiing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was held in the Zhangjiakou Awards Plaza.
Xu Lijia: What is the biggest difference between the freestyle ski aerial skills project you participated in and the freestyle ski jumping event that Gu Ailing participated in?
Qi Guangpu: Just as the so-called interlacing is like a mountain, although the projects I am engaged in and the projects of Gu Ailing are freestyle skiing, the technical characteristics and styles of our two projects are different. We aerial athletes need to declare and determine the action of this jump before the departure of each jump and must not change it arbitrarily, and then use the action standards required by the rules to complete the action as far as possible without deviation, this competition mode is similar to the diving event at the Summer Olympic Games.
But Gu Ailing's freestyle ski jump, including the other two small events she participated in, are relatively more likely to show the athlete's style, and each athlete's movements are different, and there is no so-called textbook standard. During the race, they can also change their movements at any time based on factors such as their status, ranking and weather conditions.
On February 16, China's Qi Guangpu competed in the competition. On the same day, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Freestyle Skiing Men's Aerial Skills Final was held in Zhangjiakou, and China's Qi Guangpu won the championship.
Xu Lijia: You participated in four Olympic Games to finally realize your Olympic gold medal dream, what was your experience in the past three Olympic Games?
Qi Guangpu: Every Olympic Games I have participated in, I have worked very hard to run for the dream of an Olympic champion, and I think this is also my original intention in this sport.
In 2010, I was a young kid under 20 years old, and participating in the Olympic Games was more about accumulating competition experience and learning from previous athletes.
In Sochi in 2014, since I was able to successfully make a difficulty 5.0 move in the previous international competition and also won the world championship of the previous year, I had the strength to rush gold and strive for this goal. But maybe at that time, I was still relatively young, and I was not mature enough for the mastery of movements, and it was a pity that I was in fourth place.
In PyeongChang in 2018, I was very well prepared and had the strength to win the championship, but because I didn't reach the final of the last six in the competition, I didn't have the opportunity to present my highest difficulty 5.0 move, which was still a big blow to me.
On February 8, 2018, Qi Guangpu, a member of the freestyle skiing aerial skills national team, prepared to depart at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. On the same day, the freestyle skiing aerial skills national team departed from Shenyang Taoxian International Airport for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Xu Lijia: We know that you train on snow in winter, but summer training will turn to diving pool training because there is no snow, what is the difference?
Qi Guangpu: Our pool training basically lasts from spring and summer to October every year. In the summer, the temperature is as high as thirty degrees Celsius, we wear wetsuits to train, the sun shines directly on our clothes, it is particularly hot, and the whole person will feel confused. But in October, the temperature plummeted, and it was a cold and bone-chilling feeling when we jumped into the water. And when we came ashore, the body was soaked, and the autumn wind blew again, this feeling was really very "sour".
On February 8, 2018, Qi Guangpu, a member of the freestyle skiing aerial skills national team, prepared to depart at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. On the same day, the freestyle skiing aerial skills national team departed from Shenyang Taoxian International Airport for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Winter training is relatively more arduous, and once I remembered that we were training in Arshan, Inner Mongolia, and the real-time temperature outside was minus 38 degrees. In this case, we were outside for a minute, so we would go back to the referee's room after each jump to warm up for a while.
In addition, summer training because our equipment is very heavy, snowboard snowshoes alone add up to more than 10 kilograms, so in order to be able to successfully float from the water, we must also wear life jackets, which will still have some impact on the action. In the winter training competition, in order to make the action more stretched and relaxed, our clothing will be relatively light and thin, and can only play a very limited role in keeping warm.
On December 30, 2000, Qi Guangpu's children sorted out their equipment in the snow. A few days ago, young athletes from Jiangsu Peixian Sports School conducted pre-competition training in Changchun, and they will do a trick ski performance at the opening ceremony of the New Year's Day Ice and Snow Festival in the new century. In order to do a good job in the exhibition match, they came to Changchun two months in advance for adaptation training.
Xu Lijia: Han Xiaopeng, the first winter Olympic snow champion in the mainland, and you are fellow countrymen, does he have any encouragement for you?
Qi Guangpu: It should be said that I was also selected to join the Snow Aerial Skills Team because of the influence of Han Xiaopeng's group of athletes. He was the first athlete to be selected from Pei County, Xuzhou to train in the northeast, and later my coach chose me when he came back to our hometown to select materials. After Winning the first snow gold medal at the Olympics in 2006, Han Xiaopeng played a very good role in promoting our project, and our young athletes were greatly inspired and touched by it. Now I'm very happy to be able to take his baton and once again stand on the highest Olympic podium.
The graphic is written from Xinhua News Agency