The Chinese women's football team has been 16 years apart
The moment you regain the Asian Cup,
For many people it is the end of a dream,
It was also the beginning of a dream.
After winning the championship, it was placed in the women's football girl
and head coach Shui Qingxia in front of her
It's a new dream journey,
Shui Qingxia knew she couldn't stop——
From the beginning of stepping into the world of football,
This is destined to be her life
A never-ending run.
(Shui Qingxia) gray tweed coat, shirt, white edge decorated with black tie
Color-block heels and rings are DIOR
(Chen Xuanyan) short-sleeved shirts, color-block denim skirts, slippers are all BABY DIOR
In the lounge of the D.Y. Patil Stadium in New Mumbai, India, the faces of Chinese women's football girls are lost. In the first half of the just-concluded Asian Cup final, they were scored twice by the opponent South Korea due to their own mistakes, and Lou Jiahui, who lost the goal, constantly blamed herself: "How did I play like this?" Looking at the depressed girl in front of her, the newly appointed women's football head coach Shui Qingxia originally had a stomach full of harsh words, but at the moment she couldn't say anything.
Three days ago, they had experienced a fierce battle of life and death. Facing the Japanese team, whose overall strength is stronger than their own, the women's football players have equalized twice in the unfavorable situation of conceding the first goal, tenaciously dragging the game into a penalty shootout, and finally defeating the opponent 4:3 and reversing into the final. That semi-final was very expensive for the players, and Shui Qingxia knew that everyone in this room was not easy at the moment, and although she was annoyed, she couldn't bear to blame anything.
This is Shui Qingxia's first major competition journey after serving as the head coach of the Chinese women's national football team. In November last year, when she received the FA's letter of appointment, she did not hesitate at all - "Since I have chosen me, I am obliged to do my best, and it is a great honor to have the opportunity to represent the national team." Before flying to India, she had already made the lowest expectations - leading the Chinese women's football team to the top three.
Champions, not necessarily. But now that you've reached the final, you have to do your best and never give up. In the lounge, she said to the women's football girls: "To be a person, you must have a little backbone, how many beats can you have in life?" This is an opportunity, not for you to have to win the championship, but I hope to see the indomitable spirit of the Chinese women's football team in the second half. ”
"The ball can be lost, the man cannot be instigated."
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After 15 minutes, the women's soccer girls walked out of the lounge and began to fight back.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, Shui Qingxia took the lead in making two substitution adjustments in the midfield position - replacing Wu Chengshu with Xiao Yuyi and Replacing Lou Jiahui with Zhang Rui. In the 59th minute, she made another adjustment in the front line - replacing the team's number one star Wang Shuang with an injury with Zhang Linyan, who participated in the Asian Cup for the first time. The bold substitution made people see the new women's football manager's decisive decision.
The substitution effect is immediate. Not long after Zhang Linyan came on the field, she created a penalty opportunity, and Tang Jiali took the penalty and successfully scored. By the 68th minute of the match, the Chinese team rewrote the score to 1:2.
When Tang Jiali took the penalty, Shui Qingxia lowered her head and did not dare to look, silently thinking in her heart: We must enter. This ball is too crucial - playing in, not only can the Chinese team see the hope of equalizing, the overall momentum will be very different; if it is not scored, it is likely to lead to a change in the mentality of the players, and the Asian Cup journey may end in regret.
As a former international of the golden generation of Chinese women's football, Although Shui Qingxia has won the Asian Cup with the national team five times during her playerhood, she has not tasted the taste of regret - in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, she could have impacted the championship, but finally lost the game 1:2, she is very sorry; in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she returned to the national team but failed to play, she is very sorry; when she is a player, her favorite position is the striker, and sometimes she has to play as a defender, which is also regrettable.
There are always many regrets in life, especially on the court, condensing the bitter youth of too many people. Nowadays, those regrets have passed, becoming a small journey in life, and the tenacity of will tempered from regrets may also build a new self. But Shui Qingxia still hopes that these women's football girls in front of her can try not to let themselves have too many regrets, before the game she said to the players: "Do your best to play your own characteristics, show your best side, don't leave any regrets, as for the result, leave it to God to arrange." ”
The pitch is unpredictable and never knows what will happen until the last minute. "Who would have thought that italy, the World Cup qualifiers, Euro 2020 champions, would lose to North Macedonia, ranked 67th in the world? The game is like this, you come up a few shots can not get in, people 'boo' all at once into it, football still has a luck component, even if you think you have taken all the situation into account, but there are still places you may not consider, which side of the balance tends to, depending on how much God gives you. ”
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But Shui Qingxia felt that God was fair, and if she made more preparations, her luck might be better. As she thought, the scales of the god of victory began to change.
The goal that was recovered gave the women's football girls hope, and the counterattack continued.
When the game went on to 72 minutes, Tang Jiali took the ball to the bottom line, faced the defense of two players, the ball was divided, the bottom cross, Zhang Linyan nodded the ball behind the goal, and pulled the score to a 2:2 draw. Shui Qingxia waved her arms and revealed a rare smile - the balance of the god of victory finally returned to balance at this moment.
It's Zhang Linyan again. Wang Xiaoxue, a female footballer, later sighed: "Every time the water guidance is replaced, it has a miraculous effect. "It's not just substitution adjustments, but also the positional adjustments of players on the pitch that play a key role. Just a few minutes ago, the captain wang shanshan, who originally played center-back in this game, received a password from Shui Qingxia to go to the front line position - this adjustment later directly forced the South Korean team into a desperate situation.
In Shui Qingxia's view, football games should talk about decision-making on the field, learn to use technology reasonably, and let everyone play their role. But at the end of the day, football is a battle between will and will.
Since she was a child, she liked to watch inspirational stories, from the Tour de France to all kinds of biographies, the more she watched, the more she understood, nothing is more important than persistence. She believes that no matter what you do, as long as you have worked hard, paid, fought for it, and never given up from beginning to end, the balance may eventually lean toward you - even if you don't, there is nothing to regret.
"Do your best" – that's what a Japanese coach said to her many years ago. Shui Qingxia in the athlete period has twice crossed the East to Japan to play football, when she just arrived in Japan for a few months, one day after playing club games to do recovery training, the coach arranged for the players to run 3000 meters on the court, Shui Qingxia did not take it too seriously, felt that "it is okay to get by", running is not very active, most of the time just follow the team and run casually.
At the end of the training, the coach talked to her and said that with your strength, it should be no problem to run the top three, but you didn't do your best today. At first, she was a little unconvinced, thinking that she was not like this every day, just once or twice, it didn't matter. But the coach added: "As a professional player we invited from China, since you are better than them, you should set an example for them, to achieve your ultimate, not through words, but through actions to make them feel this power." ”
The coach's words touched Shui Qingxia a lot, she has always been strong, when she heard the coach say "you are an athlete invited from China", she suddenly felt that the weight on her shoulders was much heavier - the original three words "Shui Qingxia" no longer only represented herself, but also represented Chinese players. Since then, no matter what, she feels she should do better than others, and can't slack off just because she's good at it — otherwise "it's disrespectful to the sport and disrespectful to herself." ”
After coaching, Shui Qingxia also conveyed this concept to the team, even if it is ordinary training, she believes that there should be no reason to slacken off, no matter when, we must do our best to the last moment.
This is the last blow that the Chinese women's football team gave to the opponent.
Towards the end of the match, after Wang Shanshan received a pass from her teammate in front of the penalty area, a straight plug tore through the opponent's entire defense line, and Xiao Yuyi, who was replaced in the second half, seized this excellent opportunity to shoot into the far corner to break the goal - in the 93rd minute, the Chinese team completed the kill against the South Korean team.
Three minutes later, the final whistle sounded and the game ended. From falling behind 0:2 in the first half to scoring three goals in the second half, the Chinese women's football team exchanged their non-giving up for a miracle and staged a shocking reversal.
Shui Qingxia in the lens had tears in her eyes and shouted with excitement. The first local female head coach in the history of the Chinese women's national football team led the women's football team to win the championship trophy after a gap of 16 years less than three months after taking over the coaching seal, creating a new historic moment.
The women's soccer girls, who were still in the lounge a few minutes ago, embraced each other excitedly at the moment, and they lifted head coach Shui Qingxia high and kept throwing them into the air, the new Mumbai D.Y. The revelry inside the Patil Stadium belongs only to them at this moment.
But for Shui Qingxia, this excitement and joy after winning the championship did not stay long in India, but lasted for a long time after returning to China. "The most important thing is that the Chinese women's football team has played a Chinese spirit, which may be the most needed kind in the new era, very powerful, do not give up, and everyone also gives great attention to the Chinese women's football team."
Football commentator Xu Yang, commenting on the women's Asian Cup final, said that there is a substance that is soft at room temperature and hard under extreme cold, and this substance is water – like Shui Qingxia and the Chinese women's football team she leads. When Shui Qingxia used to play in the team, coaches and teammates called her "Ah Shui". She does have a hard side in her personality - when she was young, she wore a national jersey to play, describing it in her own words as "taking a gun to the battlefield", daring to fight, dare to grab, and not accept defeat on the court, and people gave the nickname "Desperate Three Ladies". Later, as a coach, she injected this gun-like hard-line style into the team.
Gray tweed coat, shirt, white trim decorated with black tie
Color-block heels and rings are DIOR
But she also has a soft side - in the eyes of the players, Shui Qingxia on the training ground is a strict coach, pursuing perfection and demanding details. She is very gentle and easy-going, always able to mingle with everyone, and has gained a nickname "Water Mother". Now some of the players in the national team, Shui Qingxia used to be the coach of the women's national youth team, they are very familiar with each other, they are strict with them when training, and they are regarded as family and friends in life, and sometimes call them "sisters", just like the family calls their children.
Now that the little girls have grown up, Shui Qingxia feels that she no longer needs to appear in front of them in a paternalistic posture, some things can be explained clearly, and they already know when to do things. Coming down from the field, everyone gets along like friends, trusts each other, treats each other honestly, respects each other – "Respect for them is respect for yourself." ”
The experience of participating in the Asian Cup made Shui Qingxia realize that good communication and mutual trust between coaches and players in a team is particularly important. Everyone has their own characteristics, even if the characteristics are only one point, we must give them the opportunity to give full play to them, so that they can fully believe in themselves. The cohesion of a team is very important, only mutual trust can produce cohesion, and only when cohesion is generated, everyone will voluntarily go all out for the same goal.
Over the years, Shui Qingxia has found herself more tolerant of her teammates than before. When she first became a coach in her 30s, she did everything herself, and at that time, she didn't feel how demanding her players were, she just thought, "This ball is very simple!" Kick it! How can you not do it! After she was in her 40s, she began to slowly realize that everyone's cognition of football is different, and understanding, digestion and reflection need a process to give these young people a little more time and patience.
Now 55 years old, she no longer harshly criticizes her players by her own standards, but more of understanding and communication. "The current team members see a lot of things, they are very smart, their reactions are also very agile, it is completely different from our time, they have their advantages, and we have to keep pace with the times and learn all kinds of things." I think that by explaining the requirements of the basic principles clearly, they will understand and reflect on themselves, and they can also tell me their feelings and look at the problem from their point of view, and they are much more comfortable in their hearts. ”
Born in a dual-career family, Shui Qingxia was basically in a free-range state in her childhood, living a carefree life, often climbing trees, climbing flagpoles, and also likes to run and kick shuttlecocks. At the age of 11, she was selected to start athletics training at Shanghai Hongkou Major Sports School, focusing on long jump and pentathlon. In the past, in the athletics team, Shui Qingxia would play with her brothers every week, but at that time, she was just playing, didn't know anything about the world of football, and didn't think that she would have anything to do with football.
Later, the athletics team was diverted, and Shui Qingxia was difficult to have a better development in the sport of athletics because she was not tall enough, and it happened that Shanghai set up a women's football team at that time, and she was selected, so she turned to play football. After really engaging in this sport, she found that football had so many techniques and tactics to learn, and it turned out that football was not simple.
At the age of 17, she began to play football, officially hung up her boots at the age of 35, and became a football coach after retiring, Shui Qingxia changed from "A Shui" to "Water Guide", and her life was dedicated to football halfway. Her nose bone was broken twice, her lumbar disc was herniated, her cruciate ligament was damaged, her right tibia was severely fractured... After the meniscus was removed, the steel nail inserted into the leg during the operation could be removed after a year, but because she was busy playing a game at the time, and it took half a year to recover from the nail, she felt that "there was no problem if she didn't take it", and she didn't want to "take one more knife", so the nail remained in the body for seven years, resulting in pain when it rained or the knee bent too many times.
Shui Qingxia once told a story to the outside world: in the past, when she played football, even if her feet hurt, she would keep running on the field. Sometimes the coach shouted at her from the sidelines: "Ah Shui, you run less, take a break." But she knew she couldn't stop, "once she stopped, she couldn't run anymore." ”
From the moment Shui Qingxia stepped into the world of football, it was destined to be a never-ending run in her life. Where to start is not important, running is the whole meaning.
In the world of football, there is no eternal flow of losers, no impregnable temple of heroes, the will of steel can give birth to thorns and roses, and the gates of ruins can lead to the golden age. In this world, all end points are the starting point, and every dreamer will eventually become the dreamer.
February 15, 2022 at 3:00 a.m.,
After winning the championship, Xu Mengtao sent a circle of friends:
"Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014,
Pyeongchang in 2018, Beijing in 2022.
Four years ago at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
I regret not having slept all night,
Today, four years later, I can't sleep with excitement.
Today I'm 'crazy',
Broken defenses, fulfilled dreams,
History is made.
Aerial Skills Chinese Women's Team
Finally there is an Olympic gold medal,
I'm finally a Grand Slam. ”
This Olympic gold medal,
Xu Mengtao had been waiting too long.
"It's waiting for me, it's waiting for me to break through."
(Gao Tingyu) gray sweater, black trousers, sneakers are all DIOR
(Xu Mengtao) black down sleeveless jacket, check skirt, black tight shorts, white sneakers, earrings are all DIOR
Diving, jumping, churning in the air for three weeks plus turning the body for three weeks, and finally landing steadily - the moment she stood on the ground, Xu Mengtao shouted out irrepressibly.
108.61 points, which is the highest score in the women's aerial skills final of freestyle skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics. "Am I number one?" When all the players' actions were over, Xu Mengtao said loudly to the photographer on the sidelines: "I am the first!" Her face was filled with tears of excitement. This Olympic gold medal, Xu Mengtao has been waiting for too long.
However, looking at Xu Mengtao's dream journey, the word "waiting" seems to be a little too light-hearted. A set of numbers may sum up the northeast girl's athletic career: 4 years old to learn gymnastics, 12 years old to practice freestyle skiing aerial skills, 15 years old to win the first national championship, 19 years old to win the first world championship; in 20 years of snow career, she participated in 4 Olympic Games, worked hard for 14 seasons, and walked through 70 World Cups. Before the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao had won a total of 27 World Cup sub-stations, and was also the first person in the history of aerial skills. Among the many world champions, only one Olympic gold medal is missing.
In a larger dimension, starting from the silver medal won by Xu Yuanyuan at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the women's skill team won 5 silver medals in the 6 winter Olympics, but has not been associated with the gold medal. Some people half-jokingly call the women's skill team "cashiers.".
"Do you think it's a spell?" "No." Xu Mengtao replied emphatically, "It is waiting for me, it is waiting for me to break through." ”
(Gao Tingyu) Black suit, gray cotton shirt are dior
(Xu Mengtao) gray suit top, short skirt, black and white LOGO sports underwear, tight cycling pants, earrings are all DIOR
If you want to find a starting point in Xu Mengtao's dream story, there may not be only one choice.
Maybe it was the moment when 4-year-old Xu Mengtao entered the gymnastics training class of Anshan Sports School. Energetic and flexible, Xu Mengtao was sent to the door of gymnastics by her sports-loving father, and has been with sports for more than 20 years since then. At the age of 7, Xu Mengtao left her parents for boarding training, she was "extraordinaryly sensible" since she was a child, and she was also competitive, and the first time she participated in a gymnastics competition, she took the first place. The process of training reinforced her competitive spirit. "Well, there is only one champion in the world, and we must compete for the first place."
Maybe the starting point is the moment when you first stand on the 4-meter high jump. At the age of 12, Xu Mengtao changed from gymnastics to aerial skills known as "gymnastics on the snow". The first time I jumped on the stage, one of my teammates lay on the slope and the other on the slope. Xu Mengtao had only one belief in his heart: don't "get stuck". Later, she really didn't have a card, but she didn't turn it into a complete heel, and she used it too hard, and the whole person flew out. But when he landed, Xu Mengtao stood still.
Perhaps the starting point was the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the year when 19-year-old Xu Mengtao competed for the first time. In that season's World Cup competition, Xu Mengtao had completed the highest difficulty action bLdFF for women at that time with a difficulty factor of 4.175. In the semi-finals, she came first. After the first round of the finals, she still ranked first with a difficulty factor of 4.050. Hopes of winning gold fell on her, but because of the failure to impact bLdFF, Xu Mengtao ended her first Olympic trip with a sixth-place finish.
At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao, who returned from injury, won a silver medal. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao, with the determination to impact the gold medal, even put down harsh words to herself, "If I don't take the gold medal, I will retire." "I didn't expect to land in the second round of the final and missed the third round.
During that time, she did not dare to look at any pictures related to the Olympic games, but she always remembered her every action and every training. She realized that she was still "unwilling."
CCTV host Bai Yansong once said on the show that becoming a fan of Xu Mengtao was when she was in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and she liked Xu Mengtao because of her attitude. "Before she was very high profile, the goal was to win the gold medal. But she only won the ninth place in that Winter Olympics, and she did not expect this defeat, but it stimulated her to dispel the idea of retiring, and failure became a new starting point for her. ”
When Xu Mengtao re-stood at the starting point of chasing dreams, many people pinched a handful of sweat for her.
She was nearly 28 years old at the time, and her next Olympic cycle would be more than 30, which meant more effort for female athletes to stay competitive. In more than twenty years of sports, she has suffered several major injuries, each of which is enough to destroy an athlete's career and will.
In January 2008, at the National Championships in Arshan, Inner Mongolia, Xu Mengtao "twisted" her right leg when she landed. At that time, she was lying on the ground and could not get up at all, and everyone was concerned about her injury, but her first reaction was to reassure the coach not to worry.
After performing cruciate ligament tear surgery at the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, Xu Mengtao lived alone in a small hotel opposite the hospital. There is no window in the room, and frustration is the most intuitive emotion in Xu Mengtao's heart. But she soon realized that frustration didn't solve the problem. After the operation, rehabilitation treatment was carried out every day, and at that time, the guarantee conditions were not good enough, and Xu Mengtao suffered a lot. There is no condition to do ultrasound of multiple parts at the same time, only one part can come from one part to another, from 8 am to 9 pm. After the operation in February, less than October, Xu Mengtao returned to the special project. "It took me 7 months to get back to the program, and the fastest before me was 10 months." Speaking of this, xu Mengtao's tone had a vague pride.
At the 13th National Winter Games in 2016, Xu Mengtao failed to challenge the difficulty factor of 3.8. Falling heavily on the slopes on the ground, the anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee was broken, and the medial collateral ligament was sprained. The examination found that 60% of the meniscus of the left knee had been fragmented and had to be removed.
In addition to the tired scars, what is more testing is the mentality. In 2018, after returning from Pyeongchang to continue training, once Xu Mengtao landed on the ground, the nail cap of the big toe was lifted completely, and the nail cap was directly pulled off after being sent to the emergency center. "I wondered if I didn't have a championship."
She also knows that in the next four years, opponents will become better and young players will grow. Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in such a good state can not win the gold medal, beijing Winter Olympics will be their best time? Xu Mengtao was not sure. But in the end, she decided to fight for her dream again.
"The long march away from the dream has come, and it is one step away." In addition, I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement, I have not yet fulfilled my dreams, as long as I can practice for a day, I hope that I can go forward a little further. ”
She also knows that in the next four years, opponents will become better and young players will grow. Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in such a good state can not win the gold medal, beijing Winter Olympics will be their best time? Xu Mengtao was not sure. But in the end, she decided to fight for her dream again.
"The long march away from the dream has come, and it is one step away." In addition, I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement, I have not yet fulfilled my dreams, as long as I can practice for a day, I hope that I can go forward a little further. ”
During the cycle of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao practiced very systematically. "I'm proud of myself, when I run, the other runners are younger than me, many teenagers, I'm like their aunt." China's ice and snow test 3000 meters, the age of Xu Mengtao can be an aunt took the fourth place.
To train at the base in Qinhuangdao, you have to climb the 123-story jumping platform, about 6 stories high, and jump into the pool again and again. For these trainings, Xu Mengtao did not want to say much. "I wasn't afraid to suffer, I said to myself, if suffering allows me to win the championship, I can do anything. Because when preparing for the Olympic Games, suffering is the easiest thing. ”
The hard part is to adjust your mindset. Xu Mengtao used "buying a bag" to describe his complicated mentality. "You want to buy a bag, you want to buy it, and you are afraid of being expensive, so you are eager to win a lottery to buy it." At the same time, you have to suppress the desire to like it all the time, you can't like it too much, it will be very torturous. ”
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In December 2021, the Freestyle Skiing Aerial Skills World Cup in Lucca, Finland, is the opening station of the 2021-2022 season, and it is also a stop that Xu Mengtao feels is extremely difficult. In winter, there is no sunlight in the Arctic Circle, and while it is unusually cold, the wind is particularly strong, and the only food for food every day is hamburgers. However, Xu Mengtao feels that this is the place where aerial skills are torturous, and it is also the charm of the sport - the uncertainties of the environment test the ability of athletes, and the competition is not only one-sided technology, but also the ability to think and strategize.
This "hard battle" ended with Xu Mengtao winning the championship with 99.49 points. Immediately after winning the gold medal in the mixed men's and women's team competitions, she and her teammates expanded their individual gold medal record to 27, the athlete who won the most individual gold medals in the World Cup.
This number did not bring xu Mengtao too much excitement, but the experience of Finnish station made her not afraid of other challenges. Later, seeing that the preliminary round and the final of the Beijing Olympic Games were placed on the same day, Xu Mengtao's reaction was "full of confidence". "Why? In the whole air skill team I can say that no girl has such a great intensity in a day. But that's what I was in Finland, with a 38-level wind. ”
She described herself as having the energy to not only walk to the Beijing Olympics, but also to walk with a state of readiness, with memories of challenges and experiences in facing the adversity of the competition. "It's not a 'gamble,' it's ready."
Before the individual event, it was the freestyle ski aerial skills mixed team final, which was the first event set up at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Chinese team with a neat lineup is regarded as a big favorite to win the championship. As the first player to play, Xu Mengtao jumped out of the high score of 106.03 and made a good start for the team. However, because of Jia Zongyang's final mistake, the Chinese team only won the silver medal. This made Xu Mengtao, who has always refused to accept defeat, have a stronger belief in the realization of his dream.
In the first round of the final, Xu Mengtao played well in the first jump and took the initiative, and when it was clear that she could enter the second round, she decisively gave up the second jump to save her physical strength, which is the wisdom and experience of the veteran. In the second round of the final, Kong Fanyu, the Chinese player who appeared in the previous sequence, made a mistake on the ground, which did not make Xu Mengtao adopt a conservative plan, but still chose the most difficult action among the women's players, 4.293.
When she stood on the platform for the final jump, Xu Mengtao's heart suddenly calmed down — she said it was a state of immersion. "I'm very engaged, I just want to do my own moves well, because I believe that I have practiced, I can jump to the results I want to achieve."
Everything went as she wished.
The scene of winning the championship, Xu Mengtao was not unthinkable. But when she did get the gold medal, it was still a bit unbelievable. The night after the final, she didn't fall asleep all night, her mind repeatedly recalling the last jump.
At three o'clock in the morning on February 15, 2022, Xu Mengtao sent a circle of friends: "Vancouver in 2010, Sochi in 2014, Pyeongchang in 2018, Beijing in 2022." Four years ago at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, I regretted not having slept all night, and now I am so excited that I can't sleep four years later. Today I am 'crazy', I have broken my defenses, I have fulfilled my dreams, and I have made history. The Aerial Skills Chinese women's team finally had an Olympic gold medal, and I finally became a Grand Slam. ”
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After the game, the first thing Xu Mengtao did when she went back to do was to go to the International Snow Federation to turn over her business card. Before this day, Xu Mengtao's business card recorded good results in all columns, except for the Olympic gold medal, which had a "0".
"When I got back, it refreshed and became '1'. At that moment, I felt worth it. ”
The moment you make sure you're a champion,
Gao Tingyu couldn't suppress it
Inner excitement,
Tears
A long roar was issued.
With this sound,
Unleashed the entire Olympic cycle
4 years of stress,
Released Gao Tingyu for 17 years
The hard work and stoicism of the ice career,
It also released the Chinese ice and snow world pair
Speed skating is a pure physical sport
Forty years of longing for a breakthrough.
This new "flying man" on the avenue,
At the end of the game,
He also redefined his own beginnings.
Leather jacket DIOR
On February 20, 2022, inside the Bird's Nest at the National Stadium, at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the flag bearers of the Chinese sports delegation entered in a special way - Xu Mengtao sat on Gao Tingyu's shoulder, waving the national flag, letting the five-star red flag fly high above the scene.
If Xu Mengtao represents the dream of snow sports in this Olympic Games, then Gao Tingyu means a breakthrough in ice sports.
Speed skating, commonly known as the "avenue", is one of the oldest and most widely developed sports in ice and snow sports. As a major event on ice, speed skating is known as "ice track and field", and a total of 14 gold medals have been produced in this event of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is the largest number of gold medals.
Like athletics, speed skating has always been a competitive strength of European and American countries. In 1963, Luo Zhihuan won the first gold medal for the Chinese speed skating event, and in 1992, Ye Qiaobo won a silver medal in the speed skating women's 500 meters event at the Albertville Winter Olympics. Prior to the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese athletes won a total of 1 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze at the Winter Olympics, and the only gold medal was the women's 1000m championship won by Zhang Hong in Vancouver in 2010.
500 meters is the shortest speed skating distance, which requires extremely high starting speed. In the final, a total of 30 players competed, divided into 15 groups, and almost everyone had the possibility of competing for a medal. The gold medal won by Gao Tingyu is a breakthrough for Chinese male athletes in the speed skating event of the Winter Olympics, and it is also a declaration by Asians in the power and speed competition. Luo Zhihuan praised Gao Tingyu after the game, saying that he was "equivalent to winning the '100-meter flyer' battle on the track and field field." ”
At this moment, in the middle of the night shooting scene, standing in front of the camera, the face of the new flyer on the avenue began to show sleepiness. According to his father, he is very disciplined in his daily life, and if there is any hobby, it may be sleep, "A sleep can sleep a circle." But perhaps gao Tingyu himself described himself more appropriately: across the road.
On February 12, Gao Tingyu, who had just won the gold medal in the men's 500m speed skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics, appeared at the post-race press conference. When a reporter asked him about his personality, he thought for a few seconds, smiled and said, "Let's go across the road." ”
The scene was quiet for a while, and the staff on the side whispered to him if he understood the question, and the Translator of Chinese translation and English was also stuck here. "Across the road" means "strange" in the Northeast dialect, and there is a subtle sense of language with a slight dislike. To some extent, this adjective that makes the people of the northeast listen to Wan'er and makes others listen to the circle of ignorance also reflects the inseparable geopolitical origin of the black land in the northeast and the Ice and Snow Sports in China.
Gao Tingyu was born in this black land. Located in the north of Heilongjiang and bordering Russia to the north, Yichun has average temperatures below freezing for more than half of the year and a minimum temperature of less than minus 40 degrees Celsius in January. The harsh climate allowed Gao Tingyu to discover his interest in skating early. At the age of 8, the first time he slid on the ice, Gao Tingyu felt a sense of freedom. When he was 11 years old, his father took him to the Heilongjiang provincial team to see if he could take the professional path. At that time, Gao Tingyu was young and grew young, and the provincial team could not collect it. Liu Deguang, a coach who was seconded to the provincial team for training at that time, discovered the little boy and invited Gao Tingyu to the Mudanjiang Winter Sports Training Center for systematic training.
There is no direct train, so you have to take the train to Jiamusi first, and then change to another train to mudanjiang. Counting the time of transfer, it takes nearly 10 hours each way, so a sitting is three years. Starting from Mudanjiang Sports School, in 2012, Gao Tingyu entered the provincial team.
Gao Tingyu, 15, has only one simple dream: to participate in the Olympic Games and one day represent his country on the international stage. Among the players in the same period, Gao Tingyu believes that he is not the most talented, but he is willing to work hard. When he was a child, he took a train to Mudanjiang for training, and when he waited for the train, he had to wear roller skates to practice his skills on the flat ground. After entering the professional team training, he did not relax in every detail. Speed skating world champion Ye Qiaobo once commented on him, "Young children can have such concentration and self-control, which is difficult to find in the post-95 generation." ”
"I just need to devote myself to training," Gao Tingyu said, "and I don't have to prove it to others, the results will tell you everything." ”
In 2016, after winning the speed skating championship at the 13th Winter Games, Gao Tingyu entered the national team, and that year, he was 19 years old. The following year, Takato won the men's 500m speed skating at the Sapporo Asian Winter Games, representing the national team on the top podium – halfway through his 15-year-old wish. The following year, the 21-year-old Gao Tingyu participated in the Olympic Games for the first time, winning a bronze medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. This is the first Olympic medal in the history of Chinese men's speed skating, and it also makes this young boy a "dark horse" and hope in people's eyes.
Compared with the short track speed skating in the schedule, the athletes in the speed skating competition compete in two groups, and all the players can know the final result after the race - the goal of the speed skater is not only to surpass the opponents in the same group, but also to compete with themselves and bite every 0.01 second. Some people say that Gao Tingyu is like a "lone wolf", fighting against wind resistance on the ice rink alone. In this sense, speed skating is an extraordinarily lonely sport.
This "lone wolf" has been growing up in the process of fighting against the self. After the end of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu's injuries and the impact of his competitive state once fell into a trough. After Pyeongchang won the bronze medal, Gao Tingyu made a wish: "I hope that after four years, the medal can be changed in color." "This wish has invisibly become a vow made by myself." Preparing for the Winter Olympics, I had to change the color of the medal against my waist injury, which made me very stressed. "Gao Tingyu admits that he also had moments when he felt unable to overcome himself and felt anxious." Every athlete should have had such a time, felt too tired, and wanted to give up. ”
This loneliness is also a process of constantly running into time, state, and mentality. Speed skating is a cyclical sport, and it is difficult for athletes to maintain their status all the time during the four-year cycle of the Beijing Winter Olympics. For the first three years, Gao Tingyu was constantly experiencing frustration and loss. But what he can do is work with the coach to adjust the best form to the Olympic games.
Printed leather jackets and black shorts are DIOR
The four-stop World Cup series for the 2021-2022 season is a race to qualify for the Winter Olympics and a window to observe the status of players. From Poland on November 12, 2021, to Canada in mid-December, athletes will have to compete intensively in four races over a month.
These four races gave Gao Tingyu and coach Liu Guangbin a score in their hearts. Although there were also problems such as rushing and cornering errors in the race, Gao Tingyu's state was obviously better than after the closed training. In Poland, Gao Tingyu broke the field record in the first competition with a time of 34.26 seconds; in Canada, Gao Tingyu won a silver medal.
But at the last moment, no one dares to say that there is complete certainty. Liu Guangbin told the media that 500 meters speed skating, everyone's strength is very close, "is a difficult bone to gnaw." In order to prepare for the 500m final without distraction, a week before the competition, Gao Tingyu uninstalled WeChat.
On February 12, 2022, the moment of finalization came. In the 15th group, Gao Tingyu appeared in group 7. The departure was like a bolt of lightning, and it took only 9 seconds and 42 seconds for Gao Tingyu to go 100 meters ahead. After skating 500 meters, the audience cheered, and at 34.32 seconds, a new Olympic record was born, which was 0.09 seconds higher than the previous record, ranking first among the players who had already appeared.
At the end of the game, Gao Tingyu sat on the sidelines, waiting for all the players to finish the game and waiting for the final result. 34.32 seconds was not Gao Tingyu's season best, and there were still 8 groups of players who did not play. Only if none of these 16 players is faster than Gao Tingyu, he can become the Olympic champion and win this breakthrough gold medal.
Waiting is undoubtedly anxious. With the last group left, Gao Tingyu's results still ranked first. The final appearance was made by two famous players, Ritsuya Shinhama from Japan and Laurent Dibreuil from Canada. In particular, Dibreuil, who is at the top of the world ranking and has slipped a staggering 33.77 seconds this season, is considered by coach Liu Guangbin to be Gao Tingyu's strongest opponent.
"Bang—" The starting gun rang out, but the referee motioned to run. Back at the starting line, I didn't expect to run again. The two sprints apparently disrupted the rhythm of both runners. In the end, Dibreuil was 0.2 seconds slower than Gao Tingyu and ranked fourth. Gao Tingyu won the gold medal – his wish came true, and he represented China on the highest podium of the Olympic Games.
The moment he was sure that he was the champion, Gao Tingyu could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart, clenched his fists with both hands, burst into tears, and let out a long roar. This sound released the pressure of the entire Olympic cycle for 4 years, released the hard work and stoicism of Gao Tingyu's 17-year ice career, and also released the Chinese ice and snow industry's desire for a breakthrough in the pure physical fitness project of speed skating for 40 years. The new "flyer" on the boulevard also redefined his beginning at the moment of the end of the race.
Shui Qingxia
Producer / MIX WEI
Photography / Xiao Quan
Styling / PUNKCHERRY
Text Editor / Chen Baiyan CHICOCHAN
Written / A dime
Makeup / Xue Bingbing
Hairstyle/Dash
Producer, CASTING/Conan
Post/STUDIODRY
Appearance/ Chen Xuanyan
Photography Assistant / Wei Xiaofat
Styling assistance/YING, double double
Xu Mengtao & Gao Tingyu
Producer / MIX WEI
Photography / Xiao Quan
Creative Planning / Dong Yingyao CATHY(CONTINEW_STUDIO)
Creative Execution / SHARPAY WONG (CONTINEW_STUDIO)
Styling / Liu Meng Cassie
Text Editor / Chen Baiyan CHICOCHAN
Written by / Jellyfish
Makeup / Rui
Hairstyle / Xiaotian Elio
Art Direction / FEIFEI LI(SHOWCASE)
Producer / EMMA (Blumon)
Production Assistance / Seki (Blumon)
Creative assistance / Stone, jojo
Photography Assistant / Wei Xiaofat
Styling Assistant / Kiki, Yaoyao, Xiaofan
Retouching / Tin
Studios are available / Upper German Elephant
New Media Executive Producer / Fionn
Co-ordination / Siqi
Edit /Echo
Director / Beard
Photography / Conor
Clip / Di Xiaoyuan
Executive Producer / Yu wei, Vivan
Video Production / NORNS STUDIO
Editorial Assistant / Simon, Qiu, Yue