Reporter | A white
Edit | Shi Yiying
1
It's been a full decade since the 2012 London Olympics. In the past ten years, from London in 2012, to Rio in 2016, to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in the summer of 2021, in the past ten years of the three Olympic Games, due to the doping, illegal drugs and other problems of athletes from individual countries, as of now, a total of 9 athletes and a team in China have successively replaced medals.
Among them, Qieyang Shijie, Liu Hong and Lu Xiuzhi experienced two substitutions, and finally won the gold, silver and bronze medals in the women's 20 km race walk at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The London Olympics replacement list also includes Si Tianfeng's men's 50 km race walk silver medal, Li Yanfeng's women's discus silver medal, Gong Lijiao's women's shot put silver medal, Li Ling's women's shot put bronze medal, and Zhang Wenxiu's women's chain ball bronze medal.
In the past two Olympic Games, two more high-profile substitutions have been made up: Lu Xiaojun won the gold medal in the men's 77 kg weightlifting category at the Rio Olympic Games; the Chinese men's relay team composed of Su Bingtian, Xie Zhenye, Wu Zhiqiang and Tang Xingqiang won the bronze medal in the men's 4×100 meters relay at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Sister Cheyangshi: Ten years ago, ten years later
Ten years can record three Olympic Games; ten years, but also basically cover the entire time of an athlete's peak of competition.
On March 21, 2022, the IAAF Integrity Committee announced that Russian women's race walker Rushmanova had been banned for two years for taking banned drugs, and that the gold medal she won in the 20 km race walk at the London Olympics in 2012 was cancelled.
This means that China's Qieyang Shijie made up for the gold medal, and the other two Chinese players, Liu Hong and Lu Xiuzhi, made up for the silver and bronze medals.
Among the many memories of the Olympics, the part that belongs to the London Olympic race walk is easily awakened because it is unique enough. The competition was held on the boulevard in front of Buckingham Palace, and the background of the podium was Buckingham Palace, with flowers in hand, the sun was shining, and the smile was just right.
London 2012 Olympic Games Women's 20km Race Walk Awards Ceremony.
It's just that at the moment when the photo was frozen, Sister Qieyang Shi was still holding a bronze medal in her hand. In the center was Russian Rashmanova, and the silver medal was won by another Russian player, Kaniskina.
Three years later, in 2015, Karniskina's results were cancelled due to doping problems, and Cheyangshi sister paid for the silver medal; now, seven years later, Rashmanova has also canceled her results, and Cheyangshi sister has made up for the gold medal.
Ten years have been remade twice, the medal color has changed from copper to gold, and the general script does not dare to write this way.
Sister Cheyangshi, who learned of this news, is conducting training in Italy. She posted on social media: "Ten years have passed, and I have welcomed my Olympic champion in this way, and I am happy and sad after learning the news." Happy that I can be the champion in my heart, happy that I can have an Olympic gold medal, although many things have passed and will not have, but I have the medal to prove myself. The sad thing is that I haven't felt the look of a champion, I haven't got the aura of an Olympic champion, although the aura is temporary, but the aura of that moment I want to have. ”
Ten years can change a lot of things; ten years, there are many things that do not have the opportunity to change again.
Born in 1990, Sister Qiyang Shi grew up in a pastoral area in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai. She was not yet 22 years old when she competed in the London Olympics, and she had only been practicing race walking for four years.
From this basic information, people have extracted a lot of labels that belong to Cheyang Shijie: young, talented, the first Tibetan athlete to appear on the Olympic field...
In the London race, Cheyangsh's performance was 1 hour, 25 minutes and 16 seconds, breaking the Asian record. If that achievement had been fixed as a title at the time, a series of historical positioning would have followed: the first Tibetan athlete to win an Olympic title, the youngest Olympic champion in China— chen Yueling was 24 when she won the title in Barcelona in 1992, and Wang Liping was also 24 when she won the title in Sydney in 2000.
Sister Cheyangsh. (Image source: Personal Weibo after confirming the olympic gold medal)
But there is no if, and yet what if comes ten years later. The label reviews still belong to the veteran who is about to turn 32. But how to pick up this honor from ten years ago, whether it is the outside world or Sister Qieyang Shi herself, will be somewhat divided, and even at a loss.
Sister Cheyangshi said: "I have not felt the appearance of a champion, I have not received the aura of an Olympic champion, although the aura is temporary, but the aura of that moment I want to have." ”
That moment means a lot, there is the affirmation of personal competitive strength, the establishment of the status of the project, and the enjoyment of the cheers and praise of the crowd as a winner, of course, including the material reward of hard work.
The General Administration of Sport of the People's Republic of China provides about 500,000 yuan for gold medalists in the London Olympic Games, plus the bonuses of local provinces, cities and county governments, and counting the physical rewards provided by some enterprises such as houses and cars, the total amount is conservatively estimated to be no less than 2 million yuan. And these rewards, which should have belonged to the Olympic champions, cannot be fully realized ten years later.
Putting aside all this, stripping away the aura, it is the gold medal that can prove that he is a champion, and it will take a while to really hold it in your hand.
The original silver medalist Kaniskina was cancelled in 2015, but it was not until June 10, 2020 that the IOC held an executive committee meeting to decide to re-qualify some events in the 2012 London, 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio and 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games, and officially announced that China's Cheyang Shijie and Liu Hong would be the runners-up and third place in the women's 20 km race walk at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Once the rankings are re-established, the IOC will reassign Olympic medals, certificates of achievement and medals of the winning athletes. On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, Sister Qieyang Shi received a silver medal engraved with the results and dates of the competition.
Similarly, the reissuance of the gold medal also needs to go through such a complex and slightly lengthy process.
Ten years later, the harvest of honors that should have belonged to you ten years ago is hard to define whether you should blame fate for its deliberate trickery or thank fate for its re-favor.
On April 23, 2022, the World Athletics Federation Race Walking Tour (Gold Bid) was held in Dudinsi, Slovakia, and Cheyangsh sister won the women's 35 km race walk and set the best result in the event.
However, the more cruel reality is that in the past ten years, the strength of Sister Cheyang Shi has long been in the top three ranks of the world of race walking, but she has never won a gold medal in a major competition.
Fourth place at the 2013 Liaoning National Games, fifth place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, runner-up at the 2017 Tianjin National Games, runners-up at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, runners-up at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, seventh place at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, and runners-up at the 2021 Shaanxi National Games.
In an interview after the 2021 National Games, Sister Qieyang Shi had tears in her eyes: "Many people say, you see, maybe you take second every time, but you have been in a peak state for so many years, which may also be a kind of luck for you." But I really don't want this kind of luck, I want to break it, but it's a pity. ”
Obviously, winning the championship is one of the driving forces for Sister CheyangShi to persist until now. If she had won the championship ten years ago, the trajectory of Sister Qieyangshi's life would not have been rewritten; if she had the confidence of a champion, would there be more gold medals in her future competitive career.
Sister CheyangShi said: "The past has passed, and what you want to get is still working hard." Now that ten years have passed, to the age when everything is looked down upon, tomorrow will still be 'a new beginning, the beginning of zero'. ”
On April 23, the IAAF Race Walking Tour (Gold Label) was held in Dudinsi, Slovakia, and the women's 35 km race walk final, Cheyangsh sister won the championship with a time of 2 hours, 43 minutes and 06 seconds, and set a personal best result in the event.
Lv Xiaojun at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Lv Xiaojun: It has nothing to do with gold medals, just "military gods"
The day after Cheyang Shijie made up for the gold medal, another Chinese player also made up for the Olympic gold medal, he was the weightlifter Lu Xiaojun.
On March 22, the National Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that Rio Olympic champion Nidzat Rasimov, the men's weightlifting champion at the Rio Olympics in the 77 kg category, would be banned for eight years for taking illicit drugs, canceling all of his results from 15 March 2016 to 18 January 2021.
This means that Lu Xiaojun has become the champion of the men's weightlifting 77 kg at the Rio Olympics. Together with the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medal won in Tokyo last summer, the Olympic "triple crown" was achieved.
Lu Xiaojun's response on social media was relatively brief: "Thank you for your concern and blessings! At present, we are still waiting for the official news of the International Olympic Committee and the International Federation of Lifting, and we, the Chinese Association, have been paying attention to this matter. I hope that everyone will continue to pay attention to China's weightlifting, the miracle comes from the same efforts as always, China weightlifting, come on! ”
As for the news that Rasimov will be punished for using banned drugs, the International Federation of Juju was first published through its official website in 2019. Only after that Rasimov has been complaining, and the final punishment was not settled this year.
During this period, whenever the media interviewed Lu Xiaojun, the matter of "possible replacement of the Olympic gold medal" would also be repeatedly mentioned, and There was always a sentence in Lu Xiaojun's answer: "After all, after all, after all, he won on the field." ”
Lü Xiaojun replied lightly, but what he revealed was the domineering spirit and contempt of the king. By implication, only a high on the weightlifting table counts. There is no need to resort to other means, and regardless of whether the opponent's performance is clean or not, in the face of absolute strength, one victory.
Netizens called Lu Xiaojun a "god of war", and in the project that he has struggled for nearly 20 years, no one can shake his status.
Born in 1984, Lu Xiaojun first entered the national team in 2003. But it wasn't until 2009 that the 25-year-old Lu Xiaojun came to prominence in international competitions.
At that year's Weightlifting World Championships, Lu Xiaojun won two gold medals in the men's 77 kg competition, breaking both world records, and was named the best male athlete of that event by the International Lifting Federation.
Like Sister Cheyangshi, Lu Xiaojun's Olympic journey also began at the 2012 London Olympics, but he was 28 years old when he participated. In the weightlifting men's 77 kg competition, Lu Xiaojun grabbed 175 kg to break the world record, and the total result of 379 kg broke the world record and finally won the championship.
In the following four years, in the men's 77 kg event, Lu Xiaojun rarely had opponents, the World Championships, the Asian Championships, the Asian Games, the National Games... He had almost all the gold medals in this class. Defending the title at the 2016 Rio Olympics is a matter of course.
In the Rio Olympic weightlifting men's 77 kg competition, Lu Xiaojun set a new world record of 177 kg in tackling, 12 kg ahead of second-place Kazakh Rhakhimov.
With such a huge advantage, Lu Xiaojun lifted 202 kilograms in the third attempt in the deadlift competition, with a total score of 379 kilograms, equaling the world record he set at the London Olympic Games.
Rasimov also lifted 202 kg in his first attempt, and directly chose 214 kg to smooth out the 12 kg gap in the second test. Rasimov succeeded in the test, and the overall result was the same as that of Lu Xiaojun. But because of his weight less than Lu Xiaojun, the gold medal belonged to Rasimov, and the 32-year-old Lü Xiaojun only won the silver medal.
Lu Xiaojun at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Even if there had been no subsequent incident of illicit drugs, that match seemed controversial at the time. Rasimov's movements were slightly flawed, and the barbell was raised above his head and did not stand still for 3 seconds.
After the rio game, Lu Xiaojun, who was interviewed, was a little excited, and his voice was a little trembling. He didn't want to show this side too much, so he kept covering up and restraining himself through a smile, laughing very unnaturally, "Or a little too underestimated the opponent... Needless to say, although the weight of this medal is not heavy enough, I think, tried my best. ”
Obviously missing the gold medal in this way, Lu Xiaojun was unwilling; the king of a project ended his career with a silver medal, and it was not perfect enough. Lu Xiaojun was unwilling to compromise with himself, and the veteran who had originally planned to retire made a decision - to work for another four years.
Looking back now, if that gold medal was not a replacement, it belonged to Lu Xiaojun at that time. Then people will witness the perfect end of a master who has won two consecutive Olympic games, but also will miss a more brilliant veteran legend.
A defeat of yin and yang gave birth to Lu Xiaojun's longer sports life and more wonderful movement trajectory.
Do it, win, and win invulnerable. Lu Xiaojun, who was already married and a father at that time, must have made such a choice after some careful consideration. What problems the veteran will encounter in preparing for battle, and how to deal with these problems, Lu Xiaojun has also made very meticulous preparations. For example, the decline of physical function, the prolongation of the recovery cycle, and so on.
However, these are difficulties that can be imagined in advance, but there have been many unexpected accidents in the preparation of this Olympic cycle.
In July 2018, the International Lifting Federation adjusted the level of Olympic weightlifting. The men's class was changed from 8 in Rio to 7, and there was no 77 kg class in the new division.
Fate seems to have played a joke with the veteran: you are trying your best to fight again, and when the Olympic preparation cycle is halfway through, the stage for you to fight and dominate is suddenly gone.
However, The speed at which Lü Xiaojun adapted and adjusted was also amazing, and he instead upgraded to the 81 kg class. At the Weightlifting World Championships held in the same year, Lu Xiaojun won the overall championship and broke the world record. In the 2019 World Championships, the 35-year-old Lu Xiaojun won the triple crown of 81 kg snatch, deadlift and total result with injury, and broke the two world records of the deadlift and the total result.
Just when Lu Xiaojun showed excellent strength and good condition in the new project, another accident came. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed for a year.
For most veterans, the extra year out of thin air is suffering day by day. How to adjust the training rhythm, how to maintain the competitive state, and how to restore physical functions, this year is full of uncertainty.
But all the accidents and twists and turns can only become a footnote to the veteran's legend in the end.
At the Tokyo Olympics, 37-year-old Lu Xiaojun won the men's 81 kg weightlifting championship with a total of 170 kg in snatch, 204 kg in deadlift, and a total of 374 kg, all three of which set olympic records in the event. He also became the oldest weightlifting champion in Olympic history.
Now, with this supplementary gold medal, Lu Xiaojun has also achieved the feat of winning gold in three consecutive Olympic Games.
Lu Xiaojun at the Tokyo Olympics.
Can the "God of War" end perfectly now? Lu Xiaojun said that he loves the sport too much and has no plans to retire at present. With just over two years left in the new Olympic preparation cycle, he may still be seen at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
However, at the beginning of this month, the Schedule and Specific Events of the Paris Olympic Games were announced, and the International Lifting Federation once again adjusted the weightlifting level. The men's classes became five, 61, 73, 89, 102 kg and over 102 kg.
Lü Xiaojun's 81 kg class has disappeared again, which may be a new examination question for the achievement of another legendary story of the "God of War".
In addition to Sister Qieyang Shi, who realized her dream of Olympic gold medals, and Lu Xiaojun, who achieved three Olympic gold medals, on this long list of replacements, Liu Hong has realized her Olympic championship dream in Rio and Gong Lijiao in Tokyo.
And people like Si Tianfeng, Li Yanfeng, Li Ling, Zhang Wenxiu, etc., by the time they reach the medal, they are either close to the end of their careers or have officially retired...