In May 2002, Heo Zhaoying, once known as the "Princess of Korean Gymnastics", resolutely married her Chinese husband Huang Liping, despite the opposition of her family and South Korean public opinion.
This marriage made Xu Zhaoying known as a "traitor" in South Korea, and the public opinion circle even launched a verbal attack on her, in the face of these doubts, Xu Zhaoying chose to ignore.
Huang Liping was once a member and coach of the mainland gymnastics national team, and Xu Zhaoying was a member of the Korean gymnastics national team, and the two met on the field.
Since Huang Liping met Xu Zhaoying at the 1993 Birmingham International Gymnastics Championships, he fell in love at first sight and embarked on a years-long pursuit, and after several setbacks, he finally embraced the beauty.
In 1993, Heo Zhaoying, who was still in high school, joined the South Korean national gymnastics team, and at this time, Huang Liping was already the main athlete of the mainland gymnastics national team.
In April of that year, the International Gymnastics Championships were held in Birmingham, England, and Huang Liping and Xu Zhaoying met unexpectedly in this event.
At that time, Xu Zhaoying would not have thought that after this competition, she would be closely linked to a person she had never known.
In this tournament, Huang Liping did not win the championship due to poor performance, and after winning the prize, he sat on the sidelines, chafing at his performance while carefully watching the performance of athletes from other countries.
When Huang Liping's attention was focused on the South Korean national team, his eyes were instantly attracted to a young and beautiful girl, who needless to say was Heo Zhaoying, who was less than 20 years old at the time.
Although Huang Liping at this time very much wanted to come forward and talk with Xu Zhaoying, he finally resisted the impulse in his heart, but Xu Zhaoying's every move was deeply engraved in his mind.
After returning to China, Huang Liping stepped up his training while looking forward to the next international event and meeting With Xu Zhaoying again.
In October 1994, the 12th Asian Games were held in Hiroshima, Japan, and Huang Liping and Xu Zhaoying represented their respective countries again.
Huang Liping, who lost last year's championship, finally made up for his regrets this time.
In the parallel bars project, Huang Liping showed a heroic posture, completed a set of difficult actions like a stream of clouds, landed smoothly and the audience resounded with endless applause.
Not surprisingly, the referees scored a high score unanimously, Huang Liping successfully won the gold medal in the parallel bars event, and then in the horizontal bar and gymnastics all-around events, Huang Liping also played well, winning the runner-up in two events.
After Huang Liping left the court, he focused his attention on Xu Zhaoying.
This girl, who was still a sophomore in high school at the time, also played well on the field and helped the South Korean national team win a bronze medal in the team event, although it was a bronze medal, but for the fledgling Heo Zhaoying, it was already a great gain.
Unlike the last time, Huang Liping plucked up enough courage this time to find Xu Zhaoying through a Korean friend, which was also the first official meeting between the two.
In the face of Xu Zhaoying, Huang Liping, who has always been generous, was shy, and when he plucked up his courage and expressed his heart to Xu Zhaoying through his friends, he touched a nose of ash.
In the face of Huang Liping's intentions, Xu Zhaoying bluntly said that he was still in high school, and he was still mainly academic, and he had never thought of marrying a foreigner.
Huang Liping, who touched the nail, was not discouraged, and then bought some gifts for friends to give to Xu Zhaoying, although Xu Zhaoying accepted Huang Liping's gift, but there was no response, which once made Huang Liping sullen.
After the Asian Games, Huang Liping, who returned to China, did not give up because of Xu Zhaoying's refusal, and he began to look forward to the next international competition, but he would not think that when he and Xu Zhaoying met again with the field, he was no longer an athlete, but an international referee.
The reason for this identity change is that at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in Australia, due to the unfair judgment of the referee, Huang Liping lost the gold medal that he should have won, and in the team event, he was forced to be the runner-up for the same reason.
Huang Liping was devastated by the Olympics, and he realized the importance of a fair referee for the game, so he decided to transform into a referee.
Shortly after the Olympics, Huang Liping announced his retirement and began preparing for the transformation of referees.
Becoming an international gymnastics referee is not an easy task and requires a rigorous examination to earn a certificate.
For Huang Liping, he spent several months delving into relevant knowledge, and successfully passed the exam, obtained the certificate of international gymnastics referee in one fell swoop, and officially became a referee who enforced the law impartially.
After transforming into a referee, Huang Liping participated in the first international competition, which was the 13th Asian Games held in Bangkok, Thailand in 1998.
In 1998, Heo Joo-young has become the main athlete of the Korean gymnastics national team and has completed his studies, and at this Asian Games, Heo Zhaoying led the Korean women's gymnastics team to compete.
As a referee, Huang Liping saw The name of Xu Zhaoying in the list of participants submitted by the Korean team early, and he was overjoyed that he finally had the opportunity to see her again after a few years.
After Xu Zhaoying finished his break, Huang Liping gave her a gift again, and unlike the last time, this time Huang Liping received a return gift from Xu Zhaoying.
This gift is so precious to Huang Liping, because it shows that Xu Zhaoying's attitude towards him is different from before, and her heart has undergone subtle changes.
With a good start, Huang Liping seized the opportunity to have a friendly conversation with Xu Zhaoying in stumbling Korean.
After this conversation, Xu Zhaoying had a great affection for Huang Liping in his heart, but they had to face a huge problem, which was the language barrier.
After the Asian Games, Xu Zhaoying returned to South Korea, where Huang Liping was not only a gymnastics referee, but also a coach of the Chinese national gymnastics team and the head coach of Li Ning Gymnastics School, living in Foshan.
The distance of thousands of miles did not hinder the development of the relationship between the two, and Xu Zhaoying would often take the initiative to call Huang Liping to share some interesting things in life.
In the era when communication was not yet developed, such international long-distance calls were generally expensive, and even if the two overcame difficulties to maintain contact, it was not a long-term solution.
To this end, Xu Zhaoying decided to come to China to learn Chinese, and in 2001, Xu Zhaoying officially announced his retirement and announced his plans to go to China to study at a university.
In Hiso Joo-young's eight-year gymnastics career, she has won many honors, winning 4 gold medals in a competition and being called "gymnastics princess" by the Korean people.
However, Xu Zhaoying's parents are very opposed to their daughter's choice, at this time they do not know that their daughter has fallen in love, simply think that she is just to learn Chinese, in the end, can not resist Xu Zhaoying's stubbornness, parents respect her choice.
In 2001, Xu Zhaoying came to China and entered Sun Yat-sen University to study Chinese.
Here, Huang Liping was finally able to accompany Xu Zhaoying, and in the following year, Huang Liping accompanied Xu Zhaoying through the streets and alleys of the city, and sometimes came to the gymnastics school with him to give lessons to students.
The relationship between the two heated up rapidly in a year, and finally reached the point of talking about marriage.
Until this time, Xu Zhaoying's parents knew the true purpose of their daughter's visit to China, and after learning that their daughter had a heart, their parents were very worried about it, after all, marrying another country means that the family will be separated from each other from now on.
When the news that Xu Zhaoying was going to marry Huang Liping was reported by the South Korean media, a wave of criticism was set off in South Korean society, and many people began to point fingers at Xu Zhaoying, claiming that she had "betrayed the motherland" and directly called Xu Zhaoying "traitor".
Xu Zhaoying also has many suitors in South Korea, but she finally chose Huang Liping, in the face of a round of insults and doubts in the public opinion, Xu Zhaoying's attitude is very resolute, she said bluntly to her parents: I will marry Chinese!
Unable to resist the stubbornness of the daughter, the attitude of the parents gradually changed, the two old people began to understand Huang Liping, with the help of Xu Zhaoying, the parents finally accepted Huang Liping and agreed to entrust their daughter to him.
With the affirmation of his parents, the follow-up matters of Xu Zhaoying and Xu Zhaoying were very smooth, and the wedding date was quickly determined.
On May 4, 2002, the day of the wedding, Huang Liping and his party came to Xu Zhaoying's house to greet the bride.
Along with Huang Liping, in addition to relatives and friends, there are also a number of big names in the Chinese gymnastics world, such as Li Ning, Li Xiaoshuang, Li Dashuang, gymnastics coach Zhang Jian and so on.
It can be said that the combination of Huang Liping and Xu Zhaoying is not only a combination of two families, but also a beautiful talk in the gymnastics circles of China and South Korea.
After marriage, Xu Zhaoying and Huang Liping returned to their domestic lives, although Xu Zhaoying retired, her influence in the Korean gymnastics circle is still there, and the Korean team also invited Xu Zhaoying to return to China to work.
However, the Korean public generally resisted Xu Zhaoying, and in this context, Xu Zhaoying completely gave up the idea of returning to South Korea to work and chose to settle in China with her husband.
Compared with the boycott of the South Korean public, the attitude of the mainland people to Xu Zhaoying is one of welcome.
Xu Zhaoying's life in China is very harmonious, and soon after marriage, the husband and wife have a lovely daughter, and the family lives happily and harmoniously.
As a former sports athlete, Heo Zhaoying completely faded out of the gymnastics world after marriage, and today's Korean people seem to be reluctant to mention her existence, but still include the honors won by Heo Zhaoying in the statistics, but they are reluctant to mention her name.
Unlike Xu Zhaoying, Huang Liping's career is still booming after marriage.
Huang Liping once said when he was admitted to the international referee that the purpose of his admission to the referee was to reduce the occurrence of unfair judgments and penalties for Chinese athletes in international competitions and increase the mainland's voice in the international sports world.
After Huang Liping became an international referee, he has successively enforced the Olympic Games as a referee, and because of his impartial law enforcement and excellent professional quality, he was successfully elected as the first vice chairman of the MEN's Technical Committee of the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION in 2008, becoming an important figure in the international sports federation of the mainland in one fell swoop, greatly improving the mainland's voice in the international sports arena.
On August 8, 2008, the Beijing Olympic Games were grandly opened at the Bird's Nest.
In the opening ceremony, there was a section of athlete representatives and referee representatives taking the oath, and it was Huang Liping who took the oath on behalf of all the referees.
In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the country's comprehensive national strength, the mainland's athletes have successively created good results in international competitions.
The unfair penalties suffered by Chinese athletes in international competitions have been greatly reduced, and the injustices that Huang Liping encountered at the Atlanta Olympic Games in that year will not be repeated, which is also his long-cherished wish for many years.
In fact, in the mainland sports world, there are many transnational couples like Huang Liping and Xu Zhaoying, such as jiao Zhimin, a former female table tennis player in the mainland, whose husband is a famous Korean table tennis player Ahn Jae-hyung, and what is more valuable is that when the two of them got married, China and South Korea had not yet established diplomatic relations.
Jiao Zhimin was a major star in the mainland table tennis industry in the 1980s, and once defeated Cao Yanhua, who was the first in the world women's table tennis ranking at the 1983 National Games, and Geng Lijuan and Dai Lili, the three world champions.
The encounter between the two was also on the field, and since Ahn Jae-hyung met Jiao Zhimin, his devotion to the latter was no less than that of Huang Liping to Xu Zhaoying.
Perhaps coincidentally, like Huang Liping and his wife, Ahn Jae-hyung and Jiao Zhimin initially became acquainted with each other by exchanging gifts and gradually established a relationship.
There is also an episode in this: An Zaiheng's teammate Liu Nankui also likes Jiao Zhimin, and he withholds the gift that An Zaihengto himself handed over, but this does not hinder the development of the two in the end.
After the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Jiao Zhimin chose to retire and go to Switzerland to study, and Ahn Jae-hyung went to Switzerland to propose marriage in order to pursue beauty.
This move frightened Jiao Zhimin, at that time China and South Korea had not yet established diplomatic relations, the domestic people did not know much about South Korea, Jiao Zhimin and Ahn Jae-hyung went to the embassy to go through marriage procedures after a full day of serious consideration.
When Jiao Zhimin flew to South Korea, she was stunned by what she saw: not only was the whole media broadcast live, but also many government officials and table tennis celebrities came to welcome her, and even the police escorted her all the way to the hotel with a special car.
It is worth mentioning that Jiao Zhimin's family was also invited to Seoul in advance by the South Korean government.
Compared with The Marriage of Heo Chao-young, the attitude of the Korean public towards the two is completely heaven and earth, is it only allowed foreigners to marry in South Korea, and Koreans are not allowed to marry foreigners?
Although Jiao Zhimin married to South Korea, she always refused to join the Korean team and made her attitude early: she would never represent the Korean team.
Although athletes have nationalities, there is no difference in love, because the love in people's hearts can always cross thousands of mountains and rivers and reach the heart of the person they are thinking.