Wen | explorer of literature and history
Editor| Explorer of Literature and History
preface
"I don't understand Chinese, please interview in Russian or English, otherwise I refuse to answer"
On the women's podium at the London Olympics, a weightlifter from Liaoning, China, said so.
On July 31, 2012, Yao Li won a gold medal for a foreign country, and since then she has changed her name to a foreign name, and even refused to admit that she was once a Chinese.
Win
In the women's weightlifting competition in the 63 kg category, Maia Maneza from Kazakhstan broke the Olympic record with an excellent result of 245 kg and won the gold medal in the event.
However, she has another name- Yao Li
In fact, as a Chinese, but representing other countries in the Olympic Games, it is normal in the world sports world, and even after the game, you can talk with your former teammates or coaches, go out to eat, and exchange feelings.
For example, during the Tokyo Olympic Games, the German women's table tennis team had a total of 3 players, but both were Chinese athletes, including coaches who were born and raised Chinese.
After all, the strength of Chinese table tennis is obvious to all, if there is no foreign assistance, then the so-called World Olympic Games will become a civil war for Chinese players, and everyone actually understands this situation.
Although they play in place of other countries, these athletes have also won glory for the country, and they all believe that they are a Chinese in their hearts.
However, this Yao Li, in the face of the interview, actually denied that she was Chinese, which made countless Chinese audiences unable to accept it for a while.
We can accept that you are fighting for other countries, but we cannot tolerate your forgetting your ancestors.
Yao Li joined the Liaoning Sports Team since childhood, and later came to Kazakhstan after several turns, and it was this time that the public dispatch of foreign aid made Yao Li's life change dramatically.
In fact, the kind of thing like public dispatch of foreign aid is not as beautiful as everyone thinks.
First of all, if an athlete is good enough, then most of your provincial teams are not willing to let you leave easily, even if you leave the team to go abroad, you will enjoy the top venue, the most professional coach, and the highest standard of treatment.
And Yao Li does not belong to this type of person.
She belongs to the bottom of the team in this province, which is tasteless and abandoned, and she does have talent compared to ordinary people, but in the provincial team where the masters are gathered, it seems a bit unremarkable.
After so many years of training, Yao Li is still an obscure young player, which makes her heart very unbalanced, thinking that it is due to the coach's eccentricity.
In 2008, Yao Li was given a chance to play, but because of an arm injury, she lost her arm with the gold medal, and it was this encounter that laid the groundwork for a series of subsequent events.
Sent abroad
After the country was completely hopeless, Yao Li was given a chance to go abroad, and although she was very reluctant, she knew that she only had this way to turn over.
After coming to Kazakhstan, Yao Li had to face the problem of language communication, and came to a foreign country alone, and the psychological pressure she endured was very large.
But Yao Li did not give up, relying on her own persistence and efforts, won a well-known local coach weight, and tilted the best resources in the country to her.
After a period of training, Yao Li's performance improved by leaps and bounds, and the coach approached Yao Li in the hope that she would represent Kazakhstan in the next Olympic Games.
Faced with this not excessive request, Yao Li fell into contemplation.
First of all, if Yao Li wants to compete in place of Kazakhstan, she must become a Kazakh national, otherwise she is not eligible, and if she joins the nationality of other countries, she must give up her Chinese nationality.
This is indeed a difficult decision for a teenager, but he has been in China for so many years, still unknown, just a fight, maybe you can break out of the world.
Not to mention that the coach from abroad valued himself so much that after some thought, Yao Li decided to join Kazakhstan and changed her name to Maia Maneza.
Soaring
In Kazakhstan, Mia Maneza, also known as Yao Li, began her own path to victory.
In 2009, at the Gaoyang World Championships, he finished sixth, champion in the deadlift, and champion in the overall result
In 2010, at the World Championships in Antalya, he finished fourth, champion in the deadlift and champion in the overall result.
In 2010, he won the Guangzhou Asian Games.
In 2011, he finished third at the World Championships in Paris, champion in the deadlift, and finished second overall.
At the 2012 London Olympic Games, he broke the Olympic record and won gold strongly.
When she won the championship in Guangzhou, Yao Li spoke authentic Mandarin, which made the audience wonder, and after in-depth understanding, she learned that it was a player from China.
At that time, most of the audience was holding the mentality of discussion to talk about this person, after all, this kind of athlete who contributed to other countries, although there were not many, but it was also allowed by the rules, but there were some sighs and feelings.
Until the 2012 London Olympic Games, on the podium of the Olympic Games, Yao Li excitedly looked at the Kazakh flag that was rising for herself, and faced with the questions of Chinese reporters in the audience, Yao Li ignored it and looked like she couldn't understand Chinese at all.
This can make the reporter in charge of the interview confused, how Yao Li, who was still talking and laughing with herself two years ago, has not looked like she refuses to be thousands of miles away.
And the more infuriating things are still to come, after the award was received, there was also a press conference, during the meeting, Yao Li said to the camera:
Being an athlete in Kazakhstan herself and only giving interviews in English or Russian is a respect for her country.
As soon as this remark came out, most of the reporters present expressed their incomprehension, after all, Yao Li had lived in China for more than ten years, which was an ironclad fact.
For this matter, Yao Li only said that she did live in China, but that was all, my heart represented Kazakhstan.
This sentence completely ignited the anger of the Chinese people, you said that you compete for other countries, this is no problem in itself, but you deny that you are Chinese, is this not a typical behavior of wangzu? For a time, Yao Li was pushed to the cusp of public opinion.
Now The World
It took until four years later, in June 2016.
In a notice from the International Weightlifting Union, a description was written about the list of gold medalists who had been positive in the doping re-examination of the London Olympic Games, and Yao Li's name was prominently listed.
Something like this kind of doping to compete and win the championship is a very serious violation in the sports world, and all countries, including the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, are all about this kind of behavior, found together, cracked down together, and will not be tolerated.
If this matter is let go, it will be an unfairness to all athletes who work hard.
Sure enough, Yao Li was banned from the game at the age of 32, you know, with the reasonable diet of modern humans and the systematic training method, the peak age of athletes is also increasing.
From the age of 25 to 32, in the entire sports career, both physical strength and intelligence will reach the peak, and then begin to weaken continuously, and Yao Li missed her peak period and could only withdraw.
However, this is not the end, after the lifetime ban, the gold medal won in 2012 was also deprived, but it is said that Yao Li suddenly fell to the bottom from the winner of life, and there will never be a day to turn over.
After an in-depth investigation, we found that Yao Li was not the first and by no means the last, and that the coach responsible for Yao Li's training in Kazakhstan was a notorious drug dealer.
Why, because many of his athletes have been detected for illegal use of drugs, and the coach shows no signs of relenting.
In order to achieve better results, he tried every means to trick his athletes into taking medicine in order to win medals.
As long as you can produce results, then all other sacrifices are insignificant, even if it is the second half of the athlete's sports career, for the coach, you can't, there are more excellent athletes in the world, not one worse than you, especially like this kind of public transfer student.
If you agree, if you don't agree, then you can't enjoy the most superior training conditions, and you may even be hidden by the snow, and then don't say that you are famous, it is likely that your livelihood will become a problem.
However, whether it is voluntarily agreed or forced to agree, the illegal use of drugs should not be forgiven, and another athlete who traveled to Kazakhstan at the same time as Yao Li was also tested positive.
After this matter was exposed, people understood why Yao Li, who was unremarkable in her own country and even in the tail state of the crane, had grown by leaps and bounds in the time she had gone abroad for only a few years, and once broke the historical achievements of the Olympic Games.
Of course, Yao Li was also punished as she deserved in the end.
Difficulties
At that time, faced with such a thing as changing nationality, Yao Li hesitated for a long time, after all, she had been born and raised in China for so many years, and she had more or less feelings.
But it is a coincidence that Yao Li's original family has changed, originally Yao Li came from the countryside, the family's economic conditions are not good, if there is no disease and no disaster, the whole family can still rely on the family's fields and father's income, barely survive.
However, Yao Li's father was diagnosed with diabetes.
The pillars of the family fell at once, the income of the whole family plummeted, and all the pressure was borne by the mother alone.
Not only did the whole family have no new income, but their previous savings were quickly exhausted, and at this moment, the whole family also faced sky-high medical expenses, which was a devastating blow to a family like Yao Li.
In order to ease the burden on her mother, Yao Li can only desperately make money.
Yao Li's mother
Coincidentally, Yao Li came to Kazakhstan, where the coach was willing to offer $1500 a month in treatment to buy Yao Li to play for other countries.
This money was already astronomical for Yao Li at that time, not to mention that if she achieved good results and got medals, there were additional bonuses.
Whether it is from the perspective of career planning or from the perspective of her father's illness, Yao Li cannot be allowed to continue to hesitate.
In this way, with Yao Li's salary, her father's condition was finally stabilized, and almost all the costs were borne by Yao Li alone during the entire treatment period.
The money earned, Yao Li herself hardly used, but all hit the family, which allowed this small family to survive.
For their daughter's life abroad, parents are mostly out of heartache, after all, a person wandering away, but also handed over all their wages, the pressure of the parents dare not think.
Although they feel lost for Yao Li to give up their Chinese nationality, the old two are actually proud of their daughters, and the only regret is that Yao Li has not won a medal for the motherland.
With the improvement of Yao Li's father's illness, friends in the village know that the old couple has a filial daughter.
But with the end of an interview, everything changed, and the old couple never dreamed that their daughter would one day refuse to admit that she was Chinese in front of the national audience.
With the gradual spread of the matter, the two sons also felt ashamed from their previous pride, although the villagers did not say anything on the surface, but secretly talked about the two.
Yao Li's mother, who was under great pressure, washed her face with tears all day and did not know how to be good.
After hearing about this incident, Yao Li herself expressed her willingness to take the second elder to Kazakhstan, where no one would say anything, but she was strongly opposed by her parents.
For the older generation, this land is their home, their roots are here, and even if the outside world is good, it is not as good as their homeland, which is the unique feeling of home and country that we Chinese.
Seeing that her parents were so determined, Yao Li gave up her plan to pick up the second elder, and she herself did not plan to return to China, but found a husband in Kazakhstan and settled in a foreign country.
Looking at Yao Li's entire life, it is not difficult for us to find that in fact, Yao Li's choice to join the nationality of other countries is a choice made under many circumstances.
We don't have the right to blame anything, and what makes the people angry is that Yao Li actually denies that she is a Chinese, and at the same time, she directly cuts the country and coaches who have raised her for more than ten years, and turns her face ruthlessly, which is what makes us angry.
epilogue
What's more, with the economic prosperity and development of our country, all walks of life have continued to make steady progress.
On the field of the Olympic Games, Chinese athletes wearing the Chinese flag are using their own efforts to win glory for the country, and we no longer value that medal, but pay more attention to the athletes themselves.
With the reform of sports, we continue to balance the selection of personnel, and strive to create a more excellent selection mechanism, so that real talents appear in the public's vision.
At the same time, we will continue to solve the worries of athletes, so that athletes in our country can focus more on the spirit on the field, so as to achieve better results and win glory for the country.
Athletes need everyone's support and encouragement, we also need to give athletes more care and consideration, after all, winning or losing is a common thing, and we have no lack of courage to start from scratch.