In early December 2021, Zhang Hao, the elder of the Five Dynasties of the Winter Olympics and a famous player of the Chinese figure skating team, officially announced his decision to retire in a show. The 38-year-old Zhang Hao has spent more than two decades on the ice rink, and in the face of increasing age and injury caused by high-intensity training, Zhang Hao had to choose to leave the national team, leaving the place where he had shed countless sweat and tears.
As a famous player in the Chinese figure skating team, Zhang Hao's basic skills are very solid. He was physically better than his peers since he was a child, and then he was exposed to figure skating at the age of 4 and began to train in the Harbin Professional Team from the age of 8. In 1998, 14-year-old Zhang Hao received a notice from the national team and came to the coveted Chinese figure skating team.
Zhang Hao has won a total of 65 gold medals throughout his sports career. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Zhang Hao and his partner Zhang Dan won the silver medal in the pair skating with a near-perfect performance, creating the best result of the Chinese figure skating team at the Winter Olympics at that time. Prior to this, Zhang Hao also performed well in many competitions, winning successive championships, including the 2003 World Figure Skating Grand Prix In France, the 2004 World Figure Skating Grand Prix in the United States and Russia, and the 2005 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships Pair Skating Champion.
However, Zhang Hao, who is full of honors, has been questioned and accused by many netizens, saying that he is a "scumbag" who deliberately wrestled his female companion in the game, saying that he is obviously more than 30 years old and still occupies the position of the national team and does not let go. Such evaluations abound on the Internet, which is enough to see how deep the public's opinion of him is. So what happened to Zhang Hao's body that provoked public indignation?
If you want to go back from the beginning, you have to mention the match in 2006 when he and Zhang Dan won the silver medal in pair skating at the Winter Olympics. At that time, in the final of the free skating project, Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan made ultra-difficult and elegant movements, dancing on the ice, and the picture was beautiful and harmonious. But the accident happened in an instant, when Zhang Hao lifted Zhang Dan up to prepare for the next jumping action, Zhang Dan fell heavily on the hard ice, and also hit the baffle not far away. Later, in the surprised eyes of everyone, Zhang Danqiang stood up in pain and returned to the field to continue to complete the game.
They passed by the champion in that game, but Zhang Dan's tenacious spirit was praised by countless people, and some people called them "uncrowned kings". At that time, almost everyone regarded Zhang Dan's fall as an accident, after all, competitive sports do have certain risks, and it is normal to be injured due to training competitions. But later, when Zhang Hao's female companion fell to varying degrees twice in succession, many people began to question whether Zhang Hao deliberately did it.
After the Turin Winter Olympics, Zhang Dan gradually withdrew from the figure skating stage, and Zhang Hao also changed a new partner, Peng Cheng. At that time, Peng Cheng was 13 years younger than Zhang Hao and was a rising star in China's figure skating world. In fact, Peng Cheng had a fixed partner before, because of the team with Zhang Hao, her original partner became a lone person, and later retired early. It is worth mentioning that in the process of partnering with Zhang Hao, Peng Cheng was also thrown to the ground by him.
In 2016, the coaching team represented by Shen Xue zhao Hongbo broke up the tacit partnership between Yu Xiaoyu and Jin Yang, which had been cooperating for ten years, and let Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao form a new duo. Such a decision caused a lot of dissatisfaction. Zhang Hao was eleven years older than Yu Xiaoyu, and the two of them had to run into each other for a long time, which was a great challenge for either of them. But the coaching staff has already made a decision, they can only obey the orders and listen to the command.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the scene of the female partner falling to the ground appeared on Zhang Hao again. After Zhang Hao threw The Light Rain into the air, Yu Xiao Yu fell heavily to the ground. Watching the familiar picture played out again many years ago, netizens could not hold back the resentment and anger in their hearts and began to accuse Zhang Hao. Although some people spoke for Zhang Hao, saying that accidents would inevitably occur during the game, such voices were quickly drowned out in a loud rebuke.
After Zhang Dan fell, she once said that no one would deliberately make such a serious mistake in the Olympic games, but Yu Xiaoyu's long article released when he retired caused everyone to think deeply. She did not mention Zhang Hao's name, but she was automatically substituted into the game at that time by many netizens, so her impression of Zhang Hao was even worse.
Although there are many controversies in Zhang Hao's body, and many netizens call him a "scumbag", it is also an indisputable fact that he has won the honor of Chinese figure skating. The voice of the outside world is actually not important to Zhang Hao, and he always maintains his original intention for figure skating. Zhang Hao once said that figure skating is like his life, and although he has left the ice rink he loves, he said that he still does work related to figure skating and will always do his best to contribute to the development of China's figure skating cause.