In the men's long jump final of the 2022 World Championships in Athletics, 26-year-old China's Wang Jianan won the first gold medal in the long jump of the World Championships in the history of Chinese athletics with a score of 8 meters 36 in the last jump. This is not only a historic breakthrough in China's men's athletics program, but also the first time that An Asian athlete has ascended to the throne of the World Championships long jump champion. This week, Wang Jiannan, who is far away in Eugene, usa, was interviewed by the "Face to Face" column.
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Win the World Championships
Eight years ago, on July 24, 2014, Wang Jiannan, who was under the age of 18, made a splash in Eugene, USA, and won the men's long jump championship at the World Junior Athletics Championships with a time of 8 meters 08 meters. In the following 8 years, although Wang Jiannan repeatedly achieved good results and equaled the national record of 8 meters 47 in one fell swoop, he was always unable to compete with the highest podium of the World Championships and the Olympic Games. At last year's Tokyo Olympics, he only jumped 7.81 meters in the preliminaries, failed to reach the final, and this time he went to Eugene again, although he successfully advanced to the final, but at first he was not optimistic.
Reporter: I have won the gold medal of the World Youth Championship before, when I came to Eugene before this competition, was the gold medal within my goal?
Wang Jiannan: To be honest, I really didn't think about the gold medal, I feel that my mentality is particularly good, including when checking in, I will also observe the opponent, look at the state of everyone, and book the top three places for this final in my mind, the Greek Olympic champion is the first place, and the second is the Swedish boy.
Wang Jiannan became the first World Championships long jump champion in Chinese athletics, and he is also the fourth Chinese male athlete to win the championship at the World Championships in Athletics after Liu Xiang, Wang Hao and Chen Ding. When all the dust settled, Wang Jianan, dressed in a five-star red flag, celebrated this historic victory in front of more than 20,000 spectators. He had seen this scene several times in his dreams.
Reporter: Is the moment when the dream comes true the same as the scene of the dream before?
Wang Jianan: It can be said to be exactly the same, except that the feeling of loss when I woke up in my dream was not there that day, before in the dream I was still questioning myself, I said I won the single champion World Championship, it is impossible, in the dream others said to believe in themselves, little boy, you are the champion. When I woke up, I looked at the ceiling, and the feeling of loss was particularly strong, but after I won the championship this time, the people next to me congratulated me, and I didn't have this feeling of loss.
Ten years of grinding dreams come true
Born in 1996 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, Wang Jianan was selected to join the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Team because of his athletic talent and athletics at an early age, initially practicing the decathlon, and in 2012, he specialized in long jump.
Since breaking the 8-meter mark in the early 1980s, The Chinese men's long jump has been seeking a breakthrough, but most athletes have achieved their best results in domestic or Asian competitions. Until 2013, the men's long jump team dominated by Lee Kim Chul began to exert its strength and emerged on the international stage. Also in this year, 17-year-old Wang Jiannan was selected for the national team. During that period, in order to improve the weak situation of athletes in foreign combat, the Chinese athletics team hired Randy Huntington as a foreign coach, the legendary American coach who had coached the triple jump legend Willie Banks and the long jump world record holder Mike Powell, and Wang Jiannan was coached by Randy and the Chinese coach.
Reporter: What is the impact of his addition to the adjustment of your entire training?
Wang Jianan: Training with foreign teachers, especially people with Randy's personality, he will still bring us some very positive content to our personality, which will make our whole team particularly confident, from the time I joined the national team, he encouraged me, he always praised me, said that I was good at this and that good, said that my ability was no problem, said that my speed was no problem, I always trained in his praise to play, so I would be more confident in the education of my thoughts.
In 2014, Wang Jiannan won the gold medal at the Eugene World Junior Athletics Championships with a time of 8.08 meters, standing on top of the world for the first time. At the Beijing Athletics World Championships the following year, Wang Jiannan, who was under the age of 19, made history again, winning the bronze medal with a time of 8.18 meters, becoming the first Asian athlete to reach the men's long jump podium at the World Championships.
Wang Jianan: To be honest, after getting that medal, my confidence in me was actually not particularly greatly improved, but it put more pressure on me, this medal is the only medal in 32 years for Asians to be won by me, and it is a result of 8 meters 18, not high or low, at that time I felt that this result was convincing? As a result, my results in 2016 and the whole year were not particularly good, and I felt like the whole person was overwhelmed by the bronze medal.
In the years after the Beijing Athletics World Championships, the overall level of the world's men's long jump has improved significantly, and a number of athletes with a score of 8 meters and 50 meters have emerged in the United States, South Africa, Cuba, Greece and other countries, which has greatly increased the difficulty of young Chinese long jumpers such as Wang Jianan, Huang Changzhou, and Gao Xinglong to create good results in the competition. In 2016, Wang Jiannan made his debut at the Rio Olympics, jumping 8.24 meters in the first jump of the qualifying round and successfully advancing to the final with the first place in the group.
Wang Jianan: I went back to the room for a night without sleeping, I want to get the final tomorrow, I want to get a medal, I want to take a silver medal, I don't know if I can get the gold medal, I didn't have the power today I jumped 8 meters 24, tomorrow I will work hard, send the force, run faster, and have not slept all night.
In the end, Wang Jianan finished 5th in the long jump at the Rio Olympics with a time of 8 meters 17 meters, although he did not win the medal he expected, but this is the best result of the Chinese male long jumper in the history of the Olympic Games. What is not known to everyone is that behind these achievements is that he has been plagued by injuries. After the Rio 2016 Olympics and the 2017 National Games, he underwent two knee surgeries on his left and right knees.
Reporter: What was the impact of the injury situation on you at that time, and how did you face it at that stage?
Wang Jiannan: When I knew that my meniscus was torn, I was also depressed for a week, and I didn't want to practice for a while, I wanted to retire, how did that leg stretch hurt, how did it hurt, then how to practice? In 2017, I took anti-inflammatory drugs, two pills in the morning and two pills in the evening, and ate them for more than a month, I didn't know that that thing had great side effects on the kidneys and liver, it was small, and I felt that I was young and not afraid, as long as I didn't hurt to eat. At that time, the most I thought about was whether I could maintain a high level after the operation.
Wang Jianan: I especially like to especially admire Liu Xiang, I remember that I have seen Liu Xiang twice, every time I see him I want to shed tears, I don't know why, maybe it feels like he is not easy. We're both athletes, and I know all too well how he felt, the things he went through when he was younger, and even said he went through so much more than we did.
Wang Jiannan persevered, and at the 2017 World Championships in London, he jumped out of 8 meters and 23 to rank seventh; At the 2018 National Athletics Championships and Asian Games Trials, he jumped 8 meters 47, equaling the national record held by Lee Kin-cheol, only 1 centimeter away from the Asian record; At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, he finished sixth with 8.20m; In 2020, he ranked first in the world with a seasonly best of 8.36 meters. However, just when he was confidently attacking the medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games, he broke before the final and failed to do so.
Wang Jianan: At that time, I came to Tokyo as the only athlete with a medal assignment in the jumping department of the national athletics team, but I was probably the worst person in the jumping group, and it was a big blow to me, and I felt that all the problems appeared in my own problems. After Tokyo, I turned all the bad problems that happened in Tokyo into a good side.
A year later, Wang Jianan jumped hard in Eugene, USA, and climbed to the top podium of the World Championships, and China's long jump returned to the international vision. This unexpected gold medal is not only a reward for his perseverance in the trough of the past year, but also the best gift for him to start a new journey.
Wang Jianan: This medal is the highest level and level of all the medals I have won, second only to the Olympic gold medal, I am particularly happy, I hope that this gold medal can further promote China's long jump, Chinese athletics, and inspire more Chinese long jump teenagers.
Reporter: On the podium, who else would you like to give this gold medal as a gift?
Wang Jiannan: To my family, my parents, my wife, and my unborn children.
Reporter: If a child asks you if this gold medal is your most important gold medal, what will you say?
Wang Jiannan: I will tell him that this is actually the best gift he gave me, not the best gift I gave him. Because the kind of encouragement that I had from knowing that he was there, including looking forward to his birth, including my parents taking care of my wife, my wife's understanding and tolerance of me during pregnancy was all encouragement to me, so it was not that I gave them gifts, I felt that it was a gift from them to me.
Reporter: At the next Olympic Games, will you still see you participating in the competition?
Wang Jiannan: I think it will definitely be, I want to impact myself, I want to break myself.
Producer 丨 Liu Bin
Reporter 丨Gu Bing
Planning 丨 Meng Ke Yang Wei
Choreographer 丨Ding Fang
Responsible editor 丨 Wang Feng
Editor 丨 Zhang Hongfei
Camera 丨Yang Fan Liu Hongbo