The Paper's chief reporter Ma Zuoyu
Liu Hong participated in the World Championships in Oregon.
Eugene, the "city of athletics", has witnessed the hard work and perseverance of too many veterans. After this World Championship, Eugene has another legendary story in his memory - it belongs to 35-year-old Liu Hong.
On the race walking track of the Athletics World Championships for the seventh time, Liu Hong finally ranked fifth with 1 hour and 29 minutes, although she failed to stand on the podium, but her return showed a more inclusive, free and mature side of Chinese sports - after the Shaanxi National Games, she turned to the marathon, temporarily decided to participate in the race walk again two months ago, and helped the young players stabilize their mentality after returning to the team.
"Whether it's international or Chinese, more and more athletes can still achieve results at the age of thirty-six or seven, so we can let everyone see the potential and space of our (veterans)."
In an exclusive interview with the surging news reporter, Liu Hong talked about the unknown story behind this short comeback, and also conveyed the confidence and optimism of the "new generation of veterans".
"If this lifestyle can also make competitive sports better, I think it is also a good thing."
Two months ago decided to make a comeback
The women's 20km race walk at the Oregon World Championships was scheduled at 1:10 p.m. on the first race day. In addition to the midday sun, there is some sunshine, compared to the "sauna day" of the World Championships in Doha three years ago, Eugene's temperature and humidity are quite friendly.
Among the 36 finishers, Liu Hong crossed the finish line for the fifth time not far behind Sister Cheyang Shi, who won the bronze medal.
At that time, Liu Hong habitually looked at the finish time, 1 hour and 29 minutes. Although she failed to complete the defense of the title or even win a medal, Liu Hong, who was 3 years older, was nearly 3 minutes faster than the winning result of the previous World Championships.
After successfully completing the match, Liu Hong has always maintained a smile on her face and has not shown a look of disappointment and regret. After all, for herself, this Eugene trip was somewhat of an "accident."
Liu Hong (front row, second from right) poses with his teammates in the Chinese team.
"After last year's National Games, I wanted to adjust and rest for a year, so this year I didn't think about any plans to compete in race walking."
Speaking of this "accident", Liu Hong told the surging news reporter that after the Shaanxi National Games, she followed the Yiju Marathon Club to run training in Kunming, Yunnan, "I have been practicing running since last winter, and I want to change my sports method to adjust the state." ”
However, due to the pandemic, this year's marathon season was cancelled again, "by March, because the domestic marathon races were basically canceled, so considering that there may not be too many big races to experience this year, coupled with eugene's long-standing racing atmosphere, it was only in late April that race walking training began to resume." ”
Liu Hong won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The muscular memory of life
To get back to the top of the world in just over two months is not an easy task for any athlete. Fortunately, 20 years of race walking life have turned the technology of race walking into muscle memory.
"The technical movements of running and race walking are not the same, but I have been practicing race walking for 20 years, so after recovering for about a month, I felt that I had 70% or 80% of the level, so I decided to participate."
According to the rules of the World Athletics Federation, the defending champion can directly enter the final without occupying the three-person quota of the participating countries, so although he missed the domestic selection, Liu Hong can still use the wild card to pass to the World Championships.
Liu Hong said that "the main purpose is to experience the atmosphere of the race", but the body is very honest - in more than two months, she has accumulated more than 500 kilometers of training.
Liu Hong in training.
In addition to the two difficult problems of "short recovery time" and "running and walking technology conversion", there are two challenges facing Liu Hong, namely "lower plateau" and "inverted jet lag".
In order to better adapt to Eugene's playing environment, Liu Hong flew to Portland nearly two weeks earlier than the Chinese athletics team to meet with the Italian foreign coach team in advance for targeted pre-match preparation.
"I'm still very satisfied with the fifth place." In Liu Hong's view, this special experience brought about by the "temporary decision" two months ago gave her a new understanding of her race walking ability and sports status.
"To be able to compete at the highest level of athletics, regardless of the outcome, to be able to play at your level should be celebrated."
Liu Hong held her daughter.
Young people just lack experience
In the women's race walking lineup of the Chinese track and field team that went to the Oregon World Championships this year, in addition to Liu Hong and Qieyang Shijie, the 24-year-old Ma Zhenxia is one of the "successors" who are unanimously optimistic about the outside world.
At the 2022 IAAF Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat, Oman, in March this year, Ma Zhenxia won the individual gold medal in the women's 20 km event; At the National Race Walking Grand Prix in April, she won another double of the women's 20 km and 35 km race walk.
However, on the track of Eugene, Ma Zhenxia, who participated in the World Championships for the first time, still could not fully exert her ability, and finally ranked tenth with a time of 1 hour, 30 minutes and 39 seconds.
"In terms of talent and ability, these young athletes have the qualities to become the top international players, but they still need to compete more to accumulate experience."
In Liu Hong's view, competition is an important way to enhance competitive strength, "Why my sister Cheyang Shi and I have been able to improve rapidly in the past few years and maintain a high level is that we have participated in many competitions abroad for a long time, so for them, there is still a long way to go." ”
Liu Hong and daughter.
My story should not be defined by age
Experience and self-confidence need to be accumulated through more competition practice, but some of the stable mentality of these young athletes in international competitions actually stems from the veterans around them.
This is also another reason why Liu Hong decided to return to the world championships two months before the world championships - that is, as a veteran of the women's race walking team, to stabilize the military's heart.
"We've been in a lot of international competitions, and we're more at ease with the whole discipline and how to react on the pitch, so we can show some experience to the young players, and then our confident side on the field can also affect their mentality."
Liu Hong said that she herself has grown up from the young team members.
Liu Hong took her daughter to the podium.
At the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Liu Hong was only a 21-year-old young player, at that time, the Chinese women's race walk was in a historical "trough", and Liu Hong did not have too many veteran players in front of her to take her forward, "At that time, I was quite scared when I participated in the big competition, standing on the field was very scared, and I always felt that I couldn't do it." ”
At that stage, athletes were short-lived, and "veterans" were not trusted.
When an athlete reaches the age of 25, he is considered a "very old athlete" in many sports; If at the age of 25, you still can't achieve a high competitive performance in the competition, then many athletes may go downhill under great pressure, and few people can persist until the age of 30.
"I went through that stage, and I've been insisting on it myself, and I'm changing the perception of the outside world little by little."
Liu Hong's daily physical training.
Before the 2012 London Olympics, the 25-year-old Liu Hong broke the Asian record, but in the Olympic arena, she was not able to stand on the podium.
But Liu Hong did not give up at that time, "I still insisted until 2016, and then I found that every year I was making a breakthrough." Then I really felt that age is not really a problem. ”
This time, in the "City of Athletics" Eugene, 35-year-old Jamaican star Fraser and 36-year-old American star Felix, not only can compete for gold and silver in individual projects, but also help the team win medals, which is the best example of Liu Hong's words.
Switch your life between marathon and race walking
Liu Hong's more than 20 years of race walking resume is full of legendary stories.
After winning the gold medal at the last minute of the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, Liu Hong decided to fade out of the track and field field, bid farewell to the days of the "ascetics" and chose to return to her family.
When she chose to make a comeback in 2019, Liu Hong resolutely and resolutely lived a hard and boring training life, and after nearly 20 weeks of high-intensity special training, Liu Hong, who was 32 years old at the time, returned to the peak and achieved the title of "first person" in the 50-kilometer race walk.
Just this year's Eugene World Championships, Guinness World Records also awarded Liu Hong the two certificates of "the fastest women's 50 km race walk" and "the female athlete who won the most IAAF race walking challenge titles".
Liu Hong's Guinness World Records Certificate.
If Liu Hong's "departure and return" at the age of 30 is a choice that must be made at the crossroads of different stages of life; Then, her "short comeback" at the age of 35 is more like a walk-and-go trip, with a more free and inclusive attitude towards life.
Just before Liu Hong chose to resume race walking training, she had been practicing marathons with her husband Liu Xue for several months. One of the important reasons why I chose to run is to adjust my physical condition.
"I've been practicing race walking for 20 years, my body is very tired, and I always use the same part of the force when I walk, so some parts have accumulated old injuries, and if I keep training, it is easy to trigger, so I hope to replace it with other sports methods to maintain the state of exercise."
Liu Hong told the surging news reporter that in addition to the difference in sports posture and technology, in terms of training time and training volume, running and race walking actually have similarities.
Liu Hong is a legend of the world's race walking movement.
"In aerobic training, the time is almost an hour and a half to two hours. In terms of training volume, running and racing walking will also reach about 30 kilometers most of the time. ”
It is also thanks to the commonalities in these trainings that Liu Hong has been able to maintain the endurance base required for race walking, and in two months it has returned to the world-class race walk level.
In the process of training and running with the E-House Marathon Club, Liu Hong also gained different insights.
"In the club, a lot of them are amateurs who haven't been in competitive sports before, and a lot of runners now treat running as a profession, and their input is completely different from the state of the athletes in the professional team I've seen before."
In Liu Hong's own words, the dedication and self-discipline of these marathon runners are also infecting her, "Running is an experience for me, but also a new challenge." When you change your movement, you will see the changes brought about by your own efforts, and then slowly improve, which is also a motivation. ”
epilogue
After the Oregon World Championships, Liu Hong will return to Kunming to continue marathon training.
Today, Liu Hong, who freely switches between marathon and race walking, has more possibilities. She said she would try road running or trail running in the future and would return to race walking at the right time.
"I'm not going to set a clear goal for next year or further afield. I want to take a break for a while, and then when I have the desire to play, I can quickly resume training and then go for a challenge. ”
Liu Hong's current state of life is almost unprecedented among Chinese competitive sports athletes in the past, and Liu Hong also hopes that this concept can be passed on to more older athletes.
"Athletes of different ages have different requirements for training and competition performance, and for us old athletes, we should learn to enjoy life and make life richer, rather than all life in training."
Once upon a time, Liu Hong was a flag bearer who stood on top of the world on behalf of Chinese sports; Today, she is a pioneer, exploring the endless possibilities between athletes on the field and in life.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Shi Gong