As the most well-known "figure skating goddess" in the United States and even the world, Kwan Yingshan is actually a Chinese athlete.
The 42-year-old Guan Yingshan, whose ancestral home is in Zhongshan, Guangdong, has won a total of 43 championships in her career, which is an extremely glorious record.
As the world-famous "Queen of Ice", there is no doubt that her career is very successful, but her marriage is not as satisfactory as her career.
Kwan Yingshan was married to a high-ranking official in the US White House at the time, but the marriage lasted only a few years before it ended.
Not only that, Guan Yingshan was finally "blackmailed" by her ex-husband.
Chinese figure skating goddess Kwan Yingshan
On July 7, 1980, Kwan Yingshan was born in Torrance, Los Angeles County, California, USA.
Kwan's ancestors first immigrated to Hong Kong from Guangdong, and then her parents immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong, but this family is not the "rich family" that people imagine.
Even to a certain extent, Guan Yingshan's family conditions are very poor, on the one hand, because Guan Yingshan's parents are small people at the bottom of the society, even if they go out to work conscientiously every day, they still can't earn any money, on the other hand, because the Guan family has a total of three children, so the family's living expenses are very large.
Moreover, Guan Yingshan's brother studied ice hockey, while Guan Yingshan and her sister began skating training when they were five or six years old, and the equipment and training costs required for these sports are expensive.
Since the training, the three children of the Guan family have always picked up clothes and shoes that other people's children do not want to wear, even if they are training clothes, they are also given to the sisters by others.
But fortunately, the parents of the Guan family have a long-term vision, and even if the conditions are difficult, they have never wavered in their determination to train their children into excellent athletes.
Guan Yingshan is very hard-working at a young age.
When it comes to the experience of training as a child, Guan Yingshan still remembers it deeply.
"I remember my father would wake us up very early every morning, and it was better in the summer, and the American winter was very cold, and if my sister and I wanted to get out of bed, my father would reprimand, and then force us to get up from the warm bed." ”
The north wind in winter is bitterly cold, and Guan Yingshan huddles under her training clothes every time she gets up.
When the warm-up was over, the body slowly warmed up, and after a complete set of training, I was sweating profusely.
After taking a shower, my father went to work, and the sisters went to school again.
After maintaining such days for three or four years, the conditions at home were more comfortable, and Guan Yingshan finally had her own full-time coach, and since then, Guan Yingshan's skating skills have made a qualitative leap.
To this day, Kwan always remembers her father's words of encouragement when she wanted to be lazy, "You have to remember that from the moment you put on your skates again and again, you are getting closer and closer to success." ”
Guan Yingshan's success has never been a so-called "shortcut", relying on her own efforts and sweat, as well as the spirit and perseverance of never giving up.
Seven-year-old Kwan began to compete under her father, but in those years, Kwan Yingshan has been mediocre.
Until the age of ten, Kwan Yingshan won the championship in a junior competition, and since then, for more than ten years, Kwan Yingshan has been like "opening and hanging", constantly shining in various competitions.
In Kwan's early career, although Kwan Yingshan performed well, in that era of talent, she rarely won the role of champion in major competitions.
It was not until the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships that Kwan Yingshan really appeared in front of the world for the first time.
At that time, Kwan Yingshan was fifteen years old, and her skating style was more mature than before.
In addition to the improvement of speed and jumping skills, Kwan Yingshan also completed some dances and movements that are more difficult for show.
With a perfect performance, Kwan Yingshan surpassed China's "butterfly on ice" Chen Lu by a narrow margin in this match, and finally defended the world championship.
It was from this moment that the name of "Guan Yingshan" began to resound all over the world, and Chinese ice fans have always favored this Chinese athlete.
Kwan Yingshan was young and ambitious, and she reached the top of the world at a young age of tens, but these honors did not make Kwan Yingshan proud.
For a long time later, the name "Kwan Yingshan" has almost become a symbol of the figure skating world.
In the face of successive championships, Kwan Yingshan has maintained the elegance and humility on the field from beginning to end, which has also made her deeply loved by the audience.
As Kwan's coach, Frank, said, "Whether she loses or wins, we like her as always." ”
People watched her go from being a little girl until she later grew into a figure skating goddess.
For these gold medals, Kwan has always maintained a certain degree of training, but since 2005, Kwan Yingshan's injuries have been increasing, one of the main reasons is that in 2004 the International Skating Federation officially implemented a new scoring system.
The scoring rules in the new system are much more detailed than before, which requires athletes to pay more attention to the standards of each technical link, such as the height of the jump and the difficulty of the footwork, as well as the change of the rotation position and ice blade.
This scoring system is a huge contrast to the previous ratings, and it also means that the requirements for the participants are more stringent.
Since the issuance of the new scoring system, international news about the injuries of figure skaters has been endless, and many Chinese figure skaters have also suffered injuries to varying degrees.
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Kwan fell while doing the three-week jump on the back ice and eventually left wearing only a bronze medal.
In the 2006 championships held in the United States, although the United States Ice Association granted a special place for Guan Yingshan, due to injury, Guan Yingshan finally announced her withdrawal from the competition, and did not participate in the Winter Olympics that year.
After that, Kwan rarely appeared at events, which also means that the era that belonged to Kwan Yingshan is over.
According to US media statistics, in her career, Guan Yingshan has won a total of 5 World Figure Skating Championships women's singles championships, 9 American figure skating championships and other awards, and has won 43 championships for the United States.
Kwan Yingshan's name is still a legend in the history of world sports.
Married to a high-ranking White House official in the United States, but had no choice but to end the scene with divorce
In addition to the aura of the "goddess of figure skating", Guan Yingshan's love life has always been talked about.
In April 2011, Kwan met Klee Pell.
Lay Pell served in the U.S. Coast Guard and later served as the White House's head of strategic planning for national security affairs.
Cree Pell came from a famous family, and his grandfather was former Rhode Island Senator Cliburn Pell.
Kwan Yingshan is a year older than Pell, and the two met in the White House, when both were applying for scholarships from White House scholars, and they accidentally intersected.
Although Kwan Yingshan failed to win Pell to win the scholarship in the end, she won Pell's true heart for her.
The two chatted hotly after getting acquainted, and it didn't take long to confirm the relationship.
Guan Yingshan also admitted that she fell in love with Pell at first sight.
"I always thought that I was a very rational person about feelings, and I didn't believe in romantic stories like love at first sight, I always felt that how could someone like someone just by looking at it, until I met Pell later, I knew that feelings are not something we can control."
On September 12, 2012, Kwan Yingshan officially announced her engagement to Pell.
On January 19, 2013, Kwan Yingshan and Pell held their wedding at a famous local church in Rhode Island.
At the wedding, Pell wore a military uniform.
One is a world-famous sports star, and the other is a famous descendant of a political family, with male talents and female appearances, which is not enviable.
This wedding naturally attracted the collective attention of the whole United States, and the American "People" magazine also made an exclusive interview report on the wedding.
On the day of the wedding, friends and family from both sides gathered and attended more than 200 guests, including sports stars and the governor of Rhode Island.
At the wedding, Guan Yingshan wore a white mermaid wedding dress, and in the face of Pell's confession, she also shed tears affectionately.
Since Kwan Yingshan retired in 2006, she has not stopped her learning.
She first studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and later transferred to the University of Denver, where she studied political science and international studies.
Her husband, Pell, is also a graduate of Harvard University, fluent in Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, fluent in Chinese, Spanish and Chinese Arabic, well versed in East Asian countries, and served as a senior official in the White House.
In this way, Pell and Guan Yingshan have many common topics.
After the two got married, Kwan Yingshan also accompanied her husband in the political arena, and when Pell later ran for governor, Kwan Yingshan has also been actively canvassing for Pell.
However, it is the two people who seem to be in love like this, but in the end they regretted the divorce.
On March 31, 2017, Pell filed for divorce with the court, and he filed for divorce on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences."
Judging from the family background of the two, Pell is a rich second generation who grew up in fine clothes, and Guan Yingshan is a small citizen from the bottom of the society, and the achievements she has today are all built up bit by bit by her own efforts.
The two have different backgrounds, which also dooms the two to have conceptual deviations in many aspects.
Regarding the reason for the divorce of Pell and Guan Yingshan, outsiders are really not good at speculating, but it is worth mentioning that during the four years that Guan Yingshan and Pell were married, Guan Yingshan has never given birth to a child for Pell, and the outside world has never heard of Guan Yingshan's pregnancy.
An insider revealed that this is because Guan Yingshan has been dealing with ice since she was a child, and in the long run, it will make it difficult for her to conceive, and Pell has always wanted to have a child, and the two often disagree because of this matter, and finally chose to divorce.
Surprisingly, Pell even openly shouted to Guan Yingshan on the Internet, asking her to pay the legal fees for the divorce lawsuit between the two, and Guan Yingshan only left a sentence lightly, "I want to participate in the women's forum."
The failure of the marriage did not make Guan Yingshan slump.
Guan Yingshan has always been very self-optimal, and she is indeed a very independent and strong woman.
The reason why Kwan Yingshan has achieved such great success in the United States, in addition to her amazing sports career, she also has a wise soul, and the most admirable thing is that she has a positive heart that is constantly striving for progress.
Since retiring, Kwan has been active in American politics.
In 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Kwan as the "U.S. Public Diplomacy Envoy", and in the same year, Kwan Yingshan represented the United States and visited China, Russia, Argentina and other countries.
In addition, Kwan is a director of the Special Olympics International Games.
For the world, Kwan does not need any bells and whistles packaging and titles, and the 43 gold medals she has won have surpassed all advertising.
Even if she withdrew from the skating stage, as long as the name of "Guan Yingshan" is mentioned, many ice fans will still frantically cheer for her.
Few people know that in private, Kwan Yingshan and Wendi Deng are also close friends who have a good relationship.
When Guan Yingshan decided to marry Pell, she was the first to share the news with Wendi Deng, and Wendi Deng also sent her blessings to the two in a low-key manner.
It's just that Wendi Deng, as the wife of "media tycoon" Murdoch, has always been likely to arouse the suspicion of others in public when she interacts closely with Guan Yingshan, but in fact, the two are sympathetic friends and have been with each other for many years.
The reason why these two women are so attracted is because they appreciate each other.
Perhaps many people are extremely obsessed with Wendi Deng because of Murdoch, but Guan Yingshan is a friend that Wendi Deng wants to make sincerely, not for the interests of those so-called "collusion between officials and businessmen", but because of the same self-reliance and self-improvement character between the two.
On December 15, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his nomination of Vivian Kwan as U.S. Ambassador to Belize.
Since Belize is a "diplomatic country" of the Taiwan authorities, the nomination of Guan Yingshan has also aroused great attention from the people in Taiwan.
Taiwanese pro-green figures believe that Belize is one of the few countries that maintains formal "diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan region, and Kwan Yingshan is a world sports superstar, and this nomination shows the importance that the US government attaches to Belize relations.
Belize, the "diplomatic country" in the Taiwan region, is actually just a small projectile country with a land area of only more than 20,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the size of a Nanning city in China.
Later, Kwan Yingshan also said on her personal online social platform that she was very honored to be nominated as ambassador to Belize.
Prior to this, Guan Yingshan had long been a "veteran" who had been active in the political arena for many years.
As recently as February 2021, an article in the Financial Times also regarded Kwan as one of the most likely figures to influence the policy stance of China and the United States in recent years.
In recent years, Kwan has become more active in the political arena.
In 2019, Kwan Yingshan also served as the acting head of the Biden campaign, mainly to win over celebrity politicians for the Biden campaign.
In addition, Kwan Yingshan has also frequently posted articles on the Internet to show her diplomatic dynamics.
On January 5, 2022, Guan Yingshan revealed on her personal online social platform that she gave birth to the first child in her life, which was a baby girl, and Guan Yingshan named her Guan Listabella.
Kwan Yingshan said, "I am so excited, when I officially shared this news with you, I couldn't help but shed tears of happiness. I have always wanted to be a mother, and my daughter is a miracle that God has arranged for me. ”
Guan Yingshan also mentioned her experience since pregnancy to netizens.
"I was worried about her health when she was still in my belly, and now that she was born, I am finally relieved that she has been an indispensable part of my life ever since."
For a long time, Guan Yingshan rarely showed her private life too much on the Internet, but now she has rarely posted the first photo of her daughter, as well as a photo of her pregnant belly during pregnancy.
Kwan said, "In fact, I have long wanted to share the joy of my pregnancy with my family, and at every critical moment, my mood is both complicated and excited. ”
When sharing her pregnancy life, Kwan Yingshan also thanked her family and friends who have been taking care of her, but never mentioned the name of her lover.
Since divorcing Pell a few years ago, Guan Yingshan has been shown as a single woman, and there are no more rumors of Guan Yingshan's love in the market, so netizens also have great questions about who the biological father of Guan Yingshan's daughter is, but they have never found the slightest clue, and Guan Yingshan has not made any response to this matter.
On February 10, 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics were in full swing, and it was also the men's singles competition in figure skating, and Chen Wei from the United States successfully defended the title with a perfect performance, and Guan Yingshan then posted on the Internet to congratulate Chen Wei.
Resources:
Newsnight: Kwan Yingshan once served as a US diplomatic envoy The couple will join hands in the political arena
By 宋江龙. The Enigmatic Woman Biography of Wendi Deng[M]. 2018: Wendi Deng and Kwan Yingshan
China News Network: Guan Yingshan's husband will run for governor of Rhode Island and comes from a political family
Global Network: The Chinese figure skating goddess was nominated by Biden as an ambassador, and some people in Taiwan came to spirit