For the first time in the history of world gymnastics, a 16-year-old girl raised the Chinese flag.
This girl is Ma Yanhong from Beijing.
Don't look at Ma Yanhong's young age, her achievements are old, not only became China's first gymnastics Olympic champion, but even her gymnastics skills have also become the first gymnastics move named after Chinese "Ma Yan Hongxia".
Ma Yanhong
How many people know about Ma Yanhong's story...
Ma Yanhong said gymnastics is like burning a pie
In 1963, Ma Yanhong was born in an ordinary family in Beijing.
At that time, my father's salary was 50 yuan a month, and my mother's salary was 49.5 yuan, which seemed like a lot, but it was gone, first Ma Yanhong and her sister went to nursery, which was an expense, and then the elderly in the family needed to send money, and it was another expense.
Fortunately, Ma Yanhong is very sensible and never takes the initiative to ask for any toys, but Ma Yanhong's childhood is still very happy, because her father took her to find a toy that does not cost money - swinging.
Every Sunday, Dad will always take Ma Yanhong and her sister to the park to swing, Ma Yanhong also likes this "toy" that does not cost money, the two always have fun before they are willing to come down, especially Ma Yanhong, no matter how high the swing is, she is not afraid.
Ma Yanhong
Perhaps, at this time, it laid the groundwork for Ma Yanhong's gymnastic talent.
Slowly, Ma Yanhong grew up and came to Beijing Chaoyang District Heping Street No. 2 Primary School, in school, Ma Yanhong was very lively and active, and was soon discovered by the physical education teacher, so Ma Yanhong was selected by the physical education teacher into the gymnastics class.
Ma Yanhong didn't know what gymnastics was for at this time, anyway, it was fun, she went, turning over and over every day, and she didn't have to study boringly, Ma Yanhong was still very happy.
But slowly, Ma Yanhong lost patience with this sport, in Ma Yanhong's words, gymnastics is like burning a pie, turning forward, flipping back, and then flipping sideways for a while, isn't this the same as burning a pie?
Ma Yanhong
The physical education teacher soon found that Ma Yanhong's enthusiasm had declined, but the teacher understood better that Ma Yanhong was a good seedling for gymnastics, good flexibility, and a little understanding of many techniques, and absolutely could not give up so easily, so he tried to mobilize Ma Yanhong to practice gymnastics, and sometimes found some audiences to watch Ma Yanhong's performance.
Ma Yanhong, who has always liked to be lively, practiced harder when she had an audience, and sometimes took the initiative to ask for a few head-to-head turns, a few handstand splits or something.
After the training of the gymnastics class, Ma Yanhong mastered a lot of gymnastics skills, and was smoothly selected to enter Beijing Shichahai Sports School, preparing to formally learn gymnastics.
At this time, it is time to determine the future path, Ma Yanhong is willing to continue to learn gymnastics, but her parents are unwilling, gymnastics is too hard, and it is easy to get injured, or don't learn, go to school and go to university.
After Ma Yanhong heard this, she said that she was unwilling to do anything, and it was at this time that she found that she really loved the sport of gymnastics, so under Ma Yanhong's stubbornness, her parents still agreed to Ma Yanhong to go to a sports school.
Ma Yanhong
In this way, Ma Yanhong officially entered Beijing Shichahai Sports School to learn gymnastics and embarked on the career path of professional athletes.
The person Ma Yanhong is most grateful to is Coach Zhou Jichuan
In 1972, Ma Yanhong entered Beijing Shichahai Sports School to study.
After entering the sports school, Ma Yanhong found that she was not the best at all, and even the last few children, so Ma Yanhong began to train hard, vowing to catch up with her grades.
In 1975, after 3 years of study, Ma Yanhong grew a lot, just at this time the Beijing gymnastics team also came to the school to select people, Ma Yanhong was full of confidence, felt that she would definitely be able to enter the Beijing team.
Unexpectedly, Ma Yanhong lost the election.
It was not until later that Ma Yanhong knew the reason for her defeat, because the legs were too thin, the strength was relatively weak, and the Beijing team had relatively high requirements for strength, so Ma Yanhong was defeated.
Ma Yanhong
Just when Ma Yanhong was very depressed, the Bayi team also came to the sports school to select people, and the coach of the Bayi team, Zhou Jichuan, immediately took a fancy to Ma Yanhong and decided to choose Ma Yanhong to come to the Bayi team, even though Ma Yanhong was a child abandoned by the Beijing team, but Zhou Jichuan still insisted on choosing Ma Yanhong.
It was this choice that directly shortened the process of Chinese gymnastics winning the Olympic championship.
Entering the Bayi team, Ma Yanhong cherishes this opportunity from the difficulty, this year Ma Yanhong is only 12 years old, can wear a military uniform to enter a professional team such as the Bayi team, not to mention how happy she is.
Under the arrangement of Coach Zhou, Ma Yanhong began to choose the future development path, according to Ma Yanhong's physical characteristics, Coach Zhou decided to let Ma Yanhong focus on uneven bars for two reasons:
First, Ma Yanhong's strength is not good, and the uneven bars do not have high requirements for strength;
Second, Ma Yanhong is flexible and good, and there is a straight line between the feet and calves, and there is no need to stretch;
Ma Yanhong
As the saying goes, take advantage of strengths and avoid weaknesses, so Coach Zhou decided to let Ma Yanhong focus on uneven bars, a choice that once again accelerated the process of Chinese gymnastics winning the Olympic championship.
Uneven bars, Ma Yanhong also likes, because the uneven bars make Ma Yanhong think of the feeling of following her father to the park to swing when she was a child, when she was swinging, Ma Yanhong was not afraid, and now the uneven bars are even more hand-to-hand for Ma Yanhong.
Immediately afterwards, Coach Zhou began to train gymnastics techniques with Ma Yanhong, one of which is the bandage bar rotation 180 degrees and 360 degrees, this technique was practiced by Ma Yanhong under the tree, tied a trolley to the tree, and then trained every day.
It is this technical training that directly achieves the unparalleled "Ma Yan Hongxia." ”
But at that time, this technology was called "Ma Yan Hongxia", Ma Yanhong for this technology, at the beginning, gave a favorite name, called "Tree Under the Turn." ”
Ma Yanhong
Although Coach Zhou helped Ma Yanhong achieve a lot of technical breakthroughs, Ma Yanhong still didn't like Coach Zhou, not that Coach Zhou was not famous at that time, but because Coach Zhou was too strict, and Ma Yanhong was a little afraid.
I remember once in training, Coach Zhou had a cold, Ma Yanhong and her teammates were still a little happy, this next week the coach should go to rest, there is no need to strictly discipline them, they can also be lazy.
Unexpectedly, Coach Zhou returned to the training gym that afternoon, and Ma Yanhong's heart suddenly cooled to the end, so she had to train strictly again.
It was not until Ma Yanhong grew up and achieved results that she knew how ignorant she was at that time, and Coach Zhou was unwilling to rest when she was sick, and she must help them train, but they not only did not care about the coach's body, but also deliberately hoped that the coach would not come.
Ma Yanhong
However, people have times when they don't understand things, which is also a valuable life experience for Ma Yanhong.
Ma Yanhong won the Olympic Games and became an Olympic champion
After the guidance of Coach Zhou, Ma Yanhong's gymnastics skills have become very mature.
In 1978, Ma Yanhong was successfully selected into the national gymnastics training team, and soon after entering the national team, Ma Yanhong participated in the gymnastics competition of the 8th Asian Games that year and successfully won the uneven bars championship of the Asian Games.
This championship completely made Ma Yanhong firmly established herself in the national team.
In 1979, Ma Yanhong registered for the 20th World Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, USA, where Ma Yanhong was a new face, a rookie in gymnastics, no one knew her, no one paid attention to her.
Ma Yanhong also does not care, although she is a newcomer and participates in the world series for the first time, but Ma Yanhong is confident in her skills, so as soon as she got on the bar, Ma Yanhong began to show her technical ability.
Ma Yanhong and teammates coach group photo
Sure enough, Ma Yanhong instantly shocked the world, what "abdominal loop", "bandage turn", "free body loop"..., one beautiful action instantly shocked everyone at the scene. When it was time to get off the bar, Ma Yanhong decided to use her own trick "bandage bar turn 180 degrees forward flip down".
In this way, Ma Yanhong deservedly won the uneven bars gold medal of this World Championships, won the first world championship gold medal for the Chinese gymnastics team, and Ma Yanhong also became the first world champion of Chinese gymnastics.
Ma Yanhong, who became famous in World War I, was not blinded by fame and fortune, because Ma Yanhong knew that her dream was in the Los Angeles Olympics 5 years later.
Fast forward, 5 years have passed.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Olympics began, at this time 21-year-old Ma Yanhong was the golden age of her athlete's career, but fate wanted to play a joke with Ma Yanhong.
Ma Yanhong
At the Olympics, the all-around final was about to begin, but at this time, Ma Yanhong's neck suddenly hurt so much that she couldn't stand up. However, according to the rules of the Olympic Games, only after the all-around competition can they be eligible to participate in individual events.
How is this good?
Ma Yanhong thought for a moment and decided to endure the pain to participate in the competition, in the all-around competition, Ma Yanhong only won the sixth place, although not high, but for Ma Yanhong won the single competition qualification for the uneven bars competition.
In the face of this kind of difficulties, Ma Yanhong let herself calm down, since the situation is already so, there is no need to think more, what 5 years of hard work to burn, what final competition..., these Ma Yanhong decided not to think about it, her only idea is to participate in the uneven bars competition well and show her own things.
Ma Yanhong
At the beginning of the final, Ma Yanhong competed for the championship with a gymnast from the United States, who was known as the princess of uneven bars, excellent technique, and occupied the home field advantage, and everyone felt that Ma Yanhong had lost.
Sure enough, the American athletes played so well that almost everyone in the stadium believed that the championship was not owned by the American athletes.
Ma Yanhong is not in a hurry, at this time Ma Yanhong has entered a realm of self-forgetfulness, there is nothing to think about winning the championship in his mind, he is thinking of doing a good job of technical actions, the only difference is that Ma Yanhong did something that shocked the world when he got off the bar:
Ma Yanhong got off the bar and used a 360-degree flip under the bandage bar, which was even more difficult than when it was at the World Championships, and Ma Yanhong successfully did this move that no one could do.
Ma Yan red
Give it a go, but there is a miracle.
Not surprisingly, Ma Yanhong successfully won the Olympic uneven bars gold medal with her top-level difficulty gymnastics moves, and won the first Olympic gold medal in the history of gymnastics for Chinese gymnastics.
Ma Yanhong became China's first gymnastics Olympic champion, and women are not easy, so it should be emphasized that Ma Yanhong is also China's first women's gymnastics Olympic champion.
Ma Yanhong went to the United States to study, but was harassed by white people
After winning the Olympic gold medal, Ma Yanhong finally realized her dream.
After careful consideration, Ma Yanhong chose to retire in 1985, although she was only 22 years old at this time, but her physical injury did not allow Ma Yanhong to continue to compete.
Ma Yanhong
After retiring, Ma Yanhong originally planned to continue her gymnastics career as a coach, but for various reasons, coupled with the enthusiasm for going abroad at that time, Ma Yanhong made a bold decision:
Go abroad.
In 1987, after packing everything, Ma Yanhong officially chose to go abroad to study English at a British university, and after completing her studies in the UK, Ma Yanhong went to the University of California to study business management.
During the days of studying in the United States, Ma Yanhong also felt unprecedented relaxation, her previous sports career gave her little contact with cultural knowledge, and now she can learn, which is also a regret for Ma Yanhong.
Of course, in addition to going to school, Ma Yanhong, like other international students, needs to pay her own tuition and living expenses, so in her spare time, she also needs to work to earn money and support herself.
Ma Yanhong
In order to make money, Ma Yanhong decided to enter a local gymnastics club in Los Angeles as a coach, although Ma Yanhong is an Olympic champion in gymnastics, but faded her aura, Ma Yanhong is only a Chinese student, so she has not received any hospitality and special treatment.
During her time as a coach at the club, Ma Yanhong trained according to her gymnastics career techniques and coached local gymnastics enthusiasts in the United States, but the training model in China is different from the training model in the United States.
In simple terms, is this technology difficult to "Ma Yan Hongxia"? It's hard! But is it hard to learn? Not hard to learn.
For this technology, Ma Yanhong and Chinese coaches are willing to spend time and energy, even healthily, to learn this technology, while Americans are not willing to spend a lot of time to learn and feel that it is not necessary.
Therefore, when Ma Yanhong was teaching, this collision of Chinese and Western cultures caused great difficulties for Ma Yanhong, and some people thought that Ma Yanhong was deliberately embarrassed by teaching some techniques, so sometimes they would make it difficult for Ma Yanhong and deliberately criticize Ma Yanhong for not being careless.
The first on the right is Ma Yanhong
In this regard, Ma Yanhong can only accept and understand cultural differences step by step.
In 1993, Ma Yanhong returned to China after studying in the United States, and after returning to China, Ma Yanhong quickly put her development direction on sports, sports is her roots, she still wants to engage in sports.
Immediately afterwards, Ma Yanhong planned marathon competitions, Go competitions, golf competitions... and so on, and have their own insights and cognition of many competitions.
Although Ma Yanhong is an Olympic champion and a great athlete recorded in China's sports history, for Ma Yanhong, these halos have never been her capital to show off, and if no one mentions it, Ma Yanhong will never take the initiative to talk about her gymnastics career and achievements.
Ma Yanhong
In the face of all kinds of honors, Ma Yanhong thought it was not worth mentioning, but said more than once:
"I'm a working man."
For Ma Yanhong, everything she does is like studying like a part-time job, rather than doing anything with qualifications and honor.
I think it is precisely because of this kind of strength that can be put down that Ma Yanhong's life shines so brightly!
Ma Yanhong
Let's wish Ma Yanhong's predecessor a happy and happy life!