At the 2002 Asian Games, 18-year-old Zhou Yafei made her first international appearance, defeating a group of veterans and winning two gold medals.
Since then, Zhou Yafei has ridden the dust and won 97 gold medals at home and abroad, achieving the reputation of "Asian Butterfly Queen".
However, it is such a person who is very emotionally stubborn and has to marry Moko, a basketball player who has lost his wife for the second time.
Now that ten years have passed, does Zhou Yafei feel regrets?
Is it a happy life?
1
In 1984, Zhou Yafei was born in an ordinary family in Qingdao, the family is not rich but not poor, at least eating and drinking will not break Zhou Yafei.
For parents, the fact that their children can grow up healthily is the most joyful thing.
However, unfortunately, I don't know for what reason, when she was a child, Zhou Yafei was withdrawn and usually didn't like to talk, which was sad for her parents.
Later, on the recommendation of a friend, his parents sent four-year-old Zhou Yafei to a local bath to learn to swim.
The original intention of the parents is actually to let Zhou Yafei contact more than his peers and improve.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhou Yafei arrived in the water, she showed a great understanding and talent for swimming.
For the most difficult butterfly swim for others, Zhou Yafei is also hand-to-hand.
The advantage of long arms and big hands allows her to speed in the water far beyond her peers.
As soon as his father saw this situation, he simply asked Zhou Yafei to concentrate on learning to swim.
Of course, the reason for this idea is also related to the common parenting scriptures at that time.
At that time, there was no current educational concept of "everything is inferior, only reading is high", and mastering a craft was a more important thing in the eyes of most parents.
In addition, the acceptance rate of the college entrance examination at that time was not even 30%, which made the status of craftsmen skyrocket.
Although swimming is not a craftsman in nature, athletes do not worry about work when they come out, and it is also a good choice.
In this way, 4-year-old Zhou Yafei, under the supervision of her parents, began swimming training.
This practice is two whole years.
In 1990, at the age of 6, Zhou Yafei began to follow her father to participate in competitions all over the country.
He even won three gold medals in a row at the National Doll Cup.
Of course, the gold medal of this kind of award, in the eyes of most mainstream people, is like fun, and it does not get any attention at all.
When the local media in Shanghai reported the match, they didn't even mention Zhou Yafei's name at all, but replaced it with "Little Yellow Hat from Qingdao".
This title actually did not mean any insult, just because when Zhou Yafei participated in the competition, he was wearing a yellow hat.
It can only be said that it is true that the scale of the competition is not small, but it is also true that it is not taken seriously.
It is also for this reason that although Zhou Yafei performed well in China, he was not invited by the national team because of no introduction.
Many people like to say that Zhou Yafei is a late bloomer, but this is not the case.
In a sense, Zhou Yafei was also a young genius, but because the promotion channels at that time were not so perfect, it was just a "gold" that was briefly buried.
But there is a good saying, "Gold always shines".
When the dust washes away, Zhou Yafei will eventually bloom her own light.
2
From winning the Dolls Cup for the first time at the age of 6 to receiving the invitation to the national team for the first time in 2000, Zhou Yafei has gone for 10 years.
In the past ten years, Zhou Yafei has participated in various domestic competitions, but there have never been any good results.
According to the media, her best result at that time was the domestic runner-up, and she did not get a gold medal once.
From the media to the coaches, Zhou Yafei's performance is not very recognized.
Even if he is selected for the national team, he is only a substitute training player.
The so-called substitute training players are actually not much different from sparring partners.
You can train with regular members of the national team, but you will not enjoy any benefits of the national team.
Any expenses incurred by the training must be borne by the substitute trainers themselves.
And you are not eligible for any competitions yet.
Its status is even worse than that of an auditor in a university.
Even so, Zhou Yafei still had no regrets and gritted his teeth and persevered.
The hard work paid off, and in just one year, Zhou Yafei's hard work finally attracted the attention of national team coach Yao Ying and was officially selected into the national team.
How is this Yao Ying's coaching ability, in fact, he does not praise the judgment, at least not the top coach in China.
But the victory is stable, and he has been serving as a national team coach since 1993, and he basically has the ability.
But in fact, Yao Ying's connections are very broad in the sports world.
His husband is Ma Wenguang, a former weightlifting coach and current president of the lifting association, his daughter is the famous swimmer Ma Chenfei, and his son-in-law is the famous basketball player Du Feng.
In addition, her disciples are also the main coaches of various domestic teams.
The disciples under Yao Ying's disciples, it may be difficult to say anything else, but the opportunity to play is definitely not less.
And this is exactly what Zhou Yafei lacks the most.
Since 2001, under the recommendation of Yao Ying, Zhou Yafei began to participate in important national competitions with the team.
But I don't know if it's the reason for bad luck, Zhou Yafei lost every time he lost and missed the championship, and won a bunch of silver medals, but he never got the coveted championship gold medal.
So much so that the domestic media even gave her the title of "the second oldest in ten thousand years".
But these do not affect Yao Ying's attention to Zhou Yafei in the slightest.
Yao Ying has always felt that in terms of strength, Zhou Yafei has reached the best level in China, but he lacks a crucial victory to sublimate his heart.
Fortunately, soon, this opportunity came.
In 2002, the year after officially joining the national team, Zhou Yafei got the opportunity to compete with the team in the Asian Games.
At that time, many media were not optimistic about Zhou Yafei, but there was no way.
After all, domestic swimming has always been not a strong point, although the "five golden flowers" created a short-term brilliance, but with the retirement of the players, the domestic swimming scene once again could not find any representative figures.
This also made fans realize that it was the "five golden flowers" that were strong at that time, not the domestic swimming scene.
In this context, Zhou Yafei, known as the "second oldest in 10,000 years" in China, suddenly became one of the best choices to participate in the Asian Games.
At that time, the media was very optimistic about her, thinking that she only needed to show her mental outlook.
But this is obviously not what Zhou Yafei desires.
She had been desperate for a chance to prove herself, and now that this opportunity was in front of her, how she was willing to miss it.
In this year's Asian Games, Zhou Yafei riveted and vowed to win a gold medal.
In many cases, competitive competitions are not only about simple physical strength and skill, but also about the collision of beliefs between players.
Without the belief of victory, even if you are number one in the world, you may overturn.
Winning with weakness is the biggest charm on the stadium.
And Zhou Yafei at this time is such a situation.
Under her belief in victory, she defeated a strong opponent one after another and won two Asian Games championships: the 100m butterfly and the medley relay.
She finally became the number one in Asia, which also began her journey as the "Queen of Butterflies" in Asia.
3
Since the 2002 Asian Games, Zhou Yafei's life has been like a switch, sweeping gold medals in major events at home and abroad.
According to statistics, she has won a total of 97 gold medals.
Among them, the highest gold content is the gold medal of the world championship championship and the FINA short pool World Cup champion.
As for the Olympic events, it is a pity that Zhou Yafei only won a third-place bronze medal with the best result.
At the time, this was already a pretty good result.
At that time, in addition to Luo Xuejuan, the righteous Olympic champion in China, it was necessary to count down to Zhou Yafei.
However, with the gradual rise of the new generation, Zhou Yafei's dominance in butterfly swimming is getting smaller and smaller.
At the 2009 World Championships, Zhou Yafei completely left the pool with a silver medal as his curtain call.
This year, she was actually only 25 years old.
It can only be said that athletes in that era generally had relatively short careers.
After retiring, Zhou Yafei is most related to her lifelong events.
At that time, the coach and teammates introduced many excellent men to Zhou Yafei, but Zhou Yafei did not fancy any of them.
It wasn't until 2011 that she met Moko, who was married and had just been widowed.
This Moke is a basketball player in the domestic league and a teammate of Du Feng, the son-in-law of coach Zhou Yafei.
And Moko's first wife is also a basketball player, and the two are very affectionate.
However, who would have thought that less than half a year after the two were married, his wife would die of illness.
Grief-stricken, Moko decided to take his wife's parents to take care of him and never thought about remarrying.
But after a long time, the father-in-law and mother-in-law couldn't stand it.
The father-in-law persuaded him that he no longer had a daughter, and did not want to watch Moko's half son continue to be silent in grief, hoping that he could find his happiness as soon as possible.
In this way, Moke was introduced to Zhou Yafei.
Perhaps moved by Moke's affection, Zhou Yafei fell in love at first sight and began to take the initiative to pursue Moke.
Although the two came together smoothly, Zhou Yafei actually had some doubts about this relationship in her heart.
Worried about whether it was because of his own pursuit, Moko reluctantly agreed.
Worried about whether Moko used himself as a substitute for his ex-wife.
Under this psychology of gain and loss, the two often quarrel.
In 2012, when Zhou Yafei went to a wedding with Moke.
Moke suddenly held a bouquet of flowers in his hand, knelt on one knee in front of Zhou Yafei and proposed to her.
At this moment, all grievances came to naught, and all efforts became meaningful.
Four months later, the two officially completed becoming husband and wife.
Now, ten years later, Moko has also retired as a coach.
Zhou Yafei is not engaged in sports-related work, but is occasionally invited to serve as an event commentator.
The only thing that remains unchanged is the hearts of the two who truly love each other.
I don't know what to do, and I go deeper.
This is probably the best love.