In the summer of 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, the weather was dry and hot, but the Chinese Olympic delegation unexpectedly ushered in a cold winter.
<h1>A bad start</h1>
In the expectations of the Chinese people, the first match day must be a "good start".
Unexpectedly, in the shooting competition that took the lead, the "double insurance" composed of Xu Haifeng and Wang Yifu played abnormally. Xu Haifeng, the last Olympic champion, was eliminated in the preliminary round.
Domestic newspapers are embarrassed to say the rank, just say "the name of the sun mountain", in fact, the 27th place.
Zhang Qiuping and Li Dan, as gold rushing figures in women's shooting, also did not win medals.
The 137 Chinese journalists who interviewed the Seoul Olympics had a sense of disappointment in their hearts, and there was a bit of panic in their disappointment.
At that time, the athletes lived in the Olympic Village, and the card was so strict that the reporter could not easily enter. The delegation officials stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Seoul, which was heavily secured and the phone was not public, so reporters could not see them.
Reporter Bi Xidong recalled afterwards: "In the first two days, the Chinese team just didn't take the cards, and everyone rushed to the field to pounce, that is, they couldn't pounce on things, and they messed up the camp." Readers can't see the cards for such a long time, why do you say that thousands of miles have called us to come? ”
So, "Why the Chinese Shooting Team Fell", "Why Xu Haifeng Failed"... Reports of doubts poured in.
The weightlifting team was not spared.
An official of the Chinese delegation once asserted: "Even if all the gold medals of the Chinese team are lost, He Zhuoqiang's piece is still 'three fingers pinching the field snail - holding it steadily'."
He Zhuoqiang, the holder of the 52 kg world record in the snatch, deadlift and total results, ranked first in the 1987 National Top Ten Athletes, known as "Black Pearl" and "Oriental Hercules".
Unexpectedly, grabbing the lift, He Zhuoqiang's protective palm broke, and he panicked. In the stand-up, he rushed to ask for 145 kilograms, and the coach signed it in a vacuum, resulting in the failure of the trial. In the end, 6 attempts were successful only 2, and it ended with a bronze medal.
He Zhuoqiang later repeatedly said: "Seoul is a bad luck place! The 1986 Asian Games broke off the palm here, the Olympics broke off again, and the next time can not come back. ”
He Zhuoqiang's unexpected mistake made the atmosphere of the delegation suddenly solemn, and the public opinion before and after was in an uproar.
According to media reports, He Zhuoqiang played a big name and had to eat ginseng stewed chicken before the game. The coach had to rush to the vegetable market in the early morning, and after buying it back, he found an electric stove in the Olympic Village to stew for him. After eating the results, he lost "Maicheng" and was ashamed of Jiangdong's father and elder.
He Zhuoqiang became the target of everyone, and almost overnight changed from a "storm figure" to a "fall out of favor".
Even some media believe that the weightlifting team won 4 gold medals in the last session, which is the second largest gold winner, and this year's 1 gold has not been won, which is related to He Zhuoqiang's "squib" on the first day.
He Zhuoqiang has been in a slump since then, and the 21-year-old chose to retire early and fade out of the public eye.
In recent years, He Zhuoqiang and two friends have been volunteers together, and have repeatedly gone to Lop Nur and Antarctic glaciers to pick up garbage and advocate the concept of environmental protection.
<h1>Li Ning storm</h1>
On the 4th match day, Li Ning, the prince of gymnastics, appeared.
In fact, Li Ning had not carried out systematic training for 10 months at that time, and his shoulder joint was seriously injured. However, after half a day of entanglement, the delegation decided to let him go on the expedition. One saying is: "Gymnastics is the most important impression point, Li Ning has a great reputation and high prestige, as long as he does not fall off the horse, the gold medal is expected." ”
Unexpectedly, Li Ning's performance stunned the audience. He alone accounted for 5 of the 11 major mistakes of the Chinese gymnastics men's team.
During the kurama race, his "Thomas Full Spin" motion deformed and fell off his horse.
Vaulting, he sat on the ground with his ass on the ground.
The hoop race, his feet hanging from the ring. This was the first time in the history of gymnastics that such a mistake had occurred, and everyone was shocked, and the CCTV commentator was silent for a long time. In the silent gymnasium, Li Ning got up and walked off the stage with his usual smile.
In the team competition, Li Ning also performed abnormally. This made the young people's hearts even more bottomless, and the men's team fell out of the top three.
This time, the defeat was complete.
The media, which was already confused, grabbed Li Ning's smile and made a big fuss. They accused Li Ning of laughing after making a mistake.
That smile turned him from a "hero" to a "sinner."
Some reports actually called Li Ning "shameless", and some media called Li Ning a "gymnastics dead son".
Gymnast Guo Lin Xian was upset with Li Ning: "After Li Ning's mistake, he laughed, and the domestic newspapers did not attack him less." But what if you were to cry? He will attack you again for not being able to lose, crying something! ”
When they returned to China, the airport personnel saw Li Ning and couldn't help but say, "When did you fall badly and have to go to the Olympic Games?" ”
Insults are pouring in. There was a letter from the audience in Jinxi, Liaoning Province, with a pulled plastic rope buckle, and only one sentence was written: "Li Ning boy, you don't want to hang the ring, or go hang." ”
Because he was afraid of the scolding of the people around him, Li Ning did not even dare to go to the bank, and asked his teammates to borrow money.
Li Ning later recalled: "In that era, the organization was more important to me, and there was a lot of training. I think I still have some leadership skills, and the youngest official is also the director of the Guangxi Sports Committee. ”
Ten years of hardship, once submerged.
After the defeat, the world was cold, and the utilitarian attitude shown in all aspects made Li Ning feel disheartened.
At the end of 1988, Li Ning took a full body of injuries, bid farewell to the glory and regret of the past, bid farewell to the sports world, and devoted himself to the business sea.
<h1>Defeated Seoul</h1>
Bad news keeps coming.
Zhu Jianhua, the world record holder in the men's high jump, did not even pass the passing round.
Table tennis players Jiang Jialiang, Chen Longcan and Xu Zengcai were eliminated in the singles preliminary round, creating a fiasco that has never been seen in the history of Chinese table tennis in twenty years...
The Chinese people affectionately hope for the "six consecutive championships" of the Chinese women's volleyball team, but with a 0:3 disparity in the score of the defeat to the Soviet union, the first set also set a record of 0:15, the second set 9:15, the third set 2:15.
At the post-match press conference, a reporter asked the women's volleyball captain Yang Ceylon: Why is it 0:15? Yang Xilan thought about it and said, today's game is like this, and a few of our veteran players are responsible. The reporter then asked her what her mood was, and what did she say to the domestic volleyball fans? Yang Ceylon can't say anymore...
In the end, the Chinese delegation won only 5 gold medals, ranking 11th on the gold medal list, a far cry from the 15 gold medals at the last Los Angeles Olympics.
South Korea's sudden rise to the fourth place with 12 gold medals has made some South Korean media a bit fluttery, and even issued a bold statement that "the 1990 Beijing Asian Games will continue to hang".
Yang Ceylan and Jiang Jialiang, who were under pressure and accusations, were only 26 and 24 years old at the time, and they were in the year of fighting, but they successively chose to retire and go abroad to seek development and disappear from the sight of the Chinese people.
<h1>The media "booed"</h1>
For a time, the media reports converged into a cheering question: How to do it?
Some media outlets even reported the Olympics with gray headlines.
Some media said, "In 1987, China's funds for campus sports and mass sports were not even 10 million. And the Olympic Games 4 years a cycle, cost 1 billion yuan per year, 4 years is 4 billion, we used 4 billion to get back 5 gold medals, a gold medal 800 million!
In 1987, compared with the height of men and women in the 12-year-old age group between China and Japan, China was 7.2 cm and 5.75 cm lower than its Japanese peers, respectively; the bust circumference was 5.62 cm and 6.89 cm smaller than others, respectively, and the speed of 50-meter running was on average 0.45 seconds and 0.62 seconds slower than that of others, and the weight was almost 9 kg lighter.
Is the Olympics important, or is it important for every Chinese child to grow twenty pounds of meat? ”
Some media commented: "In developing regions, the first priority should be to feed the poor, not to build a national system that produces Olympic champions." India is an excellent example of this, the world's second most populous country, and the Olympic Games did not win a medal. ”
<h1>Reflection and rise</h1>
Due to the strong response of domestic public opinion, the Chinese Olympic delegation could not sit still and held a meeting overnight to convey the relevant spirit to the reporters.
It was emphasized that the Olympic spirit focuses on participation, not on the supremacy of the gold medal. Athletes can't win and win, and when they lose, they step on the ground and taunt them sarcastically. Our past sports propaganda was not appropriate, the gold medal was too heavy, and sports became a national tonic. The leaders found this problem and wanted to reverse it during the Olympics.
According to the requirements, the reporters wrote some articles, but the effect was not satisfactory.
The defeat of Seoul has exposed the lack of reserve strength in China's competitive sports and the problems in the training and transportation mechanism of excellent players. Subsequently, the Olympic games glory plan, urban transport, and national transport strategy were rapidly launched.
At the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, Chinese sports completely came out of the shadows with a big victory.
Today, our indifference to the Olympic gold medal may not even be aware of ourselves. We are more generous because we are confident; we are more calm because we believe in ourselves.