Text/Moran History Book
Editor/Moran History Books
In September 2013, Shang Chunsong, who won three gold medals and one bronze in women's gymnastics at the National Games, won a million prize as she wished. Shang Chunsong's family is poor, and this bonus can bring a lot of improvement to her life.
Soon after, the media received news that Shang Chunsong had used the money to buy a house in Changsha, the provincial capital of his hometown of Hunan. However, Shang Chunsong said that this apartment was not for himself, but for his brother's marriage. For a time, rumors about Shang Chunsong's family "sucking blood" and "preferring sons to women" were rampant. But Shang Chunsong said: Helping my brother buy a house is my motivation!
An Olympic champion who earns money to support his family
To say that the highest gold content and the largest sports event in China, it is probably the National Games. It is equivalent to a small Olympic Games, with all kinds of competitions, and it is also held every four years. It was first held in 1959, and to date, 14 editions have been held.
September 2013 was the time to host the 12th National Games. Every time the National Games are held, the most attention is always the sports that mainland athletes are good at, such as diving, gymnastics, table tennis, and this year is no exception. Early on, gymnastics venues are packed, especially in women's gymnastics.
Among the high-profile competitors is Shang Chunsong, who has just made his mark in the competition, won several national championships in a row, and is especially good at floor exercise and balance beam. Although he is only 17 years old, Shang Chunsong's face is full of determination and quite a general.
Later, Xiong Ni, deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau, once commented on Shang Chunsong, saying that she has strong psychological quality, leadership temperament, and is the core figure of the team, as long as she is there, she can stabilize the army's heart.
And Shang Chunsong did rise to captain of the Chinese women's gymnastics team after this National Games. The premise of all this is because Shang Chunsong's performance at this National Games is too bright, winning three gold and one bronze in one breath and winning millions of bonuses.
Many people can't earn a million in their lifetime, but Shang Chunsong got millions through a game, which can't help but make people envious and jealous. So how Shang Chunsong would spend the money became a curious gossip for the public.
The reporter also interviewed Shang Chunsong, who said that she would do two things, the first was to help her parents improve their lives. Shang Chunsong's family is not rich, and it can even be called poor. The whole family lives in the mountains of Zhangjiajie, where the father works outside the home all year round, while the mother helps others with odd jobs to supplement the family.
Many people think that athletes' training is free, but in fact, tens of thousands of teenagers are selected to train every year, and only a handful of them can finally enter the provincial team, enter the national team, and get results in the competition.
When you are unknown, all the training fees, food and accommodation expenses need to be paid by yourself. Especially some money-burning projects, such as skiing. Gu Ailing's mother said that she spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on skiing every year.
Fortunately, the training cost of gymnastics is much less, and it takes about 10,000 a year. This is also a huge amount of money for Shang Chunsong's family. But in order for their daughter to be able to train, Shang Chunsong's parents drained their family resources, and relatives and friends borrowed a lot of money. Usually, they asked Shang Chunsong to ensure nutrition, but he was tight at home.
Now that he has finally survived, Shang Chunsong's million-dollar bonus can bring huge improvements to the family. The media tracked down that after receiving the prize money for the National Games, Shang Chunsong returned to his hometown of Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, to buy a house. I thought it was for my parents, but Shang Chunsong said that it was for my brother's marriage.
Shang Chunsong's brother is a few years older than her and dropped out of school early to work. Shang Chunsong bought a house for his brother this time, and people couldn't help but wonder, is it the family that prefers sons to daughters and wants to suck his daughter's blood? The rumors became more and more true, and everyone gave Shang Chunsong a bitter drama, thinking that she was under the pressure of supporting her family at a young age.
In the end, Shang Chunsong personally stood up and said that she was willing to buy a house for her brother, and this was also the motivation for her efforts.
A family supported in distress
Now that "egoism" is prevalent, as everyone knows, there are also people in the world who value flesh and blood affection. Shang Chunsong is willing to help her brother buy a house, also because of the family affection between her and her brother, and when she first trained, her brother also contributed a lot of money and strength.
Shang Chunsong can be said to have grown up on the back of his brother, when his father was not at home when he was a child, his mother had to do farm work, housework, and odd jobs, so he couldn't keep busy. Therefore, it has always been his brother Shang Lei who takes care of his young sister, takes her to school, and takes her to play.
Shang Lei is very fond of his younger sister Shang Chunsong, and every time the two have to walk three or four hours on the mountain road to and from school, as long as Shang Chunsong says that he is tired, Shang Lei will stop and carry his sister. As long as her sister is bored and wants to go out to play, Shang Lei will accompany her. Shang Chunsong mischievous to her brother, and Shang Lei also let her go, never blaming her.
In the blink of an eye, Shang Chunsong was 5 years old, and the brother and sister who grew up together had a very intimate relationship. On this day, an aunt came to the house, saying that she lived in the provincial capital on weekdays, and this time she was returning to her hometown to visit relatives. And the arrival of this aunt also changed Shang Chunsong's life.
Although Shang Chunsong is a girl, she likes to climb up and down on weekdays, turn her head upside down and split, and her temperament is very wild. Even if my aunt came, she couldn't control it, and she was still playing crazy outside.
Seeing Shang Chunsong's flexible figure, an idea came to her aunt's mind. She had some connections in town and knew some people from sports schools. On weekdays, they are often seen selecting good seedlings suitable for sports training. If you train well and enter the provincial team and national team, you will soar.
The aunt and Shang Chunsong's parents mentioned this matter, and they were also a little moved. Quickly asked Shang Chunsong's aunt to help inquire. This aunt is also reliable, and in 2003, she arranged Shang Chunsong to practice in the local sports school.
But the cost of practice is tens of thousands a year, which is a lot of money. Moreover, Shang Chunsong was 7 years old at the time, relatively speaking, a little older, and the average gymnast began training at the age of three or four. Although Shang Chunsong's performance allowed her to stay successfully, it is more difficult than ordinary people to practice results in the future.
Shang Chunsong's parents did not want their daughter to give up their hard-won opportunity, so they took all the money from the family and barely paid for Shang Chunsong's first year of training. In order to ensure that the later training is carried out normally. Shang Chunsong's parents worked harder. And his brother Shang Lei directly chose to drop out of school to work and help his sister pay for practice.
His brother Shang Lei's eyes were damaged at a very young age due to a medical accident involving an infusion, and as he grew older, Shang Lei's vision became more and more regressive. In the year when Shang Chunsong won the championship, Shang Lei's eyes were almost invisible.
Because his eyes couldn't see, Shang Lei had few jobs to choose from, and in desperation, he went for a blind massage. The money earned was not much, and most of it was used to pay Shang Chunsong for training.
This incident has always kept Shang Chunsong in mind. The second thing Shang Chunsong did when he earned the bonus was to help his brother treat his eyes. Over the years, she has also been helping her brother inquire about doctors. But because Shang Lei was too young when his eyes were injured and there was too long a gap between them, the family asked several major hospitals, and the doctors said that there was no way to treat them. This has also become an eternal regret in Shang Chunsong's heart.
There is no house or car, the eyes cannot see, the income is not high, and Shang Lei's appearance is not tall and handsome, and the future marriage event has become a problem.
A happy life has just begun
With Shang Lei's conditions, few girls are willing to marry him. If you want to marry a girl who is not bad, you must at least have a house, right? But now that house prices are soaring, where can Shang Lei's income buy a house in the city, and the girl will not follow Shang Lei back to the mountains.
So his younger sister Shang Chunsong thought of helping her brother, so she bought him a house. Moreover, Shang Chunsong only paid the down payment, and it also took his brother's efforts to repay the loan later.
Shang Chunsong's experience reminds me of a person, the now sought-after diving champion Quan Hongchan. Quan Hongchan, born in 2007, is only 16 years old this year, and has already won the National Games championship, the World Swimming Championships, and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Quan Hongchan has already carried the banner of the next generation of Chinese diving, and all that remains is to add more competition experience and become the next "diving queen". But compared with the Winter Olympic ski champion Gu Ailing, who shined in the sports world in the same year, Quan Hongchan's family history can be described as poor.
Born in Guangdong, her family has been farmers for generations, and her mother is not in good health because of a car accident. Fortunately, the coach saw her talent and had the opportunity to enter the Olympic Games. The whole family is very supportive of Quan Hongchan's training, and the prize money from Quan Hongchan's competition is also used to help the whole family improve their lives.
This kind of love goes both ways, and it cannot be used to calculate profit and loss. I believe Shang Chunsong is also happy and proud to grow into an adult who helps his family improve their lives, right? Then the family has all arranged, what happened to Shang Chunsong's own life?
Carefully calculated, Shang Chunsong is also 27 years old this year, but she has not yet married and had children. In fact, she's still active in the arena. This is almost impossible for athletes, most of them choose to live ordinary lives, get married and have children after retiring, but Shang Chunsong has done it.
After the 12th National Games, Shang Chunsong became the captain of the gymnastics team, led the team members to compete in the arena, and achieved good results many times. But Shang Chunsong has a regret, that is, she has never won the Olympic championship.
Shang Chunsong has competed in only one Olympics in his career, and that was the Rio Olympics in '16. But that time, she missed out on a medal and finished fourth. And she never had another chance, 17 years, because of the age, the decline in form, and many serious mistakes in the competition, Shang Chunsong chose to retire.
After retiring, Shang Chunsong fell into a long period of confusion, and she found that she still couldn't let go of gymnastics in her heart. In 2019, she was admitted to the physical education major of Central China Normal University without being admitted to the entrance examination. She resumed training and announced her comeback in May.
After her comeback, Shang Chunsong is an older athlete on the field, but her performance is still bright. He won the gold medal in floor exercise at the Comeback Battle: National Championships.
Although it is almost impossible for Shang Chunsong to return to the form of her peak, she still maintains high-intensity training and competes with young players in the arena, which is enough to be admired. To her, grades don't seem to matter. What she pursues is a competitive spirit and competitive state.
This year, Shang Chunsong has graduated from university, and just this past May, Shang Chunsong finished the National Gymnastics Championships and won the third place. She has now set her goal for the 25-year National Games, hoping that she will be healthy and achieve good results.
We see athletes on the field of glory and beauty, but we don't know that competitive sports are cruel. Training is brutal, competition is brutal, and the end after the peak is brutal.
As the captain, Shang Chunsong chose to retire because he could not withstand the great pressure and pain after the mistake. Fortunately, she has adjusted and now sees competition and training as a pleasure. Race life with this mentality, I believe that Shang Chunsong will always be happy.