Shi Haoxian (back row, second from right) won the gold medal in the Huayou collective skills optional event with the Chinese team.
Six years ago, when Shi Haoxian jumped into the pool of the World Swimming Championships for the first time, he didn't even dare to look his female partner in the eye; Today, Shi Haoxiu is the first Chinese male flower swimmer to reach the podium of the World Championships.
On July 17, the Chinese synchronized swimming team won the gold medal in the collective skill optional event with a set of "Light of Life" as the theme performance, which is the first gold medal of the Chinese Huayou team at the 2023 Fukuoka Swimming World Championships and Shi Haoxi's first world championship gold medal.
Not only that, he partnered with Cheng Wentao in mixed doubles technical choice, and also won the bronze medal in this World Championships.
From the first person in the domestic men's flower tour to the "elder of the four dynasties" of the World Championships, every growth of the young man Shi Haoxi marks every step taken by the Chinese flower tour.
Shi Haoxian and his partner Cheng Wentao won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles technical choice.
Perfect play
When Shi Haoxiu jumped into the water with seven female athletes, many spectators were still wondering whether male athletes could participate in the sport, but there was a milestone in the history of China's flower game - under the new rules, male athletes were allowed to participate in the collective event for the first time under the new rules, and Shi Haoxi was the first male athlete in China to appear in the collective event of the World Championships.
This milestone eventually became the first gold medal of the Chinese Huayou team at the 2023 Fukuoka World Swimming Championships.
With a set of performances themed "Light of Life", the Chinese Flower Tour Team won the gold medal in the collective skill optional event with 238.0033 points.
In fact, the process of winning the championship was not as easy as expected, and due to the adjustment of synchronized swimming rules in early 2023, this World Championships is quite unfamiliar to each team.
The event originally called the lifting was changed to self-selection, and the 4 lifting moves were upgraded to 7, and the athletes were changed from all women to a maximum of two male players per team.
Shi Haoxiu (bottom right) holds up during the match.
This is also why Shi Haoxi, who appeared in the flower swimming pool as early as 2017, did not participate in the competition of the collective event until six years later.
But the adjustment of the rules also made the competition suspenseful, originally the main competitor of the Chinese team was Ukraine, but the United States team sprang up, they filled in the difficult code unheard of, until two days before the competition everyone received the FINA technical confirmation notice.
In order to strive for better results, the Chinese team also chose to increase the difficulty in the final, changing the last lifting from 6 people to 2 people to 5 people supporting 3 people, this style change helped the Chinese team increase the score by 0.6 points.
Zhang Xiaohuan, the head coach of the Chinese team, said: "We don't have much time to run in before the game, we can only rely on the tacit cooperation of the athletes and the best efforts in the game. ”
As a male athlete in the team, although Shi Haoxi is often ridiculed by his teammates as a "team pet", he has to bear the pressure of "one top two" during the competition.
After the game, Shi Haoxi sighed: "I think it was a perfect performance, because we were all completely immersed in the performance and released the best state. ”
Shi Haoxiu (left) holds up his teammates in the water.
Elder of the Four Dynasties
From the first time he stepped on the World Championships to the World Championships winning gold, Shi Haoxi has been the "elder of the four dynasties" of the World Championships.
At the World Championships in Budapest in early 2017, Shi Haoxi, who was less than 16 years old, did not even dare to look directly at his partner Sheng Shuwen, who was 7 years older than him. In that tournament, he and Sheng Shuwen won the eighth place in the mixed doubles free selection competition, which was also the debut of the Chinese Huayou male player at the World Championships.
At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Shi Haoxiu and Zhang Yayi finished fifth in the mixed doubles technical optional event, and he also partnered with Cheng Wentao to finish sixth in the mixed doubles free optional event.
At the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Shi Haoxi and his partner Zhang Yiyao won 2 bronze medals, once again writing a new history of China's mixed doubles event.
As one of the first male athletes in China to practice synchronized swimming, every progress of Shi Haoxi means a historical breakthrough in Chinese flower swimming.
All this goes back to when Shi Haoxian was 14 years old. It was 2015, the coach of the Tianjin Huayou team came to the swimming team to select boys to practice the flower swim, and Shi Haoxian and several other boys were selected.
Recalling the time when he first came into contact with Huayou, Shi Haoxian said: "At that time, there were almost no boys in China who practiced Huayou, and I was also very curious about this project, so I went with the mentality of giving it a try. ”
Talent and hard work have made Shi Haoxiu slowly become the "first person" among the male players of Huayou.
Lu Liya, a former coach of the Chinese synchronized swimming team, once praised Shi Haoxi in an interview with CCTV: "At first, I just wanted Shi Haoxi to try it first, but I didn't expect the effect to be good, and in one week he learned the handstand that our flower swimmers may learn in two years." ”
Former teammate Sheng Shuwen also sighed: "There are very few people in this world who have good conditions and love this project, and if he can't practice, I will feel a pity." ”
As a result, Shi Haoxi's female partner changed stubble after stubble, but he grew all the way. Before the start of this World Championships, Shi Haoxian had already set himself a goal: "No matter what kind of competition, my goal is always the same, that is, to stand on the podium." ”
After the curve, it's all smooth
Standing on the podium of the World Championships, Shi Haoxi wrote this paragraph on social media: "After the corner, it is all a smooth road. ”
Since the Olympic Games did not allow male athletes to participate in the flower game events, Shi Haoxi did not dare to have Olympic dreams for a long time. Until the end of 2022, FINA announced that male flower athletes will be allowed to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
This is the first time since joining the Olympic family in 1984 that male athletes have been allowed to appear in the Olympic Flower Games.
Hearing this news, Shi Haoxian once sighed: "The flower tour project has opened a new chapter. ”
Shi Haoxi's Weibo.
So in March this year, Shi Haoxi ushered in a breakthrough - he partnered with Cheng Wentao in the first stop of the 2023 FINA synchronized swimming World Cup in Markham, Canada, and beat two pairs of Spanish to win the mixed doubles technical optional competition.
This is also the first championship won by the Chinese team after FINA set up a new scoring system for Huayou Athletics.
When the World Championships made history, Shi's goal was self-evident - to stand on the podium of the Paris Olympics.
Not only that, he also hopes that his experience can make more people understand the flower swim: "In the past, many people thought that boys were not suitable for synchronized swimming, but in fact, boys can show their masculine side in the flower swim. Just like dance, both boys and girls can dance. ”