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Wen 丨 Crane White Sage
Editor丨Tsuru Haku Sage
He is a famous athlete on the mainland who has achieved brilliant results in international competitions, but he failed to defend his title in an important competition, and gradually faded from public view in the days since.
Years later, when his name reappeared in public, not as an athlete, but in another field, he rose through the ranks and ranks.
The outside world has been talking about the change of his identity, and there is also a lot of criticism about his position ability.
He himself speaks modestly, saying that "it takes time to adapt and grow."
Can this former athlete create another brilliant journey on a new journey? What kind of inspiration will his life experience and choices bring us?
Chinese weightlifting hero Zhan Xugang
In 1974, Zhan Xugang was born in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, to parents who worked in a local shipyard.
In the third grade of primary school, the physical education teacher found that Zhan Xugang was extremely outstanding in upper limb explosiveness and strength, so the teacher suggested that Zhan Xugang's parents could consider letting their children go to a sports school to receive professional weightlifting training to discover his athletic talent.
Zhan Xugang also showed a strong interest in weightlifting, but his mother was very hesitant at first, worried about delaying her studies and affecting her height development, and after the sports school coach explained the pros and cons many times, Zhan's mother finally reluctantly agreed.
At the age of 13, Zhan Xu just participated in an important junior weightlifting event for the first time and broke the record and won the championship, shocking the national weightlifting circle, since then he officially entered the provincial team for systematic training, and also taught himself professional knowledge to study the weightlifting method that suits him.
At the age of 19, Zhan Xugang was already one of the best young weightlifters in Asia, and the following year, Zhan Xugang passed the national team selection and was selected for the national team.
During his time with the national team, Zhan Xugang trained harder and was always in the best condition to prepare for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he underwent intense weight loss before the competition, and although he was so weak that his vision was blurred during the competition, he still gritted his teeth to complete all the movements and won the gold medal.
This time he won the gold, Zhan Xugang not only added another gold to China, but also broke 3 world records, and became famous in World War I.
Just when Zhan Xugang's popularity was booming, the International Weightlifting Federation suddenly changed its weight rules, which directly affected Zhan Xugang's preparations for the Sydney Olympics.
When the outside world thought that it was difficult for Zhan Xugang to maintain his previous demeanor under the new rules, Zhan Xugang did not give up.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Zhan Xugang performed well again in the 77kg weightlifting final, completing a major reversal and successfully defending his title with a total score of 367.5kg.
Zhan Xugang, who won double gold on two Olympic trips, still attracts attention in terms of feelings.
Win the championship and get married
Before meeting Yao Jian, Zhan Xugang's life was two points and one line, extremely boring, he was running back and forth between the dormitory and the training hall every day, and the coach did not allow his time to be occupied by anything.
Under the strict requirements of the coach and Zhan Xugang's own hard training, he broke 3 world records in a row and became China's Olympic hero in one fell swoop.
It was also at this time that Zhan Xu just met the most important half of his life.
On the plane from Atlanta to China, a beautiful and lively flight attendant recognized Zhan Xugang as the Olympic champion who had just won the championship and won the glory for the country, so she excitedly asked Zhan Xugang to sign her name.
As a "straight man of steel", Zhan Xugang was also very happy, feeling the feeling of being a "celebrity" for the first time, so he carefully signed his name to the flight attendant, and at the strong request of the flight attendant, Zhan Xugang left his contact information.
At this time, no one expected that the flight attendant chasing stars on the plane was Zhan Xugang's future girlfriend - Yao Jian.
The beautiful, generous, cheerful and energetic Yao Jian became the first person to be moved by Zhan Xugang, and Zhan Xugang later said that Yao Jian was his first and last girlfriend.
Because of the contact information of the other party, Yao Jian always contacted Zhan Xugang when there was no flight attendant mission, and the two began a long-distance love run as soon as they came and went.
As a national athlete, Zhan Xugang continues to train hard, and Yao Jian, as a flight attendant, also has to fly around, although there are fewer gatherings and more separations, but it does not affect the feelings between the two, but makes them cherish every moment together.
Zhan Xugang made a promise in his heart that when he won enough gold medals for his country, he would propose to Yao Jian, and this became one of the motivations for his unremitting training.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Zhan Xugang won the championship again, and he finally fulfilled his promise with Yao Jian, and shortly after announcing his retirement in 2004, the two held a grand wedding.
After retiring from football, Zhan Xu just returned to his hometown in Zhejiang and continued to cultivate sports leaders for the country in the local sports system.
Zhan Xu just retired and embarked on the road of civil service, which is very different from his original life trajectory.
At the beginning, Zhan Xugang needed to adapt to the way the office worked, and reading documents became Zhan Xugang's biggest headache, because he was not good at words since he was a child, and it took a long time to read a document, plus he was not familiar with the fields involved in the document, and many professional terms stumped this athlete born in a rural area.
Zhan Xugang also had to adapt to the new titles of colleagues and leaders, no longer the familiar "Zhan Xu", but became "Zhanda".
There is also the interpersonal entertainment, which is a new challenge for the simple Zhan Xugang, who only needed to concentrate on training before, and now needs to learn how to deal with people of different classes, which is creepy for him with a straightforward personality.
However, gold always shines, and excellent people are still excellent even if they change the environment.
A life in flux
After a year of running-in, Zhan Xugang finally adapted to the clerical job, he learned how to quickly scan documents, grasp the main points, and also familiar with how to behave in social situations.
This year was a key turning point in Zhan Xugang's life, and he also held a wedding with Yao Jian as he wished, and the two entered the marriage hall hand in hand.
Having children after marriage, Zhan Xugang has become more and more family-oriented, as long as he will make time to accompany his wife and children on weekends, he will take the family on outings, let the children run to their heart's content, and will also take his wife to eat in high-end restaurants, and the two quietly enjoy the happiness of ordinary people.
Unfortunately, happy days are always short-lived, and as Zhan Xu has risen step by step, his work has become more and more busy.
In 2012, Zhan Xugang was promoted to vice president of Zhejiang Sports Vocational and Technical College, where he had to live apart from his family, and then he was promoted to deputy county magistrate of Sanmen County.
Faced with the unfamiliar government system, Zhan Xugang felt overwhelmed, and at the same time, the child also grew up and needed his father's care, and he could only greet him on the phone, and the days away from home were very tormenting for him.
In addition to his own discomfort, the outside world also has many doubts about Zhan Xugang's ability, thinking that an Olympic champion can be a county magistrate?
Zhan Xugang's suitability for the position of county magistrate has sparked widespread discussion, the media is busy speculating about him, and Zhan Xugang has only a heavy sense of responsibility in his heart, which he understands will be the toughest challenge of his career.
The trajectory of Zhan's life has changed dramatically, from athlete to civil servant, he has had to face different challenges.
This thorny process is a completely new exercise for Zhan Xugang's character and ability.
In addition to the changes in his career and family, Zhan Xugang also found a new purpose in life at this time.
The new generation overcomes pain and takes over the banner of tradition
In 1996, Zhan Xugang won his first gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics, opening the golden age of China's men's weightlifting event, and successfully defended the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, achieving the first "double champion" in the history of Chinese weightlifting, but he was riddled with injuries and had to retire at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
After retiring, Zhan Xugang started the second legend of his life - cultivating successors.
Zhan Xugang first joined the Zhejiang Sports Team as a vice captain, and later became the head of the Department of Heavy Athletics of Zhejiang Sports Vocational and Technical College, and since 2012, he has been fully preparing for the Rio Olympics as the vice president of Zhejiang Sports Vocational College.
In order to forge a new generation of successors, Zhan Xugang set up the Zhejiang Group of the Chinese National Weightlifting Team, set up a training base in Ningbo, and provided scientific guidance to the players.
Under the wise eyes of Zhan Xugang, another weightlifting star is rising, Shi Zhiyong.
In 2008, the Zhejiang group of Zhan Xugang's Chinese national weightlifting team met a hairy boy named Shi Zhiyong, and this became the intersection of the fate of the two Olympic weightlifting champions.
Zhan Xugang found that Shi Zhiyong was no different from his younger self, so he guided Shi Zhiyong wholeheartedly, and even in order to cultivate Shi Zhiyong, Zhan Xugang resolutely resigned from public office and returned to the provincial team to guide Shi Zhiyong wholeheartedly.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Shi Zhiyong won the 69kg championship with a total score of 352 kg, which brought fruits to Zhan Xugang's 12 years of hard work.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Shi Zhiyong won the championship again, and together with Zhan Xugang, he created a miracle in China's weightlifting industry.
Under the background of Zhan Xugang's vow to inherit the glory of Chinese weightlifting, Shi Zhiyong overcame injuries and achieved the leap of rookies surpassing veterans, and the two tacitly cooperated to push China's weightlifting career to a new peak.
This mentor-apprentice friendship crossed the torrent of times and wrote a legendary chapter in the development of sports in China.
As a legend in China's weightlifting industry, Zhan Xugang not only created brilliant achievements himself, but also successfully incubated and cultivated a new generation of successor Shi Zhiyong.
Zhan Xugang's careful guidance and full support for Shi Zhiyong have achieved the latter's glory in the two Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo, and also made Shi Zhiyong the second athlete in the history of Chinese weightlifting to achieve the Olympic double championship after Zhan Xugang.
Shi Zhiyong himself also knows that his achievements today are inseparable from the help of his teacher Zhan Xugang over the years, and as a student, Shi Zhiyong has not lived up to his teacher's painstaking efforts.
After winning the championship, Shi Zhiyong specially expressed his gratitude to Zhan Xugang in an interview: "For more than ten years, he has been silently supporting me behind me, and I want to thank him for creating these opportunities for me." ”
It can be said that the master and apprentice trust each other and share happiness and hardships, which has led to the milestone results of the inheritance and development of today's weightlifting project.
This touching mentor-apprentice friendship, which spans many years, not only shows the fine tradition of the Chinese weightlifting team, but also highlights the infinite charm of sportsmanship. The story of Zhan Xugang and Shi Zhiyong encourages generations of Chinese athletes to forge ahead on the road of sports and write their own legends with strength and perseverance.
Zhan Xugang and Shi Zhiyong are two masters and apprentices, one who opens the glorious history of Chinese weightlifting, the other carries the bright future of Chinese weightlifting, the past and the present meet in them, and tradition and innovation merge in their hands.
It is this cross-era inheritance that allows China's weightlifting industry to continue to develop and grow and continue to occupy a place in the world sports scene.
epilogue
Zhan Xugang grew from an ordinary rural boy to an Olympic weightlifting champion and then to become a deputy county magistrate, and his life experience can be described as very exciting.
Zhan Xugang did not indulge in power, but dedicated himself to the cause of sports, and used his own experience to train many weightlifters, so that those ordinary children can stand on the international stage and shine.
The first half of Zhan Xugang's life is full of legends, and I believe that in the future, he can bring more miracles.