Gong Lijiao won!
The Tokyo Olympic Stadium on the morning of August 1 belongs to Gong Lijiao alone! From the first test shot to lead the whole field, the 32-year-old Gong Lijiao finally won the women's shot put at the Tokyo Olympic Games by an absolute advantage! This is the first gold medal of the Chinese athletics team at the Tokyo Olympic Games, and it is also the first gold medal of Gong Lijiao and even the chinese female shot put players in the Olympic games.
After winning the gold medal, Gong Lijiao, who has participated in the Olympic Games four times, sighed that she has been waiting for this precious gold medal for 21 years, and for Chinese women's shot put players with outstanding records in chinese athletics and even in previous generations, they have been waiting for this gold medal for a longer 37 years!
Time back to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In addition to Zhu Jianhua winning a valuable high jump bronze medal for the Chinese athletics team, the women's shot put was the biggest surprise of the Chinese athletics team at that event. Li Meisu (17.96m) and Yang Yanqin (16.97m), who joined hands in the final, finished 4th and 10th respectively, and although they rubbed shoulders with medals, it was from these two players that women's shot put became a traditional advantage of Chinese athletics in the Olympic arena.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, three Chinese players, including Li Meisu, Huang Zhihong and Cong Yuzhen, advanced to the women's shot put final. Bigger surprises appear in the final! With 21.06 meters from his fifth trial, Li Meisu not only won a valuable bronze medal, but also the only medal in Chinese athletics at that Olympic Games, while Huang Zhihong (19.82 meters) and Cong Yuzhen (19.69) finished 8th and 9th respectively.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Chinese women's shot put players created even bigger surprises, Huang Zhihong won the silver medal with the 20.47 meters of the third trial shot, setting a new record for the best Chinese women's shot put players in the Olympic games, in addition, Zhou Tianhua and Zhen Wenhua also advanced to the final.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Sui Xinmei continued Huang Zhihong's performance to win a silver medal for Chinese athletics again, while veterans Li Meisu and Huang Zhihong passed by the final. Since then, at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Many Chinese women's shot put players such as Cheng Xiaoyan, Li Meiju and Li Fengfeng have never reached the previous heights, but with Gong Lijiao's "birth" at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese women's shot put has once again become the "top force" in the World Championships and even the Olympic Games.
Gong Lijiao achieved "domination" of the whole field.
After Gong Lijiao won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Gong Lijiao and Li Ling won silver and bronze medals respectively at the 2012 London Olympic Games, which was the first time that a Chinese female shot put player won two medals at an Olympic Games.
Maybe it is in response to the saying "good things are more grinding". Gong Lijiao, who ended his rio Olympic journey with 4th place, finally achieved "thick accumulation" at the Tokyo Olympic Games after winning the gold medal twice at the 2017 World Championships in London and the 2019 World Championships in Doha!
Gong Lijiao's gold medal belongs to her, and she also belongs to the Chinese women's shot put players in the past.
This is the brightest moment of Gong Lijiao's sports career, and also makes Gong Lijiao's 21-year sports career a moment without complaint, but this gold medal is not a consolation for the Chinese female shot put players who have been creating good results since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Therefore, when cheering for Gong Lijiao, perhaps we have more reasons to cheer for Chinese athletics and Chinese women's shot put players, this "late" gold medal belongs to every Chinese women's shot put player who has appeared in the Olympic Games, and belongs to every Chinese women's shot put player!