Portrait | Ye Shiwen, love can last for a long time

Horsen Brooks

2024-04-25 18:04Posted in Guangxi Sports Creators

After the final of the women's 200-meter breaststroke of the 2024 National Swimming Championships, the moment the results appeared on the electronic screen, the scene was boiling, and almost all the spectators, even the referees, were applauding the champion.

It's not just because the champion's name is Ye Shiwen.

is also because Ye Shiwen's score of 2:22.55 has reached the Olympic A standard of 2:23.91 - this also means that after a lapse of 8 years, this once ill-fated talented girl, the winner of the pool Golden Slam, will return to the Olympic arena again.

Ye Shiwen is the oldest contestant in this competition

At the age of 28, for most athletes, this age could mean the end of their careers. But for Ye Shiwen, this age has ushered in a new starting point. She no longer has to chase the accolades that were once within her reach, nor does she have to go out of her way to prove herself, her every stroke and every turn in the pool is born out of a pure love for swimming deep down.

The significance of such Ye Shiwen for Chinese swimming and even Chinese sports has long surpassed a medal or a record.

01 A genius girl born out of nowhere

The London 2012 Olympics had many memorable moments, including the birth of a talented girl.

In the women's 400m individual medley final, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen won the championship with a time of 4:28.43, breaking the world record.

What shocked the world even more was that in the last 50 meters of the sprint, she swam a terrifying speed of 28.93 seconds, even faster than the men's star Rochette in the same event!

Two days later, in the women's 200m individual medley final, Ye Shiwen won the championship again and broke the Olympic record again.

The world was shocked.

A talented girl born at the London Olympics

But for the Chinese team's coaching staff, none of this is unexpected.

In 2010, 14-year-old Ye Shiwen participated in the national competition for the first time and showed extraordinary strength and successfully won the national championship in the 200-meter medley.

In the same year, he participated in the Asian Games for the first time and won the gold medal in the 200-meter medley.

In 2011, he participated in the World Championships for the first time, in the 200-meter medley, and was still a gold medal.

Then came the London Olympics in 2012, the World Cup, the Short Course World Championships, and the 2013 National Games, all of which were gold medals!

17-year-old Ye Shiwen is already the first Golden Slam in the history of Chinese swimming!

And she did it all in less than three years!

02 small leaves crushed by pressure

Ye Shiwen in front of the camera is always shy and quiet, but in fact, this little girl has an incomparably strong competitive spirit in her body.

Her enlightenment Wei Wei said that every time he competes, Ye Shiwen is always the most excited one, and he will swim better than usual training, and Ye Shiwen's national team coach Xu Guoyi also believes that Ye Shiwen has a stubborn character in his bones and is very eager to prove himself.

This kind of competitiveness used to be the biggest motivation for Ye Shiwen to train hard, but after winning the Grand Slam at a young age, it has evolved into an alternative psychological burden.

After the London Olympics, Ye Shiwen's terrifying second half of the sprint was talked about by countless swimming fans, but rumors also began to hit - "Swimming faster than Rochte, I must have taken medicine!"

Although the Olympic Committee and the Anti-Doping Agency have strongly supported Ye, for a young girl who has not yet reached adulthood, this skepticism will undoubtedly make her more eager to prove herself through victory after victory.

But who doesn't lose?

In particular, the more afraid you are of losing, the more likely you are to lose.

Ye Shiwen, who was crushed by pressure at the World Championships in Barcelona

In the summer of 2013, in the women's 200-meter individual medley final at the World Championships in Barcelona, Ye Shiwen only finished fourth, and even won seventh in the 400-meter medley.

For Ye Shiwen, who had been invincible before, this defeat finally triggered a chain reaction of collapse.

She couldn't understand her failures, and she couldn't face criticism and doubts, but when it rained overnight, her developmental period came, her body and weight began to soar uncontrollably, and the original technical movements were almost completely no longer applicable.

She began to become fearful and insomnia.

Few people cared that the Golden Slam winner was only 17 years old when he faced such a major setback in his life for the first time.

03 restless heart

In the next few years, Ye Shiwen had to struggle with his body during the day and his spirit at night, and this continuous struggle and suffering made the coach and his family feel extremely distressed.

"Otherwise, just retire, all the championships have been won anyway. ”

They persuaded Ye Shiwen like this.

But Ye Shiwen did not agree, she was still eager to prove herself.

It's just that this sudden trough period is so long that it seems that there is no end in sight-

Before the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, a broken bone was found in her ankle, and she only finished eighth with an injury;

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, her swimming goggles were knocked over in the competition, but she still only finished eighth;

2017 World Championships in Budapest, still lost......

She seems obsessed with proving something, but in the end, everyone has gradually accepted the fact that the genius girl is falling at the speed of light.

 In the 2017 National Games, Ye Shiwen finally won the championship in the 200-meter medley, but the time was 2:10.91, which was 3 seconds slower than London five years ago.

After the game, coach Xu Guoyi hugged her and said in her ear: "Don't push yourself anymore, leave the swimming team, go to study, and change the environment." ”

Ye Shiwen agreed.

She left the pool and became a special student at Tsinghua Law School.

Ye Shiwen, an ordinary student at Tsinghua Law School

In the next two years, the heavy schoolwork and busy studies made Ye Shiwen, who had been living in the national team collective, gradually feel a different world.

She started to grow long hair, she started dyeing her hair, she started eating desserts, skateboarding, and biking......

She started to be who she wanted to be.

And at this time, that is, when swimming was finally no longer a burden for her, Ye Shiwen realized that she really liked swimming.

04 I've thought it all through

At the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, Ye Shiwen, who was sitting in front of the TV watching his teammates' games, suddenly had a crazy idea - "I want to go back to the pool!"

For Ye Shiwen, this was not a whim, but the result of her careful consideration, but this decision was unanimously opposed by coach Xu Guoyi and her parents.

After all, only the closest people have really seen her most unbearable and painful side during the trough period, and they don't want Ye Shiwen to fall into that kind of pain again.

But Ye Shiwen insisted on applying to the school for a two-year leave of absence to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics.

16-year-old Ye Shiwen has given us too many good memories

To the coach and parents, she said this -

"I had all the preparations, and when I decided I was going to take a break from school, I had already thought about the pain, the challenges and the fears that I would have to face when I went back to the pool, what I was going to do with them, I thought about it all. ”

Returning to the team after a full year away from the competition is bound to be difficult and difficult.

In the first three months, Ye Shiwen couldn't even hold on to 1/3 of the basic training, and the coach thought that she might give up soon, but what she didn't expect was that Ye Shiwen used extreme self-discipline and diligence to keep up with the pace of training.

From domestic competitions to international competitions, Ye Shiwen is returning to the familiar pool little by little.

She loves the feeling and she craves the game.

At the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, in the 200-meter medley final, after the first 100 meters, Ye Shiwen only ranked eighth, but in the last 100 meters, people saw the familiar rocket sprint, vaguely recalling London 7 years ago, the talented girl who amazed everyone.

At the end of the competition, Ye Shiwen won the silver medal and stepped onto the podium of the World Series for the first time in a long time, and by her side, she was still vaguely the opponents Huo Sizu and Ohashi Youyi, but the vicissitudes of life.

05Not all efforts will bear fruit

Ye Shiwen in 2019 may still be far from her peak state when she was 15 years old, but she doesn't care whether she can still win the gold medal, but just wants to return to the Olympic arena to fight.

It's just that creation makes people.

At the end of 2019, when the epidemic came, the competition was suspended, the training was closed, and then the Tokyo Olympics were postponed for a year.

For Ye Shiwen, who had just recovered from her state, this huge blow made her whole person feel uneasy.

What made her even more dazed was that coach Xu Guoyi was hospitalized due to illness and died in a hurry soon after.

Coach Xu Guoyi, who is full of peach and plums (first from the left below)

This is a person who really cares about Ye Shiwen, and it is also a relative that she has long identified in her heart.

Although Ye Shiwen quickly adjusted his emotions, this kind of inner pain is destined to only rely on time to slowly heal.

She is still training and competing, and the bell of fate is finally ringing.

In May 2021, at the National Swimming Championships, Ye Shiwen swam 2:12.57 in the 200-meter individual medley event - just 0.01 seconds short of the Olympic standard A of 2:12.56.

Later, in the make-up competition, her results were not satisfactory.

In the end, Ye Shiwen's name did not appear on the list of the national team to Tokyo.

Ye Shiwen was very relieved about this result, she had long known that with her body and state, it was indeed extremely difficult to enter Tokyo.

And more importantly, she has learned to accept, to accept her failures, to accept the imperfections of life. 

Ye Shiwen chose to leave again.

06Face the self who is moving all the way

However, Ye Shiwen's story does not end there.

In October 2022, Ye Shiwen's enlightenment coach Wei Wei sent a text message: "Don't you think about the Asian Games at your doorstep?"

This text message once again ignited the fire in Ye Shiwen's heart.

You must know that at this time, she has not been training in the water for a whole year, and it is less than a year before the opening of the Hangzhou Asian Games!

However, for Ye Shiwen, the comeback is already a birth and a second maturity.

At the Asian Games, Ye Shiwen swam 2:10.34 in the 200-meter medley and won a silver medal, but in the 200-meter breaststroke, she swam 2:23.84 and successfully won gold.

After seeing his achievements, Ye Shiwen smashed the water for the first time in his career to celebrate.

Ye Shiwen who smashed water to celebrate

Only she knows how much she has paid for this day.

At the same time, another crazy thought surged in my heart, which I could no longer suppress - why not, to storm the Paris Olympics?

And then there is today's story.

This is not a story of a genius girl redeeming herself, but a story about love.

After qualifying for the 200-meter breaststroke, Ye Shiwen announced that in order to concentrate on preparation, he would give up the qualification to impact the 200-meter medley.

It takes courage and determination to give up the signature project that you have always had, but knowing what you can do is a kind of maturity after years of accumulation.

Ye Shiwen once laughed and sighed with reporters: "I still love swimming so much, I don't want to miss every game, I am reluctant to leave that pool." ”

The significance of such Ye Shiwen for Chinese swimming and even Chinese sports has long surpassed a medal or a record.

15-year-old Ye Shiwen is already in the past, and 28-year-old Ye Shiwen, her story is not over yet.

View original image 622K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•