Ai Dongmei, a strange woman in track and field, degenerated into the street to sell vegetables to make a living
What could make a world champion track and field athlete who has won 19 gold medals relegated to the streets to sell vegetables for a living? If it is a merciless trick of fate, it would be too simple. The root of Ai Dongmei's fall has to be blamed on the old coach who has a "wolf's heart and a dog's lungs".
If you want to talk about Ai Dongmei, you have to start from the place where she was born - Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. In 1981, Ai Dongmei was born in this cold town. From an early age, she showed amazing athleticism and terrifying endurance, and when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school, she set a local record for 3,000 meters.
Other children are still playing at home, and Ai Dongmei has begun to prepare for her sports dream. In 1995, at the age of 14, Ai Dongmei joined the local locomotive sports team and began her professional sports career. This year, she also met the "murderer" who would bring her endless nightmares - coach Wang Dexian.
A crazy coach like a wolfdog
Wang Dexian, as Ai Dongmei's coach, has the unshirkable responsibility to become the beginning of her nightmare. How "crazy" this person is, you have to hear from the beginning.
In 1995, when Wang Dexian first took over the post of coach of the Lokomotiv Sports Team, he actually severely shocked several female athletes for the so-called "high-intensity training"! After some athletes were shocked, their faces were covered in blood, and their legs were cramped and stiff; There are also athletes who are even worse, the soles of their feet were burned by electricity, and they have not completely healed until now.
This was just the beginning, and later he became even more emboldened, and Wang Dexian beat athletes at every turn. The slightest discomfort is a severe beating, and the person is beaten all over the body. World champion Sun Yingjie's collarbone was interrupted by this mad dog-like coach!
There is also a group of athletes under the leadership of Wang Dexian, who have suffered unprecedented devastation: one by one they were forced to insist on overtraining, and their feet were twisted and deformed to an incredible degree.
But how can a person like a wolf dog become a professional coach? But one thing is certain, Wang Dexian did become the most formidable coach of the sports team at that time.
Ai Dongmei back then, seeing what Wang Dexian did to other teammates, was also shocked and her hairs stood on end.
The black-hearted coach swallowed the gold medal bonus
Not only that, Wang Dexian is even more covetous about money like a mad dog staring at a bone.
From 1995 to 2003, Ai Dongmei won 19 gold medals for the country, including 3 gold medals at the World Championships and 5 gold medals at the World Cup. In this 8-year career, Ai Dongmei should have made a lot of money, but when it came to the day of retirement, her wallet turned out to be "empty".
It turned out that since Ai Dongmei joined the locomotive physical engineering team in 1995, Wang Dexian began to use his crooked brains. He not only quietly "withheld" the salaries and bonuses due to Ai Dongmei and other athletes, but also squandered the money and lived a life of luxury and lasciviousness.
It wasn't until 2006 that Ai Dongmei and two other retired athletes sued Wang Dexian in court in a helpless situation. Who knows, in the long and difficult process of litigation, Ai Dongmei was beaten by several wolfdog-like guys from the "Razor Team" and almost died!
Fortunately, the court finally ruled that Ai Dongmei got back more than 200,000 yuan in bonuses. But how can that compensate for the physical and mental devastation she suffered in this lawsuit?
First-class athletes have been reduced to street vendors
It is often said that in ancient times, Qin Qiong sold horses and Yang Zhi sold knives, and now there is another member "Ai Dongmei selling gold medals".
Poor Ai Dongmei, for a long time after retiring, she has been selling vegetables on the street for a living. It is unimaginable that the top athlete who won 19 gold medals and won glory for the country back then has now become a small vegetable vendor.
In fact, after retiring, Ai Dongmei did not devote herself to the streets to make a living at the beginning. She used to be a coach at a club, but due to a serious foot injury, her mobility was very difficult, and she was forced to leave her job.
Seeing that she was so homeless, Ai Dongmei could only return to her hometown and set up a stall on the street to sell vegetables. But even so, life is still embarrassing: her daughter cannot afford to go to school, and she has no money for medical treatment.
In order to get a pitiful medical bill, Ai Dongmei even had to take out the 19 gold medals she had worked so hard to earn and sell them to some collectors at a low price. The gold medals that were supposed to be valuable souvenirs for her family and inspired her to tide over the difficult times were sold by her one by one.
As soon as Ai Dongmei's experience was exposed by the media, it immediately attracted widespread attention across the country. Many kind-hearted people have reached out to help her family tide over the difficult times: there is a kindergarten that accepts Ai Dongmei's daughter for free, and there is also a hospital that provides free treatment for Ai Dongmei.
Later, with everyone's funding, Ai Dongmei finally opened a small sporting goods store in Beijing and lived a relatively stable life. But even so, she still can't forget the pain and humiliation she suffered, and the hurt Wang Dexian gave her back then has also left a shadow in her heart that can never be removed.
Coaches who violated discipline and corporal punishment became a stubborn disease
Sadly, Ai Dongmei's experience is not unique. When we look back at the sports world in recent years, it is not difficult to find that similar things have emerged one after another:
In 2018, a famous men's volleyball team exposed that the coach physically punished the players in public and smashed the volleyball into the athlete's head, and the scene was extremely terrifying. Although the coach was punished afterwards, other team members also revealed that this kind of "domestic violence" management method has long been commonplace in the team.
Just this year, there was also a primary school student who was slapped by the physical education teacher because he was distracted in class, and his nose and face were swollen on the spot. This incident has caused an uproar in public opinion, and some experts have bluntly said that the way of instructing students has gone crazy.
It can be seen that this management model of "fearing that the world will not be chaotic" in the sports world has really reached the point where it should be paid attention to and reflected. Contemporary coaches should be mentors and friends who accompany and care for students, rather than "executioners" who harm students.
Regrettably, even though Ai Dongmei's incident attracted national attention back then, to this day, there are still coaches who violently manage students. This can't help but make people sigh, have some coaches been imperceptibly accustomed to trampling on the rights and interests of athletes to maintain their "authority"?
In fact, as the main body of sports, athletes should grow up healthily under the guidance of science and humanity, and should not grow up in the shadow of violence. In order for sports to truly flourish, it is necessary to fundamentally reduce the phenomenon of corporal punishment by coaches.
Of course, we can't just condemn or dismiss all coaches, after all, there are still most coaches who have been dedicated and dedicated to leading their students. But it is only with that handful of coaches with "ulterior motives" that they will hurt students again and again.
This chronic disease has been going on for far too long, and it is time for us to pay enough attention to solve the management chaos in the sports world at the source. Whether it's taking better regulatory measures, increasing penalties, or reforming the selection and development of coaches, we need to make efforts to do so.
Only when the extreme tactics of violence and power abuse are eradicated from the world of sports will encounters like Ai Dongmei's will not happen again. At that time, athletes can finally thrive in a benign environment and realize their sports dreams.
Ai Dongmei's unfortunate experience reminds us that the sports industry urgently needs to establish a sound mechanism to protect the rights and interests of athletes. We should take action to this end and jointly contribute to the development of China's sports industry.