Yesterday (August 1st), for Chinese athletics, is destined to be a day that will go down in history.
The 32-year-old veteran Su Bingtian ran 9.83 seconds in the 100m trapeze semifinals, becoming the first person in China to reach the Men's 100m final of the Olympics!
Although Su Bingtian only finished 6th in the finals that followed, he broke the Asian record, broke the limits of the yellow race, and made history.
After the final, he wore a national flag and celebrated around the field, the Chinese people present cheered for him, and outside the stadium, all the Chinese people cheered for him.
Because he can stand on the track of the Olympic final, it is already a miracle in itself.
● Su Bingtian
However, at the Sydney Olympics 21 years ago, something strange happened:
A Chinese athlete won an Olympic gold medal, but no one celebrated her.
What is even more speechless is that the coaching staff has left, and there is not even a flag on the scene.
She could only stand alone on the podium with tears in her eyes.
● Wang Liping
This female athlete's name is Wang Liping.
Why did she face such an embarrassing scene?
What went wrong that made our champions so aggrieved?
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Many people may mistakenly think that the championship won by Wang Liping is not difficult and has any gold content, so we do not pay attention to it.
This is not the case.
The gold medal won by Wang Liping has a great gold content. It has extraordinary significance for the sport of athletics in China.
More than 20 years ago, the athletics program of the Olympic Games was not an area of strength for Chinese.
It can even be said that it was a short board at the time.
Because there are indeed certain differences in physique between different races, Caucasians are more comfortable in athletics.
In addition, many Asian countries are developing countries, and they are not generally rich, and their nationals cannot compete with Europeans and Americans in terms of dietary structure.
Therefore, at that time, many people thought that the best in athletics were black people, followed by white people, and yellow people were the worst performers.
At the Sydney Olympics, this prejudice remains deeply ingrained.
No one expected that a Chinese woman who did not look very "strong" would win the only gold medal in track and field for her motherland.
Wang Liping competed in the women's 20 km race walk final.
Before the game began, China did not have too much ambition for the gold medal. Because before that, most of the people who won the championship were Caucasians.
And even if she wins the gold medal, Wang Liping is not a promising candidate.
The "seed player" in the minds of coaches is Liu Hongyu.
Liu Hongyu is the top athlete of women's race walking, and this girl from a farming family is very good, winning both the World Cup race walking competition and the world championship in 1999.
Such a "super star" in the field of Chinese athletics has high hopes from coaches. If China can win gold in the race walking event at the Sydney Olympics, then the most likely player is Liu Hongyu!
But she was partial to "the horse lost its front hoof".
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This game gave Wang Liping the highlight moment in her life, but it was the memory that Liu Hongyu was most reluctant to mention.
The day before the competition, Liu Hongyu hardly slept.
She was so hungry for the gold medal. In addition to the sense of honor that she wants to win glory for the country, the "idol baggage" that the outside world has always given her is also too heavy.
If you don't get a good ranking, how can you be worthy of the cultivation of the state and the attention of the media?
However, the arena is brutal and full of uncertainties.
The rules of the women's race walk are very strict, testing not only the physical strength and endurance of the players, but also the skills.
Because everyone wants to win too much, they will unconsciously and desperately speed up in the process of race walking, which will lead to distortion and deformation of the action.
Once the action is deformed, you will receive a warning from the referee until you are sent off.
Liu Hongyu and Wang Liping had paid special attention to this point on the field, carefully maintaining their gait for fear of being punished by the referee.
Moreover, in order to be able to win the final victory, they have always skillfully maintained their physical strength.
When they first came on the field, they did not exert their full strength, but followed them forward.
If you can maintain the state of readiness, persist until the end and then break out at full strength, it is also very likely to win the championship.
However, Liu Hongyu did not restrain herself after all, she wanted to win too much.
Her speed was getting faster and faster, her gait twisted and deformed many times, and in the last 4 kilometers, she was awarded off by the referee.
● Liu Hongyu ate three red cards and was sent off
After Liu Hongyu left the field, Wang Liping still adhered to the original skills and continued to walk on the field. Although she was also given two red cards (three were to be sent off), she did not give up.
Wang Liping wants to win the gold medal for the motherland!
● Wang Liping, who is fighting alone
But what she didn't know was that when Liu Hongyu came off the field, the coaching team thought that "the trend has gone" and left the scene.
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Wang Liping's physical strength gradually weakened, but she still relied on one breath, steady and hard to move forward, surpassing one opponent after another.
In the final decisive moment, among all the contestants, Wang Liping originally ranked second.
She calmed down and chose the tactic that worked best for her: staying the same, following closely, and patiently waiting for her opponent to make a mistake.
Wang Liping pressed forward step by step, but did not exceed the opponent, causing huge psychological pressure to the former "host" Australian player Shavili.
She began to panic, anxious to quickly shake off the "tail" behind her.
The more panicked you are, the easier it is to make mistakes. Wang Liping's tactics were finally won: Shavili fouled again and was ruled out.
● On the verge of entering the Olympic Stadium, host Australia's Shaveley was sent off with a red card
When everyone thought that the champion was none other than Shavili, Wang Liping "upset" and won the final victory!
It was the only track and field gold medal China won at the Sydney Olympics.
For the world champion, the most exciting scene is to run around the field wearing a national flag after winning the championship, sharing the joy of winning glory for the country to the world.
However, just when Wang Liping was full of expectations and preparing to greet the flowers and the national flag, she was surprised to find that there was nothing!
The coaching staff, including reporters, have already left the field, leaving only Wang Liping's translator Hu Bing on the field.
Neither of them expected that Wang Liping would win the gold medal.
According to Hu Bing, he did not expect Wang Liping to win the championship at that time, so he did not prepare the national flag.
Although the coaching staff outside the field wanted to enter the field to send a national flag, it was too late.
This kind of prejudgment is a great regret for Wang Liping.
Unable to wear a national flag, she could only hold tears and run around the field with her hands waving for a week to celebrate herself.
● Image source: Xinhua News Agency client Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiao Weiping
Once, in an interview with reporters, asked what the biggest regret of the sports career is, Wang Liping bluntly said that after winning the gold medal, she did not find the national flag.
After that, she stood "alone" on the podium and put on the gold medal that belonged to her.
Some people say that Wang Liping is "the loneliest Olympic champion in history."
After that, there was also "Let Jin say", and some public opinion believed that Liu Hongyu had made "sacrifices" for Wang Liping, which made the latter suffer tremendous pressure.
So, why is this happening?
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The deepest reason for Wang Liping's loneliness is not that some netizens said that the coaching team was not optimistic about her, but that we were not confident enough in that era.
Or rather, it's too much of a loss.
China 21 years ago was far less prosperous than it is now.
The "Galaxy" incident, the embassy bombing, China can only choose Taoguang to raise obscurity. Because we did not have enough strength and confidence to fight against the world's first power at that time.
The more frustrated the country in terms of overall strength, the more eager it is to achieve a good ranking in the sports arena to soothe the self-esteem of the people.
In this case, sports competition is very utilitarian.
Liu Hongyu is most likely to win the championship, so everyone puts their hopes on her instead of paying attention to the less conspicuous Wang Liping.
Once Liu Hongyu lost, the coaching staff felt that the hope of winning the championship had been disappointed.
For a long time, our competition, everything is for victory, for the glory of the motherland, and the real charm and happiness of sports competition, in fact, is not valued.
All of this has achieved a surprising reversal today.
At the recent Tokyo Olympics, many people had one of the most obvious feelings: we don't seem to care so much about gold medals anymore.
What we care about most is whether our athletes are respected and whether they can return safely and happily.
Even the national table tennis table tennis that we have always been most proud of, when Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin lost to Japan in mixed doubles, everyone was comforting them.
● Liu Shiwen, Xu Xin Image source: Outside the boundary
You know, that's a loss to Japan, which we've always had mixed feelings about! If this had happened 20 years ago, what kind of storm would athletes have faced?
Now, times have changed!
No one will insult athletes because of their defeat.
Because our country is thriving, Olympic gold medals are just the icing on the cake.
The more powerful the country, the more calm and calm it is about winning and losing sports competitions.
Wang Liping's embarrassment will not be staged again today.
For Chinese athletes, though, there is one spirit that has never changed:
Whether others are optimistic about them or not, they always give their all.
Click [like] for all Olympic athletes, but also for us today more open and inclusive environment. Text/Gu Jingyan