Olympic champion Zhou Yang "turned" to the avenue and became the apprentice of his former teammate Wang Meng

Zhou Yang has won gold three times in the Olympic Arena. Photo/Osports

Beijing News (reporter Sun Haiguang) Standing on the ice of the newly completed Erqi Speed Skating Hall, 28-year-old Zhou Yang said that he was still a newcomer. As a veteran athlete holding 3 short track speed skating gold medals at the Winter Olympics, deciding to switch at the end of his sports career was a great challenge for Zhou Yang. "I just want to play an Olympics in my own country in 2022. After all, the age is not small, or hope to break through again. "If you can stand on the ice of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhou Yang will also usher in the fourth Winter Olympic tour."

In April 2018, more than two months after the end of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the short track speed skating national team announced the list of the new national training team, and Zhou Yang, the winner of three Winter Olympic gold medals, was placed in the third group.

This is the first group training mode of the short track team, and zhou Yang's third group is the "cross-event group", in addition to short track speed skating, it will also take into account speed skating, which is the first time she has been associated with speed skating.

"I'm skating fast on short tracks, but everything is unknown on speed skating. I will do my best and look forward to good development. When it comes to cross-disciplines, Zhou Yang said that this is just an attempt at the end of his short-track career.

As Zhou Yang said, everything is unknown. In the first half of last year, Zhou Yang spent most of his time adjusting, and there was no substantial progress across projects. It was not until February this year, when the Winter Games Center of the General Administration of Sport issued the "Notice on Organizing Short Track Speed Skaters to Participate in Trial Training", and Zhou Yang's name was completely associated with speed skating, and she became a member of Wang Meng's cross-border cross-sport speed skating national training team as the main coach. Teammates who used to fight side by side are now masters and apprentices after changing their identities.

After that, Zhou Yang went to Hainan and Canada with the speed skating team to train, completely transforming from a short track speed skater to a speed skater. In May this year, the short track speed skating and speed skating national training team (short team) was established, and 28-year-old Zhou Yang was assigned to the speed skating national team climbing collective group. When asked if the climbing group was the best team, Zhou Yang smiled embarrassedly, "Almost." ”

For this huge short brigade, Zhou Yang was no stranger. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Chinese short track team won the gold medal in the women's 3000m relay, and the four players at that time were Wang Mao, Zhou Yang, Zhang Hui and Sun Linlin. Today, Wang Meng is the head of the coaching team of the short team, Sun Linlin is the executive team leader, and Zhang Hui is the coach of the short track women's team.

Nine years later, the 4 people got together again, and the familiar environment also allowed Zhou Yang to integrate into the new team faster. During the interview, Zhou Yang would unconsciously say how "our avenue team members" were. From Vancouver to Beijing, only the youngest of the "four golden flowers" Zhou Yang is still insisting, "They sometimes envy me, only I am still skating." ”