In the early morning of August 9, Beijing time, in the men's 73kg weightlifting final of the Paris Olympics, Shi Zhiyong, a veteran of the Chinese weightlifting team and a two-time Olympic champion, attacked his third Olympic gold medal.
For Shi Zhiyong, who is 30 years old, it is not easy to participate in the Paris Olympics. Preparing for the Paris Olympic cycle, Shi Zhiyong suffered a serious back injury. For two years, he had barely trained systematically. It wasn't until after the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou that Shi Zhiyong reluctantly tried to resume systematic training.
In the competition in the early hours of this morning, Shi Zhiyong failed to lift 191 kg in three clean and jerk attempts, and unfortunately missed the medal. After the game, Shi Zhiyong shed unwilling tears. He revealed: "The first clean and jerk may still be a little anxious, the second one is a little confused, and the third adductor muscle may be broken, and I heard a 'snap'." It also means that the veteran is out of the picture. After the game, Shi Zhiyong burst into tears, he choked up and said, I'm sorry for everyone, but I have done my best. Indonesia's Rizki · Junianshya won the gold medal with a total of 354kg.
The Paris Olympics is already the third Olympic Games in which Shi Zhiyong has participated. As early as the 2016 Rio Olympics, Shi Zhiyong, who was only 23 years old at the time, won the men's 69kg weightlifting championship, defending the glory of the Chinese team in the division for many years. In the men's weightlifting 73kg competition at the Tokyo Olympics, Shi Zhiyong won the championship with a snatch of 166 kg, a clean and jerk of 198 kg, and a total score of 364 kg, and broke the world record held by himself.
Move!
It's 4 o'clock in the morning, Shi Zhiyong's Weibo comment area
At more than 4 o'clock in the morning Beijing time, IP netizens from all over the country poured into Shi Zhiyong's Weibo comment area to leave messages, and the heartwarming reply was overwhelming. Some courage has already weighed a thousand pounds, and you are still our Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong. Recuperate!
It used to be an "invincible" existence
How lonely is invincible - this sentence is almost a true portrayal of Shi Zhiyong's previous weightlifting career, since he was selected for the national team in 2013, Shi Zhiyong has repeatedly achieved great results in the domestic and international arenas, as long as he plays normally, other athletes seem to have only the opportunity to compete for the second, the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the World Cup, the National Games...... While winning all the honors, Shi Zhiyong's domineering "who else" on the field has also become his distinctive personal label.
After the Tokyo Olympics, Shi Zhiyong immediately participated in the 14th National Games, and won the championship again, with a total score of 365 kg and even more than the 364 kg that broke the world record at the Tokyo Olympics (the weightlifting results of the National Games are not counted as the world record), the 28-year-old Shi Zhiyong fought for another Olympic Games is everyone's expectation, but behind the invincibility, only Shi Zhiyong knows how difficult it is to break through the limit every time.
He admitted: "In fact, every time I break a kilogram, I get very tired. Regarding participating in the Paris Olympics, Shi Zhiyong said, "I have to maintain a certain number of results in order to be eligible (to participate), which requires me to continue to work hard." ”
The pain points all over the spine, the veteran survived
Like other athletes, Shi Zhiyong also suffered from injuries after years of high-intensity training and competition, and he suffered a serious back injury in the new Olympic cycle, and was almost unable to train systematically for up to two years, and even withdrew from the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships, until after the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Shi Zhiyong reluctantly tried to resume training.
Shi Zhiyong was very tormented during that time, he recalled that the parts on his body seemed to be broken, "I suddenly found that I couldn't lift weights, that is, I lifted 100 kilograms, and my back hurt so much, and suddenly the parts on my body seemed to be broken, my injury was called non-specific lower back pain, not a problem, spinal stenosis, lumbar disc herniation, Xu Mo's nodules, osteoarthritis...... A spacer (intervertebral disc) in the lumbar spine has been damaged by my perennial weightlifting, and my bones are diseased, and my muscles can in the face of high-intensity training, but my bones can't withstand it. ”
However, Shi Zhiyong did not give up, with the help of the team doctor, he relieved the pain through long-term acupuncture treatment, according to the team doctor Shen Yi, Shi Zhiyong has about 34 pain points on the spine, all over the spine, the use of acupuncture treatment can release pressure for him, eliminate inflammation, and finally survived the most difficult stage.
The IWF Qatar Grand Prix in December 2023 was Shi's return to the international arena after 862 days after winning the Tokyo Olympics, and he won the snatch championship (160kg) and overall runner-up (340kg) in the men's 73kg competition.
After the game, Shi Zhiyong revealed that the team's goal for him was to lift a total of 340 kilograms, and the other was to find the state of the competition, "I have done both of these things, I have a feeling of slowly approaching the stage, I have basically deviated from the stage before, and I don't know what weightlifting is." ”
Go all out and leave no regrets
In the World Cup in April 2024, Shi Zhiyong overcame the impact of injury and won the snatch championship (165 kg) and the runner-up (356 kg) again, while the results have improved significantly, and the Olympic qualification ranking has also come to second place in the world, but in the process of the competition, Shi Zhiyong's waist has appeared in state again, he revealed: "At that time, when I was lifting 170 kg in the clean and jerk backstage, I found that my waist was too painful. Shao Guoqiang, the deputy head coach of the men's weightlifting team, was worried that Shi Zhiyong would retire, but Shi Zhiyong survived, and according to the team, being able to recover this result before the Olympics was very helpful to Shi Zhiyong's confidence.
Of course, Shi Zhiyong is still some distance from his best form, in addition, in the days he left the field, there were also foreign players who rose strongly, and Indonesian teenager Juni Anshya lifted a total of 365 kilograms at the World Cup, which surpassed Shi Zhiyong's previous world record and tied Shi Zhiyong's best result at the National Games.
With less than four months to go until the Paris Olympics, this situation means that the veteran Shi Zhiyong's third Olympic Games will face serious challenges, and Yu Jie, head coach of the Chinese men's weightlifting team, revealed: "This preparation is very hard, he has been training with injuries, this is a kind of willpower struggle, (considering the strength of the opponent is improving) the burden on his shoulders is very heavy." ”
It is worth mentioning that the weightlifting quota for the Paris Olympics has been adjusted, and the full quota of each team has changed from 6 men and 4 women in the Tokyo Olympics to 3 men and 3 women.
Shi Zhiyong previously said when looking forward to the Paris Olympics: "Many people ask me if I can win this gold medal, to be honest I don't know, after all, the opponent is very strong, and the state is very good, but I will do my best to strive for the championship in Paris, this is my goal, it has never changed, I will do my best, no regrets." ”
It's a pity that this time in Paris, Shi Zhiyong failed to do so, this may be the veteran's last Olympics, but Shi Zhiyong has left a commendable record in weightlifting, and has also contributed all his strength to Chinese weightlifting.
Sources: People's Daily, The Paper, Red Star News, CCTV Sports, China News Network, etc