Zhang Xueliang (center) poses with Liu Changchun (second from left) and coach Song Junfu (first from left) as a sponsor
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="2" > preface</h1>
On July 28, 1984, the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games was held at 4:16 p.m.
The most remarkable thing is that the Los Angeles Olympic Games is also the first Olympic Games since the founding of New China, in which Chinese athletes won a total of 15 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze, ranking fourth in the medal table.
In fact, in the list of the Chinese delegation, there was another person whose name was also included, but he could not come again.
Because the year before, on March 25, 1983, he died at the age of 74.
And his name is Liu Changchun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="94" > from Tianjin "Three Questions" to Liu Changchun</h1>
The name Liu Changchun, whenever I mention him, my eyes are involuntarily filled with tears.
It's not that I'm being sentimental, it's the past, which is a name that I feel very much about.
When I think of Liu Changchun, the first thing that comes to mind is his figure of a lonely person participating in the competition at the 10th Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932.
Perhaps because the photo is too old, the image of Liu Changchun in my mind is always a straight body, and the expression on his face is painful but also determined.
In 1932, Liu Changchun alone represented China in the Olympic Games
In fact, at this Olympic Games, Liu Changchun was the only athlete to represent China in the competition.
The olympic games, the full name of the Olympic Games, is a worldwide sports event that originated in the ancient Greek period. The first time the ancient Olympic Games were held was in 776 BC, when there were only 3 participating countries, and there was only one competition, but it became a good start, and it was also in the first ancient Olympic Games that the Olympic Games were held every four years.
The ancient Olympic Games were held 293 times, spanning 1170 years.
The modern Olympic Games originated in 1894 with the French educator Mr. Coubertin, who is also known as the "Father of the Olympics".
It is also said that on the eve of the first modern Olympic Games, Coubertin wrote a special invitation letter to invite the Qing government to participate, but the Qing government did not know what the Olympic Games were "what" (there are also sayings that the Guangxu Emperor was ready to send eunuchs and palace women to participate, afraid of losing face and not participating), so he did not send people to participate.
According to the results of the examination, the first Olympic Games was not sent to China without an invitation letter, on the one hand, it was not recorded in the Qing history archives, and on the other hand, in the 1980s, China consulted the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the examination of this matter, and the answer was "no evidence to check."
Liu Changchun
In addition, none of the 13 countries that participated in the Olympic Games at that time were in the Third World.
The earliest record of the Qing government being invited to participate in the Olympic Games was in Ruan Weicun's "A Brief History of Chinese Athletics" in 1932, and Luo Shiming, a professor at the School of Physical Education of Soochow University, believed that the argument about inviting the Qing government to attend the first Olympic Games could not be established.
However, 1932 was also a special year for China to start the Olympic Games.
Because Liu Changchun participated in this Olympic Games, it was the first time in the history of Chinese to participate in the Olympic Games.
To say, when Chinese knew about the Olympic Games, it is not very easy to examine, there are 1904 said, 1907 said.
Obviously, these times happen to be on the eve of the Olympic Games.
In 1908, tianjin's "New Youth" put forward the famous "three questions" to the people of the whole country:
First, when will Chinese participate in the Olympic Games;
Second, when can China win a medal at the Olympic Games;
Third, when can China host the Olympic Games?
Liu Changchun participated in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932
The first of these three questions was answered in 1932.
However, in fact, from this special year, we can see what kind of situation China was facing at that time, that is, the year before the Olympic Games, Japan launched the September 18 Incident, occupied the three eastern provinces, and also launched an invasion in Shanghai, and the Songhu War of Resistance broke out, although the two sides later signed the "Songhu Armistice Agreement", but Japan's coveting of China has never stopped.
On the eve of the 10th Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932, China also heard the news, according to the Olympic Games regulations, the All-China Sports Association has the right to send athletes to the Olympic Games to represent China, but because the Chinese Sports Association was originally only a non-governmental organization and had no funds, the Chinese Sports Association could only apply to the Ministry of Education.
The time dragged on for several months, and by late May, the Ministry of Education of the National Government suddenly announced that it would not send athletes to participate in the Olympic Games on the grounds that "time was in a hurry and lack of preparation.", and although the Chinese Sports Association was indignant, it was powerless to interfere. After all, China was in a dire situation at that time.
It was also at this time that the puppet state of Manchukuo, which Japan had propped up in the northeast, was preparing to send athletes to participate in the Tenth Los Angeles Olympic Games, and the reason why Japan wanted to participate in the Olympic Games was to show through the rendering of public opinion that it had "legitimacy" in forcibly occupying the northeast, and at the same time expand its influence in the international community.
The "pseudo-Manchukuo" newspapers carried the news one after another, and the news also spread further to Guannei, triggering further indignation among the people, but due to China's poverty and weakness, this indignation did not reach the international community, and the International Olympic Committee replied to the request of "pseudo-Manchukuo" and asked them to provide the flag and national anthem of pseudo-Manchukuo.
However, the National Government did not pay any attention to this, and the Chinese Sports Association was worried, that is, at such a critical moment.
On July 1, 1932, at the graduation ceremony of Northeastern University, Zhang Xueliang publicly announced that Liu Changchun would represent China in the 10th Olympic Games and donated 8,000 silver yuan for travel expenses.
It is worth mentioning that Liu Changchun was once one of the representative athletes of the "puppet Manchukuo" who was ready to send to the Olympic Games.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="95" > conscience is still there! Blood is still flowing! How can you commit treason! Narcissus Cow! </h1>
On May 31, 1929, Liu Changchun won the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters at the 14th North China Games held in Shenyang, and also broke the national sprint record, with a time of 10.8 seconds, 22.4 seconds and 52.4 seconds.
Liu Changchun's 100-meter performance is the same as that of the 100-meter champion in the just-concluded Olympic Games, and this result also makes the people of the whole country feel excited, which undoubtedly proves that Chinese also has the strength to win gold medals in the Olympic Games.
But who would have thought that Liu Changchun had not actually undergone any systematic training before achieving this result.
Liu Changchun participated in the competition
Liu Changchun was born in 1909 in Dalian, Liaoning Province, an ordinary peasant family, because of the childhood of the family is very poor, Liu Changchun was 9 years old in the glass factory to work, because of his young age, Liu Changchun is afraid of not being able to catch up with the work, every time is crazy to the factory, 10 years old after the primary school, because the school is relatively far from home, Liu Changchun every time to go to school, had to run 10 miles to run over, in order to minimize the wear of shoes, Liu Changchun every time he took off his shoes and ran, until he ran to the school gate and then put on shoes.
Although these runs are far away from professional training, Liu Changchun still practiced amazing speed. When he was in elementary school, Liu Changchun showed unparalleled talent in the sports meeting held by the school with a score of 11 seconds 8 seconds in 100 meters and 59 seconds in 400 meters.
In 1928, Zhang Xueliang's younger brother Zhang Xueming and friend Li Xianzhang recommended Liu Changchun to study at Northeastern University, when the president of Northeastern University was Zhang Xueliang, who also attached great importance to Liu Changchun's athletic talent and admitted him out of the box, and Liu Changchun quickly repaid his trust with his achievements.
In 1929, China, Japan and Germany held an athletics competition, in which Liu Changchun only achieved the second place due to lack of experience, but at that time, Liu Changchun was only 0.1 seconds away from the first-place German athlete, and the Japanese athlete was far behind.
Liu Changchun's performance has attracted the attention of the Chinese people, especially his defeat of Japanese athletes, which has greatly improved the morale of the Chinese people.
Zhang Xueliang also intends to train Liu Changchun, he specially found a German athlete, the holder of the world 5000 meters record Butch as a coach for Liu Changchun, after the guidance of professional athletes, Liu Changchun's performance has obviously improved a lot.
In April 1930, Liu Changchun won the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters in the Fourth National Games.
Liu Changchun's performance also made the Japanese look at it. In 1931, the Japanese openly declared in the puppet Manchukuo newspaper that Liu Changchun would represent puppet Manchukuo in the Olympic Games.
At that time, Liu Changchun and another athlete, Yu Xiwei, were both valued by the Japanese, and Yu Xiwei himself was also a well-known middle-distance runner in China, the champion of the 800-meter and 1500-meter runs.
After the September 18 incident, Liu Changchun was not in the northeast at all, and the ambitions of the Japanese wolf were clearly revealed, in fact, Liu Changchun heard that Northeastern University resumed classes in Beiping, and from Dalian all the way to Beiping, when some well-known people in the sports circles found Liu Changchun to explain their intentions, Liu Changchun said: He would never represent "pseudo-Manchukuo to participate."
In May 1932, Liu Changchun issued a statement in the newspaper: "The conscience of Gou Yu is still there, and the blood is still flowing, how can we forget the motherland and act as a horse and cattle for the puppet puppet country." ”
Subsequently, the Chinese Sports Association sent people to actively persuade Yu Xiwei not to participate in the competition, and Yu Xiwei also agreed, originally Yu Xiwei had planned to represent China in the Tenth Olympic Games together with Liu Changchun, but because of the Japanese obstruction, Yu Xiwei had to say that he was sick at home.
On July 1, 1932, Zhang Xueliang personally announced a donation of 8,000 silver dollars and said that Liu Changchun would represent China at the Tenth Olympic Games, but the Nationalist government still refused on the grounds of insufficient funds.
In order to promote this sports event, all walks of life in Chinese sports have generously donated money, donated money and materials, and contacted the International Olympic Committee to help Liu Changchun quickly handle various relevant procedures.
In fact, less than a month has passed since Zhang Xueliang announced that Liu Changchun would represent China and the opening of the 10th Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Wang Zhengting: The father of the Chinese Olympics
On July 8, Liu Changchun and coach Song Junfu secretly arrived in Shanghai, ready to take the President Wilson cruise ship to the United States, on the day of Liu Changchun's departure, more than 2,000 people went to the dock to send each other, Dr. Wang Zhengting, director of the Chinese Sports Association Council, personally attended the ceremony for the two to hold a flag ceremony, awarding Liu Changchun the national flag and the sports association flag.
On July 30, 1932, the opening ceremony of the 10th Los Angeles Olympic Games was officially held, and Liu Changchun and coach Song Junfu arrived in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. on the 29th of the previous day.
The news of Liu Changchun's arrival in Los Angeles excited the Chinese people in Chinatown, and when he drove through Chinatown, people warmly held a welcoming ceremony for him.
The next day, Liu Changchun represented China at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, when as China's only athlete attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, when Liu Changchun walked alone through the sports field, perhaps he did not have a feeling of sadness in his heart, but only the courage to win glory for the country.
Due to a lot of delays along the way, Liu Changchun arrived in the United States the next day to participate in the opening ceremony, there was no time to do pre-race preparation training, coupled with insufficient funds, Liu Changchun did not wear running shoes, so the results were not ideal.
Song Junfu (right) and Liu Changchun (center) pose for the Los Angeles Olympics
It is worth mentioning that when Liu Changchun participated in the 100-meter run, he once led in the first 70 meters.
However, due to too much fatigue, resulting in a slow start, Liu Changchun 100 meters running group stage with a time of 11.35 seconds, the group stage of 6 people ranked fifth.
In the 200-meter budget race, although Liu Changchun struggled to catch up, the results were still very unsatisfactory, and in the end, Liu Changchun had no choice but to give up the 400-meter run due to lack of physical strength. Liu Changchun's trip to the Olympics this time finally came to a tragic end.
In the whole game, Liu Changchun's performance was far inferior to that of the domestic competition, which showed that under the hasty preparation, Liu Changchun could not exert his full strength at all.
Although Chinese's first olympic competition results were not ideal, as a representative Chinese stepped onto the stage of international competitions for the first time, Liu Changchun was still gloriously recorded in history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="96" > after 52 years, Chinese raised their eyebrows at the Olympic Games</h1>
Although Zhang Xueliang funded Liu Changchun to go abroad to participate in the Olympic Games, but 8,000 oceans only borne more than half of the cost, after the competition, Liu Changchun did not even have the money for the ticket to return to China, or rely on the sponsorship of overseas Chinese to embark on the way back to China.
Liu Changchun family portrait
Although Liu Changchun's heroic feats are well known to the world, in China at that time, itself did not know much about the Olympic Games, and even food and clothing were difficult to completely satisfy, so it was basically indifferent to this sports event.
In 1933, Liu Changchun participated in the Fifth National Games, this time Liu Changchun broke the domestic 100-meter record, the result reached 10.7 seconds, this record was not broken by athlete Liang Jianxun until 25 years later. In the 200-meter race, Liu Changchun continued to break the national record and won the championship with a time of 22 seconds.
Fortunately, in 1936, Liu Changchun continued to represent China in the Olympic Games, due to the bumps along the way, Liu Changchun was physically weak, and as a result, the competition failed to achieve good results, and he returned to China.
The only highlight was that the martial arts performances of Chinese athletes at the opening ceremony won bursts of applause at the conference.
After the Berlin Olympic Games, Dr. Wang Zhengting, a director of the Council of the Chinese Sports Association, published a newspaper to apologize to the people of the whole country: "For thousands of years, our country has emphasized literature over force, and has accumulated a long period of practice. The biggest reason for the failure of this participation in the World Games is due to lack of physical strength... I have been advocating sports for 30 years, and I am ashamed that I have not been able to cultivate a sports talent so far. "
Liu Changchun Memorial Statue
As an athlete, Liu Changchun has represented China twice in the Olympic Games, and although he failed to achieve results, he is still worth remembering forever.
In 1937, the 28-year-old Liu Changchun had no choice but to retire, perhaps he still had the dream of a champion in his heart, but in that era, such a dream was only a dream, not a complete hope.
In August 1948, Liu Changchun was hired as an associate professor of the Department of Physical Education of Beijing Dongda University, and later served as a professor at Changchun Normal University and Dalian Institute of Technology, devoting himself to the training of a new generation of athletes.
After the founding of New China, the importance attached to sports has been strengthened, and the leaders of the party and the state, including Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, were all once sports fans, and they devoted a lot of effort to sports.
Liu Changchun also pinned his hopes on the next generation, in the playground of Dalian Institute of Technology, Liu Changchun once selected a group of more talented track and field athletes to participate in training, and he often said to students: A student, an athlete, only by suffering great hardships and having the strength to work hard can he achieve achievements in the future.
However, since the founding of New China, China's road to the Olympic Games has also been full of hardships and bumps.
In July 1952, the XV Olympic Games were held in Helsinki, Finland.
As early as early February, the Finnish ambassador to China had expressed the hope that China would send athletes to participate in the Olympic Games, and the Chinese side was also actively preparing for this, but some people in the International Olympic Committee were full of hostility to New China, which led to the postponement of the invitation, and the Chinese side and people friendly to China repeatedly stated that the People's Republic of China participated in the Olympic Games was legal, and because of the efforts of these people, on July 18, 1952, the day before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, China officially received the invitation.
Due to the rush of time, China could only temporarily select athletes to participate in the Olympic Games, and on July 23, a Chinese delegation of more than 40 people consisting of basketball, football and swimmers set off and did not arrive in Helsinki until the early morning of July 29. At this time, the fifteenth Olympic Games were coming to an end, and only Wu Chuanyu in the Chinese delegation participated in the 100-meter backstroke preliminaries, because of insufficient preparation, Wu Chuanyu was eliminated in the preliminaries, and Wu Chuanyu also became the first person to participate in the Olympic Games after the founding of New China.
It is worth mentioning that Wu Chuanyu won the 100-meter backstroke championship in the first International Youth Friendship Games in 1953.
At 12:00 noon on July 29, the Chinese delegation held a flag-raising ceremony, hundreds of athletes from other countries and reporters rushed to hear the news, and Rong Gaotang, head of the Chinese delegation, delivered a speech at the flag-raising ceremony: "Although we are late, we have finally arrived. What we bring is a desire for peace and good friendship. We will meet with athletes from all over the world, and we are convinced that such meetings will enhance mutual understanding and friendship between new Chinese athletes and athletes from all countries. ”
After decades of going around, when will Chinese Olympic dream be realized, this must be marked with a question mark in the minds of all Chinese people, Chinese is about to issue their own shouts.
Achievements of the Chinese delegation at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games
Liu Changchun gradually became an old man with white hair from a green teenager, and he successively served as a member of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Sports Federation.
In 1979, the IOC accepted the application of the Chinese National Sports Commission and decided to reinstate the membership of the Olympic Committee of the People's Republic of China. It was also the year that Liu Changchun became vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.
In 1984, the XXIII Olympic Games in Los Angeles were about to be held.
In fact, in March 1983, Liu Changchun's body has found a problem, originally prepared to participate in the Fifth National Games held in Shanghai, a morning run, Liu Changchun was rushed to the hospital by his family due to physical discomfort, the result was caught off guard, on March 25, Liu Changchun passed away at the age of 74.
Unfortunately, the list of Chinese delegations to the Los Angeles Olympic Games originally included Liu Changchun's name, but unfortunately he could not successfully attend this grand event.
Xu Haifeng: Shot down China's first Olympic gold medal
This year's Los Angeles Olympic Games, and 1932 Liu Changchun alone to represent China in the Olympic Games has been very different, China sent a lineup of 225 athletes, participated in a number of major olympic events.
On April 12, 1984, Xu Haifeng shot his first gold medal in the pistol slow-fire competition with a score of 569 rings, which was the first gold medal in China's Olympic history.
In 2008, the 29th Olympic Games were held in Beijing, China.
A hundred years have passed since the "three questions" in Tianjin, and if you want to come to Liu Changchun Spring to know, you will be pleased.
Congratulations: Chinese athletes will achieve even more brilliant results at the 32nd Tokyo Olympic Games!