The Paper's reporter Song Chengliang
Among China's Olympic delegation, the youngest male athlete is 16-year-old Sheng Lihao.
In the men's 10m air rifle final on the 25th, young player Sheng Lihao wore a battle and won a silver medal for China! Another Chinese player, Yang Haoran, won the bronze medal.
16-year-old Sheng Lihao.
Lucky
If it were not for the postponement of the Olympic Games due to the epidemic, Sheng Lihao, who is only 16 years old, may not have qualified for the Olympic Games.
After the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, the national shooting team updated the selection method and expanded the selection range to pass the national championship and national championship "audition" in September and November 2020.
In the first game of the Olympic Selection Competition, Sheng Lihao first appeared sharp and won the third place. Then in the second and third games, he overpowered all the famous players, won the championship consecutively, and surpassed the total points in the men's 10m air rifle individual event to second place, second only to Yang Haoran, who had a huge advantage before.
In the 10-meter air rifle mixed team competition, Sheng Lihao has also been promoted to third place, and the points are only 11 points less than Yu Haonan, who ranks second.
The 21-year-old Yu Haonan is a rising rookie in the past three years and also holds the world record of 252.8 rings in the final of the project. But in the third selection of the final round, he ranked last among the 6 people, did not score 1 point, and was overtaken by Sheng Lihao, who won the first place.
Subsequently, in the mixed team competition, Sheng Lihao shot the champion with a huge advantage (defeated Liu Yukun with a score of 16-2 in the final), and 51 points also allowed him to overtake Yu Haonan again and qualify for the second Olympic event.
Sheng Lihao at the Olympic Games.
prodigy
Born on December 4, 2004, Sheng Lihao is still only 16 years old, at this age he was able to finally qualify for two Olympic events, and he also became a prodigy in the eyes of many people.
When he was 13 years old, his father took him to the shooting club to play, and the first time he touched shooting, he played like a lot, and he also developed feelings for shooting.
The owner of the club used to be a member of the Suzhou shooting team, and seeing Sheng Lihao's rapid progress, he recommended him to the Suzhou Amateur Sports School Shooting Team. In 2017, Sheng Lihao was recommended by the Zhangjiagang Central Circle Shooting Club to the shooting team of Suzhou Sports School, under coach Shen Chao.
Shooting training is not as easy as ordinary people think, compared to other sports, shooting sports are relatively boring, repeating the same actions such as "raising the gun, aiming, firing" every day, requiring a lot of perseverance and patience.
In the process of training, Sheng Lihao showed the quality of professional athletes - after half a year of training, Sheng Lihao's level has reached the top 15 in the adult competition, and Yao Ye, rifle coach of the Jiangsu Provincial Shooting Team, picked him.
In Yao Ye's view, Sheng Lihao is not only outstanding in shooting, but also has the ability to focus beyond age and solve problems. At a team assessment summary meeting, Yao Ye raised a question: "What is the most basic element of hitting the ten rings on the air rifle project?" ”
Sheng Lihao, who was only 14 years old at the time, replied succinctly: "One word is 'stable'." Be steady, steady, steady! ”
Since 2018, Sheng Lihao's performance has begun to improve by leaps and bounds, he won the air rifle individual, team and mixed group championships at the National Junior Championships; at the end of 2019, Sheng Lihao represented the country for the first time in the Asian Championships, winning the youth team championship and the individual third place. The outstanding results have witnessed the growth of Sheng Lihao and increased his confidence.
"Many people think that Sheng Lihao is growing fast and is a genius or prodigy, but in fact, Baoyu needs to be carved more carefully, such athletes need to be more carefully and carefully guided, and the training plan is customized individually."
Shen Chao revealed that Sheng Lihao has been in the provincial team for a long time since the end of 2018 to receive training, and he has also accompanied Sheng Lihao to stay in the provincial team until Sheng Lihao entered the national team.
"When I first went to the provincial team, due to his young age, Sheng Lihao also had some problems like other ordinary children, poor self-care ability, picky eating, etc., so I always took care of his living life and told him to train seriously and scientifically, no different from treating his son."
Silly
If the prodigy's positive is talent, the opposite must be young, until the Olympic Games, Sheng Lihao was only 16 and a half years old, and the first two years were even younger.
"When the young man first entered the municipal sports school training, he was not very adaptable, and because of his young age, he often missed home." Shen Chao recalled that at that time, in order to let Sheng Lihao concentrate on training, the coaching team and teammates actively guided him positively, helping him gradually forget the idea of homesickness.
Shooting training is not as easy as ordinary people think, the gun used weighs more than four kilograms, and Sheng Lihao weighed less than 40 kilograms when he first started training. On the training ground, he raises his gun more than 200 times a day, which is evident in the hard work of training. This is obviously overloaded for a thin child.
As a result, Sheng Lihao began a strict training program to strengthen physical functions and increase weight through exercises such as sit-ups, push-ups, flat supports, and long-distance running.
After half a year of exercise, the explosive force of Sheng Lihao's hand muscles reached 40 kilograms, and the effect was remarkable. Although the training is hard, Sheng Lihao strictly implements the training requirements of the coach and has never been afraid of difficulties.
During the training interval, he likes to play games like his peers, which is also the best way to relax after boring training, of course, Sheng Lihao does not dare to play for too long.
Usually speaking in front of the camera, he is not as arrogant as his name, but gives people a feeling of stupidity, answering questions slowly but logically but very rigorously, "do your best" and "good luck" have become "mantras".
"Every game has to do your best." Facing the Tokyo Olympics, Sheng Lihao said, "I hope to play at a high level and be the best version of myself." The tone was still calm, but there was a glint of hope in his eyes.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Ding Xiao