The Paper's trainee reporter Hu Jie
Zhao Shuai regretted that he had not won the gold medal.
From the Asian Games flag bearer to the Olympic flag bearer, from the sub-58 kg class to the sub-68 kg class, Zhao Shuai, who is 1 meter 88 tall, has been walking on the road of "upgrading".
Although Zhao Shuai is already an Olympic champion under 58 kilograms, he has been promoted to a level, and Zhao Shuai is facing a completely different battlefield.
At the Tokyo Olympics on the 25th, Zhao Shuai regretted that he lost to Britain's Bradley Hinton with a total score of 25-33 and missed the final.
But in the bronze medal battle, Zhao Shuai defeated his old enemy South Korea's famous Lee Dae-hoon 17-15 to win a precious bronze medal!
Zhao Shuai in the game.
Finally, there is no need to lose weight
Standing at 1.88 meters tall and weighing less than 70 kilograms when there is no competition, Zhao Shuai, who is standing next to Zhu Ting, looks smaller.
With a slender waist and well-defined ribs, Zhao Shuai belongs to the type of natural emaciation. But in order to achieve a breakthrough of zero Olympic gold medals for Chinese men's taekwondo athletes, Zhao Shuai participated in the men's sub-58 kg category at the Rio Olympics.
Zhao Shuai, who is already quite thin, still needs to lose nearly 10 kilograms, and the word "weight loss" has always run through his previous sports career.
"The process is too torturous, it's the kind of scratching the heart and scratching the liver." Eat less and less, and the intensity of training must keep up. "At that time, Zhao Shuai first ate two bowls of rice a day and drank two bottles of water; then he ate a bowl of rice and drank a bottle of water, and finally he didn't even drink water...
Zhao Shuai admitted that this way of losing weight is not normal, but he had to do it for the sake of the game. What impressed Zhao Shuai the most was the 2014 Grand Prix, when he was still 0.1 kg short of the competition standard, "I really don't want to move, it's particularly uncomfortable, I haven't had the strength to move, weigh it at two o'clock in the afternoon." ”
"I'm really bored, so why?" Spit, can only spit out. Recalling the weight loss trip, Zhang Shuai's eyes still shone, "What should I do if the saliva is gone?" Just put your hand in your mouth to vomit, isn't that sour water? ”
Every time he competed, Zhao Shuai squeezed himself in this almost extreme way. But strategic weight loss paid off – in the men's sub-58 kg final at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Zhao Shuai, who was tall and legged, won the championship as he wished.
This is the first gold medal of Chinese taekwondo at the Rio Olympic Games and the first Olympic gold medal in the history of Chinese men's taekwondo.
At that time, everyone regarded Zhao Shuai as a dark horse, but after winning the Olympic championship, Zhao Shuai said: "I don't think I am the so-called dark horse, in fact, in Rio, I came to the gold medal." ”
However, after Rio, as he grew older, Zhao Shuai's weight inevitably increased. Guan Jianmin, head coach of the Chinese taekwondo team, analyzed: "We can't let athletes live in that extremely painful training mode for a long time, why? Weight loss is extremely difficult for a male athlete, especially when growing a body. ”
"I was so hungry that I was so dry that I was in no mood to sleep, and sometimes I woke up after squinting." Recalling the feeling of losing weight, Zhao Shuai still has palpitations, "This process is particularly painful, and I don't want to lose weight again in this life." ”
Thus, after the Rio Olympics, Zhao Shuai began an "upgrade" journey - the men's under-58 kg champion at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games; the men's under 63 kg champion at the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships; and the taekwondo men's 68 kg champion at the 13th National Games in 2017.
However, Zhao Shuai finally did not have to lose weight so painfully.
Before you kicked others, now others beat you
From the "upgrade" of the sub-58 kg class to the sub-68 kg class, the opponent generally weighs 10 kg more, and the difficulties are obvious.
First of all, all the original Olympic points are cleared, and Zhao Shuai wants to start over from a newcomer. In the sub-58 kg class, Zhao Shuai, who is 1 meter 88, stands out from the crowd, with great advantages in height and strength; but when upgraded to less than 68 kg, international competitions in one round and two rounds have become the norm for Rio Olympic champions.
"I used to be able to fly people on top, but now people kick me away, and I kick out like I'm kicking a mat or two." Recalling that he had just begun to "upgrade", Zhao Shuai described his feelings in this way.
But the most important thing is the change in mentality, "that is, psychologically unconfident, before I was tall and powerful; but now people are stronger than you, faster than you, and the continuity is stronger than you, and they feel that they are not very good." ”
The 2017 Taekwondo Grand Slam Annual Finals was held in Wuxi, and Zhao Shuai, who grew up training in Jiangsu, was considered to be the home team, but in the men's sub-68 kg final, he was beaten by South Korea's Lee Dae-hoon. Although Li Daxun is 5 centimeters shorter than Zhao Shuai, he has continuously staged 3 kicks, and various rotating leg methods are even more dazzling.
In the five-game match, Lee Dae-hoon defeated Cho Shuai with an absolute advantage of 53-14, and the popular handsome guy in the Korean taekwondo world happily staged the scene of the back throw coach.
South Korea's famous Lee Dae-hoon.
"It's uncomfortable to hold back, I feel like you kicked others before, and now you are kicked back at once, this gap is particularly large, so that you can't accept it." Zhao Shuai sighed in this way, but it also made him choose to settle down and start to strengthen from the aspects of physical ability and confrontation.
Do push-ups, others use palms to support the ground, Zhao Shuai uses double fists; practicing bench press, the previous weight was 50, 60 kg, now raised to 70 kg... In this way, Zhao Shuai's confrontation ability and physical ability were improved little by little.
In december 2018, zhao Shuai narrowly defeated Britain's Bradley Hinton in the golden overtime to win his first international championship in the sub-68 kg class.
The shy big boy jumped excitedly in place and made two turns in the air to celebrate the victory.
In May 2019, at the World Championships in Manchester, Zhao Shuai successfully defended his title with a 27-7 victory over Iran's Ahmadi.
In October 2019, at the Sophia Grand Prix, Zhao Shuai defeated Li Daxun, who had once beaten him to the bottom, 17-7 and won the gold medal.
The game was won, and Zhao Shuai's confidence also returned: "I feel that I am not bad, life is in different attempts, different experiences, I am now training hard, the result will go with the flow (coming)." ”
Zhao Shuai, who was successfully promoted, not only qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games in the Olympic Points Race, but also won the Tokyo Olympic Express Card with a three-year overall result in the Grand Slam Tournament held in Wuxi.
Zhao Shuai became the standard-bearer of the Chinese Olympic delegation.
Upgrade, from Asian Games flag bearer to Olympic flag bearer
The upgrade journey is not only on the field, but also off the field.
At the Tokyo Olympics, when Zhao Shuai and Zhu Ting waved the national flag and walked to the front of the Chinese sports delegation, Zhao Shuai completed the "upgrade" again.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Zhao Shuai served as the standard-bearer of the Chinese delegation for the first time, when Zhao Shuai had just celebrated his 23rd birthday. "I was informed that I was surprised by the departure the night before."
3 years later, when Zhao Shuai held the national flag again, he was still shy in front of the camera - "The iron Zhu Ting Zhao Shuai, the group photo of the flowing water", Zhu Ting would shake her body every time she took a photo, but Zhao Shuai stood motionless and straight.
Instead, her girlfriend Zheng Shuyin smiled and closed her mouth, "I am very excited, I feel very honored." ”
Zhao Shuai and his girlfriend Zheng Shuyin.
At the Rio Olympics, Zheng Shuyin and Zhao Shuai won olympic gold medals respectively, becoming a veritable "eagle hero" of the taekwondo team - both of them are tall and tall, quite good-looking, coupled with excellent results, which is really the envy of others.
Interestingly, although the two are fellow Liaoning compatriots, Zhao Shuai's feelings for Zheng Shuyin are quite cold: "When he first came to the national team, he did not take the initiative to talk to female players. Except for meeting Wu Jingyu from the Jiangsu team, he would say 'Sister Yu is good' and say nothing after saying hello. ”
After getting along, Zheng Shuyin gradually discovered that the shy Zhao Shuai was quite "ambitious". "When we were children of the National Youth, he said to me, 'Can I break through in the men,'" Zheng Shuyin recalled. What was he thinking?! ”
But now, Zhao Shuai has raised the national flag.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Ding Xiao