July 25, Tokyo Olympics. When Chen Lijun stepped onto the podium, his villagers who were far away in Hunan cheered and wept for him.
In the men's weightlifting men's 67 kg final, Chen Lijun represented the Chinese team, and finally turned the tables against the wind with a 187 kg deadlift result, winning the sixth gold medal for the Chinese team.
Hou Zhihui, who won the first gold medal in China's weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympic Games a day earlier, is also from Hunan and is an authentic "Xiang girl".
Behind these two Hunan athletes winning the championship is the best interpretation of the fine tradition of Hunan people: "eating bitterly, dominating the barbarians, tying hard villages, and fighting hard battles".
Coincidence with Bó Lè
In 1993, Chen Lijun was born in Yanglin Village, Anhua County, to a poor family, and his parents worked as farmers. At the age of 10, his burly father went to the agricultural machinery station to run errands, broke his wrist and won the local weightlifter. Chen Lijun inherited his father's talent and was soon recommended to Jiang Yilong, the coach of Yiyang Sports Academy.
This fortuitous opportunity changed the fate of Chen Lijun from then on.
Jiang Yilong first met Chen Lijun, who was thin and small, wearing old slippers that were almost worn out. Jiang Yilong asked him to try to stand up for a long jump, but he did not expect that the small man who was only ten years old actually jumped out of 2.36 meters, and Jiang identified this as a good seedling.
Despite their talent, Chen Lijun's parents were hesitant about their son's weightlifting: the training was extremely hard, the future was uncertain, and the family was in difficulty, tuition was free, and living expenses in sports schools were also problematic.
Fortunately, Jiang Yilong's repeated persistence made the family finally loosen. Chen Lijun, who grew up in a difficult living environment, worked extra hard in sports school. The training ground was remodeled from the previous boiler room, and Chen Lijun's mother remembers the first time she went to see him train, "he was tanned, small, holding a barbell, looking very distressed" "Every time I went to see him, I cried once."
In the second year of Yiyang Sports School, Chen Lijun's father fell seriously ill. The pillars of the family collapsed, and the family fell into a more difficult situation. His mother hoped that he could also learn a craft and help the family, but Chen Lijun insisted, "I have been practicing for so long, and now I am not practicing, so is my suffering not in vain?" I must continue to practice. ”
△ Chen Lijun and coach Jiang Yilong.
After three years of training at Yiyang Sports School, Chen Lijun successfully entered the provincial weightlifting team. In 2010, the 17-year-old Chen Lijun won the World Junior Championship and made his debut. In 2013, he was crowned at the 12th National Games and the World Weightlifting Championships. In 2015, he won the World Championships in Houston by breaking two world records in the men's 62 kg deadlift and overall results.
The 24-year-old Hou Zhihui's contact with weightlifting also stemmed from a "chance encounter". At that time, 11-year-old Hou Zhihui was participating in the Athletics Games for primary and secondary school students in Guiyang County, Chenzhou, but was caught in the eye by Li Zhiping, a weightlifting coach of Guiyang No. 3 Middle School, "I feel that the explosiveness, physical fitness, and coordination of physical functions of this 'little bit' are not generally good." ”
The following year, Hou Zhihui officially came to Guiyang No. 3 Middle School Weightlifting Hall to study. Li Zhiping's requirements are very strict, and students need to train for an extra hour every morning, and they have to train for more than two hours after school in the afternoon. But Xiao Zhihui is very self-conscious, never lazy, but also to the veteran team members, to add tasks to themselves, Li Zhiping had to often "warn" her: you can't add tasks too fast!
In 2012, Hou Zhihui became an official member of the provincial weightlifting team. Because she has talent and can endure hardships, 3 years later, Hou Zhihui successfully entered the national team. In 2015, she won both the World Youth Championship and the Youth Games in the 48 kg category, and in April 2016, at the national women's weightlifting championships and rio Olympic trials, at the age of 19, she won three gold medals in the 48 kg category, becoming the first candidate for the Rio Olympics in this category.
Sorry to say goodbye to Rio
In 2016, with outstanding results, Hou Zhihui and Chen Lijun, who came out of the countryside of Hunan, represented the national team in the Rio Olympic Games.
They are considered to be the favorite to win the championship, and they don't want fate to make a big joke again.
At that time, Hou Zhihui, who was going to the Olympic training camp with the team, was replaced at the last minute due to a knee injury. Chen Lijun, who is regarded as the most stable gold medal in the men's row at the Rio Olympic Games, suddenly suffered cramps in the 62 kg final snatch, failed both attempts, and then had to announce his abstention.
Hou Zhihui cried for an afternoon, and Chen Lijun said "I'm sorry" three times after the game.
The olympic podium is the highest professional dream of being an athlete. Unwilling and aggrieved to pass by their dreams, how can they accept defeat! The two of them have accumulated even greater energy in their hearts - to fight for the Tokyo Olympics!
In October 2020, at the National Championships, Chen Lijun's elbow tendon was torn. For the first time in his career in weightlifting, he underwent major surgery and suffered severe muscle atrophy after surgery.
If he doesn't recover well, he may not be able to get to Tokyo.
Chen Lijun did not slacken off in the slightest, starting from scratch, re-accumulating strength, re-strengthening physical fitness, and re-"learning" to lift weights. According to the rhythm of scientific rehabilitation, Chen Lijun's systematic training quickly became effective, and he even made up for the previous technical shortcomings.
When he regained his footing at the Olympic Games, Chen Lijun, who had made two missteps in grasping, staged a stunning reversal - with a roar of 11 kilograms behind, a roar lifted the 187 kilogram barbell high and won the championship in a reversal.
In an interview, his eyes were full of tears, "I feel that I am really not easy, from the defeat in Rio to the victory in Tokyo, a lot of bitterness, I have been holding my breath and wanting to win the championship." ”
Hou Zhihui specially took out the "battle robe" when she participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016, lifting weights in the 49 kg final, and she did not leave any chance for her opponents. From the snatch to the deadlift, to the total result of 210 kilograms, all set a new Olympic record.
Tie up a hard village and fight a hard battle
In terms of strength, they are better than their opponents, and what they show is not only talent, but also the fine tradition of Hunan people to "eat bitterly, dominate wildly, tie up hard villages, and fight hard battles".
In previous Olympic Games, there has been no shortage of such Huxiang figures.
In 2000, Yang Xia, born in Baojing County, Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, won the gold medal in the 53 kg category at the Sydney Olympic Games, becoming China's first women's weightlifting Olympic champion.
In 2012, at the London Olympics, Wang Mingjuan, born in Jiangyong County, Yongzhou City, won the women's weightlifting 48 kg championship.
In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, Long Qingquan, who won the men's weightlifting 56 kg championship, was born in Longshan County, Xiangxi Province. Xiang Yanmei, who won the women's 69 kg championship, was born in Baojing County, Xiangxi Province.
Chen Lijun lost two snatches, and the gold medal was almost hopeless. In the last moment, he fought to the end, turning the tables against the wind.
Historically, the Xiang army, which dared to fight hard battles and fight to the death, repeatedly won more with less on the battlefield and survived in desperate places. Zeng Guofan, a famous general in Hunan, promoted it to the concept of humble sincerity: clumsiness is clumsiness, not opportunistic, not lazy and slippery, step by step, with diligent blood and sweat to achieve success; sincerity is spiritual concentration, perseverance, firm goal, unswerving.
The fine traditions of eating bitterly, dominating the barbarians, building hard villages, and fighting hard battles have been deeply integrated into the blood of hunan people. As Chen Lijun finally said: Against the wind, I am destined to be up to heaven.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Chai Gui intern Zhen Chang