On the afternoon of August 3, in the final of the gymnastics men's parallel bars competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Zou Jingyuan, a Chinese athlete from Yibin, Sichuan Province, successfully defeated a strong opponent and lived up to expectations and won the championship in one fell swoop, with a near-perfect performance of 9.333 points, adding another gold to the Chinese delegation.
Winning gold at the Olympics was the best result of Zou Jingyuan's career and his first Olympic gold medal to date. It is also a breakthrough in his hometown of Yibin, Sichuan, with zero Olympic gold medals, and the people of his hometown are encouraged by it. Zou Jingyuan's parents and enlightenment coaches, who were far away in his hometown, cheered for him and watched the game together.
In fact, the Olympic champion did not "refine" overnight: Zou Jingyuan went to Chengdu to train at the age of seven, away from his parents and relatives, and developed an independent personality. Zou Jingyuan's mother, Liu Liqun, said: "Yuan Yuan (Zou Jingyuan's nickname) is 23 years old this year, and I have not talked about the object, this age is the golden age of the gymnast's career. The garden should focus on the cause and make more contributions to the country. ”
↑ Zou Jingyuan's mother Liu Liqun
Gold Grab————
Parallel bars final!
With a score of 9.333 points, it lived up to expectations and won the championship in one fell swoop
At 15:05 on August 3, Ms. Liu Liqun, Zou Jingyuan's mother, arrived at the live broadcast of the competition of the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Education and Sports by car. Just like watching the last team competition, Zou's mother is still wearing the "China Red" sportswear sent by her son, and her expression is relaxed and happy. However, Zou's father did not come, "This time he did not come, a little nervous." Liu Liqun said.
Enlightenment coach Li Xiaobing said that Zou Jingyuan chose an action difficulty coefficient of 6.9, and the quality of the action he completed was perfect, "Very good, the completion score of 9.333 points reflects his strength." ”
Zou Jingyuan's mother said that she scored a perfect score for her son's performance today.
Zou Jingyuan, as a native of Yibin, Sichuan, likes Sichuan cuisine. Although it has been nearly 10 years since leaving Sichuan, the taste has become light, but I still like to eat spicy dishes. This time, my mother had prepared spicy beef and spicy rabbit for Zou Jingyuan, waiting for the Olympic champion to come home.
↑2020 Tokyo Olympic Gymnastics Men's Parallel Bars Final, Zou Jingyuan won gold According to Oriental IC
"Talent" -
From an early age, he is active and is suitable for practicing gymnastics
I was caught in the eye by the Enlightenment Coach
The Min river and the Jinsha river pass through the lofty mountains and mountains, and converge in Yibin at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan to become the mother river of the Chinese nation, the Yangtze River. Therefore, Yibin has the reputation of "the first city of the Yangtze River", and The wine Wuliangye is even more famous around the world.
In January 1998, Zou Zhiping and Liu Liqun, citizens who were engaged in the food business in the old town of Yibin, added "two treasures" to Zou Jingyuan. At that time, no one expected him to become an Olympic champion and win glory for the country on the international stage.
When Zou Jingyuan was born, he already had a 4-year-old brother. In the family of four, his father, Zou Zhiping, was a laid-off employee of a food company who ran a food store with his wife. In addition to raising two children, they also have to support Zou Zhiping's mother.
Liu Liqun told the Red Star News reporter that Zou Jingyuan was born with poor physical fitness, often had a fever, and had to go to the hospital every two months to receive injections and infusions. Because of his poor physique, Zou Jingyuan had a small amount of food, and when he reached the age of kindergarten, he could only eat a small half bowl of rice. As a mother, Liu Liqun is always worried that her son will not have enough to eat, and often chases After Zou Jingyuan to feed.
When he was 3 years old, his parents sent Zou Jingyuan to the nearest kindergarten in Cuiping District. In the class, Zou Jingyuan is the thinnest boy in the body, but he is lively and active. Yibin People's Park, not far from home, has a trampoline, and as soon as Zou Jingyuan got on the trampoline, he was very happy and did not want to jump down.
In April 2002, Li Xiaobing, a gymnastics coach at Yibin Amateur Sports School, went to Zou Jingyuan's kindergarten to select students, and the active Zou Jingyuan was taken by Li Xiaobing. "At that time, we didn't know much about gymnastics, anyway, thinking that it was exercise, it must be good for the body, so I hoped that he would strengthen his exercise and eat more when he was well." Mother Liu Liqun said.
Liu Liqun told the Red Star News reporter that the well-known coach Li Xiaobing is Zou Jingyuan's enlightenment coach, but Zou Jingyuan actually has an earlier "coach" - cartoon character Ultraman. Zou Jingyuan liked to watch Ultraman when he was young, and before entering kindergarten, he learned ultraman to stand upside down, jumping on the sofa and bed, and especially liked sports.
Li Xiaobing, the coach of Yibin Amateur Sports School, was also selected from the gymnastics team from an early age, and when Zou Jingyuan was selected, he had been engaged in gymnastics teaching for about 25 years. "The main thing is that he is in shape, his stature is short, his hands and feet are relatively straight, and he does not bend. In addition, factors such as liveliness and strength can be cultivated. ”
Zou Jingyuan, who entered an amateur sports school, was able to exert his talent and potential. Handstand, trampoline, kurama, horizontal bar, parallel bars and other projects, Zou Jingyuan enjoyed it tirelessly. Every weekend, Liu Liqun takes the young Zou Jingyuan through the streets and alleys to train at an amateur sports school in Yibin People's Square.
Liu Liqun found that after one or two years of training in the amateur sports school, Zou Jingyuan's physique improved significantly, and he basically would not be hospitalized due to colds.
As the intensity of gymnastics training gradually increased, Zou Jingyuan's potential in ligaments and strength was discovered by the coach, and finally selected by the Sichuan Provincial Gymnastics School in 2005.
Perseverance——
At the age of 3, he participated in part-time sports schools
Especially able to endure hardships and patience, "otherwise it would have been halfway abandoned"
When he participated in training at the Yibin Amateur Sports School, Zou Jingyuan was just over three years old and was still an ignorant child. I can't talk about career planning at all, but I am curious about the wide variety of sports.
The intensive training of Yibin Amateur Sports School is basically during the summer and winter vacations. When practicing, mothers always choose to be with their children. Li Xiaobing said that the most basic skill of gymnastics training is to pull the ligaments apart, which is a difficult process that requires perseverance and endurance.
Liu Liqun remembers that some of the trainees who trained together did not meet the standard when practicing the "one-word horse", and the coach would exert external force to help the trainees pull the ligaments. Many dolls cried out in pain, but Zou Jingyuan never snorted.
↑ Zou Jingyuan never complained about the hard work of training
"Other children can't stand it, they all cry, and some parents really can't bear it, so they give up." As a mother, Liu Liqun often saw her son grinning uncomfortably when practicing, and her heart hurt badly, saying to herself many times: If YuanYuan can't stick to it, forget it.
But the strange thing is that Zou Jingyuan faces high-intensity training beyond the limits of his body, that is, he does not call and never complains about the hard work of training. "I think it's weird, I often ask him if he hurts, and he always says, 'I don't think it hurts.'"
"At that time, if The Garden had cried a few words, I probably couldn't bear it, and I would have given up halfway." Liu Liqun recalled.
Li Xiaobing, who has been engaged in gymnastics coaching for 45 years, introduced that in the past few decades, Yibin has selected more than 10,000 gymnastics training team members, but so far, only Zou Jingyuan has stepped onto the Olympic field; he is the only one who has won the Olympic championship.
Liu Liqun remembered that there was another time when she almost gave up halfway, but fortunately her father Zou Zhiping persisted. That is, Zou Jingyuan had just been selected to enter the provincial sports school, training alone in Chengdu, his parents went to Chengdu to see him, Zou Jingyuan hugged his mother and would not let him go, Liu Liqun could not bear it, and took him back to Yibin.
After a week in Yibin, Zou Jingyuan still went to an amateur sports school to train, although the child's nature made him reluctant to his parents, but he seemed reluctant to gymnastics when he returned home. "As long as the path he takes is correct, suffering is nothing, and children should suffer more." Father Zou Zhiping insisted on sending Zou Jingyuan back to the Chengdu base despite his wife's objections.
Independence -
"Olympic Champion Cultivation Record":
When he was less than 7 years old, he went to Chengdu to train and never complained
Liu Liqun remembers that when Zou Jingyuan was selected to Chengdu, she was not yet 7 years old, and she even had to chase him to feed. Because there were five or six small partners in the same batch of Yibin Amateur Sports School, on the first day of arriving in Chengdu, Zou Jingyuan seemed very excited, and when his parents left, he did not cry.
In order to spend as much time as possible with her son, Liu Liqun took the slow train from Yibin to Chengdu at 11 pm every Friday, after six hours of bumps, and arrived in Chengdu at 6 o'clock in the morning; on Sunday, at 11 pm, Liu Liqun took a slow train from Chengdu to Yibin, which also took six hours.
The first time he went to see his son, Zou Jingyuan did not let his parents go. Every time they leave Chengdu, mother and son basically have to cry with a headache... That kind of emotional torment, Zou Zhiping and Liu Liqun are still sighing. They clearly remembered that once when Zou Jingyuan did not pay attention, they sneaked away, and Zou Jingyuan found out and chased them out, looking for his parents everywhere in the middle of the night.
In order to make it easier for her son to contact himself, Liu Liqun gave her son a telephone IC card at that time, and Zou Jingyuan finished training and could call his parents who were far away in Yibin. "At that time, he was so small that he couldn't reach the telephone, and he had to put a stool on his feet to insert the magnetic card." Liu Liqun said that this state of homesickness lasted for about half a year before Zou Jingyuan adapted to the life of the base.
↑ Zou Jingyuan as a child in training
Although the son gradually adapted to an independent life, his parents were still very concerned.
As long as Zou Jingyuan is on vacation for more than three days, Liu Liqun will take him back to Yibin. If there is no holiday, Liu Liqun will take a slow train to Chengdu to accompany her son for two days, and she is even reluctant to buy a sleeper ticket for 50 yuan, and has been sitting on a hard seat for several years. She said she would save 25 bucks and buy her son a carton of milk.
In the years of training in Chengdu, "saving money" was one of the most considered issues for the parents. In addition to saving on the fare, you also save on accommodation. In Chengdu, they only live in a small hotel for a few tens of yuan a night; sometimes the dormitory manager is a little inattentive, they will "lurk" in the son's dormitory and squeeze in the son's dormitory for two nights, one to save money, and the other to accompany the son more.
For a laid-off working family, it was very difficult to raise two children in that era, but Zou Zhiping and Liu Liqun never brought the pressure and negative emotions of life to their children, and they always remained optimistic and smiling in front of their children. Perhaps influenced by his parents, Zou Jingyuan is also very optimistic, joining the gymnastics team for nearly 20 years, he has never complained in front of his parents.
Today, 23-year-old Zou Jingyuan has lived and studied alone in Beijing for nearly a decade. Two years ago, her mother, Liu Liqun, had proposed to go to Beijing to accompany her son, but Zou Jingyuan felt that she could handle it alone and politely refused her mother's kindness. "I'm so busy, you can't accompany me when you come." Zou Jingyuan said.
Mom --
At the golden age of 23, I did not talk about the object
Hopefully he won't be distracted from contributing more
Zou Jingyuan's efforts and his parents' persistence have finally paid off. In 2012, Zou Jingyuan was selected for the national team, becoming the one with the closest career among the small students in the same batch of Yibin Amateur Sports School.
↑ Medal won by Zou Jingyuan
With the continuous growth of Zou Jingyuan, he was gradually known to the world as an obscure person, often walking on the podium and standing in the spotlight.
In 2015, Zou Jingyuan won the men's individual all-around, kurama, hoop, parallel bars and men's free gymnastics runner-up at the National Youth Gymnastics Championships; in 2017, he participated in the World Gymnastics Championships for the first time and won the men's parallel bars championship; in 2018, he defended the title of the men's parallel bars of the 48th World Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar; in 2019, he won the men's team runner-up at the 49th World Gymnastics Championships; and on October 23, 2019, Zou Jingyuan followed the Chinese team to win the men's team gold medal in gymnastics at the 7th World Military Games.
On July 26, 2021, the Chinese men's gymnastics team composed of Zou Jingyuan, Xiao Ruoteng, Sun Wei and Lin Chaopan won the bronze medal in the gymnastics men's team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. So far, Zou Jingyuan has achieved zero breakthrough in Olympic medals and has become the most popular candidate for the Olympic men's parallel bars event. Today, he lived up to expectations and won the championship in one fell swoop.
↑2020 Tokyo Olympic Gymnastics Men's Parallel Bars Final, Zou Jingyuan Picture according to Oriental IC
Although Zou Jingyuan is already an Olympic champion, his father Zou Zhiping is still full of guilt when he talks about the past of gathering less and more with his son. Zou Zhiping said that they have no material pursuits now, and their son can win the Olympic championship and win glory for the country, which is the best praise for them. It's just that they have always regretted that they have too little companionship with Zou Jingyuan. "If I have the chance, I will tell my friends: be sure to spend more time with your children."
"In 2006, Zou Jingyuan's brother was admitted to a high school in Chengdu with good conditions, and our family discussed going to Chengdu, renting a house, and accompanying two children. However, due to economic reasons, it was finally abandoned. Speaking of this past, Zou Zhiping believes that he did not seize this best opportunity, and the couple is still very sorry.
After Zou Jingyuan arrived in Beijing, the only chance for reunion was for Zou Zhiping and Liu Liqun to accompany their son for the New Year, and the family had a reunion dinner. After that, Zou Jingyuan hurried back to training. However, Zou Jingyuan is worried about his parents in his hometown, he goes to Japan to play, he will bring some cosmetics to his mother; when he goes to France, he will bring some French red wine to his father... Every year on the birthday of parents and coaches, or every New Year's Holiday, Zou Jingyuan will send them blessings; Father's Day, Mother's Day, Zou Jingyuan will also send gifts.
↑ Mother Liu Liqun cried with joy
Seeing her son win the championship, her mother Liu Liqun cried with joy. When talking about Zou Jingyuan's feelings, his mother said that he had not talked about the object, did not have a girlfriend at present, and did not have time to talk. Zou's mother said that the time in the garden was too tight, either in training, or in the game, or on the way to the competition, the family had moved for ten years, and he only lived at home for two nights. "The age of 23 is the golden age of an athlete's career, and I hope he will not be distracted, focus on training and competition, win glory for the country, and make more contributions."
Red Star News reporter Luo Min
Edited by Yu Manga
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for the newspaper!) ）