Cover news reporter Zhong Yuheng Chen Yuxiao Chen Ganlu trainee reporter Du Zhuobin Wu Yong
On July 26, Beijing time, in the men's team final of competitive gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Chinese team lost to the Russian Olympic Committee and the host team Japan, and won a bronze medal. The Russian Olympic team won the gold medal. Sichuan Yibin athlete Zou Jingyuan competed in the three events of Pommel Horse, Hanging Ring and Parallel Bars in turn, performing well, with the hanging ring contributing 15.000 points, and in the parallel bars competition he was best at, he scored the highest score of 15.466. Although a little regrettable, on August 3, he will hold two world championship gold medals and launch a full attack on the first Olympic champion of his career in the men's parallel bars final.
In late July, Yibin was in the heat of the summer, walking on the streets, steaming heat waves. Because of the Tokyo Olympics, the streets and alleys of this southern Sichuan city have an extra "dragon gate array" that can be posed after tea and dinner, and in the discussion of three words and two words, 23-year-old Zou Jingyuan is the protagonist of the story.
As a new force in Sichuan gymnastics, he has long been regarded by the outside world as "the enhanced version of Zou Kai + Feng Zhe", holding the gold medal of the 2017 and 2018 World Championships, in the cycle of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Zou Jingyuan represented the highest level of Chinese gymnastics parallel bars on the world stage.
3 years old stepped into the gymnastics room, 20 years later, the little boy who used to like to bounce, Love to cry in his mother's arms Zou Jingyuan grew up and changed a lot. When there is no training and competition, he is no different from ordinary boys, occasionally posting selfies on Weibo, and his hairstyle is always neatly combed. Guan Xiaotong, a favorite actor, sent an autographed photo, and he would shout happily: "Thank you for the pre-game encouragement of the 'goddess'." ”
Between change and invariance, Zou Jingyuan has always maintained his obsession and focus on gymnastics. His career went as smoothly as a script before the defeat at the 2019 World Championships. In the places where he trained, in the memories of his family and coaches, we can find the general appearance of the beginning of the story, and after that, Zou Jingyuan's life and gymnastics are like two spiraling lines, relying on and supporting each other, and constantly extending upwards.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > 30 children lined up</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > the enlightenment coach took a fancy to him</h1>
Walk west along Renmin Road in Cuiping District and pass through People's Square to Yibin Amateur Sports School. Hearing the name of "Zou Jingyuan", the aunt on duty at the gate immediately smiled at the reporter, "Jingyuan was selected from here, like a little monkey when I was a child, flexible." "After 20 years, except for a school name plaque, everything else here is still the same. Outside the gymnastics room on the third floor, the poster of Zou Jingyuan's participation in the Olympic Games is pasted on the public notice board, and Huang Zirui, a little master and disciple who is 16 years old, will shoot on the poster every time he enters and exits, and high-fives his idol brother, "This is not only cheering for his competition, but also cheering for my training." ”
The story of Zou Jingyuan and gymnastics began here. In the words of Enlightenment coach Li Xiaobing, in more than 50 years of teaching career, he has selected more than 10,000 children, but there are few people with great talent like Zou Jingyuan. Li Xiaobing still remembers the scene when he first saw this "doll", he went to the Dajin Street Kindergarten not far from the school to select materials, and nearly 30 children lined up in a row, high and low, small hands and feet next to each other. "I saw the 'garden' at a glance", for his intuition and choice at that time, Li Xiaobing recalled that the tone was quite proud.
Zou Jingyuan in the doll pile is thin and small, not tall, but slender hands and feet. After a simple strength test, Li Xiaobing believes that Zou Jingyuan is not only suitable for practicing gymnastics, but also has upper arm strength and lower limb strength that exceed the selection standard. Three-year-old Zou Jingyuan, a small foot stepped into the gymnastics room.
When Zou Jingyuan was a few months old
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > provincial team teacher recalls</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > "I'm the lucky one."</h1>
Before Zou Jingyuan left for Tokyo, Cao Zhiguo, the coach of the Sichuan gymnastics team who had been training him since he was 6 years old, called his disciples. Cao Zhiguo is a native of Chongqing, with a straight temper, and has been more like a "father and son" with Zou Jingyuan for many years. While chatting with the reporter, two images suddenly flashed through his mind.
The first picture is in Yibin, 2004, not far from the entrance to the gymnastics room of the amateur gymnastics school, where 6-year-old Zou Jingyuan is practicing kurama. That was the first time cao Zhiguo who came to select materials saw this child, and his eyes were instantly attracted, followed by surprise, "The garden tiptoe knees are very beautiful, and the explosive force is strong," Cao Zhiguo said.
The second picture, which takes place in Tianjin in 2017, is when the already famous Zou Jingyuan participates in the National Games for the first time. In the final parallel bars final, when Zou Jingyuan came on, Cao Zhiguo sneaked out, took out a lighter outside the stadium, lit a cigarette, and took a deep breath. "I don't dare to look," Cao Zhiguo told reporters. Unexpectedly, the smoke had not yet burned out, and cheers had poured into his ears.
He remembers that every time Zou Jingyuan trained when he was a child, there were bad things to do, and he would not wait for the coach to criticize, and he cried, "He is a person who pursues perfection and has high self-requirements," Cao Zhiguo said. In fact, this trait has always accompanied Zou Jingyuan to the national team, and Teng Haibin, the coach of the Chinese gymnastics team and the Olympic champion of gymnastics, has "complained", "He especially loves to practice, and once he practices, we have to work overtime." ”
Today, in the gymnastics hall of Sichuan Sports Vocational and Technical College, Cao Zhiguo also brings a lot of small team members, just like Zou Jingyuan at that time. He does not like the title of "champion coach", in his eyes, any coach with Zou Jingyuan may be able to have today's results, "and I am the lucky one." ”
Zou Jingyuan provincial team coach Cao Zhiguo
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > parents</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="45" > peace is more important than grades</h1>
51-year-old Liu Liqun and her husband Zou Zhiping obviously found that the recent strange phone calls have increased, mostly from various media who have come to visit, and in the face of interview requests, she has a gentle temper and patiently replied and responded one by one. On July 22, Liu Liqun put down her mobile phone, and the CCTV channel in the living room TV set happened to be playing footage of gymnasts from various countries training in the stadium at the Tokyo Olympic Games. "Have you seen the garden", Liu Liqun patted her husband's shoulder, "Yes, the camera has captured him, a short time, as if practicing parallel bars."
Thinking of their son, who is far away in Tokyo to prepare for the Olympic Games, the couple can only use this way to dispel their inner tension and worry. Since Zou Jingyuan traveled to Tokyo with the national team, they have not contacted their son on WeChat, "afraid of disturbing him," Liu Said. The rebound of the epidemic in Tokyo made her a little uneasy, "Whether to take the gold medal or not is not the most important, I hope that the garden will come back healthy and safe, and do not get hurt." Almost every day, she had to communicate with Zou Jingyuan's coach, or inquire about her son's recent situation through the reporters who reported in front.
In 1998, a 6-pound little boy was born in an ordinary family in Yibin, with a four-year-old brother, and his parents gave him the nickname "YuanYuan". Liu Liqun smiled and said that Zou Jingyuan was particularly like his father, "Thin and small." "When I was a child, Zou Jingyuan was lively and active, and when eating, adults needed to run around the house to feed the food to their mouths. Until now, Liu Liqun can't remember that her son showed a different kind of "talent" when he was young, in her eyes, Zou Jingyuan was just a little thin, no different from other children of the same age, and his favorite toys were Ultraman and Huluwa.
If you have to have something to do with "gymnastics", his father Zou Zhiping remembers that when he came home from work, he could see two or three-year-old Zou Jingyuan standing upside down on the sofa watching TV when he entered the door, standing very steadily. Take him to the playground to play, and my son's favorite is the trampoline. "He has good ligaments and loves to bounce around."
When he was 6 years old, Zou Jingyuan was selected to enter the Sichuan Provincial Sports School with several friends. In the first six months, Zou Jingyuan was particularly uncomfortable, and every day he would cry and cry to go home. Liu Liqun bought an IC card for the doll, and the small Zou Jingyuan had to step on the bench with great effort to call her parents in Yibin through the telephone.
Liu Liqun, who was distressed about her son, also retreated in her heart and took the child back to Yibin halfway. After staying for more than a week, the coach came to the door, "He said that the doll is a good seedling, but it's a pity." We sent him back." Liu Liqun now thinks that if she had made the opposite decision at that time, Zou Jingyuan would not have stood on the field in Tokyo today.
In the first few years, Liu Liqun and Zou Zhiping would go to Chengdu every weekend to accompany their son. In order to save money, they are reluctant to buy bus tickets, and they only take the green-skinned train with a ticket for 20 yuan back and forth, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning, the train enters Chengdu Station. Later, Zou Jingyuan entered the national team, and the opportunity for the family to meet only once or twice a year. He competed in various competitions across the country, and the couple always flew quietly to the competition city just to take a look from a distance in the stands.
In May, at the National Gymnastics Championships and Tokyo Olympic Trials in Chengdu, Liu Liqun and Zou Zhiping most recently saw their son.
As soon as they met, Liu Liqun couldn't help but chant: "Thin, you need to eat more", hearing her mother's "instructions", Zou Jingyuan smiled instead, "If you eat again, you can't practice!" ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > debuted at the age of 23</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > "bar" on the dream, Tokyo "garden"</h1>
20 years later, in the eyes of parents, the little doll who loved to cry and cling became more and more independent, but she always hid the pressure in her heart. In 2019, Zou Jingyuan, who had high hopes, made a mistake at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, failed to reach the parallel bars final, and missed the triple crown in the project. It was the first time he had a serious defeat in a major tournament, and the coach later revealed that the young man had cried bitterly after he returned. After that competition, Liu Liqun and his wife went to Beijing, and the three of them sat in the restaurant to eat, "We don't ask, he doesn't say, but you can feel that he is under a lot of pressure." ”
Perhaps, before this, Zou Jingyuan walked a little too "smoothly".
In 2015, 17-year-old Zou Jingyuan won the men's individual all-around, pommel horse, hoop, parallel bars champion and men's free gymnastics runner-up in the National Youth Gymnastics Championships. In March 2017, Zou Jingyuan competed in the Doha World Cup Gymnastics Tournament, and he won the gold medal on parallel bars with 15.900 points in his first international competition. At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Zou Jing used a set of actions with a difficulty of 7.0, and the completion score was hit to 9.433 points, and without suspense, he achieved the defense of the world championship parallel bars with 16.433 points, refreshing the highest single score of the world championships.
When Zou Jingyuan landed firmly like a steel nail into a log, the camera captured Ukraine's Viniaev, one of the world's top masters in this project, who showed an expression of disbelief. In the words of CCTV commentator Chen Ying: his movements are a model of parallel bars, and he completes them as accurately as they are drawn on the gymnastics difficulty table.
However, since the preliminaries of the 19 world championships were upset, he has suffered three consecutive defeats in domestic and foreign competitions. In September 2020, some fierce netizens questioned his recent performance on Weibo, and Zou Jingyuan forwarded the post, writing in a sincere tone: "Thank you for criticizing me, not prevaricating me like others, there is still time, the Olympic Games are delayed, give me time to reflect." ”
Nearly a year later, Zou Jingyuan stepped onto the Tokyo arena, the 23-year-old's first olympic stage.
For this shy teenager with a talking accent mixed with Trump and two front teeth when smiling, there is still a long way to go in the future.
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