He once switched to trampolines because he didn't have a talent for gymnastics; he was once plagued by injuries and was close to retirement. On the trampoline road, he jumped very high and walked very hard. However, along the way, he never gave up, he is the Shanghai trampoline athlete Gao Lei.
In yesterday's National Games trampoline team final, Gao Lei's defending champion Shanghai team won the fifth place, but he was not discouraged. How can he be as good as he wants, but he is not ashamed, he cares more about the process of pursuing dreams. Today, he will continue to attack his first national games individual gold medal.
Photo: Gao Lei in the competition Xinmin Evening News reporter Li Mingzhen photographed
Difficulty reigns and bad luck
In the Chinese trampoline world, when it comes to Gao Lei, people who are familiar with him are always prone to think of two words, one is sadness and the other is record. Speaking of sadness, it is because after practicing trampolines for so many years, he is always a little bit unlucky at key moments. Take the Olympic Games, 2012 London Olympic Games, Gao Lei because of the previous year's accidental injury and did not qualify; 2016 Rio Olympic Games, his action difficulty is the highest, two rounds of qualification ranking first, but in the final, his first few actions are clean and neat, did not expect to suddenly appear psychological tension later, in some difficult moves have flaws, and finally won the bronze medal; this year's Tokyo Olympic Games, "difficulty king" Gao Lei is the first place in the domestic qualifications, did not expect the recurrence of the waist injury before the preliminary round, In the name of the closed play result, there was a mistake, and he failed to enter the final, leaving regrets again.
Pictured: Gao Lei on the sidelines Xinmin Evening News reporter Li Mingzhen photographed
There are regrets and there are glories. Gao Lei currently holds a unique record in the world trampoline industry, that is, the four consecutive world championships, which he said is also the proudest achievement of his career. In 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Gao Lei won the individual event championship at the Trampoline World Championships for four consecutive times (in 2016, because of the Olympic Games, the World Championships were not held). In fact, after winning the triple crown in 2018, Gao Lei has made history, because the trampoline world championship has not appeared in three consecutive championships for 24 years. But at that time, he was not particularly excited, thinking that he had just copied the glory of others, and he wanted to create his own legend. Sure enough, in 2019, at the Ariake Gymnastics Arena in Tokyo, Japan, which is the trampoline competition venue of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Gao Lei won the gold medal with a super stable performance, and became the first player in the history of the World Championships to win four consecutive championships.
Picture said: At present, Gao Lei still holds the world record of four consecutive world championships at the Trampoline World Championships Photo by Li Mingzhen, a reporter of Xinmin Evening News
Tried and tested, never give up
Gao Lei's father, Gao Weifeng, is a skilled athlete who was sent to the gymnastics training ground by his father since he was a child. However, after practicing for a few years, 10-year-old Gao Lei was asserted by his father that he had no talent in gymnastics, and it was just in time for the Shanghai trampoline team to recruit people, and he had the opportunity to change trampoline. Fang Bosheng, the head coach of the Shanghai trampoline team, believes that Gao Lei's conditions are not very good, "The trampoline has high requirements for waist and abdomen strength, and Gao Lei has some deficiencies in this regard." ”
Lacking innate qualifications, Gao Lei relies on the diligence and hard work of the day after tomorrow, as well as the spirit and fierceness of not accepting defeat and not giving up. In the team final of the 2013 Trampoline World Championships, 19-year-old Gao Lei made the finale, and he must score more than 54 points to help the Chinese team win the championship. In the end, he withstood the pressure and scored a high score of 59.940 to help the Chinese team reach the top smoothly, "After winning the championship, I did not sleep all night, and I felt that it was the most memorable championship in my sports career."
Pictured: Practicing trampoline, Gao Lei relied on the diligence and hard work of the day after tomorrow Xinmin Evening News reporter Li Mingzhen took a photo
Just one year after entering the national team, Gao Lei suffered a major injury, which even almost ruined his trampoline career. "In fact, this waist injury is also an accident, once in training I made a mistake, that is, after the spring was broken, I fell from a high altitude, and the place where the waist injury was hit on the bar." Gao Lei recalled that he could not participate in the competition for a year, and the London Olympic Games did not go to success, at that time there was a thought of giving up, "I felt that my trampoline career was almost over, and I was going to retire before I came to prominence. But Gao Lei did not give up in the end, because he was not willing, and he later defeated the injury and himself through arduous recovery training.
Gao Lei's persistence also made another trampoline star, Dong Dong, very admired. Although the big brother Dong Dong's performance in the Olympic arena is more beautiful, he bluntly said that he admires Gao Lei, "We are teammates in the national team, and we are opponents in the National Games, but whether as a teammate or an opponent, I feel that he is a very good athlete." Gao Lei is the champion of the World Championships for four consecutive times, which I have never done, he is not only worth learning from me, but also worth learning from younger generations. (Xinmin Evening News special reporter Li Yuanchun Xi'an Today)