Source: Sino-Singapore Sports
Author: Wang Hao
A few days ago, the website of the Chinese Equestrian Association announced the list of athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Among them, Li Zhenqiang and Li Yaofeng of the field obstacle team have received the most attention - because they are a father and son.
Member of the Chinese Equestrian Steeplechase. Image source: Chinese Equestrian Association website
At the Tokyo Olympics, which opens in a dozen days, the two of them will join hands in the Olympic arena, which is also the first time in the history of the Chinese delegation that father and son will compete together in the Olympic Games.
However, in addition to sighing, people rarely understand why there is a "father-son file" with a huge age difference in the equestrian arena, and they rarely know what kind of difficult road the Chinese equestrian team has taken behind it.
29 years
The Olympic equestrian events are divided into three sub-events, namely dressage, obstacle course and three events, and the Chinese team has obtained full team and individual qualifications in the latter two events.
Mr. Li, 53, who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will now compete with his 24-year-old son, Li Yaofeng, in Tokyo. Between father and son, the difference is exactly 29 years.
Li Zhenqiang introduced that it is the characteristics of the equestrian project itself that determines that he can participate in the Olympic Games with his son.
Li Zhenqiang. Courtesy of respondents
"Because the growth of athletes in this project is particularly long, many athletes start riding horses from the age of four or five, and may not have the opportunity to become the top level in the world until they are in their 30s. And it's a technical project that doesn't require a lot of physical fitness. ”
Li Zhenqiang is a native of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, speaking with a pronounced accent, talking about the day with a very cordial attitude and a sonorous and powerful speech. When he mentions the experience of impacting the Olympics in the past few years, his tone will be with obvious emotion.
Li Zhenqiang said that when he let his son learn equestrianism from an early age, he did not expect to one day be able to fight with him in the Olympic arena, "no one dared to think, because this kind of thing is out of reach."
Looking at Li Yaofeng's personal Weibo, you will find that he and his father's personalities look a little different, perhaps this is the difference between the two generations.
Screenshot of Weibo
The songs he listened to late at night, the rainbows after the rain, the dogs that would shed their hair, the content he posted was soft and literary. On June 20, Li Yaofeng shared the lyrics of a song he liked very much on Weibo, which wrote: Grasp the last decade of youth and cherish the noon light.
A day later, the Chinese Equestrian Association announced the big list for the Olympics, and he and his father were among them. Perhaps there is not much relationship between the two, but any sentence with the word youth will make people's associations particularly rich.
The youth he is experiencing, the youth that his father has experienced, are all the youth of riding horses, and it is also the youth of Chinese equestrians who have experienced many setbacks and still do not give up.
3 months
On the Olympic participation list released by the Chinese Equestrian Association, except for Li Zhenqiang, who has participated in the Beijing Olympic Games as the host and Huatian who has participated in the Beijing and Rio Olympic Games for two times, the other 6 are all participating in the Olympic Arena for the first time.
When the Chinese equestrian team was formed in 2018, no one could say how far they would go on the road to Olympic qualification. For Li Zhenqiang, the mood at that time was even a little "tragic".
Li Zhenqiang in training. Screenshot of the official video of the International Equestrian Federation
"Because the power of equestrian projects is mainly in Europe and the United States, this project has been developed for hundreds of years. To what extent has it become widespread? Where there is green, there is grass, and where there is green, there are horses. ”
There is a huge gap between the development of China's equestrian industry and the equestrian powers in Europe and the United States, whether it is the quality of horses or the level of competition. The qualification tournaments for the Tokyo Olympics are all held abroad, so that most of the training competitions of the Chinese equestrian team can only be held abroad, which brings new troubles.
"All the athletes, basically except for a few students who can get a student visa, we can only pass the ordinary business visa, and the maximum stay is only three months." Li Zhenqiang introduced.
As a result, their training rhythm is often interrupted and they are in a state of separation. If you have a plan to participate in the competition, you must accurately calculate the time of each application, going abroad, and returning to your home country to ensure that the person in the competition happens to be abroad. In the words of Li Zhenqiang, "these three months have been counted to use."
Li Yaofeng in the game. Screenshot of the official video of the International Equestrian Federation
And even if the time is calculated, the competition you want to participate in may not be able to participate. "Because the entry fees for some of the top competitions are particularly expensive, and the number of people accepted per competition is limited, such as a maximum of 100 people, when will it be our turn?"
It was surrounded by such difficulties that this equestrian team made history. In 2019, the Chinese equestrian triathlon team and the track steeplechase team won the full quota for the Team and Individual Competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
13 years
In the Olympic qualification tournament on the track and steeplechase, the Chinese team is in Group G with six teams, in addition to the Chinese team, there are New Zealand, South Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei. In the end, the Chinese team directly qualified for the Olympic Games with the second place in the group.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Li Zhenqiang, who had been practicing equestrianism for 14 years, realized his Olympic dream when he was 40 years old. It has been 13 years since now.
This is the second time that the Chinese track steeplechase team has appeared on the Olympic field since participating in the Beijing Olympic Games as the host. Li Zhenqiang said that it is of great significance to obtain Olympic qualification through selection this time.
"We were the host country in 2008 and we automatically had a place. This is the first time to get the Olympics (qualification) as a non-host country, this is the first time, it is not easy. ”
At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic began to spread around the world, forcing the Postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, and the INTERNATIONAL HORSE Federation introduced new rules requiring riders who have already qualified for the Olympic Games to pass the Olympic standard line again this year to prove that they still have the Olympic level.
The epidemic has also disrupted the rhythm of the Preparation of the Chinese Equestrian Team, and four members of the team, including Li Zhenqiang and Li Yaofeng, were stranded in China due to the epidemic and were separated for 18 months.
Fortunately, the players of the Chinese team overcame unfavorable conditions and reached the target line again at the end of May this year, defending their Olympic qualifications.
Li Zhenqiang suffered from a low back disease for many years, and after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, he underwent waist surgery. And with the steel plate, he even took the young players to the national championship.
Today, the Chinese equestrian team is making final preparations abroad for the Tokyo Olympics. After 13 years, Li Zhenqiang is about to step onto the Olympic arena again.
Li Yaofeng once said to his father: "When I get to the field, I may be your opponent." And Li Zhenqiang replied: "I will be happier if you can win me." Because this is the back wave of Chinese equestrianism pushing the front wave. ”
Original title: "Behind this Chinese father and son's Olympic competition on the same stage, is a difficult road to the Olympics..."
Source: China News Service