As the old saying goes, fight the tiger brothers, fight the father and son soldiers. But on the Olympic stage, it is too rare for fathers and sons to share the stage.
However, in the equestrian sport, which has been a sporting event for a long time, a father and son of the Chinese delegation have become a special presence in the equestrian competition field.
Li Zhenqiang, 53, and Li Yaofeng, 24, became the first father and son to compete on the same stage in China's Olympic history and Olympic equestrian competitions.
Although the father and son and their teammates finally ranked 12th in the Tokyo Olympic Equestrian Steeplechase Team Competition held on the 6th, this is the first time that the Chinese team has qualified for the Olympic Equestrian Track Obstacle Course, and they made history on the Olympic stage.
The story of Li Zhenqiang and Li Yaofeng's father and son. Video source: FEI International Equestrian Federation (01:42)
"Horse idiot" Li Zhenqiang
Li Zhenqiang, 53, is the oldest athlete in the Chinese delegation at the Olympic Games. But if it is related to equestrianism, Li Zhenqiang wants to push the time farther.
At the age of 27, Li Zhenqiang was exposed to equestrianism, and then he was out of control. In 1994, Li Zhenqiang, who was engaged in the business of earth and stone, accompanied his friends in the business field to the Houjie Henggang Reservoir Racecourse, and rode a few laps in the simple horse farm, and he became addicted.
"In fact, there were no professional people to play with at that time, I got lost while riding, and I looked for a few hours with my horses, and the experience was impressive." Li Zhenqiang recalled.
Li Zhenqiang, who was devoted to equestrianism, directly gave up the earth-moving stone business in 1996, invested more than 2 million yuan, purchased more than 40 domestic horses from Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and built an equestrian club that was rare in China at that time.
He also began learning to ride a horse at the age of 30 – no knowledge of equestrian disorders and no professional coaches, but he still entered the Guangdong provincial team in his fourth year of study, just by seeing others training in the provincial equestrian team, plus some equestrian competition videos he bought.
There is no shortcut on the road to success, Li Zhenqiang has come to this step by training for more than 12 hours a day, "I have endurance, I have never been a person who loses." ”
Thus, beginning in the second half of 1999, Li Zhenqiang participated in domestic competitions as a non-staff athlete and won the sixth place in the obstacle course at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.
In 2008, Li Zhenqiang participated in the Beijing Olympic Games.
"When the Beijing Olympics came, equestrian sports in China were still blank." Looking back on that year's home game, Li Zhenqiang said, "At that time, almost no Chinese riders participated in star competitions, let alone five stars, and I couldn't even figure out the rules." ”
Li Zhenqiang was the first player in China to be exposed to equestrian sports.
The son inherits the father's business, and the father and son share the stage
After participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Li Zhenqiang did not appear in the two Olympic Games since then.
"To be honest, after 2008 I didn't have the enthusiasm and confidence to participate in the Olympic Games again, because at the Olympics I saw the gap in technology, the gap in the economy, which really made me a little bit of a stop."
He said stop, but in the Olympic list after 13 years, Li Zhenqiang's name appeared again. When it comes to the reason, he will always mention his son Li Yaofeng, "I actually accompanied the prince to study, but I did not expect to promote the Olympic Games." ”
Under the influence of his father, Lee Waswolf was exposed to equestrianism from an early age, and Lee Chun-keung also intended to train him to become a professional equestrian athlete.
"One of the important things about choosing to ride a horse in the beginning was because of my father, and I gradually fell in love with equestrianism under his influence, but gradually I also understood equestrianism myself, and it became an important part of my life." 」 Li Yaofeng recalled that he began to be exposed to equestrianism at the age of 4 or 5, and he was a little scared when he rode for the first time.
Li Yaofeng became an equestrian athlete at the age of 13 and officially started his own equestrian life. At the 17-year-old Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, Li Yaohua represented China for the first time in equestrian competitions and won the 7th place in the individual competition, which is still the best result of Chinese riders in the history of individual competitions at the Youth Olympic Games.
At the beginning of his preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, Lee studied economics in the Netherlands, but for the sake of his beloved equestrian career, he drove 6 hours every weekend between the Netherlands and Belgium for equestrian training.
As Li Zhenqiang's son, Li Yaofeng is inevitably often compared with his father, and he always respects his father very much, and "still old Li is powerful" is the most he hangs on his lips.
When comparing himself to his father, Li Yaofeng used the terms "Confucianism" and "Tao" to describe it. He described his father as a "Confucian" rider, "and he would ask his horse, it had to be this, it had to be that way." And he himself is more like a "Taoist", "more like water, how the horse comes, I will follow the horse." My father felt that sometimes I was indeed too soft, lacking the strength and control that I should have. ”
Li Zhenqiang, Li Yaofeng, who trained together in Europe, and li Yaofeng' father and son also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics steeplechase in 2019.
In order to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, after qualifying for the Olympic Games, Li Zhenqiang decided to take measures against the waist disease that had been plagued for a long time.
"Lumbar spine displacement compresses the nerves, the whole left leg is out of control, sleep can only sleep on the side, standing for 5 minutes is a bit unbearable." In severe cases, the legs are numb when dismounted.
In December 2019, Li Zhenqiang underwent surgery. "The doctor's advice is that it can be done, but whether it can ride a horse after completion cannot be guaranteed, especially in the Olympic Games, which requires a lot of movements on horseback. But because the Olympics are approaching, at this point, I still grit my teeth to persevere, to fight. ”
19 months, the challenge of separation
The postponement of the Olympic Games gave Li Zhenqiang more time to recover and prepare for Tokyo. However, the epidemic has also made the equestrian team face a huge problem - due to the epidemic, they are in the embarrassing situation of "separation of people and horses" and cannot practice together.
They hadn't had contact with their horses for 19 months.
"It's an impact on athletes all over the world, and we're relatively more influential because Athletes in Europe can still meet with horses, and we can't, so the impact of the pandemic on us is unimaginable." Li Zhenqiang said.
It was in such an emergency situation that the development of Chinese equestrianism was seen. Li Zhenqiang, who was still unclear about the rules of the competition in 2008, has now received more and more support from the state.
The Chinese Horse Association and the National Equestrian Team have made concerted efforts to do a lot of work in applying for international events and visas to facilitate the team members.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, in response to the separation of people and horses, the China Horse Association set up training bases in Guangdong, Beijing and other places in China to provide athletes with physical training and preparation for competition. Li Zhenqiang said: "These are very important to us. ”
The equestrian team race track obstacle course is a combination of "one old with three small". In addition to Li Zhenqiang, 53, there are 24-year-old Li Yaofeng, 22-year-old Zhang Xingjia, and 20-year-old Zhang You.
In the face of the emerging young players, Li Zhenqiang did not hesitate to hope: "As long as our country's equestrian events continue to develop vigorously, there will be more such young people in the Chinese Equestrian Games, more good riders, and there will be more opportunities and faster international standards." ”
Author: The Paper's trainee reporter Hu Jie intern Jin Ye
Source: The Paper