The Paper's trainee reporter Hu Jie
Wu Jingyu re-emerged in Tokyo.
"2008 aspire; 2012 tempered; 2016 breakthrough; 2021 exploration." On the day Wu Jingyu went out to Tokyo, her husband Hou Kun wrote such a paragraph in the circle of friends.
On four Olympic trips, Wu Jingyu became the first female taekwondo athlete in history to participate in four Olympic Games. At the same time, together with Gong Lijiao, Pang Wei, Dong Dong and others, she became the athlete who participated in the Olympic Games the most times in the Chinese delegation...
Unfortunately, in the quarterfinals of the women's 49 kg at the Tokyo Olympics on July 24, Wu Jingyu lost 2-33 to Spain's Serezo Iglesias and missed the semifinals.
Comeback? I never wanted to give up
In 2008, Wu Jingyu became a sensation in the world and in 2012, Wu Jingyu became a person standing on the altar of taekwondo. While everyone was looking forward to Wu Jingyu's three consecutive championships, she fell back to the world in the noise of Rio.
Pain, reconciliation, return... After 5 years, Wu Jingyu retired and gave birth to a son, but still chose to return to taekwondo. At this time, she is 34 years old, and her daughter is 4 years old in 10 days.
After 4 years of gathering less and leaving more, Wu Jingyu wanted to take a road that no one had walked before, and she said to her daughter: "Mom really loves you, but Mom must complete her dream." ”
"A lot of people ask me why I want to come back, but I haven't given up on this idea after playing the Rio Olympics." Wu Jingyu, who announced her comeback in 2019, has faced such questions countless times, and her answers are like this.
In the eyes of outsiders, after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Wu Jingyu has no reason to stay: retiring, getting married and having children, teachers at Renmin University... Her life seems to have opened a new chapter.
But in the heart of this Jingdezhen girl, the Rio Olympics are at most a comma, and Wu Jingyu's desire for the Olympics has made her never give up coming to Tokyo, "Although I retired and had children, this is just a buffer." I never gave up inside, and I felt like I was okay. ”
This desire, not what she wants to prove, nor where she falls and where she gets up, "may be a love of taekwondo, I think I want to explore, explore the road that no one has taken, especially after you have experienced failure." 」 ”
Wu Jingyu and daughter.
As a result, Wu Jingyu, who had just given birth to a daughter in the summer of 2017, began recovery training during the Spring Festival of 2018. During the training, the daughter was still lying on the side and sucking the pacifier, and Wu Jingyu glanced at her daughter reluctantly before training, and she was going to continue to devote herself to training.
At that time, Wu Jingyu was 31 years old. In front of her is a path that no one has ever taken – never in history has a female taekwondo athlete competed in four Olympic Games.
Chinese New Year's Eve 2019, Wu Jingyu was still in Fujairah, UNITED Arab Emirates, the first game of her postpartum comeback, and she announced her return with a gold medal. At this point, her world ranking is 42nd.
"From the 40 or so, I didn't see any hope at all, I just went to work with my blood, and finally there were two or three games left, and we all felt hopeless."
In order to grab Olympic points, in the following ten months, Wu Jingyu moved to Germany, Britain, Japan, Bulgaria and other countries, and participated in ten international events non-stop.
Injuries during the game were commonplace, and Wu Jingyu's ankle was swollen like a bun, but she did not dare to stop. After 307 days and nights that could not relax and breathe, until the last Olympic points race held in Moscow, Wu Jingyu won the runner-up, got 48 Olympic points, raised the world ranking to 6th, and finally "pressed the whistle" to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
After the game, she excitedly rushed to the sideline to hug head coach Guan Jianmin, crying with joy, and then knelt in the middle of the field, "I feel so relieved, after that game I dare to think, I entered the Olympic Games, I am really too difficult." 」 ”
Wu Jingyu conducts physical training.
After giving birth to a child = all martial arts are wasted
Retirement, childbirth, return...
Wu Jingyu spent 10 months to "climb" from the world ranking of 42 to 6th, which sounds like the return of the king, but the road back is more difficult than Wu Jingyu expected.
Giving birth to a child has gained more than 30 pounds, and everything can only start from scratch. "The whole person is scattered," in Wu Jingyu's mouth, after giving birth to a child, she is equivalent to a complete waste of martial arts, "when she is tired of training, her crotch hurts more severely, especially after giving birth to a child, it is obvious that there may be a problem with her crotch." ”
Returning to the field from home, in front of his teammates who are more than ten or twenty years younger than himself, Wu Jingyu has no other way but to work harder than others.
Those basic moves, when teammates are too tired and deformed, the two-time Olympic champion still adheres to high standards.
"It's very tired, but the moment you approach the training ground, you have to think, 'I have to suffer', tired can't say, you have to endure, your patience is the confidence of the future." 」
How tired is it? Just look at Hong Xinxin, who was trained by Wu Jingyu, to know. The 25-year-old male sparring partner finished second in the men's 63 kg category at the 2018 National Championships. But every time he finished practicing with Wu Jingyu, his clothes would be wet from the inside to the outside. Every time he went to a training session, Hong Xinxin would use a short break to change his clothes.
Wu Jingyu already had two gold in hand.
"Training with Yu Jie is more tiring, because of her physical fitness and stricter requirements for herself." It feels twice as tiring as practicing with someone else. Hong Xinxin, who was soaking wet, sighed.
Obviously, everyone's training content is similar, why can Wu Jingyu be more ruthless? She gave a simple example: if you kick double fly, it is enough to kick to the waist, but Wu Jingyu requires that she must kick above the waist.
"When your crotch is lifted, the part you practice is different, and I can use it in actual combat." Speaking of these details, Wu Jingyu was painful but equally happy, "Although I am more tired than them, I will definitely do it, because it is more effective after practicing." ”
Before the Championship Finals in October 2020, the Chinese taekwondo team conducted an internal fitness test, and Wu Jingyu's overall score ranked second among female athletes, with a total score only 1 point worse than the first place.
"I was the fastest in the 30m, but I was 0.46 seconds slower in the 3000m and finished by 1 point." Wu Jingyu said she received full marks for squats, abs endurance and dorsal endurance.
At the London Olympics, Wu Jingyu won the gold.
Falling from the altar back to earth, she set off again
Whenever she talks about the Olympic Games, Wu Jingyu will talk about Rio, which is the game she returned from the altar to the human world.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 21-year-old Wu Jingyu won her first Olympic gold medal in the motherland, she was extremely proud; at the 2012 London Olympic Games, 25-year-old Wu Jingyu successfully defended the title in the final against the three world championship champions Brigitte, she felt that she was still unfinished; in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, everyone was shouting "three consecutive championships", but Wu Jingyu unexpectedly stopped in the 1/4 finals, tears spilled on the field.
"When Sister Yu was behind by a big score, I didn't think she would lose." Zheng Shuyin, who only entered the national team in 2009, has seen Wu Jingyu's "undefeated god of war" side, but never thought that she would fall on the Olympic field.
Losing, Wu Jingyu at that time did not think, "I didn't care about the game process at that time, I just thought that the game would end quickly, and I was going to collect the prize." ”
Rio Olympics, Wu Jingyu tears on the field.
As a result, Wu Jingyu, who lost the game, cried in tears in front of the camera: "Too much for me..." Even the reporter who interviewed him could not bear to ask questions, but chose to comfort.
When the ending could not be changed, Wu Jingyu finally opened her heart, "Every day I listen to others say three consecutive championships, three consecutive championships." In fact, I want to say that I am just an athlete, I just want to compete, I just want to prove that I can still compete. ”
At this moment, Wu Jingyu fell back from the altar to the human world, and those wounds had to be digested by herself.
Wu Jingyu said frankly: "In 2016, it was actually difficult to forgive myself, it was a bit too much to go over, and I couldn't accept that I was not good. ”
Today, the 34-year-old Wu Jingyu talks about the Olympics again, and can clearly hear a hint of calmness in his words. She compared her current self with 12 years ago, "In fact, at that time, I may not know why after playing, I feel that I have won the championship." But if you play now, you may have a clearer idea in your own mind. ”
"Fighting for first place is definitely going to be there, but on the way to first place doesn't mean having to win the title. It is how to do a good job every day, whether you can customize a set of plans, let yourself improve every day, very soberly aware of the current state, and then find a way to solve the current problems, and then reach the state of the champion. ”
"Mom loves you, but Mom has her own dreams"
At the age of 34, Wu Jingyu is already the mother of a 4-year-old child.
In every documentary about Wu Jingyu, the daughter always appears in the camera. From lying on the chair of the training gym with a pacifier to running around the gym with a waddling step, the child named Gloria by IOC President Bach became another node in Wu Jingyu's life.
"Everything was the best arrangement! When you feel bad, try to find a way instead of giving up and complaining! When her daughter was born, Wu Jingyu wrote on social media.
It is also the advent of her daughter that makes Wu Jingyu learn to reconcile with herself: "After giving birth, through communication with children, I slowly learned to be patient, learned to communicate, and also read some books." You have to go beyond yourself and don't always set your goals too high, which will make you have a lot of negative emotions. ”
Wu Jingyu felt that the most indebted was still her daughter, "At that time, I told her that when you were third birthday, your mother came back, and when she postponed it, she changed her mouth immediately, saying that when she was fourth birthday, her mother came back to accompany you, although she did not understand this concept, but she still hoped to accompany her in the key years." ”
Wu Jingyu Weibo.
In preparation for the Olympic Games, gathering less and leaving more has become the norm. Early in the morning of June 11, 2021, Wu Jingyu's husband and daughter embarked on the high-speed train from Beijing to Taiyuan, the last time the family met before the Olympic Games.
"We've been married for 8 years, and except for the time when we were pregnant and having children, she basically spent time on the training team." When Wu Jingyu's husband Hou Kun said these words, her daughter Hou Xiaoyu shouted excitedly next to her, "So long, so long, so long..."
In the early morning of the Dragon Boat Festival on June 14, the family members who had only been with Wu Jingyu for two days embarked on the return journey, and Wu Jingyu began his new training.
"Mom really loves you, but Mom has to fulfill her dreams. I hope that in the future, you can overcome all difficulties and pursue your dreams. Facing the camera, Wu Jingyu, who said that he rarely cried, began to wipe his tears again.
"Whether tokyo ends up winning or losing, I feel like as long as I stand up, I'm successful."
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang