Ye Shiwen won the National Games
On September 19th, in the swimming competition of the 14th National Games, in the final of the women's 4 * 200 meters medley relay, the Zhejiang team won the championship with an absolute advantage, and in the pool we also found a familiar figure Ye Shiwen, 9 years have passed since the summer that turned out, and it has been four years since she last stood on the highest podium of important competitions.
Her encyclopedic honors stopped in 2014, which means that 18 is her culmination, and anyone who has seen her performance at the 2012 London Olympics understands that she should have swam farther and faster in the past 9 years.
Ye Shiwen at the National Games
When Ye Shiwen's best result as a defending champion in Rio was only eighth, during this period she experienced the troubles of growth, the pressure of the outside world and herself, for a long time she could not reconcile with herself, she was a genius girl and an ordinary human being, she experienced a lot, and also grew a lot, and now 25-year-old Ye Shiwen swam freely and briskly like a leaf in the pool.
She was no longer bound by the name of "genius", she smiled calmly with yellow hair, and now she could enjoy the pool, which had taught her to discipline her, and now she could accept her again.
In 2003, when 7-year-old Ye Shiwen was recommended by the school to enter the swimming school, her enlightenment coach Wei Wei felt that the boy had talent, and half a year later he said to Ye Shiwen's father, Ye Qingsong: "If there is no accident, your child will fight for the Olympic Games in the future." ”
Ye Shiwen as a child
At that time, Ye Shiwen did not know that from beginner to Olympic Games, she also spent nine years. When she was a child, Ye Shiwen had a stubborn personality, and she had to do her best in everything she could, and she could fight with a sticker, crying while saying, "I don't believe I can't write you well." She would suddenly put down her chopsticks while eating and shouted: "XXX, I must surpass you" That is her teammate a boy who has just won her in the game.
Must take first
"I have to take first, I don't accept any name other than gold, I think I'm a failure to take second." Such a character completes the birth of a competitive genius, and also indirectly creates an ordinary person Ye Shiwen who has experienced difficult times for a long time and cannot get out.
In the women's 200m individual medley at the 2011 Shanghai Swimming World Championships, Ye Shiwen won the championship in 2:08.90, she is the youngest champion of the World Championships, the first post-95 to reach the highest podium of the World Championships, the youngest Asian Games double champion in the history of Chinese swimming... It's not the end.
He won gold at the Olympics at the age of 16
In 2012, with all the expectations, Ye Shiwen went to London, and in the women's 400m individual medley final on swimming competition day, she won the championship with a time of 4 minutes 28.43 seconds, breaking the world record; two days later, in the women's 200m individual medley final, she won a gold medal for the Chinese team again and rewritten the Olympic record. The youngest Olympic king in Chinese history was born.
Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen
At that time, the 21-year-old Sun Yang also won two gold medals for the swimming team, Ye Shiwen and Sun Yang formed the "golden boy and jade girl" of Chinese swimming in the next 2 or even 3 Olympic cycles, and the Chinese swimming team will usher in a heyday period from them.
Everything looks beautiful, in 2013, when Ye Shiwen won the first place in the women's 200m individual medley at the National Games, she completed the golden slam in the 200m individual medley from domestic to international events in 3 years, when she was 17 years old.
These starting points eventually became her culmination, when she won the Olympic gold medal media used to call her "genius born", when she experienced the trough the media called her "genius fall", external pressure, physical development, the impact of injuries, strong personality these factors tormented this young man again and again, let her spend one insomnia night after another.
Ye Shiwen's family
Late one night in 2014, at one o'clock in the middle of the night, Ye Qingsong was woken up by a phone call. Daughter Ye Shiwen cried and said, "Daddy, I can't sleep." "Throughout the year she experienced the trough of her career, in the first year of her daughter learning to swim, he quit his job and rode a battery car to take her to training, rain or shine, for five years he watched his daughter walk into the national team, into the Olympic Games, reaching the peak and experiencing pain.
"The child has good grades, take the championship, she should have this strength, but she always feels too young, carrying such a big honor, is it not good for her?" What Papa Ye said may be the price of growth.
Since childhood, in the battery car that picked up Ye Shiwen, Ye Shiwen would talk to him about what happened at school and what happened in the swimming pool, and that period of time may also be the happiest day for Ye Shiwen to swim, "This process of communicating with children is the most comfortable, especially harmonious, especially precious." ”
Ye Shiwen and Xu Guoyi
If Ye Qingsong is a "loving father", then Xu Guoyi is a "strict father".
To be precise, Xu Guoyi is Ye Shiwen's coach, is a very strict coach, once fell on the computer of his team members, just because they love to play games, when they first arrived at the team, Xu Guoyi said to Ye Shiwen: "You are the worst in the group." ”
Xu Guoyi Louxia and his wife
At first, Ye Shiwen was actually a disciple of Xu Guoyi's wife Lou Xia, and later taught by Xu Guoyi, the two of them had no children, they regarded the athletes in their hands as children, and Ye Shiwen was the one who made them the proudest, they were Ye Shiwen's "Xu Father" and "Lou Mother" in Ye Shiwen's heart.
Ye Qingsong and Xu Guoyi accompanied her through the trough, there is injury on the healing, there is pressure to enlighten, there is trouble to listen, in the 2017 National Games after many years Ye Shiwen finally won the 200-meter medley championship, Xu Guoyi and him hugged: "Finally helped you achieve a championship, leave the swimming team, go to study, change the environment." ”
3 years ago, Ye Qingsong also advised Ye Shiwen: "If you don't retire, you will take any championship anyway." But at that time, Ye Shiwen was still holding her breath, and she wanted to prove herself again, "I always felt that I was OK, and I could still take a step forward." ”
Enroll in Tsinghua
At the age of 21, she walked into the door of Tsinghua University's law school, and When the school started, Xu Guoyi and Ye Qingsong sent her to the campus together. In fact, Xu Guoyi withdrew for a period of time because he was diagnosed with cancer, and later re-guided Ye Shiwen after treatment.
In the early morning of July 19, 2020, Xu Guoyi died of brain cancer.
Ye Shiwen's eulogy text
"I always look forward to a miracle, and I think that one day you will recover and reappear with us... On the road ahead, you can no longer accompany me and protect me, but no matter the highlight or the darkest moment, you are always the brightest light in my heart, guiding me forward! Father Xu, I will always love you and miss you forever. Ye Shiwen wrote the words into her heart, she said that he was strict, but also really cared about her, really cared about whether she was happy and had a smooth life.
Others care about whether she flies high or not, only relatives will care about whether she is tired of flying, Xu Guoyi is such a person for Ye Shiwen, she silently replaced the cover of the circle of friends with a group photo of herself and Xu Guoyi, her WeChat signature reads: What should be remembered is that others are good to you.
Go through a period of lows
At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Ye Shiwen finished fourth in the women's 200m individual medley and seventh in the 400m individual medley final. "What happened to Ye Shiwen?" Since 2010, she has won 11 200m events at home and abroad, but this time she did not stand on the podium.
Ye Shiwen was stressed to the point of insomnia
Remember what she said before, for her not to win the championship is to lose? After that defeat, she was particularly stressed, her anxiety made her start to lose sleep, she tried to soak her feet, drink milk, eat melatonin, listen to music, meditate... It didn't work. During this period, she also needs to go through development, injury, status, questioning and other issues, all of which make her afraid of dark, fall asleep at two or three o'clock, wake up at five or six o'clock, and there is still a lot of training waiting for her during the day.
Tattoo words encourage yourself
Outsiders can't imagine how she survived those days for a 17-year-old girl, what she thought in those sleepless nights, in 2014 she began to get some small tattoos, some words of encouragement to herself, "I especially hate to lose, especially hate to fail, I want to remember this pain." 」 That kind of pain like cutting a bone. ”
It has been caught up in a long period of underestimation
In the following years, the situation did not improve, the Fiasco of the Rio Olympics was more like a thorn in Ye Shiwen's heart, some spurious "speculation" was rampant, and no one could keep at the top even if he was a genius.
Ye Shiwen, the champion of the 2017 National Games, was finally relieved, walked into the university, but she still liked to swim, and in the pool of Tsinghua She became a "non-staff member", she swam like this, regardless of winning or losing, regardless of achievements, did not chase her, and no one trained her. She swam like she went back to the swimming school when she was 7 years old, going to class - swimming - sleeping, riding her bicycle to class, doing group homework with her classmates, asking questions from the teacher, and living a simple and happy life.
At the 2018 Asian Games, she and her friends watched all the swimming competitions and cheered for all the teammates who won the gold medal, and at that moment she understood that "I still love swimming so much, I don't want to miss every game, I can't leave that pool." ”
Win the silver medal
In the summer of 2018, she decided to take a break from school to fight again for the Tokyo Olympics, and in July 2019, at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, she won the silver medal in the final of the 400-meter medley, and it took her only two years to achieve a grand slam, but it took seven years to stand on the podium again.
Practice long-distance running
She entered the Tokyo Olympic cycle and began her own preparations, in 2020 the State General Administration of Sport issued a notice requiring all athletes to participate in the physical fitness test before they can participate in the Olympic selection, so we saw the "miracle" of swimmers practicing long-distance running on the track.
Did not qualify for the East Olympic Games
In addition to his usual training, Ye Shiwen also practiced long-distance running, bench press and squat, and at the domestic audition of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the results were bitter, and Ye Shiwen missed 0.01 seconds and did not have the opportunity to participate.
In the face of all this, Ye Shiwen, who once thought that "the second is failure", appeared calm, and there is only one kind of true heroism in the world, that is, after seeing the truth of life, he still loves life. For the current Ye Shiwen love more than all, because of love she to return to the pool, because of love for her to re-embark on the journey, because of love for her to train desperately, the results for Ye Shiwen is of course an encouragement, if not then fight until the last second.
Faded the label of genius, 25-year-old Ye Shiwen is more confident and calm, from 2012 to 2021, nine years Ye Shiwen seems to have changed a lot, and does not seem to have changed much, she changed the paranoia about victory, did not change is the original intention in the pool, the gold medal of the National Games may also be a new starting point for her, 1 year after the Hangzhou Asian Games, 3 years later in the Paris Olympic Games, looking forward to "Ye Shiwen, YES SHE WIN" Cheers sounded again.