Hunan girl Hou Zhihui won China's second gold: the weightlifting championship of The Mountain Village

Source: People's Daily client Hunan Channel

Hou Zhihui's friends and family gathered by the TV to watch the game. Photo by Ouyang Changhai

On July 24, good news came from the Tokyo Olympics: Guiyang weightlifter Hou Zhihui set a new Olympic record with a snatch of 94 kg in the women's weightlifting competition, and won the championship in this category with a total score of 210 kg. It is reported that this is also the first gold medal won by China at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

This rising star in China's weightlifting industry has received widespread attention from all walks of life. How did she get involved with weightlifting? How did she emerge from the national team in just 7 years from a "little hairy head" who knew nothing about weightlifting? After going through the trough, how did she reinvigorate herself in weightlifting? ...... With these questions in mind, we came to Meitang Village, Zhangshi Town, Guiyang County, Hou Zhihui's hometown, to explore the growth trajectory of this weightlifting flower.

The "little monkey" accidentally got acquainted with weightlifting

The Dongchong Group of Meitang Village is located in a small ravine about 3 kilometers away from the town government, where Hou Zhihui was born. Because her parents have been working in Guangdong, Hou Zhihui, her sister and brother are taken care of by her grandparents. In the impression of the villagers, Zhihui is thin and thin, and the person is lively and active, coupled with the surname Hou, he has had the nickname of "Little Monkey" since he was a child.

It is said that the little monkey's association with weight stemmed from an "accident".

In 2008, in preparation for the annual Guiyang County Primary and Secondary School Students Athletics Games, Hou Zhihui was selected for each class from primary school to grade 6 in Zhangcheng District.

At the end of the year, the Guiyang County Primary and Secondary School Students Athletics Games was held as scheduled. The zhangcheng city center finished the small team performed mediocrely, and did not get the top name. Some of the team leaders joked: "You bring all the kindergarten students up, how can you get a good ranking?" This "kindergarten reading" refers to Hou Zhihui, who was only 1.3 meters tall and weighed less than 29 kilograms at the time.

No one could have imagined that a 30-year-old young man who was watching the game at the scene "stared" at Hou Zhihui. When Hou Zhihui ran a 60-meter sprint, the performance of the moment he started made his eyes light up, and then he quietly followed Hou Zhihui to watch her throw the shot put and test the long jump, feeling that the explosiveness, physical fitness, and coordination of physical functions of this "small point" were not generally good.

He joyfully found her team leader and revealed his identity and intentions: "I am Li Zhiping, the weightlifting coach of Guiyang No. 3 Middle School. Your student is a good seedling, can you do the work of doing her and her family and let her come to the third middle school to lift weights? ”

"My athletics students are going to learn weight, is it?"

Communicating with Hou Zhihui's family, his father Hou Mingqiang and his mother Deng Jinxiang expressed their position: "Whether to go or not is decided by the child. ”

At that time, Xiao Zhihui only felt that lifting weights was fun, so she quickly agreed.

In 2009, 12-year-old Hou Zhihui officially came to Guiyang No. 3 Middle School WeightLifting Hall to study, and the coach was Li Zhiping, who had brought out the world champion.

Li Zhiping's requirements are very strict, and students need to train for an extra hour every morning, and they have to train for more than two hours after school in the afternoon. But Xiao Zhihui is very self-conscious, never lazy, but also to the veteran team members, to add tasks to themselves, Li Zhiping had to often "warn" her: you can't add tasks too fast!

Progress is rapid but not in rio

In the second semester of 2009, the coach of the provincial weightlifting team came to Guiyang to select seedlings. Originally, the object of inspection was two old members of the Guiyang Third Middle School Weightlifting Team, and the new team member Hou Zhihui only watched from the side.

But where can she stay idle?

So, she also raised the barbell with the two brothers. At that time, Hou Zhihui weighed less than 30 kilograms, and her weight lifting ability to climb to 40 kilograms was already very good. In weekday training, her best result is 47 kg. But this time, in front of the provincial coach, she seemed to be unable to brake, and suddenly flipped to 52 kilograms.

This surprised the provincial coach, who immediately decided: "This little student, the provincial team wants it!" ”

In 2012, Hou Zhihui became an official member of the provincial weightlifting team. Because she has talent and can endure hardships, 3 years later, Hou Zhihui successfully entered the national team.

Although Hou Zhihui arrived at the national team, the "little monkey" has always been closely related to his master Li Zhiping. Every 20 days, I have to call him to "report" on my studies and life. If there is any bottleneck in training, you will also take the initiative to "ask the master for advice".

Li Zhiping also frequently received good news from his beloved disciples: in the 2011 National Junior Men's and Women's Weightlifting Ageing Competition, Hou Zhihui stood out from many athletes across the country and won the first place in the 41 kg snatch, deadlift and total results of the women's 14-year-old group with a score of 68 kg, 80 kg in the deadlift and a total of 148 kg; in 2015, she won the double championship in the 48 kg category of the World Youth Championships and the Youth Games; in April 2016, in the National Women's Weightlifting Championships and rio Olympic Trials, At the age of 19, she won three gold medals in the 48 kg class with a snatch of 94 kg, a deadlift of 116 kg and a total of 210 kg, becoming the first candidate for the Rio Olympics in this category.

Li Zhiping sighed at that time: "Seeing her standing on the Olympic field shines, this is not only her dream, but also my dream!" ”

However, less than a week before the start of the Olympic Games, for various reasons, Hou Zhihui could not show her glory in the Rio Olympic Games. When she arrived in Brazil and did not qualify for the Olympic Games, the 19-year-old cried in her room all night. For Hou Zhihui, a summer of excitement was lost.

The dream of the rising star will never stop

After returning from Rio, Hou Zhihui returned to her hometown of Guiyang for recuperation, and she was the first to call coach Li Zhiping.

Li Zhiping rushed to the high-speed rail station to receive Hou Zhihui, and the skinny little "little monkey" in front of him made him particularly distressed. He hurriedly comforted: "It doesn't matter, you are still young, there is an opportunity." In a few months it will be the National Games, and you will have to prove yourself on the field! ”

"Weightlifting is something I love the most, and I'm going to stick with it. Now, my goal is the Tokyo Olympics! Hou Zhihui's categorical answer surprised Li Zhiping.

In the eyes of her mother, Deng Jinxiang, her daughter has always been strong and cheerful. When I was a child, I went to the field with my sister to catch fish, and I was cut by the broken tiles, and the blood went to stitches, and she didn't hum. She didn't say a word about the competition, but said softly to Hou Zhihui: "Mom will always support you!" ”

Hou Zhihui quickly packed up his mood and returned to the provincial weightlifting team for training a month later. She actively devotes herself to professional training, training harder than usual, and the requirements for technical movements are more stringent. What impressed coach Zhou Jihong was that Hou Zhihui once braved the heat of nearly 40 degrees alone to go to the playground to run and exercise his physical fitness, and practiced the basic skills in the training room every day.

In August 2017, the 13th National Games kicked off. Hou Zhihui won the gold medal with a good result of 93 kg of snatching, 115 kg of deadlift and a total of 208 kg. The audience cheered, and Li Zhiping was one of them.

"Seeing her readjust herself, my mood was like a spark. Watching her play offstage was more nervous than she was! Li Zhiping confessed that it was not until Zhihui put the barbell down smoothly that his hanging heart finally landed.

After winning the National Games, the "little monkey" is getting better and better. In the women's 49 kg competition of the 2019 Weightlifting World Cup (Fuzhou Station) and Tokyo Olympic Games Qualification Tournament, she won three championships with a snatchlift of 94 kg, a deadlift and a total of 210 kg, and broke two world records for snatch lift and total performance in this level; the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships won three championships in the women's 49 kg category; and the 2021 Asian Weightlifting Asian Championships weightlifting women's 49 kg competition won the overall championship with 213 kg and created a new world record At the same time, he also broke the world record with 96 kg of snatch and won the championship.

On June 12, 2021, the chinese weightlifting team's Tokyo Olympic Games participation list was officially announced, and Hou Zhihui was listed among them.

On July 24, 2021, Hou Zhihui represented the Chinese team in the weightlifting women's 49 kg final.

On the same day, her mother and brother came to the Beijing national team to watch the game. My father, sister, aunt and uncle sat around the TV in meitang village, my hometown, watching him play. Coach Li Zhiping took his apprentices and sisters to watch her play at the Guiyang No. 3 Middle School weightlifting training ground.

When they heard the news of Hou Zhihui's victory, everyone jumped up from their seats! Pride and joy from the heart.

Listening to Li Zhiping's introduction, Hou Zhihui immediately returned from Tokyo to devote himself to intense training and sprint for the 14th National Games held in Shaanxi in September!