Chen Lijun: Miracles come from never-ending struggles

【Olympic Athletes' Style】

Guangming Daily reporter Zhao Jiawei

A month ago, in the weightlifting arena of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, entering the field, raising the bell, sending high, Chen Lijun did it in one go, and "lifted" the gold medal that had been waiting for five years high.

The winning of this gold medal is thrilling. Chen Lijun, who grabbed the end of the trial, was a full 6 kilograms behind his opponent.

Stability or victory? Chen Lijun thought of the Rio Olympics five years ago, and he regrettably withdrew from the competition because of leg cramps.

Now, in the field of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the time has come to raise your eyebrows. With only two chances left to try, Chen Lijun increased the weight to 187 kilograms, which was 12 kilograms higher than the first testlift. This addition of barbell weight is very rare in lightweight competitions, and at the same time, it is also his best result in major competitions.

This desperate attempt to let go means that once it fails, Chen Lijun will not only fail to win the gold medal, but also cannot even go to the podium at all.

With a roar, he steadily raised the barbell above his head, and there was! He got the gold medal that should have belonged to him long ago. Under tremendous pressure, Chen Lijun reversed the situation and won the sixth gold medal for the Chinese delegation at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

When the 187-kilogram barbell was held aloft by Chen Lijun, a small village in Dongping Town, Anhua County, Hunan Province, boiled. Many years ago, Chen Lijun walked out of here wearing a pair of slippers that were almost worn through the bottom and walked into the Yiyang Children's Sports School. In Chen Lijun's home, the bare cement tiles still have water stains caused by rain leakage, the windows without glass are ventilated on all sides, and a refrigerator in the living room was once the only electrical appliance in the home.

Chen Lijun's mother, Chen Youzhen, told reporters that she did not support her son to practice weightlifting, and for more than a decade, Chen Lijun only returned home once during the Spring Festival, but now she does not regret it, and has won the great honor of this small village for the motherland.

In 2003, at the age of 10, Chen Lijun began practicing weightlifting. "Chen Lijun is a good seedling, the best student I have ever brought." When it comes to his most proud disciple, coach Jiang Yilong always inadvertently raises the corners of his mouth.

The training hall of the sports school was transformed from the original boiler room, and only underwent simple decoration, and the conditions were very difficult. The barbell pieces are stacked in pieces, each of which is stained with rust, and the uneven ground is spliced with wooden planks. Only the slogan outside the main entrance of the training hall is particularly conspicuous, which reads, "Lift up the clouds and hold up hope."

In this small and difficult training hall, there were up to forty children training at the same time, and Chen Lijun was once one of them.

Half squat, hard pull, high grasp, high flip... The training of the weightlifting project is particularly boring, and a technical action must be repeated more than 30,000 times to be basically fixed, which is a great test for the individual's willpower and endurance. However, Chen Lijun did not flinch, and was always the first to come to the training hall every day to start training. "Chen Lijun is our 'constant victorious general' here, the biggest improvement, and the name has never fallen off the report card." Jiang Yilong said.

In the second year of Chen Lijun's entry into sports school, the family suffered a sudden misfortune, his father died tragically, and the burden of the family all fell on the shoulders of Chen Youzhen, Chen Lijun's mother. In order to allow her son to train with peace of mind, she worked three jobs at the same time, working day and night.

The hardships of life and the tiredness of training suddenly weighed on the shoulders of this teenage boy, but they further enhanced his momentum of being willing to endure hardships and run forward, and the hand holding the barbell was more full of strength. In 2010, Chen Lijun won the World Junior Championship, and three years later, he won the World Weightlifting Championship. In the years that followed, he not only won the World Championship several times, but also broke the world record three times.

With less than a year to go until the Tokyo Olympics, Chen Lijun accidentally tore the tendon in his elbow and underwent emergency surgery, leaving a scar on his right arm that was more than ten centimeters long. But he did not stop, still engaged in training, and six months later participated in the Asian Championships, successfully qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

"We're in a race against time, and every little extra weight I lift, my confidence increases by one point. There were no more setbacks that could scare me, and so did today's game. This time, along with the national anthem, the five-star red flag flew on the Olympic podium. In the interview after winning the championship, Chen Lijun burst into tears again. "It's really not easy to get along the way." He finally got the long-lost gold medal.

Guangming Daily ( 2021-08-28 04 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily