In fact, before Malone won the Men's Table Tennis Championship at the Tokyo Olympics on the evening of July 30, successfully achieving his Olympic streak and double-lap Grand Slam feat, my impression of the Tokyo Olympics was "Twilight of the Gods".
After all, the Tokyo Olympic Games, which was postponed for one year due to the epidemic, had too many "cold doors" from the beginning. Many veteran players such as Hangping Uchimura, ChusovyKina and many other veterans regretted leaving the field, and just like Yang Qian, who won the first gold in the East Olympic Games, the post-00s young players began to become the main force on the field.
The new king is crowned, the gods are at dusk, does this mean that the times have changed, and the veterans must come to the moment of saying goodbye?
No, the old man is not old, the gods are still there.
On the evening of July 30, Marlon crowned himself with his tenacity and persistence.
After overcoming injuries, lows, catching up with his juniors, advancing his opponents day by day, and fighting with his teammates who are 9 years younger than himself to fight to the final moments of 4:2, what is it that finally allows Malone to win a few goals? Is the hexagonal warrior's technique and mentality? Sure there was, but more, definitely the heart of that champion. No one can underestimate the heart of a champion.
When the 31-year-old Ma Long stood on the highest podium, CCTV's commentary was very poignant. "Malone told us that a beautiful departure is not only retired at the peak, but also PUBG, and also from scratch."
This sentence made me think of another person on the night that Malone defended his title and completed the Super Grand Slam.
Feather knot strings.
It belongs to the "heart of the champion" of the Feather String.
On November 3, 2018, when Yusei Yushin appeared on the ice rink in Helsinki, Finland, with his new short program of the season," Otonal, with a high score of 106.69, breaking the highest score of a short program under ISU's new rules, and also the 13th world record he broke, The European body's commentary choked up and said the following paragraph:
"For fans of the sport like us, we should be grateful, I can't understand why he's back on the field. If I were to stand in his shoes, I would perform with a relaxed mindset and choose the lower difficulty.
I'm so grateful that he continues to push his limits, and I can't say right away that I should have estimated what kind of gains he'd given up when he made the choice [to return to the field], which must have been a pretty staggering amount. I mean obviously there will be a lot of people willing to spend a lot of money to see such amazing performances. He could have retired directly after winning the Olympic championship and performed all over the world, without having to jump around the world with such a high technical difficulty. ”
At the end of March 2018, when Brian Orser, the coach of Yusheng Yusuke, was informed by his disciples that he would still be in active service, the coach who accompanied and witnessed the two consecutive Olympic games of Yusheng said, "I was surprised and felt in a premonition." Maybe there's also hard work, and he enjoys winning in the game. Figure skating is a sport that has been in his blood. That's the trait of Yusei's people. ”
After completing the Pyeongchang Lianba season, the 24-year-old Yusei Yushin started his new season without a moment's hesitation, bringing two newly choreographed programs, "Otonal" and "Origin". Yu Yu tied the strings and embarked on his challenge journey once again.
You could say that this is his "starting from scratch".
But for GOAT, who completed two consecutive Olympic championships and double-lap Grand Slams at the age of 23, the road of "starting from scratch" will only be more difficult.
In November 2018, at the second leg of the Figure Skating Grand Prix in Russia, Yu Yusei was injured again in the public training before the start of the free skating competition, and he finally won the championship with an injury. When he attended the press conference on crutches, he noticed that the reporter's desire to stop talking and took the lead in saying the words: "I will not retire!" ”
He was greeted by another kind of adversity. After that, the 2019 Saitama World Championships and the first autumn classic of the 2019 season, the referee's controversial score made the figure skating circle in an uproar, and doubts flocked to it. Perhaps the many drawbacks of this artificial scoring campaign in the balance of interests over the years have become a greater "adversity" than the threat of more obvious opponents and the catch-up of the younger generations.
"I know I have to be mentally prepared for how hard it is to continue to compete. In fact, I think that now, in order to continue to compete in life, I have given up a lot of things. It wasn't until after winning the 2019 Grand Prix in Canada that Yu Yu said that he continued his competitive career after the Olympic championship: "Because I gave up a lot, I don't want to do something halfway after giving up those." So now, at the end of this Canadian stage, the style I want to skate, the ideal skating I want to skate, the difficult jump, my dream 4A and 4Lz, etc., these are finally beginning to be in an equal state, and because of this, I want to make a high-quality performance that includes all of this. ”
While trying to unlock difficult jumps such as 4T1eu3F and 4T3A jumps, he polished his program composition, articulation and choreography like a work of art.
But even so, the pressure is heavy, and the mountains are crossed. In the two seasons after Pyeongchang's succession, there were latecomers who wanted to be crowned by the "new king", as well as helpers who drummed and shouted for the "new king". In the subsequent interviews, we know that Yusheng Yusheng has had a "moment of wanting to give up", perhaps a new wound on the body, perhaps a huge pressure from public opinion in the outside world, or a kind word of persuasion from people around him, and perhaps, "it should be a tradition of 'accepting when you see it'".
But what ultimately makes him insist and not give up?
It is love, the purest love we can see; it is pride, it is the pride that belongs to the king of figure skating who will never give up the right technology and art; it is self-esteem, even in the face of pressure, it will never give in to it, it will change, and it will always slide down the road of insisting on itself and insisting on the right path.
In December 2019, Pyeongchang women's singles champion and Russian women's singles player Zagitova decided to suspend the competition temporarily. This means that all the champions of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic figure skating event, or further afield, including all the champions of the last Sochi Winter Olympic Figure Skating, men's singles, women's singles, doubles, ice dance, 12 people, still remain on this ice rink to continue to fight, leaving one Yusheng Yu string still in active service.
Year after year, season after season, you have no idea what he's really up to and what he's been through during that time.
We can only find some sugar from a little bit of return. In February 2020, at the Four Continents Championships held in South Korea, Yu Yu won the gold medal. So far, he has achieved the great cause of his career, becoming the first player in the history of figure skating to integrate single-season Grand Slams, double circle Grand Slams and Super Grand Slams, and is the first person in the history of figure skating.
This year, Yusei Yuki was 25 years old.
And just as we know, almost the world pressed the pause button, countless people's lives have been disrupted in 2020, facing the inability to return to the training base, the number of infections in the hometown continues to reach new highs, and the inability to communicate directly with the choreographers about the choreographers... And so on, but Yu Sheng still appeared at the all-day open at the end of the year, and came back again!
Two new sets of shows again!
This year of pressing the pause button also brought him confusion and despair, and his heart to give up rose again. But in the end, what saved himself was still his own figure skating. "What exactly is 'figure skating'? I used to have days when I asked myself. However, after reviewing the various competition programs, I realized again that it was precisely at that time that such a program was born. ”
It seems that this year's suspension period has made Yusheng Yuxian clear his heart. When the time enters 2021, we find that the feathered string that once said "losing equals death" and "no winning has no meaning" is no longer talking about winning and losing.
But are you saying he gave up the challenge?
No, now, the new hope and pursuit that belongs to Yu Yusuke is 4A.
Even if yusheng yuxian is over 26 years old, he has a childlike face, and will always reveal some childish figure skating kings who do not match his age, in fact, he often "confuses" some people. Some people "go into the pit" because of a beautiful GIF, some people fall in love with him because of a "kissing ice photo", and some people fall in love with him after brushing up on a performance video (even if it is a mistake to roll over).
But after understanding, everyone will find that under all the above, the most charming thing is the heart that belongs to the champion, always has a dream and always wants to challenge.
It's like, I always remember the following moments of Yusheng's knot:
After losing the 2016 World Championships in Boston and encountering the biggest challenge in Yusheng's athletic career, he once said: People are often bound by their past selves, and the feats and glories achieved in the past will not necessarily become the starting point of the future, but to turn past achievements into today's starting point, only I can do this.
On December 6, 2019, the day before his birthday, Yu yusei tried several 4A jumps in a row in an almost "crazy" state in public training before the Turin Grand Prix Finals and free skating competition. That was the new drive he had found for himself.
In the summer of 2020, when he was awarded the title of "Most Valuable Player" by isu International Skating Federation, his acceptance speech: "Every moment of life, I am thinking about figure skating. "I've been thinking about figure skating every moment in my life, and I've always wanted to get better and stronger." Every day I try to do what I couldn't do the day before. ”
In the commentary of the short program of the World Figure Skating Championships in March 2021, CCTV commentator Chen Ying said: "On the player information table released by the International Skating Federation, he has no hobbies column. He is like a fool, not crazy, not crazy, not living, others will have a variety of hobbies, he only has training, competition, this is all he has. ”
In the pre-slide public training of the Figure Skating World Team Championships in April 2021, Yu Yusei once again challenged the 4A in a row, almost successfully.
……
So stop asking veterans who are already gold medals, "Why are you still here?" "Such a problem has been asked.
Because the answer is already obvious:
The fire of the heart is not extinguished, and the hope is eternal.