72-year-old Chinese diving child Wang: Cultivating Olympic champions to enlighten young people's lives

There was Bole, and then there was Maxima. It is no exaggeration to say that Du Zhao, 72 years old this year, is one of the Bole of Diving in China. As a diving coach, he delivered two Beijing gold medal athletes, Zhang Jiaqi and Cao Yuan, to the Chinese team at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Deeply love diving Sports Compose sports songs with youth

In February 1949, Du Zhao was born in Cheng Xiang Hutong, Caishikou, Beijing. The second brother Dudu is a famous diving player in New China, who has been listening to him since childhood, he also liked diving, and participated in the Second National Games in September 1965 and won the honor of "Five Good Athletes".

In September 1970, the first national diving team of New China was established, and Du Zhao, who had always insisted on training, became the first batch of divers of the national brand because of his excellent basic skills. "At that time, there were only more than 80 athletes practicing diving in the country, and only 4 of the team members were selected." Du Zhao said.

The first task of the National Diving Team is a nationwide tour to let the general public know about and enjoy the sport of diving. The team performed twice a day, one during the day and one in the evening. Carrying large slogans such as "develop sports and enhance the physical fitness of the people", they jumped off the jumping platform, opened the slogan to the cheers of the people, and then fell lightly into the water. At night, in the night sky with the lights turned off, athletes stand on jumping platforms and springboards of different heights, holding lit fireworks in their hands, leaping deeply, leaving a colorful trajectory in the air. At that time, the tour also went into the countryside, setting up a 5-meter wooden platform in the pond where the fish were raised, and the audience crowded to stand in the waist-deep pond to watch. In the past two years, the Chinese diving team has toured hundreds of performances in more than 20 cities in 7 provinces, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong.

In 1972, Du Zhao represented the Beijing team in the men's platform runner-up and the men's team runner-up in the national diving championships. When everything was going in a good direction, an accident occurred, and he fractured his ankle during a training session. After the operation, although he bid farewell to his career as an athlete due to injury, he stayed in the national diving team as a coach and trained a group of outstanding champion athletes such as Peng Yuanchun with his colleagues.

Anti-cancer pick up the original heart to be The king of Diving children in China

In 1978, Du Zhao resolutely bid farewell to the relatively superior national team and returned to the Beijing diving team as an ordinary coach, hoping to win more glory for the capital. "During that time in the adult squad to catch training rarely home. Even when I go home, I wait for the athletes to rest, check the venue again, etc., and make a training plan for the next day before riding home from the worker's body, and every time I arrive home, it is midnight. My son didn't know me, and when he saw me, he cried with fear. Du Zhao recalled that from 1978 to 1982, he was busy with training and gathered less with his family. Kung Fu pays off. In the subsequent competition, a group of top players such as Chen Lin of the Beijing Diving Team stood out and achieved good results.

"Later, I was a clothing store owner for 10 years." Speaking of the past of going to the sea to do business, Du Zhao said that different stages of life always need to do something different to prove their value. For the 10 years from 1989 to 1999, he ran his own clothing store. During this period, fate gave Du Zhao another blow, and he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. After performing lobectomy, two lobes and one rib were lost. In the face of illness, Du Zhao deeply felt that his favorite thing was diving. If there was any regret at the time, it was that world champion athletes were not produced. Do you succumb to the tricks of fate, or do you try to fulfill your long-cherished wish? Du Zhao gritted his teeth and chose the latter.

In February 2000, after 11 courses of chemotherapy and recovery, du Zhao and his former colleagues set up the "Beijing Yingxiong Diving Club", which specially recruited children aged 4 to 13 years old to receive swimming and diving training. From an adult coach to a child king, Du Zhao wants to do more for China's diving cause.

During that time, Du Zhao used his personal connections to "borrow" to the training ground. In order not to add an additional financial burden to the parents of the students, he insisted on charging only 300 yuan per person per month. In order to broaden the children's horizons and increase their experience in the competition, he often leads the team to participate in many national and international competitions, and he never asks his parents for a penny.

"Our family has a habit of buying vegetables over the years, that is, only buying leftovers from the market at night before work." Du Zhao's lover Shi Huiling recalled that for so many years, Du Zhao has been using his family's money to subsidize diving clubs. Despite the family's poor living, he was happier than anything to see his children make progress.

Diving Star Class Eclectic "teaching" talent

At this year's Tokyo Olympics, a sunshine boy won a gold medal in the men's 10m platform and a silver medal in the men's double 10m platform. He is now a household name cao yuan.

"That day, as soon as I entered the training ground, I saw Xiao Caoyuan standing by the pool to cheer himself up: I want to win the gold medal! Kids work extra hard. Although 21 years have passed, Du Zhao still remembers it vividly. At that time, 5-year-old Cao Yuan had just entered the club, neither swimming nor gymnastics, typical of zero foundation. After practicing in Du Zhao's club for 3 years, Cao Yuan was selected by the Beijing team and began his Olympic legend.

Coincidentally. On July 27 this year, Zhang Jiaqi and his partner Chen Yaoxi won the women's double 10m platform in the diving event at the Tokyo Olympics, the first gold medal won by 18 athletes from Beijing in the Tokyo Olympic Games. And Zhang Jiaqi is Cao Yuan's little sister, all from the Dongcheng District Youth Amateur Sports School.

"Jiaqi came to train here at the age of 4 and 8 months. When I first started practicing swimming, I tied a rope around my waist and slowly went down into the water to practice. Du Zhao said that Zhang Jiaqi can bear hardships, always has the strength to not accept defeat, even if he encounters small bumps in life, he never takes the initiative to say, and insists on training every time.

In the 21 years of teaching, Du Zhao has adhered to his concept of "happy diving", teaching step by step, never using the training method of "pulling up seedlings and promoting growth" in a hurry, and teaching talents in an eclectic manner.

When 6-year-old Liu Dong (pseudonym) first joined the team, he had a severe fear of heights, grabbed the armrest of the jumping platform, and refused to take a step. Du Zhao took the child aside, patiently encouraged, and demonstrated by hand... A month later, when Liu Dong's father saw his child jump from the 5-meter platform into the water, tears flowed out.

More intractable than fear of heights is autism. Zhang Tao (pseudonym), 7, is such a "child from the stars". At first, Zhang Tao couldn't look at the coach and hid in the corner of the training ground forever. While encouraging the children, Du Zhao tailored training programs for the children. To everyone's surprise, 6 years later, Zhang Tao participated in the city championship and won the 3-meter board championship. Du Zhao said: "After winning the championship, the child looked at my excited eyes, which made me unforgettable. ”

From the national team coach to the child Wang, Du Zhao endured the pain of illness and dedicated all of himself to the diving cause. On August 7, Ai's apprentice Cao Yuan won the gold medal in the men's 10m platform of the Tokyo Olympic Games, and Du Zhao specially sent Cao Yuan a WeChat message to encourage him: "Good look! Congratulations on winning this gold medal with the highest gold content. He said: "Cao Yuan and Zhang Jiaqi have won 2 gold and 1 silver good results, winning glory for the country for Beijing, and the children are proud to have such a master and sister!" ”

Photo by Wen He/Ren Xiaoyu