Gong Rena
Gong Ruina, the No. 1 women's singles player in Chinese women's badminton at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, won the world championship many times, but regrettably rubbed shoulders with the Olympic champion due to injury. After retiring, she served as a deputy division-level cadre in her hometown of Yiyang, Hunan For 8 years, which is also the retirement standard for Olympic champions. But last year she resigned and joined the entrepreneurial army this year, founding "Rena Sports" to spread the sport of badminton.
She is a wife and mother who attaches great importance to her family, and many important choices after retiring from the military are based on family considerations. 20 years of badminton player career, let her full of love for this project, she hopes to take care of the family at the same time, can use "Rena Sports" to inherit badminton and "persistence, tenacity, happiness and upward" sportsmanship.
"Durian" resigned as a child king
"Durian, here you are." On the morning of August 10, more than 20 children greeted Gong Ruina cordially at the badminton hall of Yucai Primary School in Changsha, Hunan Province. "Durian" is Gong Rui's nickname among children, even her son and daughter.
Her "Rena Sports", also known as the Fruit Family, each teacher has a fruit name. Gong Ruina said that this can bring the teacher and the child closer.
In 2016, Gong Ruina established "Rena Sports Culture Communication Co., Ltd." in Changsha to promote badminton sports life, edutainment, so that more children fall in love with badminton and learn badminton in happiness. The "fruit family" also embodies Gong Ruina's concept, because the title of "teacher" will make children feel majestic and estranged.
She has been retired for 11 years. As an athlete, she was the no. 1 women's singles player of the Chinese women's badminton team, won the world championship many times, and missed the gold medal due to injury at the Athens Olympic Games. After retiring in 2005, she served as deputy director of the Sports Bureau and China Merchants Bureau in Yiyang City, Hunan Province, her hometown for 8 years, and chose to resign during the career promotion period, "Rena Sports" is her first entrepreneurial project after her resignation.
At 9 o'clock, the training officially began, and the parents were invited out of the training hall. Although it is not the training of professional players, Gong Ruina's requirements for them are very meticulous and strict, and even the bags, balls and rackets must be placed uniformly. Gong Rui stared at the small students on the field at that moment, she could call out the name of each child, and from time to time go over to correct their movements.
The children like Gong Ruina, but sometimes they are naughty and spoiled. Gong Ruina obviously has a wealth of experience in dealing with children, sometimes harsh, sometimes kind, and urges them to re-enter the training with two words.
Gong Ruina said that her original name was "Gong Ruina" and her personality was also very weak. The coach felt that her personality was too soft and not domineering, so he suggested that her "Na" word be removed from the word "female".
In a word change, Gong Rena's personality has also changed greatly in her perennial sports career, and she eventually became a sister of Chinese women's badminton.
Many-time world champion winner, missed the Olympic gold medal due to severe waist disc herniation and knee injury, retired from the military and became the youngest local department-level cadre, resigned during the career promotion period... Gong Ruina's experience is rich, but she is not willing to talk too much about the past, especially in politics.
The fighting spirit and tenacity she developed during her time as an athlete made her like to constantly try new environments.
Start a business for the "family concept"
Last year, as the youngest division-level cadre in Yiyang, Hunan, Gong Ruina resigned.
"I didn't quit my job to start a business, I did it to be with my kids." She is a person with a strong sense of family. In 2006, she also chose to return to Yiyang City for her hometown and family.
She has served as a deputy division-level cadre of Yiyang Sports Bureau, China Merchants Bureau and other departments, which is the dream job of many athletes and the standard Olympic champion treatment.
Her hometown of Yiyang, Hunan Province, is a famous badminton town, and Gong Ruina said that 10 years ago, there were not many world champions and Olympic champions who returned to third- and fourth-tier cities. She also did not go home because of the "rank" preferential treatment, but hoped to use her resources in the sports world to return to her hometown and accompany her parents.
Gong Ruina has been in the professional sports team for 20 years, and has been with her parents since she was a child, she was brought up by her grandmother, and the two grandchildren also have special feelings. Returning to her hometown after retiring from the army is also to make up for the regret that she did not have time to spend more time with her parents and grandmother.
It's just that even she didn't think that staying in her hometown was 8 years.
At that time, her family was in Beijing, her daughter and son were attending elementary school in Hong Kong, and during her tenure in Yiyang, she could only be reunited with her family on weekends. "My children are not around, I can't be so far away from them", watching the children grow up day by day, but they are getting farther and farther away from themselves.
As a mother of two children, Gong Ruina has a deep understanding of the importance of family, and her life is family. At that time, because of her hometown and family, she chose to return to Yiyang to work; now, for the sake of her family again, Gong Ruina decided to resign to accompany them.
After resigning in 2015, she and her husband, parents and children have all lived in Changsha. It is also because of her deep family concept that this year, she began to found "Rena Sports", with the theme of "Family Sports Life".
On August 10, her husband and children also practiced in the training hall of Rena Sports, with the same degree of seriousness as the trainees.
Previously, Gong Ruina had found that her son and daughter were gradually growing up, but they were willing to spend less and less time with her. Gong Ruina asked his son to accompany him out to dinner, but he was unwilling. But Gong Ruina said, "Let's go play together." "Children will be happy.
"Usually parents can spend little time with their children, and if there is no common hobby, they will really be farther and farther away from their parents." Gong Ruina said with great feeling that parents should accompany their children and understand and tolerate each other through sports.
She admires the "family concept" of Westerners and spends her weekends as a family movement. Gong Ruina believes that there will be more and more families participating in the movement Chinese mainland, and there will be a strong family sports atmosphere after 10 years. Badminton is a popular and participatory sport that must have a large market in the family.
Entrepreneurs who enjoy it
Her Rena Sports has several training venues in Changsha. Every day, she travels to a different venue, and the schedule is full.
Not long ago, she wrote in "My Dream of Badminton": A year ago, I could not have imagined that I would live in Changsha this year, recruit dozens of children, get up at 6:30 every morning, and then stay in the stadium until 9:30 pm to go home.
This kind of scene makes her feel as if she is back in the national team, full of training and competition, and her daily life is stuffed with training content. But she enjoyed it in the process. "Staying in the stadium with the children every day, feeling their every swing, every jump, every bit of gritted teeth, every little progress, feeling their love for badminton, makes my heart full of joy."
She explained, "I like children, I will feel very happy with them, say that entrepreneurship is very bitter, we are all bitter people, do not want entrepreneurship to continue to be bitter, we take hobbies as careers, we will be very happy, very accomplished."
"Either don't do it, do it and do it well." Children and parents don't just listen to me, it's important to see how I do. "From world champions, sports participants to organizers, Gong Ruina tried to take every link into account and try his best to do a good job.
"How happy are the children now?" Whenever she walks to the training ground and watches the doll players practicing, she will have mixed feelings. When she was young, her hometown of Anhua County, Yiyang City, although it was the home of badminton, there were only 4 venues. There were many old players on the training ground, and the young Gong Rui could not play on the field at all, and could only swing and run in the sky.
Leaving his parents to enter the professional team training at a young age, Gong Ruina has experienced many hardships. She didn't want her children to be as boring and hard as her childhood. She wants to create an environment for children to enjoy every day, have a healthy and happy childhood through badminton, and learn the spirit of teamwork.
Achievements from children
Although optimistic about the badminton market, Gong Ruina said that she did not want to make her career bigger and more successful, "I just regard hobbies as a career, I have played badminton for more than twenty years, I have experienced a lot of people, and I will no longer want to make my career what it is." Gong Rui's family is well-off, and the income from entrepreneurship is not what she urgently needs.
She said that many athletes are willing to start a business, although she also joined the entrepreneurial army, but did not want to lose the old line, so she still chose badminton. She laughed and said, "If you make this bigger, you can still be famous." ”
Gong Ruina hopes to let more people know about badminton through entrepreneurship. "Today's parents are not to let their children be champions, but to cultivate hobbies and hobbies, mainly to be happy." The feeling that you want him to come must be different from what you want to come. ”
"Yiming, after 10 days of training, I feel that you have fallen in love with the swing again, and let badminton give you a healthy, happy and confident life!" "Run classmate, every day to see you sweating on the court, training hard, sincerely happy for you, you are good! Sticking to badminton training will make you smarter, stronger, more fit, more confident..."
Seeing the parents' messages on the public account of "Rena Badminton Life", Gong Ruina had a great sense of accomplishment. She believes that in the repeated swings, it is actually the inheritance of sportsmanship. She laughed: "The reason why there are never students in Sports University who want to jump off the building is because they have been competing since they were young, have the ability to resist pressure, and constantly challenge themselves." ”
Gong Ruina told the teachers of the fruit family that they must not only have skills and appearance, but also the most important thing is to be full of love for badminton and children. Gong Ruina relies on his own experience, and joint research and development with Beijing Sport University, combined with the latest theory of the University of Minnesota School of Physical Education, hopes to find his own growth trajectory for each child.
She hopes to use the arduous training methods and conditions that are different from the traditional impression to design a scientific and interesting training method, so that the children can forget the fatigue and hardship in the training.
At the Rio Olympics, the results of China's badminton team were not particularly ideal. Gong Ruina hopes that through basic training, more good seedlings can be found, and these children will also be given the opportunity to develop.
Seeing that many six- and seven-year-old children can grow up little by little under their own guidance, Gong Ruina is very pleased. She hopes to help more children and families through her badminton dreams and enjoy the health and happiness brought by badminton.
Wang Yi, chief reporter of Chengdu Business Daily, reported on Changsha and edited by Guan Li