▲In the women's 500m final of short track speed skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Wang Meng held up the national flag in his hand to celebrate the victory Photo / Visual China
Known as the "Big Devil" of short track speed skating, Wang Meng was once the banner of Chinese short track speed skating, and her straightforward personality dared to love and hate so that she has always been in the whirlpool, and what remains unchanged is the love of the "master" for short track speed skating.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly intern reporter Chen Bixin
On February 17, 2010, in the women's 500 meters of short track speed skating at the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver, defending champion Wang Meng rushed out "against" the sound of the starting gun. After one lap, she and the second runner pulled a full 10 meters apart. 43.048 seconds, like a storm swirling by, Wang Meng crossed the finish line, defended the title in victory, and also won a beautiful opening for the Chinese short track speed skating team at this Winter Olympics.
"I just want to keep my opponents far away from me, so that you can't see me, can't touch me, and the referee can't fault me." In an interview with CCTV after the game, Wang Meng showed the same confidence as ever. As the captain and core figure in the team, this is Wang Meng's consistent trait, and what supports this self-confidence is excellent strength. In the "Interview with Yang Lan", Wang Meng once recalled with a smile the evaluation of the American short track speed skating star Apollo - Apollo, who is also the champion of the Winter Olympics, said bluntly that there are too many uncontrollable factors in the short track competition, and it is difficult to make an absolutely accurate judgment on the victory or defeat, but "there is one event that has no suspense, that is, the women's 500 meters, (the champion) is definitely Wang Mao's in China."
▲ Short track speed skating women's 500 meters at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Wang Meng in the competition Photo / Visual China
After winning the 500m, Wang Meng won two gold medals in the next 1000m and women's relay 3000m. As the number one competitor of the Chinese short track team that year, the South Korean team eventually lost the women's relay 3000 meters due to fouls, but the Korean media still praised Wang Meng's strength, calling her "the fastest and best skater in the world today, worthy of the winner of 3 gold medals." ”
In 2000, the 16-year-old Wang Meng made his debut in the national competition, winning the bronze medal in the short track speed skating 1500 meters competition of the National Nine Games and successfully entering the national team. Getting up at 7 a.m. and going to bed at 10:30 p.m., the middle is filled with training programs, and the life of the national team is a regular and boring cycle, but Wang Meng, who has a straightforward and cheerful personality, can always bring vitality to the team. When he was a teenager, he left home for a long time to train, which also made Wang Meng develop a tough and mature personality. In a 2010 interview with Southern People Weekly, she mentioned that she had made a promise to her parents early on, "When I was 18, I would definitely not have to spend money on you, and I would help my family." ”
▲ In the women's 1000m final of short track speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Wang Meng won the gold medal Photo / Visual China
"It's not four years, it's every day", after the end of the Vancouver event, Wang Meng sat in the CCTV interview room and skillfully recited the "motto" in English with a strong Northeastern flavor. This is a sentence printed by coach Li Yanyin on the weekly training plan of the whole team, and it is also a true portrayal of Wang Meng's daily training. Whether on the field or in every ordinary training, Wang Meng is always the one who is "sharp". In the long-distance relay training, the short track team often arranges for the men's team to accompany the women's team, and the male team members are most afraid of encountering the same stick as Wang Mao, because she "must do the transcendence as long as there is strength", if the line is blocked, it will further arouse her use tactics to achieve the fighting spirit of the anti-super, the whole field slides down, the male players "basically have no room for relaxation".
A strong sense of competitiveness made Wang Meng domineering on the field, and after winning her first Olympic gold in the 500m of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, she quickly became the pillar of the team. But it was also this competitive pride that once put her in a tit-for-tat stalemate with coach Li Yan. In 2007, after the women's 1500m short track speed skating final of the Changchun Asian Winter Games, Wang Mao, who won the bronze medal, unabashedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Li Yan, who had just returned from the United States to coach, and the news of "Wang Mao's 'shelling' coach" caused an uproar.
The 3-month ban is the price that Wang Meng paid for this "straight-talking", but it was also the time when she was pressed the pause button that allowed her to sink her heart and reflect on herself thoroughly. After returning to the team, after a period of running-in, Wang Meng finally said to Li Yan, "Coach I was wrong." In an interview with Southern People Weekly, she reminisced about the past and admitted that she was reckless because she was "too young to get up from the bed of the Olympic champion." After several earnest conversations, the two also got to know each other better, and the common goal of the two equally strong teachers and apprentices was to "make this team achieve results" .
In the 500m of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Wang Meng crossed the finish line with an absolute advantage, and when she was circling the field for a week, she suddenly stopped when she slid past the coach's command seat and made a victory celebration that she had never imagined before the game - she fell to her knees on the ice, prostrated her head twice at coach Li Yan and the Chinese team staff around her, and then got up and rushed up, and the two embraced each other vigorously. As blunt as when he spoke amazingly three years ago, Wang Meng's expression in front of the media camera this time is also extremely sincere: "I have a lot of coaches to thank, but to achieve this result today, I think it is because of her." 」 ”
▲ In the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, short track speed skating women's 3000 meters relay, the Chinese team broke the world record to win the championship. Wang Meng (first from right) and Zhou Yang (second from right) in the match Photo / Visual China
In a CCTV interview, Wang Meng said that it was Li Yan who made her understand what the short track speed skating project really was: "When I have the opportunity to wear a dress printed with a national flag and stand on the international field, my goal is to raise the national flag and play the national anthem, which is my mission." "We are lao tzu's number one in the world!" Before each game, Li Yan would gather the team members together and put down this "cruel word" in a concise manner. This "first", Wang Meng knows very well in his heart, not "how many gold medals to get or how much money to get", but "represents a national temperament".
After winning the 500-meter event at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, the Chinese people were cheering for the young player, but Wang Meng felt that "I was not enough", and in the conversation with Yang Lan, she admitted that this dissatisfaction stemmed from "I see South Korea winning so many gold medals, I am very uncomfortable." Her ideal is no longer just to hold the championship of a certain event, but to "one day take all these gold medals". At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Wang Meng finally realized this ideal, talking about the three gold medals she won, the most happy thing for her was not to defend the 500-meter champion, but to gnaw the hard bone of the 3000-meter relay with her teammates.
However, after the highlight moment in Vancouver, Wang Meng's career has repeatedly encountered twists and turns. In 2011, due to intra-team clashes, Wang Was suspended again and returned to the game 13 months later. In the two years since his comeback, Wang Meng's achievements in the world series are still eye-catching, continuing the glory of the "Mao era" on the 500-meter track. However, in January 2014, just 22 days before the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics, Wang Meng had an accident in a training session, resulting in a double fracture of the inner and outer ankle bones of his right foot, and unfortunately missed Sochi.
Under the injury, Wang Meng, an athlete, gradually faded out of the field, but she was never really far away from the cause she loved. Today, Wang Meng is still active in various sports promotion activities, in the recent hit ice and snow sports theme TV series "Fly with You in the Wind", she made a cameo appearance, reproducing the classic "backhand sliding" action of that year, which attracted fans with a surprise. With the Beijing Winter Olympics approaching, Wang Meng boarded the "People's Living Room" column of the People's Network, recalling the past events on the field again, and his words were still full of energy: "Life is to live your own wonderful, your own beauty." ”