Written by Zhang Zichen
Editor/Li Xu Liang Lina
Visual/Wang Ye
"Time freezes here, minutes and seconds become so long, success or failure is in the blink of an eye; the front is the finish line, refuel the Chinese bobsleigh team." On November 21, 2021, Fan Duoyao wrote this on his social media.
This tall and handsome young man from Inner Mongolia has twice created the history of Chinese bobsleigh in four months. He was the first Chinese player to enter the main stage of the Bobsleigh World Cup, and also led the Chinese Bobsleigh Team to the Winter Olympic Games for the first time.
Since the formation of the Chinese bobsleigh team in 2015, Fan Duoyao has grown with the team. Starting from scratch, he condensed his efforts and sweat between the millimeters of the timer.
17-year-old with a "white paper" touching the sled, a 20-kilogram leap
Pick up the ice, put into the ice, pull back, and complete the departure action. Handled well in the corners and whizzed across the finish line. So repeatedly, Fan Duoyao insisted on hard training for many years.
Van Duo Yao was once a cross-country skier. After Beijing's successful bid to host the Winter Olympics, the Chinese bobsleigh team began to form. Through the selection, he entered the national training team and began to be exposed to the sport of bobsleigh.
"Cross-country skiing is an endurance event, while sledding is a sport that focuses on explosive power." In an interview, Fan Duoyao talked about the difficulties he faced when he just switched. Bobsleighrs have a long growth cycle, usually between 6 and 8 years. Abroad, some children start playing sledding at the age of 7 or 8, and then start to enter professional sledding. When Fan Duoyao first came into contact with the sleigh, he was 17 years old. Sleighing was a complete stranger to him, and he had to start everything from scratch and put in more effort than anyone else.
Van Duo Yao with his teammates
From more than 60 kg to more than 80 kg. Weight is also a difficult problem faced by Fan Duoyao when he initially transferred. When he first entered the bobsleigh team, Fan Duoyao was very thin. Because the bobsleigh project requires the athlete to have a certain weight, and no matter how he eats it at that time, he can't get up. After an injury, he rested for a while and slowly gained weight to more than 80 kilograms.
"What I need to do is pay attention to every training I have, keep correcting and improving." When Fan Duoyao talked about the gap with foreign players, he said firmly. Dare to fight and fight, not afraid of difficulties. Fan Duoyao has this spirit, starting from a blank piece of paper and growing up step by step.
1% of blink time! He knows how to divide the difference between winning and losing
With an accuracy of a thousandth of a second, the race timer freezes at this moment.
Bobsleigh racing is not only fast but also technically difficult. Moreover, when calculating the results, it must be accurate to three decimal places, which is the most accurate timing competition in the Winter Olympics.
However, even if the result of the game is accurate to the millisecond, the player's performance will be very close. Sometimes, it may be just a few milliseconds. We blink once in about 200 to 400 milliseconds, and such a small gap is much shorter than the time it takes us to blink our eyes once.
Fan Duoyao in the game
So, every millisecond is important for bobsledters. This requires that the players must always be attentive, handle every detail on the track, and avoid mistakes as much as possible.
Fan Duoyao is also constantly polishing every detail of himself, striving for every millisecond on the track, and in training again and again, the pain also comes.
Concussion! Broken nose bone! Count the injuries he has suffered over the years
From 140 km/h to 150 km/h, this is the average speed per hour for a bobsleigh event. When passing through certain corners, the instantaneous pressure on the body is close to the limits of the body. In addition to speed and passion, sled racing also has certain dangers.
Hum, Fan Duo was blank before the dazzling, nothing could be remembered, and time seemed to stand still at this moment. In the 2018-2019 season, Van Duoyao was injured on a new track in Oberhof, Germany.
Due to the lack of control of the starting posture, the sledding has ups and downs on the track. At the tenth bend, a strong centrifugal force threw Fan Duoyao out, and the accident happened. The accident caused him to suffer a concussion and caused a brief period of amnesia, the bridge of his nose was broken, and the front teeth were knocked out.
At the beginning of the Van Duo Yao
When injured and unable to train, Fan Duoyao simulates every action and detail of the gliding in his brain every day, observing the training of his teammates on the side of the track. He doesn't let go of any time when he can improve.
"The more injured, the more practiced, the more confident, the more progressive", in the face of repeated injuries and difficulties, Fan Duoyao did not retreat, but paid more attention to his own training and continued to improve.
No matter how difficult it is, it has never flinched. Today, Fan Duoyao has become the captain of the Chinese bobsleigh team, leading his teammates to glide at full speed on the field of the Winter Olympics, not afraid of challenges.
Twice in 4 months he made history he made the impossible possible
On November 19, 2021, Fan Duoyao advanced to the main competition with 17th place in the Yanqing Bobsleigh World Cup qualification tournament in Beijing, becoming the first Chinese player to enter the bobsleigh World Cup. At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, he led the Chinese bobsleigh team to the winter Olympic games for the first time in history. Fan Duoyao continues to write the history of bobsleigh in China.
"Make the impossible possible." This is everyone's evaluation of Fan Duoyao.
He experienced the formation of the Chinese bobsleigh team, and then entered the main competition of the Bobsleigh World Cup and stepped onto the field of the Winter Olympic Games. Fan Duoyao and the Chinese bobsleigh team have been with each other for seven years and have grown together. Their story continues, and the future is promising.