"Hot to play at home!" On February 12, Beijing time, the official website of the International Skating Federation released a preview article about the men's 500-meter final of speed skating held on the same day, and gave this description to The Chinese player Gao Ting Yuwenzhong, who will stand on the ice surface of the "ice ribbon".
Gao Tingyu CFP
Compared with events such as figure skating, speed skating is not so hot, so the attention that the article won during the day on the 12th is not high. But just a few hours later, the boy from Daxinganling won the gold medal with a superb performance that broke the Olympic record, proving that the ISU official did not look away.
From the bronze medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to today's gold medal, Gao Tingyu's efforts to transform this color over the past four years have been integrated into the 34.32 seconds. And this sacred moment seems to have been doomed as early as 17 years ago when the 8-year-old boy signed up to learn to skate with his parents behind his back.
Best performers but not yet best results
Before the final of the men's 500 meters of speed skating at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics began, in fact, Gao Tingyu's gold win was not very optimistic. The celebrity circle can basically summarize the situation that Gao Tingyu needs to face in the final.
Norway's Havar Holmefigur Lorensen, who won the gold medal and set an Olympic record in Pyeongchang and Gao Tingyu four years ago, is also here today, and Dutchman Thomas Kroll, who held the Olympic record for a few minutes in the men's 1500m final in speed skating four days ago, is also in the final list, and Canada's Laurent Dubrey and Gao Tingyu are also old rivals.
But even so, Gao Tingyu still won the gold medal with a record of 34.32 seconds to break the Olympic record. In fact, this is not the best result Gao Tingyu has ever achieved.
Looking back at the past performance of the flag bearer of the Chinese delegation to the Winter Olympics, it is not difficult to find that his achievements have risen along the way, and he should be rushing to break the world record.
As early as five years ago, in the men's 500 meters of speed skating at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, Gao Tingyu skated a time of 34.69 seconds to win the gold medal, which also set a new Asian record. In the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics speed skating men's 500m final, Gao Tingyu won the bronze medal in 34.65 seconds.
By November last year, in the final of the men's 500m Group A of the Speed Skating World Cup in Poland, Gao Tingyu's victory had improved to 34.26 seconds. Just a month later, in the first Group A event in the men's 500m of the World Cup in Canada, Gao Tingyu finished second, and the result at that time reached a staggering 33.876 seconds. This result is close to the world record of 34 seconds.
At the age of 8, he signed up to learn skating behind his parents' back
Gao Tingyu was born in December 1997 in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province. The parents hoped that their son would grow into a man with a yu xuanang in the future, so they added a "yu" word to his name. He also did not live up to the expectations of his parents, a little older, the family saw a lot of manhood in him: responsible for doing things, and very polite to the people around him.
But like many parents, Gao Tingyu's parents are not "afraid to hold in their hands" for their sons, but they are indeed quite loving. Even in the usual play, it can be seen that the son is quite talented in coordination, balance, etc., but they are still worried that their son will be injured in sports, and they have some obstacles in this regard.
Years later, when Gao Tingyu recalled to reporters the ice skating enlightenment, he laughed more than once and admitted that he was carrying his parents on the "way". When he was five or six years old, roller skating became popular, and Gao Tingyu secretly followed the neighbor's children to learn. "I got started really quickly, and it didn't take long to learn (laughs)."
Because it is located in the northeast, when Gao Tingyu was in elementary school, the school actually arranged after school skating classes. At this time, Gao Tingyu already knew that her parents had some concerns about her participation in sports, and she was secretly reporting her name from her parents. The result is naturally scolded.
After Gao Tingyu won the national championship at the National Winter Games, his mother Zhang Xiaoli still recalled this period with great feelings. In her impression, her son came home especially late during that time. "Once, it was almost dark, and Xiaoyu hadn't come back. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I went to the school to look for him, only to find out that he had signed up for skating classes at school. ”
After returning home, Zhang Xiaoli and her husband severely criticized their son and told him that he was not allowed to go to skating class in the future. Who knows, this is in exchange for Gao Tingyu's strong "rebound". "I especially like skating, and I'm not afraid of getting hurt, so if you don't let me go, I won't read [books]!" Gao Tingyu was only 8 years old at this time. The couple reluctantly agreed.
At the age of 10, he has begun to live and study
Gao Tingyu officially became acquainted with speed skating in 2008. Enlightenment coach Liu Deguang found that he was slender, running fast, well balanced, and at a glance, he was recruited into the city's winter project training center for professional study.
At the same time as entering the professional team, it also meant the beginning of Gao Tingyu's residential life, when he was only in his early 10s. On the one hand, he has to overcome the discomfort of a person living outside, and at the same time, he must also take care of training. According to Gao Tingyu's recollection, at that time, his training volume had reached two hours of ice training and a lot of physical training every day.
"At the end of the day, I can't lift my legs up the stairs, and sometimes I am so tired that I can't even sleep well at night." Gao Tingyu recalled many years later that there was also a "specific" problem that the squad members were still growing bodies at that time, and it was common for the ice knives to not fit, so they fell a lot of heels.
But in the impression of his mother Zhang Xiaoli, his son's training pains himself have heard more from the coach, "He has never called us and never cried out in pain." ”
Dissect yourself extremely calmly and objectively
In 2016, in the final of the 13th National Winter Games Speed Skating Junior Men's 500 Meters, Gao Tingyu won the gold medal. But what makes people think that this 19-year-old guy is not simple, after the game, he is more analyzing his own performance in the game.
"Although I won the gold medal this time, I think there should be room for improvement in the results." What is surprising is that Gao Tingyu said this is definitely not a face,At that time, after the game, he quickly told the reporter in detail about his analysis of himself, very calm and objective. "When the gunfire rang out, I was still more focused and relaxed, but when I slid to the second round, I was not very stable, and I was a little anxious."
At that time, Gao Tingyu said that his ultimate dream was to be a world champion. Now, this boy who signed up to learn to skate behind his parents' back has done it!
Upstream journalist Qiu Jinyi
Editor: Xu Yuanzhe