On the ice rink, a girl galloped briskly, as if a flying swallow were flying close to the ground.
When she was the first to cross the finish line, all the flashes converged on her.
The first Chinese gold medal of the 11th Special Winter Olympics was taken by her.
Her name is Gao Meng, not Gu Ailing,a shuangwen heroine, but a severe cerebral palsy patient who can only walk on tiptoes, and even the daily work of tying shoelaces requires others to come.
Tang Chunlei, who has an intelligence level 4 obstacle, also won the gold medal in the 500-meter speed skating...
These Special Olympics athletes deserve more flowers and applause.
Fate is unfair to them, but they tell us with perseverance and effort that nothing is impossible.
The first person to make the impossible possible is their coach mother, Zhang Jie.
She was originally a world champion, gave up the preferential treatment, and returned to her hometown to become a free coach for this group of children.
Figure | Zhang Jie (center) encourages the players during training, originating from Xinhua Net
Two years ago, Gao Meng and others were still in special children's schools.
There are more than 140 children here, most of whom are Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, mental disorders, behavioral disorders, mental retardation, mental retardation, hearing impairment.
Every child seemed to lock himself in an isolated island.
Some children sit and stand stupidly, that is, a day;
Some children are grumpy and irritable, excluding everyone and everything;
Gao Meng's feet were stiff, but he slid around on the ice.
And this scene happened to be seen by a person.
She is the former world champion Zhang Jie, who won the women's 3,000m relay championship at the World Winter Games twice in the 1990s and broke the world record at the Short Track Speed Skating World Championships.
Figure | Speed skater - Zhang Jie
Seeing that the child seemed to be very interested in the ice, he inexplicably remembered that he had once galloped on the ice rink and won the world championship.
Later, due to illness, she could not return to the ice rink, which became the regret of her life.
If these children can also skate freely on the ice rink, it is also an opportunity for them to grow.
Zhang Jie suddenly chuckled in his heart.
She told the principal about this idea, and did not expect to get the enthusiastic support of the principal:
"That's great, as long as these disabled children can enjoy happiness with ordinary people on an equal footing, let us do whatever we want!"
Let children with disabilities challenge themselves and challenge the limits, this is the Olympic sportsmanship.
The mere thought of taking this group of children and returning to the ice rink they love is exhilarating.
What she didn't know was that she would face a very harsh reality.
Figure | Zhang Jie (first from left) instructs the children at the Qitaihe Vocational College Short Track Speed Skating Training Center to conduct training. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei
She is faced with a group of little angels living in her own world, simple and kind, but it is difficult to break the shackles trapped on her.
With the support of the school, Zhang Jie selected 26 people.
In the first class, they wore training clothes, which took half an hour, and tied their shoelaces, and Zhang Jie had to tie them one by one.
1800 square meters of ice rink, 26 disabled children, there are lying on their stomachs, lying down, kneeling, standing... Crying and shouting came and went.
Zhang Jie stood alone in the middle, helpless.
"Jogging three laps" - the simplest training instruction, many children can not understand.
Zhang Jie had no choice but to slow down his speech: "Jogging, running, jogging, running..."
Repeat dozens of times.
As a result, with the exception of a few hearing-impaired students, the other children could hardly run.
Some simple movements have to be repeated countless times, sometimes in three months to teach one.
Figure | Originated from Science and Technology Daily, Hu Feng, Jia Tiejun (photo)
Compared with normal people, this group of children is more fragile.
Sometimes the training is slightly stronger, the child will suddenly faint, and he must give first aid immediately, which is a common thing;
Sometimes there is more training, the children are tired, they will also make trouble, do not want to slip, stay there motionless, how to drag them all refuse to move;
Sometimes have fun, more uncontrollably, the soles of your feet slide like a hot wheel, and you clap desperately in your hands.
After a class, Zhang Jie himself was unstable, unable to speak, more tired than when he was training for the national team.
To outsiders, teaching children with disabilities to skate is ridiculous.
Some parents don't even want to see this kind of misery...
But Zhang Jie has always believed in this group of children.
God has closed a door for the child, and he will surely open another window.
Figure | Children in training, Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei photographed
My mood at that time was really mixed, and I was eager to suddenly become Sun Wukong and cast a spell.
Zhang Jie recalled.
The tenacity of training on the ice rink since childhood was stimulated.
As a northeasterner, Zhang Jie is fast-talking and has a straightforward personality.
But in the face of children, she is always very gentle.
Zhang Jie gave her team members nicknames, "Meng MengDa", "Little Bean Bag", "Datang"...
In order to get closer to the children, before each training, she had to dress up carefully, put on cute sportswear, make up, and tidy up her hair.
"I want the kids to see the cute coaches, I'm their friend," she said. ”
Figure 1 | Zhang Jie (center) instructs children with disabilities in skating training. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei
Figure 2 | Zhang Jie (right) communicates with a disabled child before training. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Tao
Some children are timid and cry, even crying a dozen times in a training class.
Every day, she plays small animals such as little white rabbits and giant pandas, puts on makeup, brings props, and then finds out the storybook of teaching her daughter, reads through several times, and then goes to the ice rink.
Xiao Anmin, who suffers from ADHD, picked up his shoelaces, put on the shoes and danced with his hands.
Zhang Jie vividly taught him by hand: "The little white rabbit is going home, its home is in the innermost part, it jumps and jumps, passes through many doors (through a shoe eye), and finally goes home." How happy it is! ”
Xiao Anmin was quiet, listened carefully, and quickly learned.
The children affectionately called Zhang Jie as the coach's mother.
The "coach mom" herself is too loving and worried about the lack of strictness in the team.
Zhang Jie invited her husband, Coach Dong Yanhai, to the team and played the "black face" to let the young players feel the tense atmosphere.
Invite world champion Fan Kexin to the team to train with children with disabilities to enhance children's perception of competitiveness.
She did everything she could for her child.
Over the past two years, she has donated money to children and purchased training equipment and school supplies for more than 100,000 yuan.
But he ignored the new injuries of his ankle bones and the old wounds, and even a new pair of skates was reluctant to buy...
Figure 12 | Zhang Jie's hand-written Special Olympics teaching plan and hand-drawn training diagram
Destiny never fails to live up to the hard-working and conscientious people.
Under the care of the coach's mother, the children gradually fell in love with this skating and began to see their own existence and the outside world.
They never cry out for pain, and they don't cry out to stop.
Month after month, Xiao Han, who could only slide on one foot, finally dropped another ice knife, and Gao Meng, who could only walk on tiptoes, began to glide freely.
Gao Meng, who has been convulsing all his life since he was 9 years old, will die part of his brain cells once he convulses.
At first, her legs were bent and her muscles were stiff and unable to communicate.
And now she's a different person.
She fell in love with skating, she remembered the time of the game, there would be pressure, and skating became the pillar of life.
Figure | Gao Meng won the speed skating gold
Over the course of 15 months, the children went from being able to move from ice step by step to being able to fly like swallows.
After selection, Gao Meng, Tang Chunlei and Nie Shuangyue were selected for the national team.
They are about to represent China at the 11th Winter Special Olympics.
People with disabilities account for 15% of the world's total population, and There are 85 million people in China.
But they gave us 100% inspiration and touch.
The Paralympic Games are not only about "participation", but also about courage and energy, symbolizing life and hope!
Figure | "Folding Wings of Angels -- Zhang Jie" Exhibition Hall, photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei
On the eve of the game, a new problem arose.
The children come to a new environment, are afraid to compete, and refuse to go on the ice.
Tang Chunlei, who is 1 meter 75 tall, fell as soon as he heard the starting gun.
Zhang Jie simulated the scene of the game, using a starting gun and English password, repeated training.
She has multiple roles: skating coach, ice sharpener, psychological counselor, instrument tuner, team doctor...
At night, she also had to wash the hair of "Meng Mengda" and patiently do psychological counseling one by one.
For more than 40 consecutive days, she slept only two or three hours a night.
On March 21, 2017, the final of the 111m short track speed skating in Graz, Austria began.
On the field, the audience filled the entire venue, and to Zhang Jie's delight, there were still many international students who came to cheer for the Chinese team.
"China refueling" made her feel hot in the cold arena.
"Hold on! steady! steady! Be a little more steady! Be a little more steady! Dash! ”
Zhang Jie's voice was almost hoarse.
Gao Meng won the first gold medal in China at the Special Olympics with a time of 20.982 seconds, and Zhang Jie on the sidelines cried with joy;
Tang Chunlei chased all the way from the fourth place at the time of departure, took the lead in crossing the finish line and raised his arms, giving Zhang Jie a big hug;
Nie Shuangyue won the gold medal in the women's 333 meters as she wished;
These three children are crazy about four gold and two silver!
Figure | Group photo of Zhang Jie (second from left) and Tang Chunlei (first from right), Gao Meng (second from right) and Nie Shuangyue (file photo).
The Special Olympics is probably the least watched of the world's three Olympic Games.
Athletes work hard, but no one cares, but they still let their mutilated lives blossom into the brightest flowers.
Zhang Jie's family treasures hundreds of paintings given to her by children.
The words are crooked and twisted, and there are many mistakes, but they do not affect the emotions that the child wants to express: "Coach Mom, I love you." ”
It was a love letter from 26 children to her.
On the day he returned from Austria, Zhang Jie looked at the gold medal on the chest of the three children, and he was even happier than he had won the championship that year.
In the hearts of "coach mothers", more important than the gold medal is to make the children happy and integrate into normal society.
Figure 1 | Zhang Jie (right) communicates with a disabled child before training, photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei
Figure 2 | Zhang Jie and the child do pre-training exchanges, Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Tao photographed
In the past, Zhang Jie put on skates and tied their laces to each child.
Suddenly, one day, Tang Chunlei got off the ice and came over to untie Zhang Jie's shoelaces.
At that moment, Zhang Jie shook his head, and the tears fell.
Since then, as soon as I get on the ice, he has come to help me tie it.
Today, Tang Chunlei has become Zhang Jie's assistant coach, training more special children and participating in competitions.
There is also Gao Meng, after getting the gold medal, he immediately takes it back to share with his mother and grandmother, and will encourage the paralyzed grandmother to say: It will be fine.
These children accomplish the impossible, using sports to tell their hopes for life.
Like the saying in the MV, "Everything has cracks, and that's where the light comes in." ”
And Zhang Jie is like that light, shining into the world of this group of children.
Picture | Zhang Jie (center) surrounded by children. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei
Source:
1. People's Daily "Qitaihe Public Welfare Short Track Speed Skating Coach Zhang Jie Trained 32 Disabled Babies to Become Athletes in Three Years"
2. Heilongjiang Daily, "Great Love Without Frontiers Fulfills the Dream of the Folding Wing Angel "Special Olympics""
3. "Chinese version of "Wrestling Bar Dad": teaching speed skating, she is the coaching mother of 26 disabled children"