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In 1999, at a time that attracted global attention, the Beijing International Marathon instantly ignited the passion for life of 17-year-old girl Ai Dongmei. On the field, with her extraordinary strength and indomitable will, she bravely climbed the peak, and finally succeeded in winning the championship, becoming a hot track and field rookie at that time, and her reputation was shocked!
There is no doubt that this was the moment of Adongmei's career. When she wore a sports shirt printed with the five-star red flag and held high the trophy symbolizing victory, her face was full of determination and pride.
The audience, coaches, judges, and even her competitors were all blown away by the young girl's perseverance and talent.
Senior commentators have praised her as a bright star of Chinese track and field, and she will surely achieve better results on the road in the future and win more glory for the motherland. As a family member, Ai Dongmei's parents were even more excited, tears rippled, and their daughter's years of hard work finally paid off.
However, not long after the end of this game, the giant wheel of fate began to quietly approach Ai Dongmei. A severe sprain caused her to suddenly collapse on the track during training, clutching her waist tightly with her hands and bending her body with difficulty.
"Ahh This was just the beginning, and then, her coach Wang Dexian raised the leather whip in his hand and whipped her on the back mercilessly.
"How dare you be lazy!keep me going!" the coach's stern rebuke was filled with anger, and although Ai Dongmei was exhausted, she still gritted her teeth, endured the severe pain, struggled to get back on her feet, and continued to fight forward.
Since then, injuries have gripped her like a haze. The overworked body gradually became unbearable, and the track and field performance also declined. By the year 2000, she began to feel the gradual decline of her physical strength, and she was no longer able to surpass her opponents and win one gold medal after another.
Three years later, in 2003, the harsh reality forced her to make the decision to retire. The champion girl who returned with honors back then can only be forced to bid farewell to her once glorious sports career with endless regret and helplessness.
The road of life is always so tortuous and bumpy. At her peak, Ai Dongmei was the pride of Chinese track and field, but in the blink of an eye, the fate of defeat ruthlessly knocked her to the ground, and the road ahead became confused and unknown.
As Ai Dongmei herself said, "I could never have foreseen that the end of my sports career would come so quickly." ”
The legendary story of Ai Dongmei originates from the northeastern city of Qiqihar, where she was born. When she was young, she spent an ordinary and happy childhood in the No. 3 Primary School in Yi'an County.
Except for that extraordinary running talent, Ai Dongmei doesn't seem to have anything else special about her.
However, it didn't take long for a discerning sports coach to recognize Ai Dongmei's amazing potential in the running world. In the various long-distance running events held on campus, she has always been able to win by an unreachable advantage, as if she was born to run.
Ai Dongmei, who is only a child, has already shown her talent. She knows that running may be the only way she can stand out from the crowd.
However, she doesn't have any other specialties to be proud of.
So, in the fourth grade of primary school, Ai Dongmei was fortunate to become a member of the school's track and field team, and thus began a new chapter in her professional sports career. Since then, her life has become increasingly compact and challenging.
Every morning at 4 a.m., when most people are still indulging in sweet dreams, Ai Dongmei has already gotten up and walked to school. When she arrives at the campus, she and her teammates start by running several kilometers on the playground to improve their speed and endurance.
At the end of school in the afternoon, she still needs to complete a 3km running training before she can embark on the journey home and continue to complete her homework in various subjects.
Day after day, year after year, Ai Dongmei has always maintained such a strict routine of work and rest. However, the effort will pay off in the end. In the sixth grade of primary school, she set a jaw-dropping record in a 3,000-meter race, which not only won the crown easily, but also added a new glory to the record in Yi'an County.
After the race, the referees expressed disbelief and even doubted whether the girl had actually finished the race. In the face of doubts, Ai Dongmei firmly denied it, and decided to rematch the next day, and finally broke the record again, which convinced everyone.
Her excellent performance earned her the first prize in her life - 20 yuan. Although the amount was meager, it was undoubtedly the best reward for her hard work for Ai Dongmei at that time.
It was this extremely fierce event that made Ai Dongmei gain deep confidence and endless motivation, and took this opportunity to attract the attention of Wang Dexian, a famous national coach living in the mountain city of Chongqing, thus opening the door to the national team for Ai Dongmei and paving the way for her to realize her dream!
That year, Ai Dongmei, who was only 14 years old, was full of enthusiasm and resolutely devoted herself to the locomotive sports team under the command of national coach Wang Dexian. As an ordinary and hopeful girl, she feels extremely honored and proud to be lucky to be among the ranks of the national team.
However, she never expected that the next eight years would become the most painful and desperate period of her life.
The training base controlled by Wang Dexian is like a solid cage, ruthlessly depriving all athletes of their freedom, imprisoning their bodies and minds in this small space.
Located in Beijing's Daxing district, this sprawling training facility is surrounded by vibrant farmland and vegetable patches, yet athletes are out of reach of these natural beauties.
They are completely isolated from the bustling and noisy world, and can only spend their long and lonely youth in this isolated land. Ai Dongmei spent eight years here, during which she was only allowed to return home for a short time to visit her relatives after numerous pleas and consultations due to sudden changes in her family.
Even when family members come to visit, they are ruthlessly turned away. A pair of anxious parents desperately broke into the training base, just to see their children, but in the end they failed to do so, but were severely reprimanded and driven away by Wang Dexian.
In this prison-like training facility, the athletes' lives are suffocatingly monotonous, with no access to even a single extracurricular book other than eating, sleeping, and intense training.
Once they are caught lazy to rest, what awaits them is the same cruel punishment that Ai Dongmei once experienced - Wang Dexian wields a leather whip without mercy, whether the other party is male or female.
In order to prevent them from fleeing without permission, the gate of the training base is always closed, and there are fierce wolf dogs patrolling back and forth, always vigilant for their "prison escape" behavior.
In such a harsh environment, Ai Dongmei and her teammates had to endure the pressure of training that almost exceeded the limits of human physiology. Wang Dexian is oblivious to the scientific and rational concept of training, and he is like a ruthless reaper, frantically squeezing the youthful energy of these young athletes, completely ignoring the scars it will leave on their future.
However, the reason why they are persevering and going all out is because Wang Dexian's false promise deceived them! Wang Dexian vowed that as long as they can stand out in the national competition and win the top three results, then after retirement, they will be able to find a stable and reliable job, so as to ensure their quality of life after retirement.
Because of this, Ai Dongmei is like a walking time bomb, dedicating all her youth to this sport. In an almost harsh and ruthless way, she won 19 heavy gold medals for her country and made glorious history.
However, who would have expected that behind all this, Wang Dexian had been carefully planned and calculated for a long time.
In 2003, the cruel reality forced Ai Dongmei to make the difficult decision to retire. When she came out of her former glory, she really saw how difficult and desperate her predicament was.
After retiring, Ai Dongmei was shocked to find that she had nothing. The training process, which could almost be called brutal, seemed to be just an illusory dream. Over the years, the countless honors and generous bonuses she has won for the country have all fallen into the pocket of coach Wang Dexian, and she has not even been able to get a stable job.
The family's financial resources can only be barely supported by her husband's meager salary, and the hardships of life can be imagined. As a retired athlete, Ai Dongmei's body has also suffered irreparable damage.
The long and rigorous training made her toes severely disabled and made it extremely difficult for her to walk. The lumbar spine, which had been injured in the past, is now in unbearable pain and can no longer perform any heavy physical labor.
The most distressing thing is that her weight, which was once athletic and beautiful, has soared to an astonishing 150 to 160 kilograms.
Despite her young age, her face looked older than her actual age. Years of hard work have made her cheeks deeply sunken, and her face is covered with the marks left by the years.
The impoverished life forced Ai Dongmei to do something undignified. In order to make ends meet, she began selling the gold medals that she used to be proud of online.
These gold objects, which were originally priceless, can now only be sold at extremely low prices, with gold medals selling for only 1,000 yuan, and silver and bronze medals selling for even less.
Watching those honors that once belonged to her being sold on the Internet, Ai Dongmei's heart was full of endless grief and helplessness.
This news spread quickly on the Internet like a thunderbolt, attracting the enthusiastic attention and heated discussion of the majority of netizens. Many netizens are deeply saddened and indignant by this sports hero who once fought for the honor of his country, but now is forced to sell medals for his livelihood.
In the stormy storm of life, Ai Dongmei was powerless to resist, so she could only temporarily put down her dignity and devote herself to those unseemly work. Eventually, however, God would favor this ill-fated woman.
Ai Dongmei's tragic experience caused an uproar on the Internet and aroused widespread resonance from all walks of life. An athlete who has won many honors for his country has no choice but to sell medals in exchange for daily necessities, which undoubtedly makes countless people feel distressed.
People with far-reaching insight have reached out to help, calling on the whole society to pay attention to and help forgotten athletes like Ai Dongmei. Despite material scarcity, the power of society goes far beyond these.
The call for Ai Dongmei to help quickly attracted the attention of government departments and enterprises.
First of all, a large shopping mall in Beijing took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Ai Dongmei, generously providing her with a counter and reducing her rental fees for up to two years, creating a superior environment for her to start a business.
Subsequently, a company also actively participated in it, and directly gave Ai Dongmei free goods worth up to 30,000 yuan, so that she was able to successfully open her own clothing store, so as to have a stable source of income.
Just as Ai Dongmei's life is gradually getting on the right track, more warm actions are coming. A kindergarten took the initiative to accept her daughter and solved her worries.
A well-known hospital also took the initiative to contact her and performed a thumb valgus surgery for her free of charge.
Just two months after the surgery, Ai Dongmei's footsteps were back to normal and she was able to walk freely, no longer having to endure the pain she had suffered. What's even more gratifying is that the 200,000 yuan bonus illegally embezzled by coach Wang Dexian was also recovered under the strong pressure of public opinion.
When a former national gymnast, Huang Naihai, donated 20,000 yuan to her and personally advised her not to engage in medal sales anymore, Ai Dongmei was moved to tears and was speechless for a long time.
Another retired athlete, Zou Chunlan, also came to visit her, also donated 1,000 yuan, and told her to live well.
After countless struggles and tribulations, this woman who was originally facing despair finally succeeded in opening a new chapter in her life! She bought a warm and comfortable new home in Yanjiao, and her family life also ushered in a long-lost change, gradually returning to the normal track.
Although Ai Dongmei finally won the attention and support of the whole society with the help of the media, her tortuous and bumpy life course has ruthlessly exposed many suffocating institutional flaws and ills in China's sports industry.
"Moths" such as Wang Dexian, who seriously violated the basic rights and interests of athletes, falsely promised empty promises to Ai Dongmei and other athletes, but they had already lost Maicheng behind their backs.
To make matters worse, they subjected these athletes to harsh training that bordered on brutality, leaving them with irreparable physical and mental damage.
Ai Dongmei's life after retirement is a stark example. After dedicating nearly 20 years of youth to the motherland, she won 19 gold medals and a bonus of up to 200,000 yuan, but this wealth was privately appropriated by Wang Dexian alone.
After retiring, she lost her job opportunities, and could only rely on her husband's meager salary to barely make ends meet, her physical condition deteriorated, her movement was difficult, and her weight soared.
However, Ai Dongmei's story is not an isolated phenomenon, and there are many similar cases in the Chinese sports world. Many former sports heroes, after reaching the pinnacle of their careers, suffered from poverty and illness, and eventually had to be abandoned by the sporting career that once helped them make a name for themselves.
This has undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to China's sports industry.
It was not until the exposure of the Ai Dongmei incident that the General Administration of Sports was forced to face up to the urgency of protecting the rights and interests of retired athletes. However, we must be soberly aware that it is not enough to rely only on post-event assistance, and we must start from the institutional level to establish a sound supervision and safeguard mechanism.
Only by effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of athletes, ensuring that they can give full play to their talents with peace of mind, and strive for more honor for the country and the people, can we effectively prevent such tragedies from happening again, otherwise, similar scandals will one day return, hurting the reputation and dignity of more people.
As a major sports country in the world's attention, our great motherland should open up a sunny path to success for its athletes, ensure that they can fully enjoy the rights and interests they deserve in this noble sports cause, and must not allow this cause itself to become a source of harm to them!
This is not only a major challenge and historical mission for the future work of the mainland government and the General Administration of Sports, but also a key move to comprehensively improve the level of sports and promote the harmonious development of society.