Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 19 (Reporter Wang Junbao, Zhang Han, Wang Jingyu, Le Wenwan) After winning the championship, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong crossed the marks left by spinning and jumping, paid tribute around the field, and slipped through four years of perseverance. Over the long history of Chinese figure skating.
On February 19, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong won the figure skating pair skating championship at the Beijing Winter Olympics. After 12 years, China’s figure skating won the Winter Olympics again. Behind this is the 42-year Winter Olympics struggle of Chinese figure skating people.
On February 19, Chinese player Sui Wenjing (top left) put on a gold medal for teammate Han Cong (top right) at the medal presentation ceremony.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
42 years ago, Chinese athlete Bao Zhenhua made a historic appearance on the Winter Olympics figure skating arena.
“This is the first time we have seen a delegation from the People’s Republic of China. Now playing Bao Zhenhua, a 14-year-old Chinese player. She came in last, but she has never participated in an international event before. Compared with its rivals who have gone through hundreds of battles, this Chinese team has shown extraordinary vitality and courage.” In the same year, the NBC described in the broadcast commentary of the figure skating competition of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.
Lake Placid in 1980 looked at the oriental faces on the ice rink with curiosity, Bao Zhenhua also widened his eyes and tried his best to observe everything in front of him.
“They are so good at skating. I remember that there was a British male player named Cousins. He arranged the disco music that was popular in the world at that time into his free skating program. Many things he had never seen before could be found on the ice rink. We saw that the gap between us was too big.” Bao Zhenhua recalled.
On February 23, 1980, Chinese figure skater Bao Zhenhua competes during the women’s figure skating optional action competition at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, USA. Fax photo (issued by Xinhua News Agency)
How big is the gap? In 1979, Bao Zhenhua, who was accustomed to wearing cotton-padded clothes and trousers to dance as hard as he could in the freezing weather, walked into the indoor ice rink for the first time; And get yourself out of the ice hole.
Also in 1980, the coaches of the Chinese figure skating team, Yao Bin and Luan Bo, who were in their early 20s, partnered in pair skating, and represented Chinese athletes in the World Figure Skating Championships held in Germany for the first time in the international figure skating competition, with the last result.
“It’s too far off. When I signed up, I didn’t even know the name of the female contestant was in front.” Yao Bin said. In 1984, Yao Bin and Luan Bo’s pair skating team ranked bottom again at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics.
Figure skating, which originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-18th century, has a history of more than 150 years in Europe and the United States. It is not surprising that the podium of the world competition has been monopolized by European and American players for a long time.
On January 26, 1981, Luan Bo (female, left) and Yao Bin (male) won the pair skating championship at the 1981 National Figure Skating Championships in Urumqi.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Guangkuan
Changes occurred in the 1990s. In 1994, Chen Lu won the bronze medal in women’s singles at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and the next year at the World Championships in Birmingham, England, proudly reached the top. China’s figure skating began to show its rise on the world stage.
In the Year of the Tiger in 1998, Chen Lu won the bronze medal again at the Winter Olympics. At that Winter Olympics, the young Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the fifth place for the Chinese team that had not qualified for pair skating for two consecutive years. Bao Zhenhua at the scene saw a grand occasion that he could not have imagined in 1980.
On February 20, 1998, Chen Lu won the bronze medal in the figure skating women’s single skating competition at the Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan.Xinhua News Agency
At that time, Yao Bin was already the coach of Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo. The “Godfather” of Chinese figure skating, who was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2008, has been dedicated to the rise of Chinese figure skating on the world stage since his retirement.
The road to rise is not smooth. Since 1999, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo have successively won the World Grand Prix Finals and the World Championships runner-up. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the Chinese Figure Skating Team sent three pairs of skaters to compete in pairs, but Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo only won one bronze medal. ; In the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue, who came back from a serious injury, won the bronze medal again. That time, China’s pair skating left people, and the touching story of Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao who insisted on finishing the game after a serious fall, and A precious silver medal of a different color.
On February 13, 2006, Chinese athlete Zhang Dan fell to the ground and was injured in the figure skating pair skating event at the Turin Winter Olympics, but she and Zhang Hao insisted on completing the competition and won the silver medal. The picture shows Zhang Hao happily hugging the injured Zhang Dan after learning that he won the silver medal.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Jiajun
In 2007, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo announced their retirement. However, in order to realize the gold medal dream of the Winter Olympics, the two announced their comeback in 2009 and once again followed Yao Bin to compete in the Winter Olympics. At the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the Olympic gold medal for the first time with the highest score of the International Skating Federation, creating the history of Chinese figure skating.
On February 15, 2010, Chinese players Shen Xue (right)/Zhao Hongbo celebrated their victory. Chinese players Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the championship with a total score of 216.57 points in the pair skating competition at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on the same day.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Wei
At that time, it had been 30 years since the first Winter Olympics of Chinese figure skating in 1980. Since then, Pang Qing/Tong Jian and his apprentice Zhang Hao, trained by Yao Bin, continued to compete in the Winter Olympics, but failed to finish with a gold medal.
Ninth in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, 4th in the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, and silver in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Time came to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Pang Qing/Tong Jian won the fourth place with a song “I Had a Dream”, leaving their last dance for the world.
On February 12, 2014, Chinese players Pang Qing (left)/Tong Jian greeted the audience after their free skating competition.Chinese players Pang Qing/Tong Jian won the fourth place in the figure skating pair skating competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics on the same day.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Lili
In the Vancouver Winter Olympics, where Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the championship, Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao failed to win the medal. After changing partners, Zhang Hao finally ranked eighth in cooperation with Peng Cheng at the Sochi Winter Olympics. In 2014, Yao Bin started The era of the “troika” came to an end.
After four years of adjustment, in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, after Shen Xue, Zhao Hongbo, Pang Qing, Tong Jian, Zhang Dan and other famous athletes retired successively, China’s pair skating quickly passed through the period of alternating old and new. Sui Wenjing /Han Cong took up the banner at the Winter Olympics for the first time, showing a relatively deep background and relatively sufficient accumulation of reserve talents.
The young Sui Wenjing/Han Cong finally won the silver medal in the heartwarming “Turandot” music, and the two who left tears vowed to realize their dream in four years.
February 15, 2018Chinese players Sui Wenjing (right)/Han Cong hug after the game.Chinese players Sui Wenjing/Han Cong won the runner-up in the pair free skating competition at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on the same day.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Song
During the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong experienced injuries and a 13-month absence from the arena.
It’s just that there is no more regrets in the first battle in Beijing!
On the evening of the 19th, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong’s Winter Olympics dream came true. Zhao Hongbo, the head coach of the Chinese figure skating team, described the victory this way: “Today is tears of joy!”
On February 19, Chinese players Sui Wenjing (first from left)/Han Cong (second from left) celebrated after the game.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
Participated in writing: Wang Jingyu, Wang Chunyan, Zhu Hong, Zhao Xuetong, Huang Xinxin
Editors: Shuwen, Zhang Zewei, Wu JunkuanReturn to Sohu, see more
