Figure skating stars gather in China for more than 40 years to interpret the “meaning of love and persistence”
Figure skating, also known as “ballet on ice”. Accompanied by moving music, the figure skaters interpret the exciting stories with their excellent body control and artistic expression. For more than 40 years, generations of Chinese figure skating people have created unforgettable moments with tenacity and firm ideals, and wrote the next chapters of ice legends.
In this issue of “China Ice and Snow Legend”, we invite Chen Lu, the first Chinese figure skating women’s single skating world champion and Asia’s first consecutive Winter Olympic bronze medalist; the representative figure of Chinese figure skating men’s single skating, 2001 Li Chengjiang, champion of the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships; Pang Qing and Tong Jian, two-time world champions and silver medalists in figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics; Share those burning moments in memory, and interpret “the meaning of love and persistence” with personal experience.
(Photos from left to right: Zhang Hao, Li Chengjiang, Chen Lu, Pang Qing, Tong Jian)
In the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, Chen Lu won the third place, and she knelt on the ice and shed tears. What was the experience that made her call herself “Nirvana Rebirth”? In 2006, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao appeared at the Turin Winter Olympics. After Zhang Dan fell heavily, he got up again, interpreting the Olympic spirit with his actions. Pang Qing and Tong Jian have been holding hands for nearly 30 years, and they also experienced a 5-year run-in period in the early stage before they found a way to identify with each other. The “Chinese Ice and Snow Legend” broadcast in this issue will be announced for you one by one.
three moments
Presenting the leap of Chinese figure skating from scratch to strong
In 1980, Chinese single skaters Bao Zhenhua and Xu Zhaoxiao stood on the Winter Olympics for the first time. Facing the gap with the world’s top level, throughout the 1980s, Chinese figure skating people explored and moved forward despite difficulties and twists and turns. In 1995, at the World Championships in Birmingham, England, when a piece of music from the East sounded, Chen Lu, dressed in red, looked like a dragon. After recovering from injury, she won the first world championship gold medal for Chinese figure skating with the technical strength and artistic expression of five triple jumps. This is not only Chen Lu’s dream moment, but also a breakthrough moment for Chinese figure skating.
At the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao failed to throw a quad jump in the process of hitting the gold medal, and Zhang Dan fell heavily on the ice. When the music stopped and everyone thought they couldn’t continue the game, 21-year-old Zhang Dan wiped away his tears with tenacious perseverance and played again. That night, the entire stadium and the global audience were moved by Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao. In the following competition, the two completed the remaining 13 moves without error and won the silver medal. In the show, Zhang Hao revealed how heavy Zhang Dan’s fall was? The weight of the fall is equivalent to 6 to 7 times Zhang Dan’s weight.
(2006 Turin Winter Olympics runner-up Zhang Hao)
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the first Olympic championship for Chinese figure skating with their impeccable performance. Pang Qing and Tong Jian won the runner-up with their stunning performances, realizing the legend of winning both gold and silver medals in Chinese figure skating.
From 25th at the World Championships to 3rd at the Winter Olympics
Chen Lu’s terrific comeback is in the annals of history
Many athletes’ sports careers come from the enlightenment of their families. The encouragement and help of their family is the warm backing that enables them to keep moving forward.
Chen Lu was born in a sports family. She said that her father was the captain of the national ice hockey team, which was a huge help to her career. Chen Lu’s father would read and take notes from all the books about figure skating found in the library. He would also borrow video cassette recorders from other people’s homes to edit the movements of high-level international athletes, and let Chen Lu watch them at home every day. After every training session, I have to sharpen my skates by hand. It is also my father’s job to sharpen the blades for three hours a day.
(Women’s single skating world champion Chen Lu)
Winning bronze at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998 was another memorable moment in Chen Lu’s career. At the previous year’s World Championships, she was still ranked 25th, and this competition was also included in the history of the Winter Olympics as one of the most remarkable returns. Chen Lu said that the drop in her competitive state the previous year was a devastating blow to her self-confidence. Before the start of the Winter Olympics, everyone was not optimistic about her, except for the two old men, “One is our coach and the other is my dad.” On the first night of training after arriving at the Olympic Village, the coach wanted to relieve her of her mental burden. After saying something like this, “Just let go of the slide, it’s yours if you’re good, and mine if you’re bad. I’ll just stand at the door, and I can’t stop my tears.” The scene recalled the incident. During the speech, Chen Lu also burst into tears.
When Chen Lu had become a representative figure of Chinese figure skating, Li Chengjiang, who grew up in the same college as her and regarded her as an “idol”, also joined the national team in 1996 and won the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in 2001. won the championship. Li Chengjiang said frankly that in terms of his personal competitive status, in 2006, the Turin Winter Olympics was the closest he was to the podium of the Winter Olympics, but the final result was not ideal, “I think it was because I put too much pressure on myself. Now recalling this experience, he said that he had regrets, but finally reached a reconciliation with himself, “Because of this regret, I think I cherish figure skating even more. I hope I can cultivate better players one day. , help me, and realize the dream of this Olympics.”
Pang Qing and Tong Jian: From “enemies” to couples on ice
The international arena is also a stage for displaying Chinese culture
Pang Qing and Tong Jian are a couple on ice. The two learned from the “Godfather of Chinese Figure Skating” Yao Bin, and they became world champions as early as 2006. At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Pang Qing and Tong Jian’s free skating track “Chasing Dreams Without Regrets” set a new record for the highest score in the pair skating competition of the International Skating Federation with a high score of 141.81. After the 2015 Shanghai World Championships, the two retired and set a record of participating in 16 World Championships.
However, recalling the story of his partner at the beginning, Tong Jian revealed that for a while he felt that he was wrong to choose Pang Qing’s partner, and once mentioned to the coach, “Give me another one.” The difficult process of running in each other sounds a little bit now. Joy, Tong Jian said with a smile, “We often fought at that time, and we might ignore each other for a week. Looking at each other is an enemy.” In the end, the two of them found the same direction because they finally ended their local training and went to Beijing. Tong Jian said something quite philosophical, “I understood a truth at that time, that is, one person can run fast, but two people can walk very far.”
(Bingxue couple: Pang Qing, Tong Jian)
(Figure skating world champion Li Chengjiang)
At the end of the program, Chen Lu, Li Chengjiang, Pang Qing, Tong Jian, and Zhang Hao gathered again to talk about the return of traditional Chinese culture in figure skating, and they were also very proud. For example, Chinese-style or Chinese-inspired songs such as “The Liang Zhu” and “Descendants of the Dragon” are used in the selection of musical works, and related elements such as martial arts and opera are also incorporated into clothing. Talking about the reasons for choosing “The Liang Zhu”, Chen Lu said frankly, “We have a lot of cultural connotations that we can be proud of, so we need to show it to the world in more ways, which is also a manifestation of cultural self-confidence.”
A great athlete wins not against others, but himself. Seemingly calm day after day, one day you will realize the meaning of persistence. At 17:30 on January 23 (Sunday), let us read the highlights of Chinese figure skating for more than 40 years in CCTV-4 “Legend of Chinese Ice and Snow”.
