Original title: Face to face丨Ten years of hard work make dreams come true Interview with Wang Jianan, world champion long jumper
2 In the men’s long jump final of the 2022 World Athletics Championships, 26-year-old Chinese athlete Wang Jianan made a comeback with a final jump of 8.36 meters and won the first world championship long jump gold medal in Chinese track and field history. This is not only a historic breakthrough in the Chinese men’s field event, but also the first time an Asian athlete has ascended to the throne of the World Championships long jump champion. This week, Wang Jianan, who is far away in Eugene, USA, accepted an exclusive interview with the “Face to Face” column.
Win the World Championships
Eight years ago, on July 24, 2014, Wang Jianan, who was under 18 years old, made a blockbuster in Eugene, USA, winning the men’s long jump championship at the World Youth Athletics Championships with a score of 8.08 meters. In the following 8 years, although Wang Jianan has repeatedly achieved good results, tying the national record of 8.47 meters in one fell swoop, he has always missed the top podium of the World Championships and the Olympic Games. In the Tokyo Olympics last year, he only jumped 7.81 meters in the preliminaries and failed to enter the final. This time he went to Eugene again. Although he successfully advanced to the final, he was not favored by the outside world at first.
Reporter: You won a gold medal in the World Youth Championship before. When you came to Eugene before this competition, was the gold medal within your goal?
Wang Jianan: To be honest, I really didn’t think about the gold medal. I feel that my mentality is very good, including when I check my opponents, I will also check the status of everyone, and make a reservation for the top three for this final. Name, the Greek Olympic champion is the first, the second is the Swedish boy.
Wang Jianan became the first Chinese track and field long jump champion at the World Championships. He is also the fourth Chinese male player to win the World Track and Field Championships after Liu Xiang, Wang Hao and Chen Ding. When the dust settled, Wang Jianan, wearing a five-star red flag, celebrated this historic victory in front of more than 20,000 spectators. He had seen this scene several times in his dreams.
Reporter: Was the moment when the dream came true the same as the scene in the previous dream?
Wang Jianan: It can be said that it is exactly the same. The only difference is that the feeling of loss when I woke up from the dream was not there on that day. I used to question myself in the dream. I said that I won the single championship World Championship It is impossible to be the champion of the competition. In a dream, others say that you believe in yourself. You are fine, little boy. You are the champion. When I woke up, I looked at the ceiling, and the feeling of loss was very strong, but after I won the championship this time, the people next to me congratulated me and congratulated me, and I didn’t feel that sense of loss anymore.
Ten years of hard work, dreams come true
Wang Jianan was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in 1996. He became attached to track and field very early because of his athletic talent, and was later selected to the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Team. At first, he trained in decathlon, and in 2012, he switched to specializing in long jump.
Since breaking the 8-meter mark in the early 1980s, the Chinese men’s long jump has been seeking a breakthrough, but most of the athletes’ best results have been achieved in domestic or Asian competitions. It was not until 2013 that the men’s long jump army, led by Li Jinzhe, began to exert its strength and emerged on the international stage. Also in this year, 17-year-old Wang Jianan was selected for the national team. During that period, in order to improve the situation that the athletes were weak in foreign warfare, the Chinese track and field team hired Randy Huntington as a foreign teacher. Mike Powell and Wang Jianan are co-coached by Randy and the Chinese coach.
Reporter: What was the impact of his addition on the adjustment of your entire training?
Wang Jianan: When training with foreign teachers, especially with people like Randy, he will still bring some very positive content to our character, which will make our entire team very confident. Since I joined the national team, he has Encourage me, he always praises me, saying that I am good and that I am good, that my ability is no problem, that my speed is no problem, I always go to training and competition under his praise, so he said that I was educated on my mind. will be more confident.
In 2014, Wang Jianan won the gold medal at the Eugene World Youth Athletics Championships with a score of 8.08 meters, standing on top of the world for the first time. At the next year’s Beijing Track and Field World Championships, Wang Jianan, who was under 19 years old, made history again and won the bronze medal with a score of 8.18 meters, becoming the first Asian athlete to reach the World Championships men’s long jump podium.
Wang Jianan: To be honest, after I won that medal, my confidence in me didn’t improve much. Instead, it put more pressure on me. This medal is the only Asian medal I have won in 32 years. And it was a score of 8.18 meters, which was neither high nor low. At that time, I thought this score was convincing? As a result, my grades in 2016 were not particularly good for the whole year, and I felt that I was overwhelmed by the bronze medal.
In the years after the Beijing Athletics World Championships, the overall level of the world‘s men’s long jump has improved significantly. A number of athletes with a performance above 8.50 meters have emerged from the United States, South Africa, Cuba, Greece and other countries. It is much more difficult for young Chinese long jumpers to create good results in competitions. In 2016, Wang Jianan made his first trip to the Rio Olympics. He jumped 8.24 meters in the first jump in the qualifying round and successfully advanced to the final with the first place in the group.
Wang Jianan: I went back to my room and didn’t sleep for a night. I think the finals will be tomorrow. I want to win a medal. I want to win a silver medal. Maybe I can win a gold medal. I didn’t exert any strength today, so I jumped 8.24 meters. , Tomorrow I will work hard, exert strength, run faster, and I will not sleep all night.
In the end, Wang Jianan won the fifth place in the long jump at the Rio Olympics with a score of 8.17 meters. Although he did not get the medal he expected, this is the best result of a Chinese male long jumper in the history of the Olympic Games. What is not known to everyone is that behind these achievements he has been plagued by injuries. After the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2017 National Games, he underwent two knee surgeries on his left and right knees.
Reporter: What was the impact of the injury on you at the time, and how did you deal with it at that stage?
Wang Jianan: When I found out that my meniscus was torn, I was depressed for a week. At that time, I didn’t want to practice anymore. I wanted to retire. How did the leg stretch and hurt at that time, so how should I practice? In 2017, I took anti-inflammatory drugs, two in the morning and two in the evening. I took it for more than a month. At that time, I didn’t know that it would have great side effects on the kidneys and liver. I was young at that time, and I felt that I was young and not afraid. . At that time, the most I thought about was whether I could maintain a high level after the surgery.
Wang Jianan: I especially like to admire Liu Xiang. I remember seeing Liu Xiang on both sides. Every time I see him, I want to cry. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s not easy for him. We’re both athletes, and I know all too well how he felt, what he went through when he was young, even more so than we did.
Wang Jianan persevered. In the 2017 London World Championships, he jumped 8.23 meters and ranked seventh; in the 2018 National Athletics Championships and Asian Games Trials, he jumped 8.47 meters, tying the national record maintained by Li Jinzhe and the Asian record. It is only 1 centimeter away; at the 2019 Doha World Championships, he ranked sixth with 8.20 meters; in 2020, he ranked first in the world with a season-best 8.36 meters. However, just when he was full of confidence to hit the Tokyo Olympics medal, he failed before the final and failed to do so.
Wang Jianan: At that time, I came to Tokyo as the only athlete in the jumping department of the national track and field team with a medal task, but I was probably the worst person in the jumping group. It was a big blow to me. I think all the The problems are all my own. After Tokyo, I turned all the bad problems that happened before Tokyo into good ones.
A year later, Wang Jianan jumped hard in Eugene, the United States, and climbed to the top podium of the World Championships. China’s long jump returned to the international perspective. This unexpected gold medal is not only a reward for his persistence in the slump in the past year, but also the best gift for him to start a new journey.
Wang Jianan: This medal is the highest level and highest level of all the medals I have won, second only to the Olympic gold medal. I am very happy. I hope this gold medal can drive China’s long jump and Chinese track and field more and inspire more Chinese long jump youths.
Reporter: Who else do you want to give this gold medal as a gift on the podium?
Wang Jianan: For my family, my parents, my wife, and my unborn child.
Reporter: If your child asks you if this gold medal is your most important gold medal, what would you say?
Wang Jianan: I will tell him, in fact, this is the best gift he gave me, not the best gift I gave him. Because knowing that there is him, including looking forward to his birth, the kind of encouragement to me, including my parents taking care of my wife, my wife’s understanding and tolerance of me during pregnancy are all encouragement to me, so it’s not that I give them gifts , I think it’s a gift from them.
Reporter: Will you still be seen participating in the competition at the next Olympics?
Wang Jianan: I think it will. I want to attack myself, I want to break myself.
Producer丨Liu Bin
Reporter丨Gu Bing
Planning丨Meng Ke Yang Wei
Directed by Ding Fang
Editor in charge丨Wang Feng
Editor丨Zhang Hongfei