Gao Tingyu won the championship and paid tribute to the coach to reveal the story behind the first gold medal of the Chinese men’s speed skating Winter Olympics
2022-02-13 08:50:59Source: Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 12, Gao Tingyu jumped up and jumped to the top podium of the men’s 500-meter speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics, waving his arms gracefully under the attention of the world! He and his coach Liu Guangbin have been looking forward to such a scene for a long, long time.
58 days ago, a few days after the 2021-2022 Speed Skating World Cup series ended, Liu Guangbin seemed to have seen the outline of this gold medal, but at that time he couldn’t say what was in his heart.
The four-stop World Cup series is the qualifying match for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and it is also the most important window for the outside world to observe the level and status of athletes from various countries (regions). In these four races, Gao Tingyu’s performance was somewhat erratic: there were not only the highlight moments of winning the championship in the Polish race, but also accidents and episodes such as starting fouls and corner errors.
However, Liu Guangbin is not worried. His and Gao Tingyu’s goal for the World Cup is to test their training level and observe their opponents while qualifying for the Winter Olympics. All these goals have been achieved.
Through the World Cup competition, Liu Guangbin and Gao Tingyu have established confidence. Gao Tingyu’s level is better than imagined after the closed training and before the game.
Liu Guangbin, who knows well, has reservations in the following games, and some games did not even let Gao Tingyu play.
Everything is foreshadowed.
There are three main reasons why Liu Guangbin chose this strategy in the World Cup.
First, fighting at home at the Beijing Winter Olympics is under enormous pressure. If you perform particularly well in the World Cup, it will easily put pressure on yourself, and may also make yourself a “target” for your opponents. Second, the starting order of the Beijing Winter Olympics is related to the athletes’ performance in the World Cup. If the overall score is particularly good, the order of appearances in the Winter Olympics will be relatively low. When it comes to the competition, it may also cause a psychological burden on oneself because of the good results of the competitors in front. Third, according to his observation, the players who ranked first in the World Cup often fail to win the Olympic championship in the end.
“It’s enough if you have enough points. We mainly think about the Beijing Winter Olympics. We want to play in the front and middle stages, and don’t have to carry a burden. It’s our strategy to be yourself regardless of others. Especially in this event, everyone’s strength is very close, it’s difficult. We will do what we can do ahead of time.” Liu Guangbin said.
Liu Guangbin didn’t care about Gao Tingyu’s small mistakes in the game. 500 meters is the shortest distance in speed skating competitions, and it is not uncommon for any competitor to go all out and fall during the competition.More importantly, after the previous training, especially the more systematic training for nearly a year since the beginning of 2021, Gao Tingyu’s ability has been significantly improved compared with the PyeongChang Winter Olympics four years ago, which made Liu Guangbin more than four years ago. confident, and
Gao Tingyu’s performance in the World Cup also confirmed this.
In March 2019, when the reporter met Liu Guangbin in Changchun, he admitted that it would be more difficult for Gao Tingyu to go further in the Beijing Winter Olympics. However, after this season’s World Cup series, Liu Guangbin did not hide his determination to hit the gold medal.
This low-key northeastern man only said three words: confident.
In the “Ice Ribbon” on the evening of February 12, everything seemed to be going according to Liu Guangbin and Gao Tingyu’s plan. The seventh group set off. This group was exactly the same as when Zhang Hong won the women’s 1000m at the Sochi Winter Olympics eight years ago, but Zhang Hong’s breakthrough was a day later than Gao Tingyu’s.
34 seconds 32! As soon as Gao Tingyu set off, it was like a flash of lightning. It only took 9 seconds 42 to finish the first 100 meters. Amid the cheers of the audience, a new Olympic record was born.
Gao Tingyu sat on the sidelines, waiting for the performance of the next 8 groups of players. If no one can be faster than him, he will be an Olympic champion.
Seeing Gao Tingyu’s achievement, two senior speed skating coaches told Xinhua News Agency reporters that Gao Tingyu’s ranking can at least be in the top three or four, and whether he can win the gold depends on the performance of the players behind him.
The game was played in groups, and when there were the last two groups left, Gao Tingyu was still in first place. When the penultimate group of runners set off, there was a rush run. The two players seemed to be affected, and neither was able to surpass Gao Tingyu.
The last group to play is the Canadian star Laurent Dubreuil and the Japanese star Tatsuya Shinhama. Dubreuil had a season-best time of 33.77 on the plateau ice rink this season, and is also regarded by Liu Guangbin as Gao Tingyu’s biggest opponent, while Xinbin Li is also a favorite to win the championship. Will they set off in a group, will they inspire each other and surpass Gao Tingyu?
The starting gun went off. Unexpectedly, there was another snatching. Dubreuil and Nihama Li also returned to the starting line, and the rhythm of both seemed to be affected. After starting again, according to the display on the big screen, their real-time results were about 0.2 seconds slower than that of Gao Tingyu at the same stage. Although only 0.2 seconds, this is an insurmountable gap in the 500-meter race. Sure enough, the gap between Dubreuil and Gao Tingyu was finally fixed at 0.20 seconds, and a new Olympic champion was born. Dubreuil ended up fourth, while Nihama Ritsu dropped to 20th.
“Someone told me that it was impossible for me to win the championship this time, so I just wanted to tell them, what is this?” Gao Tingyu said, raising the golden “Bingdundun” in his hand.
Four years ago, in Pyeongchang, Gao Tingyu once said that he would give the bronze medal to Liu Guangbin.
After winning the championship on the 12th, he paid tribute to the coach again.
“(Winning the championship) is indispensable for the coach’s encouragement and support. (He) has always given me hope to get the current results, otherwise I will retire after 2018.” Gao Tingyu said.