Refreshing the Olympic record of the event and winning the first gold of the men’s speed skating team at the Winter Olympics——Speed skating men’s 500m Gao Tingyu wins gold
The moment he crossed the finish line, 24-year-old Gao Tingyu looked like a flash of lightning in the eyes of the audience. The distance of 500 meters took 34.32 seconds, a new Olympic record was born! In the cheers, Gao Tingyu continued to glide calmly. At this point, there are still 8 groups of players who did not play.
The audience waited with bated breath. As the players completed the game, no one could surpass this score. Won! The passionate melody of “I Love You China” sounded in the arena, and Gao Tingyu held the national flag high and ran around the field. After screaming on his back, he quietly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
On February 12, the “Ice Ribbon” of the National Speed Skating Stadium, which has been frequently recorded since the start of the competition, was frozen and downloaded into the history annals. The breakthrough of gold zero.
This heavy gold medal, since the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, generations of speed skaters have waited for 42 years. In the 2018 Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics, it was Gao Tingyu who won a breakthrough 500-meter bronze medal, opening a new chapter in Chinese men’s speed skating. At the time, he was so smug: “In 4 years, I will change the color of the medal.” Now, he really did it.
Speed skating is a race against time. In the past years, what accompanied Gao Tingyu to sleep every day was the gliding images in his mind over and over again. He started skating at the age of 8, and he devoted all his energy to the sport. Behind the strong self-discipline is the desire and pursuit of dreams.
This slow boy in life has become the “vanguard” of the Chinese speed skating team. Excellent physical fitness and amazing explosive power made Gao Tingyu stand out quickly in short-distance events, and he was among the top in the world at a young age. After the Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics, he was placed in the rising stage of his sports career, and he carried the banner of continuous breakthroughs in China’s speed skating.
However, there are always challenges and trials waiting for Gao Tingyu. During the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, his results fluctuated for a while, and he also made several mistakes on the field. The high starting point of his sports career has put him under a lot of pressure, and the troubles of injuries have increased the uncertainty. He admitted: “After many training sessions, I was so tired that I lay there and couldn’t get up.”
No matter how difficult it was, Gao Tingyu never thought of giving up. He told himself time and time again: “Good grades don’t depend on thinking, just go all out to move forward.” Day after day of high-intensity training, he never relaxes his requirements for details, and every day is like “being possessed” Watch the video of the game and study the technology. Even if affected by the epidemic, Gao Tingyu still maintains a good competitive state after being away from the international arena for more than a year.
In September 2021, in the China Cup Speed Skating Elite League men’s 500-meter competition, Gao Tingyu slid a good time of 33.83 seconds, only 0.22 seconds away from the world record. Two months later, he won the first World Cup championship of his personal sports career at the World Cup Poland Station. Proving his strength with games one after another made him “feel more and more confident”.
The speed skating men’s 500-meter event is full of strong players, and the winner of the Winter Olympics is determined in one round, and there is no room for mistakes. Gao Tingyu set a clear goal for himself, “Our speed skating foundation is relatively weak, and we need to be hard to strike the iron.” In the last two months of preparation for the battle, he kept checking and filling in the gaps and perfecting the technical details such as the start.
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, as one of the double flag bearers of the Chinese sports delegation, he proudly walked into the venue holding the five-star red flag. This honor filled him with strength, and for the second time he participated in the Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu’s eyes became more determined.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, he won the men’s 500-meter speed skating championship with a new Olympic record. Gao Tingyu, who has a “big heart”, skated his best self and let the world witness “China’s speed“. The roar after the game was full of years of hard work. The moment he realized his dream, he still had undiminished ambition, “Today’s starting speed is slower than usual, and I can still do better.”
In the two Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu made history twice. This young man who “is skating in his dreams” confessed affectionately after the game: “The gold medal is dedicated to the motherland!”
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