Especially after winning medals, athletes will wear a five-star red flag for a week at the first time to express the joy of victory.
However, at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, when China's race walker Wang Liping won the women's 20km race walking championship, no one in the audience cheered her or handed her a five-star red flag. She was just hands in the air, staggering across the finish line.
What the hell is going on here? She's retired now. How's it going? In this issue, Ziya Children's Story will show you the story of Wang Liping.
I started the road of sports at an early age.
1976, Wang Liping was born in a rural area in Dandong, Liaoning. His mother works at home and his father works at a tobacco purchasing station in a coal mine. He comes from an ordinary family and lives in poverty.
However, Wang Liping's talent for sports is remarkable. Even though she has difficulties at home and often doesn't have enough to eat, she always wins the first place in every school sports meeting.
1June 1986, Wang Liping, who was only 13 years old, was selected by Fengcheng Sports School and began to learn race walking, which was also the beginning of her race walking career.
At a young age, she knew that the opportunity to be selected by the sports school was hard-won, so she worked very hard every time.
Because her stomach is not good, the high level and difficulty of training often make her vomit, but she knows that if she wants to achieve something, she must do a lot of training.
As a result of training every day, her grades have also become excellent. Wang Kui, a famous coach, valued Wang Liping's special endurance in training, which made her stay in Liaoning team and become classmates with Chen and Liu Hongyu. The coach also rewarded her with a new sportswear and a pair of sports shoes.
After that training, she still threw up until she couldn't. Seven years later, her efforts finally paid off. 1997, she entered the national team through layers of selection.
But in the national team, she didn't adapt well to the new environment at first, so she didn't get excellent results in previous competitions. She just won the third place in the women's 100 km walk in the 1998 Asian Games trials and the second place in the 1999 World Cup qualifiers. At that time, it had already entered the preparation period for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and teams from all countries were busy determining the list of participants in the Olympic Games.
Wang Liping was initially ineligible for the Olympic Games. She had to sprint again to show her best performance and pass the test before she could qualify for the competition.
Fortunately, in the next three trials, she won the championship, proved her strength, lived up to expectations, successfully entered the Sydney Olympic Games and qualified for the competition.
At that time, Liu Hongyu was the main force of the national team walking race. There is no doubt that she also qualified for the Sydney Olympic Games. Media friends and audience pay more attention to Liu Hongyu than Wang Liping.
Both of them were taught by coach Wang Kui, but Liu Hongyu's performance was obviously much better than Wang Liping's. She is the holder of the best performance of women's 20km running in China, and the champion of women's 20km running in 1999 World Cup and World Championships, with the best performance 1 hour of 27 minutes and 30 seconds.
In the trials before the Olympic Games, she walked into 1 hour 28 minutes many times, which can be said to be a very good result, while Wang Liping's best result was 1 hour 28 minutes and 33 seconds, and people did not expect much of her.
No one cheered the champion, and the field was full of sadness.
In the women's 20km competition of Sydney Olympic Games, experts from all over the world gathered, and Wang Liping and Liu Hongyu have been working hard to make it to the first echelon of the team.
You know, China's track and field has been neglected for so many years because of its poor performance, and Liu Hongyu, the top seed of the Sydney Olympic Games, is under great pressure.
In such a big environment, she wants to win too much, and this mentality is very easy to make mistakes.
It is precisely because of this mentality that she soon came to the front of the team. The rules of walking race are very strict. The farther she goes in the game, the more likely she is to be targeted by the referee, the more dangerous she is, and the more likely she is to be convicted of a foul.
In the second half of the game, Liu Hongyu has been warned twice and Wang Liping once. Wang Liping has always been steady. After the red card, he slightly adjusted his tactics and retreated to the middle of the team.
Liu Hongyu, however, ignored the referee's punishment and remained at the forefront of the team. As a result, a few minutes later, four kilometers from the finish line, she was sent off because of too many red card warnings and withdrew from the competition, which was painful.
Seeing his teammates withdraw from the competition, Wang Liping thought that on the one hand, he would be more stable, on the other hand, he would hit the gold medal and realize his dream goal.
She walked slowly to the third place. At this time, the leading Italian player was sent a third red card by the referee because of irregular movements and withdrew from the game.
Wang Liping's chance came, and the final sprint was extremely thrilling. When Wang Liping tried to speed up, the referee gave her a second yellow card warning, and her last competitor happened to have two yellow cards. The distance between them is very close and they have been deadlocked.
Wang Liping has always been in the second place. Just before stepping on the line, a dramatic scene appeared. Her only competitor was mercilessly given a third red card by the referee, and she had to give up the game. Wang Liping made it to the end and naturally won the first gold medal of the Sydney Olympic Games for the China track and field team.
The original first and second place were forced to quit the competition one after another, but the first place displayed on the big screen remained unchanged, so the audience did not respond when they saw a China athlete crossing the line.
In addition, race walking is a relatively unpopular project. The audience in China was so small that there was hardly any cheering. The camera waiting for the champion was not aimed at Wang Liping, as if she appeared out of thin air. At this time, only one translator rushed forward and hugged Wang Liping excitedly.
Unfortunately, at that time, the coaches of China track and field team thought that there was no hope of winning medals, and they were all outside the stadium, which led to no one sending the Wang Liping flag, and it was too late to send it.
Therefore, Wang Liping, who didn't wear the five-star red flag, had to go around the field in hands in the air. She can feel embarrassed and sad through the TV screen, and her eyes are full of tears of victory, which makes people feel distressed.
Although there are regrets, the rest of my life is still wonderful.
Even after many years, talking about this scene again, she also bluntly said that it was the biggest regret not to wear the national flag after winning the championship.
Although some people think that this gold medal is suspected of "letting", the fact is that Wang Liping won her own Olympic gold medal in the women's 20km race.
There is some luck in this, but it is inevitable in top international competitions, more because of her strong strength accumulated through years of hard work and her quality of staying calm in times of crisis.
She proved herself powerfully with this gold medal, and proved that China is the real champion of race walking.
Wang Liping, who had already retired, first chose to study and improve himself, and then stayed in Beijing Sport University as a coach. Later, I started my own business and continued to study school management because of management difficulties.
The "Legend of the King" club she founded aims to provide professional guidance for runners, carefully create events, and achieve remarkable results in online and offline dual teaching. Now the club has become a minor celebrity, attracting more people who love sports to join.
She also has her own company. As an investor, although her identity has been constantly changing, her love for race walking has never changed, and she always hopes to help others realize their dreams with her professional knowledge.
Wang Liping made continuous progress in his studies and created extraordinary things through his efforts. She has been encouraging herself to keep moving forward with the indomitable spirit of athletes.
She won the supreme honor for her motherland with excellent results, and let the whole world see the elegant demeanor of China people. Even though she has some regrets, she is still good. She is still a Chinese son and daughter who won glory for her country.
After retiring, after a calm examination, she is still making contributions to the sports cause of the motherland. Have you seen the video of the Wang Liping game? What do you think of her life experience?
If you like my article, please follow me, like me and forward it. Every time you encourage me, it will be my motivation to move on.
-End-
floret