Jimu News reporter Li Ying
Intern Yang Jingya
Poster production Peng Zhi
Three weeks of flexion 180, two weeks of back flexion, and three weeks of front group 180... On the evening of August 2, Beijing time, at the Paris Bell In the women's trampoline final of the West Gymnasium, Chinese player Zhu Xueying completed her last jump in Paris with a set of difficulty coefficient 14.4. Her score of 55.51 was down from the 56.72 she scored in qualifying. During the competition, she temporarily adjusted the difficulty of her movements due to a displacement error, and ultimately ranked fourth and missed the medal.
Three years ago, in the women's trampoline competition at the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Xueying won the gold medal in the event with 56.635 points, becoming China's second women's trampoline Olympic champion after He Wenna. Three years later, fate did not favor Zhu Xueying because of her extra efforts. In the accidental sport of trampoline, anything can happen.
html She practiced gymnastics at the age of 14, turned to trampoline at the age of 10, joined the national team at the age of 15, and won the single gold medal in trampoline at the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games the following year. She became the Olympic champion at the age of 23. This was Zhu Xueying’s highlight moment, and in the following three years During the Paris cycle, she faced growing age, the pressure of defending her title and suffering from illness. In the end, at the age of 26, she still stood on the field of the Paris Olympics.After the game, Zhu Xueying said in an interview that she did not defeat herself in the final, but she still has the courage to fight again. "Although I am not sure whether my physical condition can persist, but I will work hard to try and challenge again."
Zhu Xueying Participating in the Paris Olympics (Source: Xinhuanet)
Started with gymnastics
Before becoming a trampoline champion, Zhu Xueying was a gymnast.
Zhu Xueying was born in Shijingshan District, Beijing in 1998. In 2002, on her 4th birthday, her mother Chen Hairu took her to the Shijingshan Amateur Sports School in Beijing. Her mother thought at the time that practicing gymnastics could improve a girl’s temperament. “I just like little girls with their hair in a bun and their small breasts.” "Jinger."
This was Zhu Xueying's first experience with gymnastics, and she quickly showed her talent. Chen Hairu said that during the first class, the coach noticed Xueying’s physical advantages. She had a well-proportioned figure, flexible limbs, and good physical fitness. "She was the youngest among the group of children at that time." Zhu Xueying's first coach Ma Wenjun recalled, "She has good physical coordination, especially the explosive power of her lower limbs. It does not mean that her strength is absolutely strong, but the moment she exerts her strength It feels very good.”
Zhu Xueying is highly motivated and quick to learn when practicing gymnastics. "She was like a child who had practiced for a long time in her first class. She was not scared at all." Chen Hairu said, while Ma Wenjun noticed that Xueying was quiet and reticent, but had strong observation and learning abilities. When other team members successfully completed a certain action, she watched carefully. When the coach explained the essentials of the action to other team members, she also stared at it.
Zhu Xueying and her coach when she was a child (Source: Zhu Xueying’s personal Weibo)
In 2005, Zhu Xueying was selected to enter the Beijing Shichahai Sports School and became a member of the Beijing Gymnastics Level 2 team. The selection conditions for gymnasts are strict, and physical talent is often a threshold. In terms of physical condition, gymnastics coaches prefer athletes who are "light in weight but good in ability". This is a seemingly contradictory condition: "light in weight" requires young athletes to be thinner, thinner, and have smaller frames, so that Athletes with low body weight are more likely to survive the developmental hurdles; while "good ability" represents the requirements for coordination and strength.
That year, the second-level gymnastics team selected a total of 4 athletes born in 1998 in Beijing. Anna, the coach who participated in the selection, told Jimu News that Zhu Xueying was not the best in terms of physical condition. "Her upper limb strength is average, her frame is relatively large, and she may be very heavy after development." However, after several training observations, Anna found that Zhu Xueying's explosive power and coordination were outstanding. For example, if she was asked to do five consecutive standing long jumps, Xueying would Each time Ying jumps, the distance is farther than the last time. "This shows that the ankle is strong, explosive and core strength are excellent."
More importantly, Zhu Xueying has excellent learning ability and mental reaction."She is not particularly talkative, and she is the kind of person who has her own ideas. If you tell her the essentials of movements, she will listen very carefully. For example, if the first movement is not done well, she will immediately correct it in the second movement. , has a strong learning ability," Anna commented.
At Shichahai Sports School, Zhu Xueying quickly stood out. In the national children's gymnastics competition, she has successively won the championship and the top three in all-around, team, and vault events. "I took those young athletes to participate in the national children's gymnastics competition. Xueying was the only athlete who never made any major mistakes in the preliminaries and finals. She was very stable." Anna recalled.
Turn to trampoline
When Zhu Xueying was 10 years old, she made a major choice in her athletic career.
In 2008, when Xueying was transferred from Shichahai Sports School to the Beijing Professional Gymnastics Team, she was found to have a shallow crotch during a physical examination. At that time, the coach of the professional team did not recommend that she continue to practice gymnastics. "It's completely invisible from the outside. But gymnastics training is intense, and movements such as jumping steps and somersaults will use the power of the crotch. Shallow crotch fossa may cause femoral head necrosis," Anna said.
Anna valued Zhu Xueying’s talent in gymnastics and recommended her to switch to trampoline. That year, Zhu Xueying entered the Tianjin trampoline team.
Trampoline is a "branch sport" of gymnastics, also known as "air ballet". It is an activity that uses a special elastic fiber mesh surface for jumping. The mesh is usually rectangular with a cross-shaped mark in the center. Athletes use the elasticity of the trampoline to jump to a height of more than 8 meters and complete tricks such as turning, rolling and flying in the air.
For 10-year-old Zhu Xueying, the transition from gymnastics to trampoline was not a difficult one. Her experience of practicing gymnastics since she was a child has laid a solid foundation for her. More importantly, she has a strong interest in trampoline sports. When she was 4 years old, Zhu Xueying walked into Shijingshan Sports School for the first time to find her cousin who practiced gymnastics. The first time she entered the gymnastics hall, she was attracted by the trampoline. She once described it as a happy and fun feeling to jump. .
Zhu Xueying during training (Source: Zhu Xueying’s personal Weibo)
When she first reported to the Tianjin Trampoline Team, Zhu Xueying was shocked by the jumping figure on the trampoline. She fell in love with the trampoline almost at first sight. Chen Hairu recalled that on the high-speed train from Beijing to Tianjin, her daughter was extremely happy. “I have never seen her so happy.”
In the official trampoline competition, players must demonstrate a series of 10 different skills and movements. combination. Judges will award scores based on the quality of execution, level of difficulty, body control and jump height. This is a sport full of variables and suspense. Each player needs to adjust the difficulty of their movements according to their abilities and status. Higher difficulty can bring higher scores, but it also means an increased risk of mistakes. Because of this flexibility, no one can be sure of victory until the entire set of moves is completed. Therefore, trampoline athletes need quick adaptability and a stable mentality to compete.
And this is what Zhu Xueying is good at. Liu Yi, secretary-general of the Tianjin Gymnastics Association, once said that trampoline is similar to chess, shooting and other sports that do not require too much passion or emotional catharsis and are more suitable for athletes with quiet personalities. Anna also thinks so, "Trampoline and gymnastics are both on-the-spot events. There will be many disturbances on the field, including injuries, score pressure, teammates' failures, etc. The scene may also be noisy, and athletes with stable emotions are less likely to be affected. "External influences." Anna said that Zhu Xueying is an athlete with such characteristics, "She is very stable and knows herself very well."
Want to win
In the arena of competitive sports, top athletes not only need extraordinary talent and flexibility. A strong mind and a strong mentality also require an extremely determined heart that wants to win. Tennis player Li Na once wrote in her autobiography "Playing Alone": If you want to win, you must desire victory from the bottom of your heart. You must want to win very, very, very much. You must desire victory as a man on the verge of death longs for water while trudging through the desert.
When Zhu Xueying first entered the sports school, her mother and coach discovered that she had a strong competitive spirit. Chen Hairu recalled that when she first entered the closed sports school for training, every morning, in order to get up earlier than other young athletes, Zhu Xueying put on her clothes the night before. "Later, the teacher at the sports school called me and said not to let The child sleeps with his clothes on." Anna also said that Zhu Xueying rarely flinched during training or competition, and she would grit her teeth and persevere no matter how hard or tired she was. In the finals of a competition, Zhu Xueying's hand was injured and bleeding. The coach asked her if she wanted to give up. She refused and gritted her teeth and endured the entire game.
Like countless legendary athletes, Zhu Xueying showed her desire for victory and gold medals early on. In 2010, 12-year-old Zhu Xueying wrote in her qq space: "I want to become a world champion!".
June 9, 2013, was Zhu Xueying’s first day to report to the national team. There is a championship wall in the national team trampoline hall with photos and names of world champions. Looking at those photos symbolizing honor and victory, Zhu Xueying secretly vowed to hang her own photos on this wall and become one of them.
After entering the national team, Zhu Xueying began to stand out in competitions. In 2014, she won the single gold medal in trampoline at the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games. That was one of the most important gold medals in her life. At that time, a reporter asked her what dreams she had for the future? 16-year-old Zhu Xueying answered without hesitation: "Of course she is an Olympic champion!" Won the runner-up in the single event at the Arosa World Cup Series, achieving a breakthrough in the single event in international events. In the next two years, Zhu Xueying won multiple gold and silver medals at the World Championships.
Zhu Xueying won the championship at the Tokyo Olympics (picture source Zhu Xueying's personal Weibo)
Until 2021, at the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Xueying won the gold medal in the women's trampoline event with 56.635 points, becoming China's second women's trampoline Olympic champion after He Wenna. In the trampoline competition of the Tokyo Olympics, the commentator described Zhu Xueying's performance that day as "steady and graceful", "She was like a petrel, flying like a needle in the air."
Chen Hairu also I clearly remember the scene when my daughter won the gold medal three years ago. The whole family sat together in front of the TV. Zhu Xueying came out first and got a score of 56.635. Chen Hairu was still worried until the other players finished the competition and the score was about 0.3 points behind Zhu Xueying. "It was so shocking when the score came out. I jumped up immediately. "
That was Zhu Xueying's highlight moment.
Start over
Three years later, at the Bercy Arena in Paris, Zhu Xueying and another Chinese player Hu Yi took to break into the Olympic women's trampoline finals.
In the qualifying competition that ended earlier, each player had two rounds of opportunities, and the round with the highest score was included in the ranking. In the second round, Zhu Xueying successfully challenged a set of moves with a difficulty of 15.0, and scored a game-high 56.720 points. She used this jump to break out of the 16 players and advance to the first place in the qualifying round. In the final, Zhu Xueying wants to defend her title.
During the Paris cycle after the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Xueying repeatedly expressed the pressure and difficulties she faced in preparing for Paris. The first is the change in body function brought about by age. Zhu Xueying obviously feels that this cycle of training is more difficult than the previous cycle. She has clearly memorized the movements, but her body just can’t do it. “My physical condition has become very bad. I know how to do this move, but I can’t do it. It’s very frustrating at this time.” Secondly, the injury caused her serious trouble. Before leaving for Paris, she was injured again and could not move for a while. This made her unable to train for a long time, and she did not resume training until she arrived in France.
Zhu Xueying after the final (Source: Xinhuanet)
Despite the difficulties, Zhu Xueying still wants to successfully defend her title. Prior to this, in the women's trampoline event, only Canada's Rosie MacLennan had won two consecutive Olympic champions.To this end, Zhu Xueying has put in more efforts. In order to overcome the effects of age and injuries, Zhu Xueying revealed in an interview with the media before this winter training that she will aim to improve her physical fitness and aerobic capacity. When preparing for the Paris Olympics, Zhu Xueying repeatedly studied her past competition videos, looking for breakthrough points where she could stay in the air for half a second longer. But in the field of competitive sports, opportunity and luck will not favor a person because of his efforts. There was only one chance in the finals, and Zhu Xueying was the second to appear. Due to problems with her body control, she was unable to complete the 15.0 difficult set, and her displacement points were greatly reduced. She finally scored 55.510 points and ranked fourth. Another player, Hu Yicheng, also Affected by pressure, he made a mistake and ended the game early. After the ranking of
came out, Zhu Xueying's parents and uncle also fell silent at home in Beijing, in front of the media spotlight and cameras. After the game, the camera recorded Zhu Xueying crying, and Zhu Xueying's mother also wiped her tears silently in front of the TV because she felt sorry for her daughter.
Zhu Xueying’s family watched the game (photo by reporter Li Ying)
After the game, Zhu Xueying said in an interview, “I have always adhered to the mentality of defeating myself, and I will not feel pressure from others. But unfortunately, in the finals I I have not defeated myself." But then she said that she still has the courage to fight again, "Although I am not sure whether my physical condition can persist, I will try hard and challenge again."
Perhaps, how to face failure is the key. Competitive sports teach all athletes a required lesson. At the 2019 World Championships, Zhu Xueying made a major mistake due to psychological pressure. When she saw her daughter "flying" off the Internet, Chen Hairu cried uncontrollably, "At that time I said no, I am the only child, and I don't want her to practice anymore."
That was almost Zhu Xueying's sports career At the lowest point in her career, she briefly contemplated quitting, but ultimately stayed. She repeatedly watched videos of game mistakes, summarized them by herself, and trained herself to ignore the influence of external evaluation and focus on the game and every action.
After pain, failure brings growth. "As people often say, growth requires setbacks." Zhu Xueying said. Three months later at the World Cup in Azerbaijan, Zhu Xueying stood on the championship podium again.
On the eve of the Paris Olympics, Zhu Xueying set a two-year goal for herself, winning the Olympic Games and World Championships, and continuing to win gold at the National Games in 2025. Besides, Zhu Xueying wanted to visit Paris. She had been to France before for training, but because the training venue was remote, she did not have a real impression of France. "They say Paris is a romantic city, but I still want to see what Paris is like."
at 8 On March 2nd, her light figure flipped and jumped in the air at the Bercy Stadium. Even if the glory of Tokyo is not continued, this is still Zhu Xueying's Paris moment, and she still has the courage to start over.
(Source: Jimu News)
