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BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) — Just as it is stated in the new Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”, winning is never the goal of the Olympic Games, but rather persistence. It is to fight back when you fall behind, to raise high when you want to give up, and to strive for your better self.
FOR THE OLYMPIC DREAM
Lee Wen-Yi (Chinese Taipei, Alpine Skiing)
When every other athlete was rushing down the slope, Lee Wen-Yi was the only one to climb up, leaving a trail of ski prints on the snow.
It was Run 1 of the women’s slalom event at Beijing 2022, in which Lee, as Chinese Taipei’s first female Alpine skier in a Winter Olympics, started in last place but fell down and missed the third pole.
For most Alpine skiers, falling down and missing a gate in slalom usually means an abrupt end to the race. But Lee wanted more than that.
“I thought to myself: is my Olympics going to end like this? At the third pole in the first run?” the 19-year-old recalled.
As she climbed back to the red pole that had been left out, Lee received cheers from the crowds.
Despite finishing last, nearly 25 seconds behind her nearest rival, what really mattered for Lee was not winning a medal, but finishing every race to live up to her dream of taking part in the Olympic Games.
Donovan Carrillo (Mexico, Figure Skating)
Born and raised in a country where snow is rarely seen, the 22-year-old is Mexico’s first Olympic figure skater in 30 years, and the only Mexican ever to make the free skating in the Olympics.
Named after Canadian Olympic sprinter Donovan Bailey, Carrillo started training in gymnastics and diving but switched to figure skating instead and eventually fell in love with the ice.
“I felt like I was a fish in the water. I felt free and felt like I found the place where I belonged,” he said.
As Mexico doesn’t have any Olympic-sized rinks, Carrillo had to train on smaller public rinks and raise funds on his own to be able to chase his Olympic dreams.
“To my family and all Mexicans, our dream has come true,” said an excited Carrillo to the camera after his debut in the Olympics.
“Everything began with a dream. I always wanted to represent my country in one of (the) Olympics. I made it with figure skating. So, for me, the Olympics, it’s just a proof that dreams come true,” Carrillo said after finishing 22nd in the men’s single skating.
Shanwayne Stephens (Jamaica, Bobsleigh)
34 years ago, Jamaica made its Winter Olympic debut at the Calgary Games when four sprinters competed in the four-man bobsleigh and realized their Olympic dreams despite a last-place finish, which inspired the film Cool Runnings and had a huge influence on many young Jamaicans, with Shanwayne Stephens being one of them.
Now at Beijing 2022, Jamaica contested the four-man bobsleigh again for the first time since 1998, while the team only met for the first time just months before the Beijing Games and had very few resources for training.
“We created a home gym in a garden, filled that with timber, made weights of cement and buckets and stuff like that,” said pilot Stephens. “We can definitely look back and say everything we did then has helped us prepare to qualify for the Games.”
Despite finishing all four runs in last place at the Yanqing Sliding Center, the Jamaicans were still proud and honored.
“A big part of us being here is just to show people that you can achieve anything that you want to achieve if you just put your mind to it and go out there and do it,” said Stephens. “Our plan is to build on this program moving forward, getting more and more Jamaican athletes involved in the sport.”
FOR THE ULTIMATE LIMIT
Gu Ailing (China, Freeski)
As one of the very few athletes to compete in three events at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing took a historic gold medal in women’s freeski big air, which seemed to be her weakest event of all three, as the result of self-challenge.
After two out of the three runs in the final, Gu sat third after Tess Ledeux of France and Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland.
When everyone thought she would settle for a podium finish, Gu made a phone call to her mother on top of the Big Air Shougang before her final run, asking if she should drop in her signature trick of double cork 1440 to secure a silver medal.
But then she decided to “go for gold” with a trick she had never done before – double cork 1620, at the Olympic Games.
With great courage and probably a bit of luck, Gu became the second female athlete ever to land the most difficult trick in women’s big air after Ledeux and claimed gold.
Alexander Hall (United States, Freeski)
As the only skier to earn X Games gold in four different Ski disciplines, America’s Alexander Hall was seen as a strong medal contender in both men’s big air and slopestyle.
But compared to winning medals, Hall prefers to play it cool and with style.
In the big air final, Hall failed to land a 1800 trick in his first run but received 92.00 points in the second. Instead of doing a relatively safe trick to secure a podium finish, Hall decided to go for a full 2160 rotation – the most difficult trick in the men’s big air, but only got 27.00 points due to an incomplete finish, which put him eighth overall.
In the slopestyle final, Hall stomped a 1080 pretzel one in his first run, a trick which required him to halt his rotation three spins in, reverse his direction in the middle of the air and spin backwards before landing on the snow, which earned him 90.01 points to secure the gold medal and made him the oldest gold medalist in men’s slopestyle, at 23 years, 148 days old.
“That’s why I love skiing, because of the creativity and self-expression. If I only competed, I would have a lot less fun,” Hall said.
Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan, Figure Skating)
Two-time Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu is probably the most decorated figure skater of all time.
After winning all possible titles and awards, the 27-year-old’s only ambition is to successfully land a quadruple axel in competition, a dream he has had since childhood.
The jump, which requires him to spin four-and-a-half times in mid-air before landing on one foot, has never been completed cleanly by anyone in formal competitions before, let alone at the Olympics.
However, instead of playing a safe card to secure a medal, Hanyu repeated his persistent pursuit of the quad axel in the opening jump in the men’s free skate but fell on the ice, which cost him a podium finish.
After a series of injuries that almost cost his career, a fourth-place finish was considered a failure to many. But Hanyu was rather proud of his quad axel attempt as “it was the best quad axel I have done so far.”
“I kept saying that I wanted to land the quad axel. The reason for that is because the nine-year-old me that still lives inside me kept telling me ‘you have to jump the quad axel’ so that was the reason why I kept practising,” he added.
“I still want to land the quad axel.”
FOR THE FAMILY GLORY
Saba Kumaritashvili (Georgia, Luge)
12 years ago, Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled in training just hours before the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, during which he was thrown out of the track and died immediately.
His cousin, Saba, was only 10 years old at that time.
As a family with a strong luge tradition, Saba’s great-grandfather Aleko oversaw the building of Georgia’s first luge track, and later served as the country’s coach, while Saba’s father used to be president of the Georgia Luge Federation.
“I think about Nodar. I think about him all the time. Everyone in my family is in luge. After Nodar, I didn’t want luge to die in Georgia. I wanted to keep it going,” said Saba. “Nodar is one of the reasons I’m in luge. We have 10 years’ age difference, so I don’t remember much of him, only moments.”
So 12 years later, Saba participated in the Beijing Games in the same event – luge.
Despite just finishing 31st in the 34-athlete race, Saba presented the Kumaritashvili family again on the Olympic stage.
“I’m very happy,” Saba said. “I’ve done what I needed. I was emotional, I was so nervous, but I feel very proud of myself.”
Johannes Strolz (Austria, Alpine Skiing)
After winning gold in the men’s Alpine combined at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Johannes Strolz and his father Hubert became the first-ever father and son to win gold medals in the same individual event at the Olympics, as Hubert took the gold in Alpine combined and silver in giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
However, Johannes’s Beijing 2022 journey once looked impossible after he was dropped from the national team after only finishing three out of 10 World Cup races during the 2020/21 season, with a best result of 14th.
While still training hard for his Olympic dream of emulating his father, Johannes had to work as a policeman in his hometown and on his family farm to make money.
With endless effort, Johannes fought his way back to the World Cup circuit late 2021 and secured his spot on Austria’s Olympic squad after winning the slalom competition in Adelboden, Switzerland in January this year.
“I think I’m a good example of never giving up,” Johannes said. “If you believe in yourself, you have to take your chance and keep going.”
Zheng Enlai (China, Ice Hockey)
Born in Canada to a German father and a Chinese mother, Zheng Enlai is probably the least-known athlete of the family.
His grandmother, Zheng Fengrong, was the first Chinese woman to hold a world record after setting the women’s high jump record of 1.77 meters in 1957 and received the silver Olympic Order later in 1996, while his grandfather, Duan Qiyan, was the high jump champion of China’s first-ever National Games in 1959.
In 2019, Enlai and his younger sister Ninali, who competed for China in heptathlon and finished 10th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, naturalized as Chinese citizens.
Enlai competed in the men’s ice hockey event at the Beijing Winter Olympics as a defender.
“I am honored to continue the family tradition of competing for China,” he wrote on social media prior to China’s first ice hockey game. “This is the moment I’ve been dreaming about. Although the opponents are very strong, we will try our best. Let’s go!”
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