become an olympic athlete

This time, Yuzuru Hanyu only finished fourth in the event, and everyone felt a pity for him. He was completely overwhelmed by his noble performance, but Nathan Chen (USA), who won the gold medal, was not mentioned much. He also experienced more than ten years of hard work, step by step on the Winter Olympics gold medal list. It takes a lot of resources, time and effort to develop an Olympic-level athlete.

In Canada, there was also a world champion skater named Patrick Chan. He has won two Winter Olympic gold medals, won the world championship for three consecutive years (2011-14), and is regarded as the greatest skater in Canadian history. He was born in the capital, Ottawa, to parents from Hong Kong. When he was six, his family moved to Toronto, where he also started skating. Like other Canadian children, he is exposed to a variety of sports. Originally, he wanted to learn ice skating in order to play ice hockey, but he was attracted by figure skating on the way and started his ice skating career.

At first, it was purely for hobby, training twice a week, with the coaches of the community center, participating in some regional and provincial competitions, and also got to the top. When he was in middle school, he made up his mind to pursue more ambitious goals. This means that training turns into six days a week, with regular participation in provincial, national, and even international competitions. This also means that the resources put in will be a geometric progression. He needs to hire a personal trainer, ranging from some senior locals to some with international experience, and of course the price is getting more and more expensive. And the training ground has to be found by itself, and cannot share time with other people in the community center. If you want to participate in the competition, there is a registration fee, and if it is held in another city, the same cost for accommodation and transportation. Then there are the competition equipment, there are naturally several pairs of skates, and the competition clothing cannot be repeated every time, and this is only the basic expenses of the average amateur skater.

When you can win national competitions and become famous and get noticed, if you have the opportunity to represent the country in international competitions, part of the expenses may be paid by the national sports department, but some corresponding projects may be larger. For example, coaches, athletes may want to go to the next level, so they want to hire some well-known coaches, and they may also need to cooperate with the location in addition to the time. In Patrick's case, he found a coach who lived in Colorado, so he had to make a long-term round-trip arrangement, and the accommodation and transportation would cost extra. The costumes for the competition also have to be professionally designed, the music used in the competition needs to be copyrighted, and people have to be adapted to cooperate, and the entire performance process also needs the assistance of professional line dancers.

Where does the money come from, most of them are raised by themselves, and it is inevitable to have a fundraising dinner every year. He was not well-known, so some people came to him for advertising, government funding, etc. The balance was covered by his parents, and they even promised to take care of him until the end of his skating career. This part of the manpower and time is a waste of time. If he does it himself, he will lose a lot of practice time, so his parents also try their best to help. It was in this situation that the White Warriors stepped in. A Chinese business organization was willing to donate a considerable amount of money, and did not ask for any special return, just to appear more in the Chinese media, so Patrick Chan changed back to Chen Weiqun, his Chinese name. He was invited to visit China again and was warmly entertained, compared to American film and television superstars. He was also arranged to meet and talk with local skaters, knowing that they were cultivated by the state and taken care of by the state, so he didn't have to worry about funding. After returning to China, in an interview with the media, he actually said, I hope to play for China and Canada respectively, which caused an uproar.

Later, a reporter who had known him for a long time did a more in-depth interview with him, and he pointed out that he blunted that time because he felt guilty about the heavy burden of his parents supporting him, and he saw the athletes representing China. Supported by the state, so with this idea, hoping to lighten the burden on his parents, he certainly won't leave Canada. The incident subsided, but now that I think about it, in fact, this kind of united front lobbying technique is definitely not something that only happened in the past two years. In foreign countries, some people know the plight of athletes, especially the financial burden, when money is the only obstacle, and the solution is at hand, and there are more promises (endorsement of various high-end products), it is really difficult Don't think much.

Chen Weiqun retired in 2018, and no one can replace him for the time being, but Canada has always been a powerhouse in ice and snow sports. He was drawn to the sport at the time because of another outstanding skater, Elvis Stojko, whose father is Hungarian and mother is Slovenian, who fled to Canada when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and settled here. The mother loved Elvis Presley, so she named her son Elvis. He is 1.7 meters tall. He is considered tall by Europeans and Americans, but he is not light. Therefore, his skating style is relatively rough, and big movements are relatively rare at that time. And he is often accompanied by rock music, so people call him a swing skater, or even a kung fu skater, because his movements are like boxing. His outstanding style is very popular with the public, but in an international competition, he chose Queen's "Dragon Attack" for the performance. He asked himself that he was very satisfied, but the judges had reservations, and he only won the fourth place.

Since then, he has been slightly conservative in international competitions, mostly using classical music, but the selection of songs is still unexpected. In the 1994 Winter Olympics, he chose the music of the movie "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story", which extended to the struggle of an immigrant in a new country, and responded to the story of his parents. He participated in the two Winter Olympics, only a silver medal, but he has won the world championship three times. After retiring, he only attended some performances, and he could choose any song he wanted. For example, in the following paragraph, he chose Van Halen's "You Really Got Me". Does it make everyone imagine that figure skating is impossible?

Watching these personal projects, I feel that in order to highlight yourself, you must find your own position and tell your own stories and experiences, not what others imagine about you, or copy others' successful examples. Otherwise, the same thing, how to highlight yourself?