Nakamura joke

Sprinting has also changed my life.

The story of Tao Tao appeared on Douban this spring. The story in her mouth is like this:

"A little girl from a rural area with a big college entrance examination has no money or resources. She won the best educational resources in the province by virtue of her sports expertise and excellent cultural achievements. Not only did it cost nothing, but scholarships and tournament bonuses were never broken. I transferred from the village-in-the-city primary school to the city's key primary school, specially enrolled in the key junior high school, admitted to the provincial key high school, entered the Magic Capital 985, and won the Excellence Award. Now I am studying in the top 20 in the UK world, breaking through the limitation of unbalanced educational resources and successfully attacking. "

The other side of the story is a father's keen recognition of his daughter's sprint talent, clumsy but wise persistence, rational educational choice, and constant companionship and love for more than ten years.

We were moved by the power in this story. In June+10 this year, we contacted Tao Tao and her father. In Britain, she has just completed a master's degree in sports policy management and international development, submitted her graduation thesis and traveled around Europe with friends. She told us more details of this story, about how a family should rely on hard work and wisdom instead of giving up its upward desire when it is poor. It is also about how a person thought he was selected by sports, but he was disappointed and was finally cured by the gift left by sports.

She mentioned a story that moved her in August this year, "You can't see Ye Shiwen in Tokyo". They are the same age, and she thinks the other one won the gold medal by herself. She forwarded the article to a circle of friends, with an essay: Real life begins after leaving the game.

Today, 22-year-old Tao Tao is no longer an athlete, but sports have deeply influenced her and her family. Similarly, this is a story that sports make people complete and powerful.

The following is Tao Tao's self-report:

one

When I was a child, I was in poor health, and my father would take me to move when I was free.

The winter of the first grade of primary school is very cold. He took me to the playground for a run. When he saw some little boys there, he told us to run together. Those boys are all in grade four or five, but they didn't run past me. I studied early, and I was less than 5 years old when I was a freshman. My father thinks I'm short, but I walk very fast. He thought I had a talent for running and decided to start training me.

He is a sports enthusiast and became a monk halfway. At first, he took me to do some informal training. In an alley or park, find a straight concrete road and do accelerated running, leg lifts and lunges.

I am younger than my peers, and I have never had an advantage in the competition. In the third grade of primary school, I went to the district to participate in the competition as the youngest radish head in the school team. As a result, she ran to the third place in the women's 60 meters in rubber shoes. The vice principal of the school was surprised and wanted to focus on cultivating me. My dad also wanted to find me a professional coach and took me to the city gymnasium.

The coach asked me to start him. I still slipped on the rubber track in my rubber soled shoes. Get down and stand up. As soon as I rushed out, I fell to the ground. The coach looked at me and smiled, saying that this little girl is really explosive.

In the third grade, I started training with the city sports team. Actually, I just ran behind. Many children are sent to exercise by their parents, but only my father is here every time, and I have to discuss with the coach. At first, I practiced long distance running. My dad thought I was small, fast-paced and suitable for sprinting, and gave advice to the coach. In the fourth grade, I switched to sprint.

When I was a child, I was in the newspaper.

At the beginning of training, I wore a pair of rubber-soled shoes bought from the vegetable market for five yuan, and the soles were worn out after running. The coach pointed at me and said to other big brothers and sisters, what shoes do you think she is wearing? Do you work as hard as her?

When I was in the sixth grade of primary school, the enlightenment coach recommended the headmaster of the city amateur sports school to me, saying that he specialized in sprinting. The coach gently suggested to my dad that it was time to buy me a pair of spikes for professional running. 120 yuan. In 2005, it was equivalent to two weeks' meals for my family. My dad rubbed his chin stubble back and forth with his big hand and was silent for two days. I didn't know where I got the money and bought me a pair. Red, size 35, I like it very much. I wore it until I graduated from primary school, and the toe was patched twice. Later, it was declared scrapped because the foot could not be put in. At that time, he even lost several bicycles and had no means of transportation to work.

I won the third place in the women's 60 meters in the provincial competition that year. In the first day of junior high school, I started to win the district championship, then the city champion and the provincial champion, and won the provincial championship for many years in a row. The record I set eight or nine years ago has not been broken yet.

two

When I was a child, my family was in poor condition. My mother was still working on the construction site when she was six months pregnant and was pierced by an eight-centimeter nail. My father worked in Beijing when I was born. When I was two and a half years old, my mother took me to Beijing. At that time, my mother's monthly salary was only enough to pay for my kindergarten tuition, but on weekends they would take me to Tiananmen Square to watch the national flag being raised, to Yuanmingyuan and to Wangfujing Bookstore. I like going to the bookstore best. The place in memory is clean and bright, and there are many books.

In 2003, because of SARS, we returned to our hometown, and the world around us changed from the splendor of the capital to the dilapidated countryside of the third-tier cities: dark and crowded bungalows, fighting between husband and wife and neighbors, and piles of garbage that nobody cleaned. I study in a village-in-city primary school with poor educational resources. In the first grade, there was only half a roof in the classroom. When it rained, snakes would fall from the ceiling.

My father has always wanted to find me a better school.

In the fourth grade of primary school, I don't know where he got the news that there was a track and field school team in the primary school in the city center. The coach was very good and the training was very serious. It is a characteristic school of track and field and the best primary school in our district. Everyone wants to go to school. My dad watches them train outside the railing every day after work. He has observed them for more than half a month. He encouraged me when he came home. I can go to school there one day.

At that time, there was a national movement and a small school team in the village primary school. From the third grade, every day after school, the PE teacher took us to run, even if it was training.

My father is very confident in my motor nerve, and thinks that the children trained in the downtown primary school are not as good as me. He found the coach and said that my daughter can run 8.6 seconds in 60 meters-the children in the team can only run 8.9 seconds, and asked him if he could take me to show him. The coach was cold at first and showed no interest in me. Who will believe a man who is bragging around you for no reason, right? My dad has been standing aside and not talking. It's a pity to meet people. The coach said that if your daughter can really run as fast as you said, I'll let her transfer immediately.

When I was young, I was in Beijing.

The school arranged an exam for me. As a result, a week before the exam, I had a small car accident and stayed in the hospital for a few days. On the day of the exam, I only ran 8.7 seconds. Fortunately, the coach thought I had great potential and let me transfer.

In the fifth grade of primary school, I transferred to the key primary school in that city, but I still live in the village in the city and go to school by bus every day. At that time, an underground passage was being built next to my house, which was particularly blocked every morning. Go out at 6:20, but can't get to school at 7:40. I am late every day, and my name appears on the blackboard every day. The head teacher came to talk to me many times, and my father rented a house near the school. One room and one living room are old and small, and there are many cockroaches, but it is only 15 minutes' walk from the school.

I was not used to school at first. Students are clean children in the city, wearing glasses and their parents have decent jobs. At that time, I was particularly envious of their glasses and thought myopia was a cool thing.

Every day after school, my dad would watch on the railing, write down every 100 meter I ran, and then take me home. He posted a huge line chart in my room, drawing the fastest value of each training and competition, then pointed out my problems and put forward his own suggestions for improvement.

I'm not afraid of your jokes. My dad compared me with Frazier, the 2008 Olympic women's 100 meter champion. He took me a training video and showed it to me slowly when he came back. He compared the pace frequency between us, and there was no difference. At the same time, it is 13 step. But Frazier's stride is bigger than mine. She can cross 1.9 meters in one step, and I can only cross 1.7 meters. He told me at that time that as long as I could lift 10 cm in one step, it would be the top level in China, and lifting 20 cm would be the top level in the world.

I didn't miss my culture class either. I love reading and my composition is very good. After graduating from primary school, I was specially recruited into a key junior high school. Near the senior high school entrance examination, my second uncle, who was studying PhD in Shanghai, told my dad that Shanghai was recruiting outstanding sports talents from other provinces and cities and asked my dad to take me to Shanghai to take the exam and have the opportunity to attend a high school in Shanghai.

three

After the senior high school entrance examination, I am sure that I can go to the best high school in the province. My dad probably still wanted me to go up and took me to Shanghai. The examination was conducted in Xinzhuang Training Base, where Liu Xiang is located, representing the first-class training level and coaching resources.

On the first day, I was particularly impressed with it, with many venues. The next day, I met Liu Xiang! He may have just finished training, riding a bicycle with a breakfast in his hand. I was particularly shocked. I met him once before. He came to our city to participate in the Olympic trials. The media surrounded him with long guns and short guns, and there was a sea of people At that time, I thought he was a superstar, a big star in the universe, but I didn't expect him to walk past us with bare arms.

My examiner is Liu Xiang's coach Sun Haiping, who is responsible for grading athletes. He stopped the stopwatch when I ran 100 meters and wrote an evaluation form. I ran 12 seconds, and the school coach later told me that what he wrote for me was very talented.

I won the first place in the exam and got the opportunity to go to Shanghai to study in high school. I was only 13 years old when I left home. Because my hometown school has never let people go, I entered school more than a month later than other students and lived alone in a quadruple room. Actually, I'm timid. I have been afraid of the dark since I was a child. I turn off the lights every day 10:00. I lay in bed at 9: 30, hoping to fall asleep before turning off the lights.

My classmates are all locals. I can't understand what they say. I didn't have any friends at first, so I called my parents every night. We finish school at 4: 30 every afternoon, start training at 5: 00 and practice until 7: 00, then go to dinner and study by ourselves at night. I feel very tired and lonely. I break my fingers every day and count how many days I can go back. I remember it very clearly. The first time I went, I counted it, which happened to be 999 days left after the college entrance examination. I thought, alas, how can I live for more than 900 days?

Senior one, entering the developmental stage. Eating in Shanghai is sweet, and my diet is not controlled by anyone. I probably gained weight 10 kg during that time. The coach thinks I'm fat, and often after other teammates finish training, I have to stay and continue practicing alone.

In Beijing with mom and dad

I have been practicing squats since I was a child. My thighs and gluteal muscles are well developed, and my thighs are thick. When I was a child, I hated hearing people say that I had thick legs and never wore short skirts and shorts. In high school, my coach thought my legs were thick. From his professional point of view, he may think my muscles are a little weak. Once, he said in front of the whole team that my legs were so thick that they were thicker than boys, and I was hurt.

At the same time, some traces of past overtraining have appeared.

12 years old, in order to improve leg strength, began to squat, bearing 100 kilograms. Every time I finish practicing the next day, my shoulders will swell up and I can't carry my schoolbag. I can't walk well enough to get down the stairs. Everyone has a pole, but our training is to keep hitting your pole and sprint again and again to raise the threshold of your pole. In the process of passing the pole, we will be very tired physically.

Coaches in Shanghai don't pay attention to sprint training. He used the training system of middle and long distance running to train me. Although he only runs 300 meters and 400 meters, it requires you to keep high speed all the time, which is very painful for a sprinter like me who is 60 meters 100 meters. I can't keep up with my muscles and my grades haven't improved much.

When I was a child, I was on the court.

My father comes to see me once every semester, takes the bullet train to give me a parent-teacher meeting, and spends a few days talking with every teacher, coach, even the school security guard and my aunt, hoping that they will take care of me more.

He didn't want to stay in the hotel, so he made do in the bathroom for a few nights. I was very sad when I learned about it. He comforted me that the conditions there were very good, not worse than the hotel. In order to supplement my nutrition, he bought a lot of snacks, a dozen packs of beef jerky and eight boxes of milk from the supermarket.

On a Friday night in winter, I didn't want to stay alone in the dormitory. I just sat in a daze on the school playground and waited until nearly nine o'clock to walk back slowly. When I walked to the back door, I was stopped by the security guard in the duty room. He called my name and told me to go back early in the future. It's not safe outside. I'm surprised. I don't know him at all. There are several security guards in shifts. Thousands of students come in and out of the back door every day. He shouldn't know me either. Uncle Security saw my doubts and told me that my dad had talked to them and showed them my photos. He said, little girl, you and your dad are really amazing.

four

After the summer vacation of my freshman year, I went back to the training team to meet the teacher and said, "Let's go together." As a result, the coach insisted on seeing how I practiced in Shanghai and let me compete with the people on the team at that time. Maybe I didn't warm up well. I pulled my left leg during running, and my leg can't move directly.

When my dad was away, I went home for an ice massage, thinking that I would be fine soon. After all, I am only 14 years old.

I was injured in the muscles at the back of my thigh, which sprinters rely on especially. Provide explosive force, easy to repeat after injury.

When I was a sophomore, I suffered from repeated injuries and never recovered. Other teammates' grades are going up, so I will go down. Watching my teammates train every day, I need to overcome many psychological obstacles. Many people who were not as good as me have gradually surpassed me, and I almost have a tendency to be depressed. I think sports make me miserable. I seem to be very talented, but I am always injured and can't walk.

In April of the third year of senior high school, I went to take part in the college entrance examination for physical education majors, and I didn't get ideal results. I was very depressed and stopped training, which was the end of my sports career.

After that, my dad asked me several times if I wanted to continue practicing and participate in the university sports meeting in the future. I refused, and he accepted it. I am very grateful to him.

My father and I are in Beijing.

Dad was born in the countryside and there are eight children in his family. He is the fourth child. The economic situation is not good. After graduating from junior high school, he came out to break into the society very early. But he is a very smart and diligent person. He taught himself computer and CAD, and wanted to do his own business instead of working. When he was in Beijing, he helped others install lampshades for many years, took many photos and went back to his hometown. He printed these photos into color pages, rode his bike to the construction site to publicize and said that I would do these things. If you need them, I can show you a plan, and there will be a market gradually.

I didn't have a professional coach when I was young. He went to the bookstore to buy that kind of foreign track and field sprint technical CD, showed it to me, and then analyzed with me how you saw their legs lifted, how high they were lifted, how their hips were sent, and how their arms were swung.

He always seems to see my difference. When I was four or five months old, he often ran projects outside. When he comes back every few days, he can see my changes and say that my eyes have become sensible.

He likes watching me run. He takes me to the gym after school every day and watches me practice outside. He said that I have a good sense of running rhythm, and it is particularly comfortable to see a little progress.

There are sandbags used by my father during exercise at home, and he also broke several.

Although he has high expectations for me in sports, he has always been rational about my going to school. When I was a child, after training, I often fell asleep in the back seat of my bike. They had to watch the back so that I couldn't sleep, or I would fall. Although I feel very distressed when I go home, I still let me finish my homework before going to bed.

When I was in junior high school, the provincial team came to invite me, with a subsidy of one or two thousand yuan per month. My dad thought that I went to train all over the country for 8 hours every day, and I completely lost my culture class. He resolutely refused.

Because of this, I got good grades in culture class and entered a 985 university in Shanghai to study social sports. My resistance to sports lasted for two or three years, and I couldn't watch the 20 16 Rio Olympic Games at all.

A long time ago, my dad said he wanted to see me go to Rio on 20 16. I used to really practice with this as my goal. I thought I was not far from this goal after I came to Shanghai. If I'm not hurt, it's actually possible.

At that time, there was a particularly favored girl in the team who lasted longer than me. She joined the track and field team in Shanghai and lived a life of eight hours of training and two hours of class, but in the end she also gave up and went back to the university to have normal classes. There may be hundreds or thousands of athletes in each provincial team, but how many will win the championship in the end?

five

In recent years, with the efforts of parents, my family has gradually become well-off. When I graduated from college, I asked my father to study abroad. My father agreed without hesitation, saying that "money is not a problem".

In 2020, he entered a top 20 university in Britain to study for a master's degree in sports policy management and international development. I learned a lot of new things, such as sports politics, sports society, international development, and gained a new understanding of gender equality, racial discrimination and militarism. I think in the future, maybe I can go to the international stage. My dream is the Olympic Organizing Committee, where there are few women's voices.

I keep the habit of exercising. I don't feel comfortable when I'm still. The figure has not changed, but the legs are not so thick now, haha. I watched this year's Olympic Games, the China track and field team's competition. Su and Gong, including this year's women's 4 100 meter athletes, are very close to me. When I was a child, I asked for an autograph.

At the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, Liu Xiang's photos are prominently displayed in the exhibition hall downstairs.

Chatting with my old friends, they also said that this year's Olympic women's 4 100 meter first stick is very similar to my technical movements. Simply put, the frequency is very fast and the steps are relatively small.

Occasionally, I dream that I am training, and when I run to the fastest speed, I really feel that I am going to fly, with a sense of drift and an unreal feeling.

The first time I felt this way was when I participated in a district sports meeting in the fifth and sixth grades. I was running the relay race, and there were many citizens and spectators around me. After I got the baton, I chased the third place to the first place-that's the feeling. Then the whole audience cheered for you and applauded you, saying how the little girl ran so fast. That feeling is very unforgettable.

Last month, after handing in my graduation thesis, I went to the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Liu Xiang's photo was prominently displayed in the exhibition hall downstairs. The podium of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was also placed in the venue, and many tourists stood up to take pictures. My friend asked me to stand up, but I refused. I don't think I deserve it. Even from the perspective of tourists, I don't want to. Maybe I'm afraid of being close to home. I think that position is too heavy.

There is an excerpt from Coubertin's Olympic Declaration on the wall. After I understood, I stood there for a long time:

What matters in life is not victory, but struggle;

The most important thing is not to win, but to work hard.

This sentence comforted me. Think about it carefully, I don't have the talent to that extent, thanks to the Olympics for giving me a pure and beautiful dream and a distant direction. I have tried my best to fight for it, and I have tried my best to get close to it. For a child, it is very rare to have a beautiful dream, not to mention that I have gained a lot in this process and have no regrets.

Feel good friends, help me praise it, thank you for lifting a finger!