Li Yan, godmother of short track speed skating: refused high salary to return to China to coach, and had a love-hate relationship with Wang Meng, a beautiful person with a kind heart

You must be happy and lucky to be able to work hard in the field you like for life. The first step in life is always very important, because it is likely to change the development trajectory of your life. As long as It is in a field that you like, even if it is very hard, you can still enjoy it. Choosing sports means that you choose competition, you choose to get used to winning and losing, and you also choose an attitude of not admitting defeat.

Li Yan was born in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province on September 18, 1966. Born on this day, God may have chosen her to win glory for the country and have a special mission and task. Because she was born in the Northeast, winters are long and there is often heavy snow. For Li Yan, skiing and skating became a childhood game. She also quickly fell in love with ice and snow sports. It was not until she was 11 years old that she began to really accept professional skiing. Sports training.

Li Yan’s ice and snow journey officially started at Mudanjiang Youth Sports School. The professional training did not make her feel tired at all. She has never complained to her parents about being tired. She is so talented. She came in second place in the national competition, and her excellent performance also impressed the coach of the Mudanjiang Sports Team, who recruited her for higher-level training.

But Li Yan’s road to ice and snow was not smooth sailing. In a game in 1984, due to being too fast in a corner, his body was unbalanced and he was thrown out of the field and hit the barrier of the field. On the board, all the muscles in the knee joint of her left leg were broken, and even the bones were exposed. She needed 47 stitches at that time. The doctor told her that it was very likely that she would have to say goodbye to the ice and snow arena, and many people around her also advised her to give up. But Li Yan persisted, and she also firmly believed that my fate was up to me, which was enough to show how much perseverance and determination this little girl had at that time.

The 21-year-old Li Yan was selected into the national training team and began to represent the national team in world competitions in the same year. From the recovery period to entering the national team, Li Yan made great efforts during this period, not only You need to overcome your injured body, but also your psychological burden. As the saying goes, when heaven is about to entrust a person with a great task, he must first work hard on his will and muscles, and Li Yan is the future ice and snow queen.

In 1988, short track speed skating officially became a performance event at the Winter Olympics. At that time, Li Yan, as the main force of the national team, won one gold and two bronze medals. In fact, in a real sense, Li Yan won The Chinese team won the first Winter Olympics gold medal in history, but as a performance event, it was not included in the total points, so it did not become the first Winter Olympics gold medal winner in history.

Li Yan, 26, once again represented the national team at the Albertville Winter Olympics. This time, short track speed skating became an official event of the Winter Olympics. Since Li Yan has passed his During his peak period, there were a lot of injury problems at that time. There were no very good sports facilities in that era to ensure that athletes could extend their peak period and win a silver medal in the Winter Olympics. Even so, it was the first in the Winter Olympics in Chinese history. Olympic medals.

Afterwards, Li Yan chose to retire and served as an assistant coach for the Chinese short track speed skating training team for two years. Later, he entered the International Finance major at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. After graduation, Li Yan worked at Dalian Local Taxation Bureau. For many people, it is very happy to be able to work in a public institution after retirement. However, Li Yan felt that this too comfortable life was not what he wanted, so he left his job to coach the local youth roller skating team.

By chance, a Slovak sports delegation visited China. When discussing with Chinese sports staff, they hoped to send a coach from China to teach abroad. At that time, someone thought of Li Yan. , Li Yan agreed to them the first time he received the call, and he started his coaching career from then on.

Li Yan, who served as the head coach of Slovakia for one year, found the enthusiasm and motivation she had as an athlete. Under her leadership, Slovakia made great breakthroughs in winter sports, unprecedented in the past. It was a breakthrough for an athlete to qualify for the competition. Li Yan was even received by the president of Slovakia at the time.

Li Yan’s coaching achievements began to attract the attention of more countries. After being spotted by the Austrian national short track speed skating team, he served as the head coach of their country and became the head coach of their country in just ten months. Austria's short track speed skating team has bounced back from a slump. In 2003, Li Yan officially coached the U.S. youth team and was promoted to the head coach of the national team in just three months. Under her training, the United States was able to compete with world-class teams such as South Korea from the second-tier team in the world. The teams matched up, officially breaking South Korea's monopoly on the event.

In 2006, Li Yan’s contract with the U.S. short track speed skating national team officially expired. Due to her excellent leadership ability, the U.S. national team offered her a high salary and wanted to retain coach Li Yan. But at that time, the Chinese short track speed skating team also issued a letter of appointment to Li Yan, hoping that he could return to China and lead the Chinese short track speed skating team out of the predicament. Li Yan did not hesitate at all, gave up the high salary in the United States, and returned to China resolutely.

Under her leadership, she trained many outstanding athletes such as Wang Meng and Zhou Yang, and helped the Chinese short track speed skating team get out of trouble. At that time, there was a quarrel between Li Yan and Wang Meng. and friction, because the two have very similar personalities and are unwilling to give in to each other. They have a great conflict of ideas on training methods and training time. Wang Meng was also suspended for half a year, and Li Yan was also very uncomfortable because she was very able to understand The feeling of an athlete not being able to compete and train normally.

Wang Meng, who returned to the national team, still refused to change his training philosophy. Although Li Yan had friction and unpleasantness with her, he did not take advantage of the situation to suppress her, but reflected on his own training. There are problems with the training methods for training athletes, and the reasonable individual needs of athletes should be met. The position of captain of the national team was given to Wang Meng, who returned to the national team, and Wang Meng was given very large individual needs.

Li Yan and Wang Meng started fighting side by side and successfully won the gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. After Wang Meng won the championship, he immediately hugged coach Li Yan to thank her and knelt down to her on the spot. Thanks, of course, this kneeling further shows the lion's admiration and gratitude to coach Li Yan. It also proves that Li Yan is courageous and powerful whether he is fighting on the field or training off the field.

The Pyeongchang Olympic Games are held in South Korea. As everyone knows, South Korea often has very dirty methods in some sports events. This Winter Olympics also allows the Chinese people to really see that China's short track speed skating has successively He was misjudged and misjudged in some events. In some strong events, he not only failed to win the gold medal, but even lost the medal. As the head coach, Li Yan faced tremendous pressure and complained to the organizing committee many times. And it didn't work out.

Under the huge pressure, Li Yan couldn't sleep well at all. If he didn't bring back a single gold medal for the Chinese people this time, it would definitely have a very negative impact on the country. Finally, Wu Dajing got rid of all the difficulties. Li Yan burst out of the hail of bullets and burst into tears. The pressure of several days was finally released, and people all over the world saw the resilience and unwillingness to admit defeat of China's short track speed skating.

Li Yan, she is the well-deserved ice and snow queen. She is also an ice and snow warrior standing on the top of the snow mountain. She is also the iron lady who truly changed the destiny of China's short track speed skating. Not only is she beautiful, she is also kind-hearted. Very kind-hearted, Li Yan is now the chairman of the Chinese Skating Association and the head coach of the national speed skating training team. This is also a new starting point in her life. I hope that the Chinese team can achieve greater success in this Beijing Winter Olympics!