I didn't become an Olympic champion, and

sprinting changed my life

Tao Tao's story appeared on Douban this spring, and the story in her mouth was like this:

"A little girl who was born in a rural area with a big college entrance examination, had no money and no resources, and she got the best educational resources in this province all the way by relying on her sports expertise and excellent academic performance. Not only did it cost nothing, but scholarships and tournament bonuses have not been broken. I transferred from the village-in-the-city primary school to the city's key primary school, specially recruited into the key junior high school, admitted to the provincial key high school, entered the Magic Capital 985, won the excellent prize, and now studied in the Top2 of the UK world, breaking through the limitation of unbalanced educational resources and successfully counterattacking. "

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 strength in this story. In November 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 the richer details of this story, about how a family does not give up its desire to go up when it is poor, and it is better to rely on hard work and wisdom. It's also about how a person thinks he was selected by sports, but he is disappointed and finally cured by the gift left by sports.

She mentioned a report that touched her in August this year, "Tokyo doesn't see Ye Shiwen". They are of the same age, and she thinks that it is another self who has won a gold medal. She forwards the article to a circle of friends, with an article: 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 strong.

The following is Tao Tao's self-report:

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

It was very cold in the winter in the first grade of primary school. He took me to the playground to run. When he saw several little boys there, he told us to run together. Those boys were all in the fourth and fifth grades, but they didn't run past me. I studied early, and I was less than 5 years old when I was in grade one. My father thought I was not tall, but I walked quickly. He thought I had a talent for running and decided to start training me.

He is a half-way monk. At first, he took me to do some rather informal training. In an alley or a park, find a straight concrete road and do accelerated running, leg lifts and lunges.

I'm smaller than my peers, and I've never been dominant in the competition. In the third grade of primary school, I went to the district to participate in the competition as the smallest radish head in the school team, and I ended up in the third place in the women's 6 meters wearing rubber shoes. The vice principal of the school was very surprised and wanted to focus on cultivating me. My father also wanted to find me a professional coach and took me to the city sports hall.

The coach asked me to show him a start. I still wear shoes with rubber soles, and I am particularly slippery on the rubber track. Squat down and stand up. As soon as I rushed out, I fell to the ground. The coach looked at me and laughed, saying that this little girl is really explosive.

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

When I was a child, I appeared in the newspaper

When I first started training, I wore rubber shoes with five yuan a pair from the vegetable market, and my soles were worn out after running. The coach pointed at me and said to other big brothers and sisters, look at what shoes she is wearing. Do you work as hard as her?

In the sixth grade of primary school, the enlightenment coach recommended me to the headmaster of the city amateur sports school, saying that he specializes in sprinters. The coach gently suggested to my dad that it was time to buy me a pair of spikes for professional running, 12 yuan. In 25, that was equivalent to two weeks' meals for my family. My dad rubbed his chin stubble back and forth with his big hand for two days in silence. I didn't know where to dig for 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 cap was patched twice. Later, it was declared scrapped because the foot could not fit in. At that time, he even lost several bicycles and had no means of transportation to work.

That year, I won the third place in the women's 6m in the provincial competition. By the first day of junior high school, I started to win the district championship, then the city champion, the provincial champion, and won the provincial championship for many years. The record I set eight or nine years ago has not been broken so far.

Second,

When I was a child, my family conditions were not good. My mother was still working on the construction site when she was six months pregnant, and she was pierced by an eight-centimeter nail. When I was born, my father worked in Beijing. 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 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 my memory is clean and bright, and there are many books.

In 23, because of SARS, we returned to our hometown, and the world around us ranged from the grandeur of the capital to the dilapidated villages in third-tier cities: dark and crowded bungalows, husband and wife neighbors who fought each other, and piles of garbage that nobody cleaned. I enrolled in a village-in-city primary school with extremely poor educational resources. In the first grade, the classroom was only half-roofed, and snakes would fall from the ceiling when it rained.

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

When I was in the fourth grade of primary school, I didn't know where he got the news. He said that there was a track and field school team in the primary school in the city center, and the coach was very good and trained seriously. It's a characteristic school of track and field, and it's also 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 watched them for more than half a month. He encourages me when I get home, and I can go to school there one day.

At that time, all people were involved in sports, and there was a small school team in the village primary school. Since the third grade, every day after school, the PE teacher took us for a run, which was considered training.

My father has great confidence in my motor nerves, 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 could run 8.6 seconds in 6 meters-the children in the team can only run 8.9 seconds, and asked 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 beside you for no reason, right? My dad has been standing on the side, not talking, seeing people feel pity, and the coach said, if your daughter really can run so fast as you said, I'll let her transfer immediately.

When I was a child, I was given an exam at Beijing

School. As a result, a week before the exam, I had a car accident and lay in the hospital for a few days. I only ran for 8 seconds and 7 seconds on the day of the exam. Fortunately, the coach thought I had great potential, so he let me turn around.

In the fifth grade of primary school, I transferred to that key primary school in the city, but I still live in a village in the city and catch a bus to and from school every day. At that time, the underground passage was being repaired next to my house, and it was particularly blocked every morning. I went out at 6:2 and couldn't get to school at 7:4. I was late every day, and my name appeared on the blackboard every day. The head teacher came to talk to me many times, and my dad rented a house near the school, with one room, one living room and many cockroaches, but it was only 15 minutes' walk from the school.

I was not used to going 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 father would lie prone outside the railing and watch, write down my achievements in running 1 meters every time, and then pick me up and go home. He posted a huge line chart in my room, drawing the fastest value of each training and competition, then pointing out my problems and putting forward his own suggestions for improvement.

I'm not afraid of your jokes. My father compared me with Fraser, the champion of the women's 1m in the 28 Olympic Games. He took a video of me during training 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, there were 13 steps. But Fraser's stride is bigger than mine. She can stride 1.9 meters in one step, and I can only stride 1.7 meters. He told me at that time that as long as I could improve by 1 cm in one step, it would be the top level in the country and 2 cm in the world.

I didn't miss my culture class either. I love reading, and my composition is especially good. After graduating from primary school, I was specially recruited into a key junior high school. Near the 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 for an exam and have the opportunity to attend a high school in Shanghai.

Three

After the senior high school entrance examination, I have decided to go to the best high school in the province. My father may still want me to go up and take me to Shanghai. The exam is held in Xinzhuang Training Base, which is the training base in Liu Xiang, representing the first-class training level and coaching resources.

On the first day, I was impressed by the huge number of venues. The next day, I met Liu Xiang! He may have just finished training, riding a bicycle with bare arms and a breakfast hanging from 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 super star, a big star in the universe, but I didn't expect him to walk past us with bare arms.

My examiner is Sun Haiping, the coach of Liu Xiang. He is responsible for evaluating the athletes. He pinched the stopwatch for my 1-meter run and wrote the evaluation sheet. I ran for 12 seconds, and the school coach later told me that what he wrote for me was very talented.

I got the first place in the exam and got the chance to go to Shanghai for high school. I was only 13 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. In fact, I am very timid. I have been afraid of the dark since I was a child. I turn off the lights at 1: every day, and I lie in bed at 9:3, hoping to fall asleep before turning off the lights.

My classmates are all local people. 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 4:3 every afternoon, start training at 5: and practice until 7: , 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. When I first went there, I counted it, and it was just 999 days left after I finished the college entrance examination. I thought, alas, how can I survive with more than 9 days?

As a senior one, I entered the developmental stage. Eating in Shanghai is sweeter, and my diet is not controlled by anyone. During that time, I gained about 1 Jin. The coach thinks I'm fat, and often other teammates finish training, so I have to stay alone to continue practicing.

I practiced squats with my parents in Beijing

Since childhood, my thigh and gluteus muscle are very developed, and the thigh circumference is very thick. When I was young, I hated hearing people say that I had thick legs and never wore short skirts and shorts. When I was in high school, my coach thought my legs were thick. From his professional point of view, he may think that my muscles are a little out of support. Once, in front of the whole team, he said that my legs were so thick, even thicker than boys, and I was very hurt.

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

When I was 12 years old, in order to improve my leg strength, I started to squat with a weight of more than 1 kilograms. Every time I finished practicing the next day, my shoulders would swell up and I couldn't carry my schoolbag. I can't walk very well, and I can't get down the stairs. Everyone has a pole, but our training is to constantly hit your pole, sprint again and again, and raise the threshold of your pole. In the process of crossing the pole, we will be very tired physically.

The coach in Shanghai doesn't focus on sprint training. He uses the training system of middle and long distance running to train me. Although it only runs 3 meters and 4 meters, it requires you to keep a high speed all the time, which is very painful for a sprinter like me who is 6 meters and 1 meters. My muscles can't keep up, and my grades haven't improved much.

When I was a child, my father came to see me once every semester, took the train to give me a parent-teacher meeting, and spent a few days talking with each of my teachers, coaches, and even school security guards and my aunt, hoping that they would take care of me more.

He didn't want to stay in a hotel, so he made do with a few nights in the bathroom. I was very sad when I learned that. He comforted me that the conditions there were very good, no worse than those in the hotel. In order to supplement my nutrition, he bought many snacks, more than a dozen packs of beef jerky and eight boxes of milk from the supermarket.

One Friday night in winter, I didn't want to stay alone in the dormitory, so I just sat in a daze on the school playground and waited until nearly nine o'clock to slowly walk back. 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. The back door goes in and out of thousands of students every day. He shouldn't know me either. Uncle security saw my suspicion.