Zhou Guanyu
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Hao Haoyu
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the sports world has been hit hard, with major events such as the Olympics postponed or canceled, putting a damper on Chinese athletes' overseas journeys. Nonetheless, despite the recent ups and downs of events around the world, the athletes have not let that stop them. They have shown resilience on the global stage.
In this grueling battle, some athletes have reaped glory, some are still trying to chase their dreams, and others have failed to live up to expectations. However, against the backdrop of the lingering gloom of the epidemic, they have put in more effort than ever before to train and compete. As long as they wear the uniform with the national flag and fight on the world stage, they deserve our wholehearted respect.
Closed training, a challenge for the national soccer team
The list of the top 32 for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been finalized, with the Chinese men's soccer team once again missing out on the World Cup final round. The national football team drew widespread criticism after winning 1, drawing 3 and losing 6 matches in the round of 12, accumulating only 6 points. The performance of the national soccer team was indeed unsatisfactory, but considering the plight of isolated matches abroad, the national soccer team is also in a rather difficult situation.
Since January 2021, the national football team has begun a long period of isolation training and competition. 12 strong tournament until the end of March 2022, after returning to the country, the players will have to go through a "14 + 7" isolation period. In this more than a year of closed life, the national football players almost live in the field and the hotel two point one line state. Although the national team security team rented a well-equipped hotel, but the long time closed life undoubtedly has a negative impact on the players' state.
In addition, there is no fixed home field also seriously affect the performance of the national football team. During the whole 12 strong match, the national football team's "home field" is located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and there are no fans to watch the game. Compared with the other five teams, the national football team in the home field disadvantage is obvious.
There is no denying that the national football team's performance in the Top 12 is not satisfactory, but in the strength itself is at a disadvantage, coupled with the lack of home field advantage and a long period of centralized isolation, it is reasonable that the national football team failed to achieve good results.
Professional sports powering out of the country
While participating in international competitions, during the epidemic many athletes traveled overseas in their personal capacity to seek higher levels of training with a view to improving their performance. For more professionalized sports such as tennis, combat and Formula 1, going abroad became a must for Chinese athletes.
Currently, Chinese women's tennis star Zheng Qinwen is one of the best. She broke into the round of 16 in the just-concluded French Open and won the title at WTA Valencia. All of this could not be done without her unremitting efforts.
In 2020, when the epidemic ravaged the world, 19-year-old Zheng Qinwen resolutely set out to train abroad. For the past two years, she has been training for a long time in Barcelona, Spain, where Zheng Qinwen has been given more matches and opportunities to grow compared to her domestic counterparts. At this crucial stage of her growth, she gave up the comfort of her domestic environment and chose to go abroad to seek higher achievements.
Diving, gymnastics, weightlifting and other programs are our traditional strengths, domestic training conditions are superior. However, for the more professionalized sports, it is necessary to go out of the country in order to achieve results. Although going abroad for training and competitions can be plagued by epidemics, you can also get a quality training environment and higher attention that you can't get at home. Chinese sports need such athletes, who, while achieving results or making progress, will also promote the overall development of sports in China.
Paris Olympic Cycle, Teams Explore Forward
In recent months, more and more international events have resumed, posing new tests for Chinese athletes to compete. With the World Swimming Championships, the Men's Basketball Asia Cup and the Triple Basketball U21 World League coming up next, the Chinese army will be going all out to strive for good results. Under the pressure of epidemic prevention and control, the athletes will face more challenges.
At the Women's Basketball World Cup qualifier in Belgrade, Serbia, in February, the Chinese women's basketball team won three consecutive victories and advanced to the World Cup with their heads held high. However, on the eve of returning to China, a positive case was detected in the visiting team of the women's basketball team, which triggered the concern of domestic fans. But the Chinese Basketball Association reacted quickly and made plans in advance.
After the case was diagnosed, the Chinese Basketball Association contacted our Embassy in Serbia at the first opportunity to request assistance. With the efforts of the embassy, Serbia opened a green medical channel for the Chinese women's basketball team. In addition, the Basketball Association organized a team of domestic experts to conduct remote diagnosis of women's basketball girls and give professional guidance. 12 March, after the hardship of the Chinese women's basketball team departed for home.
A similar situation is with the Chinese badminton team. After the Tokyo Olympics and Shaanxi National Games, the national badminton team then went to Europe to participate in a number of games. After returning home, according to the regulations of the isolation of 21 days before "out of customs" to prepare for the World Championships, missed the three-stop tournament held in Bali, Indonesia, which had a certain impact on the athletes' competitive state.
Now, the Paris Olympic cycle has begun, "reduced" to three years, there are a large number of new people in the team, new combinations need to participate in the urgent need to earn points. Under the premise of complying with the national epidemic prevention regulations, the national badminton team needs to develop a new mode of competition and training from the perspective of preparing for the Paris Olympics. For this reason, the Chinese Badminton Association decided to set up a training camp in Chiang Mai as a transit point for the team to compete in international tournaments in the next six months. After the All England Open, some players tested positive for the new crown, the national badminton team quickly started the relevant plan to provide full support and protection for the team from the medical, psychological, life and other aspects.
