After a long wait, the countdown to the summer sports event has finally come to an intense end. If we were to say which scene has been the most moving during these long years, it would undoubtedly be the moment when Wu Haiyan and Wang Frost embraced each other tightly with tears coming out of their eyes after the women's soccer team's victory in the Asian qualifying playoffs, which has become an eternal classic.
With the joy of the victory of the women's soccer team and respect for the spirit of hard work, we came to the training base on the occasion of the women's soccer team's departure, and had an in-depth exchange with the two protagonists in the picture - Wang Frost and Wu Haiyan. Talking about the future, their teammates, and their love of soccer, these two core players of China's women's soccer team showed not only responsibility and faith, but also a kind of enviable joy - a kind of pure joy originated from sports.
Honor may bring them fame and fortune, but they know that their love of sports is their motivation. The joy they derive from sports far outweighs anything that the sport itself brings them.
Soccer, my happy planet!
In Wang Frost's memory, soccer was the greatest joy of her childhood. At that time, her cousin Cao Guodong often talked about soccer in front of her, and under the influence, Wang Frost, who had a lively character, became interested in playing soccer on the vast grass.
Starting out playing soccer with her cousin, and then being spotted by Xu Yilong, the coach of Tenglong Soccer Club, at the age of 7, Wang Shuang's love for soccer was gradually ignited, and she immersed herself completely in the joy of the sport. At the time, she was small and frail amongst the taller male soccer players, but she dared to go "forward" without any protection, and never backed down from any challenge. On the field of the coed tournament, she fell down numerous times and got up immediately with a smile on her face. For her, falling is the way to improve herself.
The inspiring coach commented, "This little girl is confident, wild and has a burst of energy in her. I happened to see her playing soccer with Cao Guodong and fell in love with this child." In this way, the cheerful personality of Wang Frost thrived on the happy planet of soccer.
On the other hand, the other side of the Wu Haiyan is different, her relationship with soccer can be said to be a series of twists and turns. 11-year-old she was originally a school track and field players, due to the city games in the track and field competition achieved good results, was selected by a sports school in Hangzhou. It was not until she went to the local area that she realized that she had been chosen to play soccer.
Facing a sport she had never touched before, at first she just kicked it with a playful mindset, but kicking and kicking, it was the curiosity of soccer that was aroused in her heart. Also because soccer is a collective sport, so she began to open up with her teammates, in the interaction with other students, she has a different understanding of soccer, leaving the loneliness of her parents, the clumsiness of the first practice, unknowingly and gradually dissipated, the original sensitive personality has become cheerful. In this way, she gradually fell in love with soccer, and her happiness was constantly magnified through this small soccer ball.
As she says herself, "A girl has to have her own independent mind and then pursue what she wants to do. I feel lucky that I chose soccer, and doing something you love so much makes you happy."
Movement, it binds us together.
Her experience as a child made Wu Haiyan feel the charm of collective sports, and also planted the seed in her heart that she hoped she could also bring happiness to the people around her. In Wu Haiyan's mind, the biggest charm of soccer is the trust and support of partners. When your partner comes to catch your ball and you are willing to pass it to her, that is trust. This is not only reflected in the game, after becoming the captain of China's women's football team, Wu Haiyan has always played the role of atmosphere mobilizer, the players closely together, she said, so that everyone can really happy, the team can become stronger.
On January 3, 2020, Wuhan was sealed off due to an epidemic, so Wang Frost and two other teammates were unable to train with the team and missed out on qualifying for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Wang Frost, who was in Wuhan at the time, made a training plan for herself: there was no training ground, so she imagined the rooftop as a lawn; her training partner was not around, so she let her cousin take the place of her sister teammates. It was a painful time for Wang Frost, but it also made her realize the power of a team.
As the captain, Wu Haiyan didn't forget about Wang Frost, who was thousands of miles away, and kept giving her positive encouragement. "Haiyan kept cheering us up in every day's training and life, telling us to believe in ourselves and infecting us with a full mood all the time." Wang Frost recalled.
Having experienced the life of playing alone in a foreign country, Wang Frost is more able to realize the comfort and strength from the collective at this time. With the encouragement of her teammates, Wang Frost cherished and enjoyed the happy time of playing soccer with us even more, and fearlessly met challenges again and again. In the key matches of the Olympic qualifiers, Wang Frost cooperated fully with her teammates and scored three goals in two matches to help our team advance to Tokyo.
China's women's soccer team victory after the smile of relief is hard to come by, Wang Frost passionate post-game interview was also forwarded to the competition. The person in question talked about the game again when he said from the bottom of his heart: "This is all the result of our joint efforts, rather than relying on one person alone, we are all heroes!"
Winning is fun, losing is
Wang Frost, who has always had an unyielding spirit in her bones since she was a child, set a goal for herself when she was 22 years old - to make a name for herself abroad, just like Yao Ming, Li Na and Sun Jihai.
With this goal, she has never stopped working hard. 18 years old, she entered the national team for the first time, from the nomination of "Asia's best young women's football player", to the real "Asia's best women's football player", Wang Frost through five years of growth.
In 2013, Wang Frost was spotted by a South Korean toto team and was invited to sign for the Korean team to play abroad. Wang Frost scored 7 goals in half a year, helping her team to get the second place in the league, and she was also awarded the youngest MVP of the tournament, but after renewing her contract for another year, Wang Frost unexpectedly suffered from fatigue fracture. The injured Wang Frost watched her teammates struggle on the field, but she could only lean on her crutches and stare anxiously from the sidelines.
Faced with such a predicament, Wang Frost quietly cried and cheered herself up every night before going to bed: "I believe that starting tomorrow, you will work harder and will gradually overcome all the difficulties."
In this way, regained confidence Wang Frost began to train as hard as possible, two years later, with the team to participate in the International Cup of Wang Frost, with an injured ankle and amazing endurance, with two Marseille slalom let the world remember the "China Frost". The results and joy of all the hard work are etched in Wang Frost's memory.
Such a leap in growth led Wang Frost to step into European competition, which was the most important turning point of her year. It took her just two training sessions to become the team's mainstay, excelling in both Ligue 1 and the Champions League. But behind this glamor is the same endless hardship.
But this time she didn't cry like she always did in Korea, but faced the pressure of realizing her dream alone like an adult. Difficulty in integrating into the team, she took the initiative to change her own style of play, more retreat on the field to take the initiative to ask for the ball, but also with more running to make up for the shortcomings of the defense. Perhaps it is this unyielding energy and love of soccer in her bones that allows Wang Frost to explode with great motivation in training and on the field, and gradually, she began to reap the fruits. In the focus of the game against Lyon, Wang Frost's average running distance reached more than 11 kilometers, topping the team at the same time, but also broke their own limits.
Wang Frost's love of soccer is also reflected in Wu Haiyan, a 17-year-old who also experienced the plight of a knee injury, and the pain she had to endure in post-operative rehabilitation training was beyond imagination. Because the knee joint to press the leg during training, after surgery can not press the leg. In order to play soccer normally, Wu Haiyan forced herself to bend down. Although she was in tears when she went to the toilet after each leg press, she always thought that the pain she suffered was insignificant compared to the joy of playing soccer.
With such a first love for the game of soccer, Wu Haiyan excelled in the camp, and the fruits of all her perseverance led to her being selected as a defender for the national team.
After entering the national team, the pressure on Wu Haiyan remained high. Although her ability to fight one-on-one was outstanding, she needed to break through the technical bottleneck in receiving passes. So she gave up all distractions and focused her efforts on her weak direction. No matter how windy or rainy it was, she trained day in and day out, and thus, at the age of 21, Wu Haiyan appeared as the captain of the Four Nations Invitational Tournament, becoming the youngest captain in the history of the women's soccer team.
I thought that for professional athletes, winning is the only way to be happy, but as Wang Frost and Wu Haiyan said, sports are more than just winning and losing, it's happy when we give our best to the whole thing and get the best result.
What is sport like for you? Seriousness, pressure, tension, these are not the answers that Wang Frost and Wu Haiyan have in mind. They tell us with their own stories that sports are joyful. So, this summer which is destined to belong to sports, why don't you pick up the ticket of joy? Use sports to create your own happiness and future opportunities.
Believe in the movement.
Believe in infinite possibilities.
