Eugene, the “City of track and field”, has witnessed the struggle and persistence of too many veterans. After this world championship, Eugene had another legendary story in his memory-it belonged to Liu Hong, who was 35 years old.

Liu Hong finally ranked fifth with 1 hour and 29 points on the walking track of the world track and field championship for the seventh time. Although she failed to stand on the podium, her return showed that Chinese sports were more inclusive, the side of freedom and maturity — after the Shaanxi National Games, he changed to marathon. Two months ago, he temporarily decided to take the race again. After returning to the team, he helped the young players to stabilize their mentality.

“No matter International or Chinese, more and more athletes can still perform at the age of 36 or 7, so we can let everyone see the potential and space of us (veteran).”

In an exclusive interview with surging journalists, Liu Hong talked about the unknown story behind this brief comeback, and also conveyed the confidence and optimism of “a new generation of veteran.

“If this lifestyle can also make competitive sports better, I think it is also a good thing.” Two months ago, the women’s 20-kilometer race that decided to return to the

Oregon World Championship was arranged at 01:10 P.M. on the first match day. In addition to some sun exposure in midday sunshine, Eugene’s temperature and humidity are quite friendly compared with the “sauna day” of the Doha world championships three years ago.

Among the 36 players who finished the competition, Liu Hong was not far behind the bronze-winning sister Che Yangshi, and the fifth one crossed the finish line.

At that time, Liu Hong habitually looked at the time after the match, 1 hour and 29 minutes. Although he failed to complete the defending and even won the medal, Liu Hong, who was 3 years old, was nearly 3 minutes faster than the winning result of the last world championship.

Liu Hong, who finished the game successfully, kept smiling all the time without showing disappointment and regret. After all, for herself, this trip to Youjin was somewhat an “accident”.

“After the National Games last year, I wanted to adjust and rest for one year, so I didn’t consider any plans to participate in the walking race this year.”

Speaking of this “accident”, Liu Hong told the reporter that after the Shaanxi National Games, she followed the Yi Ju marathon club for running training in Kunming, Yunnan province, “I have been running since last winter, and I want to change the way of exercise to adjust the state.”

However, due to the epidemic, this year’s marathon season was canceled again, “by March, because domestic marathon races were basically canceled, therefore, considering that there may not be too many large-scale competitions to experience this year and Eugene’s competition atmosphere, it was only in late April that the race walking training began to resume.”

The muscle memory of Life

It is not easy for any athlete to recover to the world’s top level in more than two months. Fortunately, the 20-year life of walking race has turned the technology of walking race into muscle memory.

“The technical movements of running and walking are different, but I have been practicing walking for 20 years, so I have recovered for about a month, and I think I have achieved 70% or 80% of the level, I decided to participate in the competition.”

According to the rules of the world field federation, the defending champion can enter the final directly without occupying the three places of participating countries. Therefore, although he missed the domestic selection, Liu Hong can still lead to the world championship by virtue of the foreign card.

Liu Hong said, “The main purpose is to experience the atmosphere of the competition”, but her body is very honest-in more than two months, she has accumulated more than 500 kilometers of training. Liu Hong is in training.

In addition to the two problems of “short recovery time” and “running and moving technology conversion”, there are also two challenges facing Liu Hong: “Lower Plateau” and “inverted jet lag”.

In order to better adapt to Eugene’s competition environment, Liu Hong flew to Portland nearly two weeks earlier than Chinas track and field team and met with the Italian foreign teacher team in advance to prepare for the competition.

“I am still very satisfied with the fifth one.” In Liu Hong’s view, this special experience brought about by the “temporary decision” two months ago gave her a new understanding of her walking ability and sports state.

“If you can participate in the highest level of track and field competition, no matter what the result is, you should celebrate if you can play your own level.”

Young people just lack experience

In This Chinas track and field team women’s walking race team for the Oregon World Championship, except Liu Hong and sister Cheyang Shi, ma Zhenxia, 24, is one of the “successors” that the outside world is optimistic about.

In March this year, at the 2022 World Field Federation walking team championships held in Muscat, Oman, Ma Zhenxia won the individual gold medal in the women’s 20km project; While in the National Walking Grand Prix held in April, she won the double crown of women’s 20km and 35km race in one breath.

However, on Eugene’s track, Ma Zhenxia, who participated in the world championship for the first time, still failed to fully exert his ability, and finally ranked 10th with a score of 1 hour at 30 minutes 39 seconds.

“In terms of talent and ability, our young athletes have the qualities to become top international players, but they still need to participate more to accumulate experience.”

In Liu Hong’s view, competition is an important way to improve competitive strength, “Why did sister Che Yangshi and I make rapid progress in the past few years and keep it at a high level, that is, we have participated in many competitions abroad for a long time, so for them, there is still a long way to go.”

My story should not be defined by age

experience and self-confidence. It needs to be accumulated through more actual competitions. However, the stable mentality of these young athletes in international competitions, some of them actually originated from the veterans around them.

This is another reason why Liu Hong decided to return to the competition two months before the world championships-that is, as a veteran of the women’s walking team, to stabilize the military.

“We have participated in many international competitions, and we are more calm about the whole competition rules and how to adapt to the situation, so we can show some experience to young players, then our confidence in the field can also affect their mentality of the game.”

Liu Hong said that she herself grew up all the way from a young team member.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Liu Hong was just a 21-year-old general. At that time, the Chinese women’s race was at a “low ebb” in history “, however, Liu Hong didn’t have too many old players to take her forward.” At that time, I was very embarrassed when I participated in the competition. I was very scared when I stood on the court and always felt that I couldn’t.”

At that stage, it was normal for athletes to have a flash in the pan, but “veteran” was not trusted.

When athletes reach the age of 25, they are considered as “very old athletes” in many sports. If they still fail to produce high competitive results in the competition at the age of 25, then many athletes may go downhill under great pressure, and few people can stick to the age of 30.

“I have gone through that stage, and I have been insisting on it myself, and I am also changing the views of the outside world at 1.1 o’clock.”

Before the 2012 London Olympics, the 25-year-old Liu Hong once broke the Asian record, but in the Olympics, she finally failed to stand on the podium.

But Liu Hong didn’t give up at that time, “I still lasted until 2016, and then I found that I was making breakthroughs every year. Then I really felt that age was actually not a problem.”

This time, in Eugene, the 35-year-old Jamaica Star Fraser and the 36-year-old American star Felix can not only compete for gold and silver in personal projects, and it can help the team win medals, which is the best example of Liu Hong’s words. In the race history of switching life between Marathon and race walk

Liu Hong for more than 20 years, it is full of legends.

After winning the gold medal at the last moment of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Liu Hong decided to fade out of the track and field, bid farewell to the days of “ascetic monks” and choose to return to his family.

And when she chose to return in 2019, Liu Hong resolutely lived a hard and boring training life. After nearly 20 weeks of high-intensity special training, at that time, 32-year-old Liu Hong returned to the peak and achieved the title of “first person” in the 50-kilometer race.

During this year’s Eugene World Championship, guinness World Records also awarded Liu Hong two certificates, “the fastest women’s 50km race” and “the female athlete who won the most championship in the IAAF Race Challenge.

If we say that Liu Hong’s “leaving and returning” at the age of 30 is a choice that must be made at the crossroads of different stages of life; Then, her “brief comeback” at the age of 35 is more like a journey of walking, with a freer and more inclusive attitude towards life everywhere.

Just before Liu Hong chose to resume the race walking training, she had practiced marathon with her husband Liu Xue for several months. One of the important reasons for choosing running is to adjust your physical condition.

“I have been racing for 20 years, and my body has been very tired. Once I walk, I always use the same part of Force. Therefore, some parts have accumulated old injuries. If I keep training, it is easy to trigger, so I hope to use other sports methods instead to maintain the movement state.”

Liu Hong told the surging news reporter that apart from the differences in sports posture and technology, running and walking actually have similarities in terms of training time and training volume.

“In aerobic capacity training, the time is almost one and a half hours to two hours. In terms of training volume, running and walking will reach about 30 kilometers most of the time.”

It is also thanks to the commonality of these trainings that Liu Hong has always maintained the endurance foundation needed for race walking and recovered to the world-class race walking level in two months.

In the process of training and running with Yi Ju Marathon Club, Liu Hong also gained different insights.

“In the club, many are amateur players who have never been engaged in competitive sports before. Many players now treat running as a profession, their input is completely different from the state of the athletes in the professional team I have seen before.”

In Liu Hong’s own words, the dedication and self-discipline of these marathon runners are also infecting her, “running is an experience and a new challenge for me. When you change a sport, you will see the changes brought about by your efforts, and then slowly improve, which is also a kind of motivation.”

After the Oregon World Championship, Liu Hong will return to Kunming to continue marathon training.

Nowadays, Liu Hong, who freely switches between Marathon and race walking, has more possibilities. She said that she would try road running or cross-country running in the future and return to the race track at the right time.

“I will not set a clear competition target for next year or beyond now. I want to have a rest for a while, then when I have the desire to compete, I can resume training quickly and then challenge.”

Liu Hong’s current living condition is almost never seen among Chinese competitive sports athletes in the past, and Liu Hong also hopes that this concept can be passed on to more older athletes.

“Athletes of different ages have different requirements for training and competition results. For us old athletes, we should learn to enjoy life and enrich life, not all life is in training.”

Once, Liu Hong was the bearer who stood on the top of the world on behalf of Chinese sports; Now, she has become a pioneer again, exploring the infinite possibilities of athletes in the arena and life.