Biting the white towel with his mouth, the 31-year-old "armless dragon" Zheng Tao "hanged" himself on the swimming pool wall, waiting for the signal gun to sound.
This scene, with Zheng Tao's 4 gold and 4 record-breaking record, accelerated its spread and became the public's memory of the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The other end of the towel is held in the hands of 61-year-old Zhang Honghu. This coach, whose "teaching age" is older than Zheng Tao's age, seemed to focus on balancing his hands when he entered the industry. If you can’t work hard, you must be stuck at his point of force.” He never noticed that his figure rarely appeared in the image materials that swept the Internet. The ones who were frozen, except for Zheng Tao, were more straightforward. The towel and his hands with blue veins.
Hidden behind the scenes, Zhang Honghu likes this state.
When talking about why Zheng Tao requires him to play in person every time he pulls, he did not mention the difficulty of the daily training of the master and apprentice. He just used "maybe it is because I have better luck" to avoid the ability to dial. The plot of moving other people's lacrimal glands.
But when it comes to athletes, his language is by no means stingy.
"Whether the first shot of Chinese Paralympic swimming can be fired depends on Zheng Tao. His performance in the three Paralympics has not lost the chain." "He is extremely self-disciplined, which makes him still have a good result even if he has a family and a room now. Progress." "He is too simple, if he is a talkative child, more people will pay attention to him"...
Even if affected by the epidemic, there were only 32 swimmers sent by my country at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, only half of the previous one, but their results were finally fixed at 19 gold, 19 silver and 18 bronze, following the two Paralympics in London and Rio. After that, he continued to top the swimming medal list.
"Among the many events of the Paralympic Games, swimming is one of the first to be included in it." From 1988, I started to be exposed to disabled swimming. In 1992, Barcelona witnessed the breakthrough of zero swimming gold medal in the Chinese Paralympic Games. The Beijing Paralympics meets its peak. By this year, he will accompany the athletes on the stadium without spectators in Tokyo. Zhang Honghu, who participated in the 8th Paralympic Games, is the one who witnessed the paralyzed swimming in China from trickle to swell.
In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily, he said that in 2008, my country put forward the slogan "Two Olympics, equally exciting". Since then, the development of sports for the disabled has undergone significant changes.
Zhang Honghu was a professional swimmer. After trying to coach the disabled swimming, he realized that the water in the pool that was stirred by his body could not only change himself, but also had the magic power to change others. Therefore, facing this group The child with folded wings, he stayed and became a "wing repairer".
After four years of coaching, Zhang Honghu led the team to participate in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games as the coach of the National Paralympic Swimming Team. It shows that the disabled sports in my country was at a relatively weak level at that time.
"In the early stages of development, conditions were limited. At that time, disabled sports were regarded as amateur training and received little attention. The team was loosely organized and training was not systematic." Zhang Honghu said that when he started coaching in 1988, the China Disabled Since its establishment, with the needs of career development, the organization and management of sports for persons with disabilities has been transferred from the State General Administration of Sports to the China Disabled Persons’ Federation. Sports centers and even training bases have been established in various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). Policies, funds and logistics guarantee Gradually perfected, the road to specialization is becoming clearer.
In the earth-shaking changes, Zhang Honghu was deeply impressed by the selection of materials.
"In the beginning, there was no funding for this, and there was no support from the national census information. I could only take the registration form of the Disabled Persons’ Federation and take the bus to various cities and cities to select team members. The daily living expenses are very small, and all expenses are only 10 yuan a day when it is difficult.” Especially in his hometown of Yunnan, the children to be selected are “hidden” in the mountains, and the roads are so rugged that “they often have to change from tractors to carriages, and finally to walk”.
In the process of selecting talents again and again, the difficulties of the disabled groups in poverty-stricken areas often exceeded his imagination. “We used to say that if you go to enroll students, you will definitely be empty when you come back.” He remembered that once he went to Dayao, Chuxiong to select talents. It took a lot of effort to send the children from all villages to the county seat. “They walked from morning to night, and no one had a meal when they came.” Zhang Honghu and his colleagues could only help solve the problem out of their pockets, “Nothing else. , Just can't bear it."
Nowadays, in addition to more convenient transportation and Internet big data to provide information basis, the progress in material selection is also due to the country’s increasing special support for disabled sports. "The biggest change is the increasing number of special education schools for the disabled. The more people with disabilities have more education, the school will concentrate the source of students and provide a path for selection." Zhang Honghu said that with the continuous expansion of the selection of materials, the original point-to-point selection of materials with a success rate of close to 100% is drifting away. While the success rate has decreased, the accuracy rate has increased. "The development of the times has allowed more people in this group to be seen, and the autonomy and selectivity continue to increase. Sports are no longer the only way for them to'change their destiny'." He found, In this context, the younger generation of disabled athletes who have chosen to join the team are more proactive in self-realization and the pursuit of breakthroughs, with a "stronger sense of mission and purity."
On August 27, Ma Jia and Li Guizhi won the gold and silver medals in the S11 finals of the women’s 50-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. However, some players filed a complaint after the game, stating that physical contact between the athletes had affected the results of the competition. After discussion by the referee team, it is decided to rematch.
"After the news of the rematch was released, many people felt sorry for them, but in our opinion, it is enough to abide by the rules of the game and adjust the state to re-enter the game. There is no need to read too much." Zhang Honghu said that sports can help the growth of the soul. The ability of people with disabilities, especially for the disabled group, “you can learn to face the various situations of life through everything on the arena, and enter society after retirement, and then you can walk the road strong and peacefully.” In other words, “must become A strong person is more likely to feel the look and sincerity you hope to get."
Two days later, Ma Jia and Li Guizhi still won the gold and silver medals in the rematch.
"Li Guizhi has been blind since she was a child, and she was completely blind, but during the whole process, she did not show any negative emotions. As long as her grades improved, she would be happy from the heart." Zhang Honghu took Li Guizhi to train for more than two years. From the first acquaintance to the present, Li Guizhi has never complained about training. He listens to books and does crafts when he is free. “Always feel full of happiness.”
The optimism of the team members moved Zhang Honghu very much. He remembered that when he first started in this industry, he did not dare to talk about their disability for fear of hurting them, but later found out that although their wounds were healed, the wounds in their hearts were still there, so he escaped. , Autism, and timidity have all appeared.
Zhang Honghu decided to try to talk to them about these untouchable scars. "First, let them overcome this psychological barrier." He said that if they can't face up to their flaws, it may be an obstacle to entering the swimming pool. "To help them build up self-confidence. This is the key to teaching disabled people to get started."
For more than 30 years, Zhang Honghu, including "Basketball Girl" Qian Hongyan, has encountered players with various disabilities. The weakest, invisible coach demonstration, it is extremely difficult for them to learn to swim. "Li Guizhi often puts two hands in the waterline and breaks at any time." For swimming, the streamline should be good, and the resistance should be small. For players, maintaining physical stability and balance is the primary problem to be solved; for players with cerebral palsy, abnormal control and technical stability are the key.
"It is necessary to formulate corresponding training methods according to the disability, almost one training method per person."
However, in Zhang Honghu’s view, technology is the second thing. How to help these disabled children through swimming is the motivation and original intention to stick to. "Actually, the number of medals and winning or losing are not that important. The important thing is to let these disabled children become self-reliant. Establishing self-esteem and self-confidence through sports training, integrating into society, and participating in social affairs on an equal footing. Watching them find self-confidence and happiness after coming out of the pool, even establishing a family, and finding a job is my greatest comfort." He added, " My team members, grandpas are all there."
Zheng Tao, who is as close to Zhang Honghu as his father and son, has also entered another stage in his life. The young man who had his arms taken away by an electric shock when he was a child once entered the swimming team because he "does not want to be a waste person", but now he has not only become a Paralympic venue. The invincible king in Shanghai has also become a role model for the new generation. What he wants to encourage most is his two-year-old and seven-month-old daughter. After winning the championship, he faced the camera and said, "I want to tell my daughter, take a good look at me. , Can swim so fast without hands."
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Liang Xuan