December 1, the beginning of the last month of 2021.
The end of the year is approaching, and the year is dying.
The national table tennis has good news from the other side of the ocean. The Chinese badminton team is also about to participate in the World Championships. The Chinese sports world is still racing against time...
But most people may never remember that this day is also the birthday of Sun Yang, a famous Chinese swimmer.
This name has become a special anchor that seems to fade slightly in the memory of sports fans.
Two years ago, Sun Yang and his father appeared together at the home court of CBA Beijing Shougang and "linked" with the stars Jeremy Lin and Yi Jianlian. He said: "This birthday is a commemorative surprise and unforgettable."
Two years later, Sun Yang's personal Weibo had no other dynamics except the birthday message automatically released by the system.
This year, he only proactively released news about himself on the first day of the new year.
Screenshot of Sun Yang's birthday Weibo in 2019.
Sun Yang and the "Blow Bottle Challenge"
Compared with the birthday activity in 2019 with close to 100,000 interactions, yesterday's system message interactions were only 3,000.
The comments below are still full of blessings from fans, but the popularity is far less than before.
In sharp contrast, Sun Yang is active on the short video platform.
Yesterday, Sun Yang changed the nickname of his personal short video account to "Sun Yang, let’s celebrate my birthday tonight at 9 o’clock."
On his 30th birthday, an important life node, he chose to meet with netizens online.
In the two-and-a-half-hour live broadcast, Sun Yang talked with the audience about his career, interactive Q&A, played games with the staff and delivered generous benefits.
Sun Yang’s 30th birthday was broadcast live.
As in the past, Sun Yang on the screen of his mobile phone is still cheerful and lively, and this live broadcast of 1.45 million views of his birthday is destined to be "unforgettable" for him.
In the second decade of the 21st century, Chinese swimming has undoubtedly been deeply and uniquely imprinted by Sun Yang.
People were amazed that he smashed through the waves in the water, refreshing China's speed; also because of all kinds of off-site, there was a lot of discussion.
When the years entered the third decade quietly, even though Sun Yang’s profile still wrote: “water is my DNA”, he changed his nickname and webcast when he was away from the swimming pool. , Make funny jokes... He started to try another way and a way of living.
Sun Yang is in the game.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita
Four months ago, Sun Yang couldn't help sobbing when talking about retirement in a live broadcast on the video platform.
The Weibo topic "Sun Yang cried when he talked about his retirement" appeared on the hot search list.
With red eyes, he said that no matter when he left the pool, there would be such a day.
I want to promote swimming.
Whether it is 2024, 2028, or 2032, we all need more young athletes.
Netizens lament that the former king of freestyle can only express their aspirations in this way.
With this live broadcast as the demarcation point, Sun Yang began to gradually become active on the short video platform.
Recently, the Olympic champion, who has disappeared from the arena for nearly two years, has a new "challenge."
Two days ago, Sun Yang released a video with a very different style from the past.
In the video, he blows down all fifty empty water bottles in one go.
Sun Yang blows the bottle challenge.
This video not only attracted many Internet celebrities to follow suit and participate, but the number of views of the entry #孙杨一口气吹水瓶成功# also reached 29.54 million on the short video platform (data as of 14:00 on December 2).
The popularity remains high, but netizens’ comments point to the same name—Zhang Guowei.
"Is this in line with Guowei?" "Gradually becoming a nation" "Dominoes"...
Once, Sun Yang was a famous international swimmer on the field. Through the TV broadcast, the audience saw him jump into the water and advance through the waves like a dragon, leaving the record and opponents behind.
Today, he chooses to use short videos to show his skills in a down-to-earth manner, attracting Internet celebrities and netizens to participate and show his multi-faceted life.
But this "road" walked along, only to find one direction was spacious, "bright" and crowded.
Screenshot of Sun Yang video comment
Lin Dan and "Ten Seconds Challenge"
Last July, the world's top badminton star Lin Dan announced his retirement and started the "second half" of his life.
As a player, Lin Dan won two Olympic men's singles championships and five World Championships men's singles championships. On the court, he was domineering and decisive. After retiring, he quickly devoted himself to a new track.
"Leaving is for a better return, I am here"
100 days after announcing his departure from the stadium, Lin Dan opened his short video personal account.
The short 13-character copy complies with Lin Dan's consistent and concise style, and the characteristic of not using punctuation marks has also continued.
Lin Dan settled in Douyin.
Like many famous sportsmen entering the short video platform, Lin Dan also launched #無手接万物问题#, which attracted the participation of Joey Yung, Huang Zongze, Pan Xiaoting, Zhang Guowei and many other celebrities and sportsmen.
"I hope I can deliver something different outside the stadium. This is my attitude and a kind of spirit." Lin Dan said, "Here, my story will be seen by more people. Love knows no boundaries, and I am willing to share with them the health and happiness brought about by sports."
In the short video era, Lin Dan did not change the original intention of sharing sports health, but in front of traffic, he also created a different "Lin Dan".
A month ago, Lin Dan launched #十秒击球 challenge# on social media. He said that if anyone can hit the ball more than himself in ten seconds, he will perform "Dragon Absorbing Water" for everyone.
Unexpectedly, netizens have challenged one after another, and many people challenged and succeeded.
So Lin Dan promised to perform the famous work of high jumper Zhang Guowei-"Dragon Absorbs Water".
Lin Dan performs "Dragon Sucking Water"
In the video, Lin Dan frowned, sullenly drinking the sprayed Coke.
In the comment area, netizens called "finally cashed out", and Lin Dan replied: "It's not easy, I choked twice."
And more people are in @张国伟, hoping that he can come to "fight".
Why "Different Routes" with Zhang Guowei
Six days after Lin Dan performed "Dragon Absorbing Water", Zhang Guowei, who made his fortune on the short video platform with this technique, once again demonstrated his unique skills.
At the same time, he regained his interest in physics science after the end of the #bottle下拉棋子# challenge for nearly a month.
Zhang Guowei challenges the bottle to draw chess pieces
While healing his injuries, Zhang Guowei used the principle of “scientific popularization” of static electricity for netizens. He used magnets to swirl the water, squeezed the yolk of eggs with his bare hands... or shot funny videos and blogs fans laughed, and the enthusiasm remained.
There are tens of millions of funny videos, and Guowei alone accounts for half.
This is the secret of his long absence from the game, but maintaining a high "flow".
As the first person of the famous "dragon absorbing water" athlete in China, the high jumper has become Zhang Guowei's identity and label, and "dragon absorbing water" and funny seems to have become his main business.
Compared with the short career of their careers, more and more athletes choose to take the "fast lane" of the Internet, continue the popularity of personal IP, accumulate new popularity and open new business windows.
Fancy challenges, pretending to be passers-by to play with the crowd, shooting funny videos... Here, the athletes continue to break through the personal image of the TV and the media.
Fans are always happy, chasing and making noise.
Behind the lens, what the athletes need to pay is no easier than sweating in the training ground.
While the red hearts are lit up and forwarded again and again, the boundary between sports celebrities and Internet celebrities is infiltrated and gradually becomes blurred.
Some people say that this is a "two-way rush" between sports stars and fans, but it also "coincidentally" hits the "flow".
Perhaps it is difficult to reappear the second "Zhang Guowei", but no matter who the sports star in the video is and what kind of special skills it brings, it is difficult to "get rid of" the shadow of these three words.
Soon after updating that video, the "Long Absorbing Water" on Lin Dan's homepage disappeared, but in the comment area of each of his videos, there will always be netizens leaving a message——
"Brother Dan, does the dragon absorb water?"