China News Service, Chengdu, July 5th: "The King of Difficulty" Yang Jian wins gold against the wind at the World Championships: There is always a goal that drives us forward
Reporter He Shaoqing
"We practice these movements every day, and each movement jumps 10,000 times. Finally, we show you those 6 movements on the field." According to Yang Jian, the diving "difficulty king", the control of movement accuracy is exactly the diving movement. The charm of it is that no athlete can 100% repeat the action of the previous jump, but all athletes hope that their movements will be better and better, "there is always a goal that drives us forward".
In the early morning of July 4th, Beijing time, the Budapest World Swimming Championships ended the final competition for diving.
In the final jump of the men's 10-meter platform final, Sichuan general Yang Jian overtook Japan's Yujing Ludou with a difficulty factor of 4.1, and won the 13th gold medal for the Chinese diving team at the World Championships.
After returning to Beijing, Yang Jian said in a telephone interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com that he could only score 60 points for the last jump of the final, which netizens called "the most inspiring and difficult challenge".
"I was injured once last Monday, the whole preparation rhythm was disrupted, and my competitive state declined seriously, so I didn't hold the mentality of 'must win the championship' during the game, but felt that 'I have to fight when I go to the battlefield. Fight'." Yang Jian said.
Although he won two consecutive World Championships, Yang Jian's road to gold in Budapest was not smooth sailing.
In the third jump of the men's 10-meter platform final, he fell to seventh because of a mistake in the water.
Yang Jian recalled that it was precisely because of the mentality of "fight for a fight" that he quickly calmed down, adjusted his state, and focused on the rest of the game.
"I didn't know until the end that the gold medal I won was our last gold medal at the World Championships, but the process of the competition was too concentrated, and many distractions have been thrown away."
The Budapest Swimming World Championships is the first international swimming competition in the Paris Olympic cycle after the Tokyo Olympics.
In Yang Jian's view, behind the Chinese diving "Dream Team" winning all 13 gold medals is that every athlete has worked hard with 120 points in daily training.
"This is the first international competition in the new Olympic cycle. It means a lot to us and we must go all out."
In recent years, as veterans such as Su Bingtian and Xu Mengtao have achieved good results in international competitions, "how long is the golden age of athletes" has repeatedly become a hot topic on online social platforms.
Although there is no consensus in the discussion, it is certain that every veteran has overcome many challenges such as a decline in physical fitness, low injuries, etc., and has spent unimaginable sweat in order to finally stand on the stage of international competitions.
As the oldest member of the Chinese diving team, 28-year-old Yang Jian started functional training at the hotel on the first day he arrived in Beijing.
The veteran with the "Paris Olympic dream" said frankly that functional training has been integrated into his daily life, and he will try to maintain it no matter what the environment is, because what supports him until now is the "spirit of unyielding".
"It must be cool to insist on doing one thing, no matter what the result is, I will continue to persevere." (End)