At the 2023 World Rope Skipping Championships, Cen Xiaolin won championships in multiple events.
Speaking of China's high-level players in the field of rope skipping, world championship champion, world record holder, Guinness world record creator... "Lightspeed Boy" Cen Xiaolin, who has many honors, is an unavoidable representative figure.
Cen Xiaolin, who was born in 2001, grew up in a rural area. Because of his frailty, he was exposed to rope skipping and gradually emerged in the competition.
At present, he has nearly 100 domestic and international championship titles and is in the golden period of professional athletes. He said that his only goal now is to win the title of "World Skipping Master".
As for the future, he wants to become a physical education teacher or rope skipping coach to train more young rope skipping athletes.
Become acquainted
Due to my frailty, I started skipping rope and my character improved, and I didn’t fall behind in my studies.
Cen Xiaolin lived in his hometown in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province when he was a child. Since his parents worked in Guangzhou all year round, he became a left-behind child. In addition, he was frail and sick, and had a somewhat introverted personality.
Before entering elementary school, his parents brought him to Guangzhou and studied at Qixing Primary School in Huadong Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou City. "At the beginning, he was not very familiar with many things. Coupled with the language difference, he didn't like to interact with others."
In order to change his physique, Cen Xiaolin once thought of learning a less confrontational sport.
But at that time, the school only had basketball teams and track and field teams that required higher physical fitness.
In the second grade of elementary school, the school began to form a skipping team. With the attitude of giving it a try, Cen Xiaolin became the first team member.
Although the threshold for skipping rope is low and does not require high physical fitness, Cen Xiaolin found that if he wanted to learn more skills, he would inevitably have to communicate with coaches and classmates. He could only force himself to speak.
As the exchanges increased, Cen Xiaolin gradually became familiar with his classmates and began to look forward to every rope skipping training session.
Technically, he also experienced a sense of accomplishment.
Just when everything was going in the right direction, he felt pressure from the other side.
At that time, Cen Xiaolin's academic performance was not very good. Rope skipping training required a lot of time, and his parents did not support him.
In addition, the basic skills training stage was very boring. After he found that his physical fitness gradually improved, he had the idea of giving up.
What made him persevere was the school's rope skipping coach Lai Xuanzhi.
Lai Xuanzhi is not good at rope skipping, but this does not affect him from becoming an excellent rope skipping coach.
When he first started to form a rope skipping team, Lai Xuanzhi found various information from the Internet, researched and created a new set of training methods.
"In order to facilitate training, he (Lai Xunzhi) lives in the school dormitory every day." Because many team members are children of migrant workers, Lai Xunzhi not only teaches children rope skipping, but also goes to some students' homes after class to help them with their homework. Improve academic performance.
"The coach often tells us that no matter how hard or tiring it is, we must persevere. Only by enduring hardship can we become a better person."
Perhaps it was because his parents were not well educated and could only do menial work to support the family, which impressed Cen Xiaolin.
In addition to training every day, he began to find time to review his lessons. These changes were noticed by his parents, who followed him and allowed him to continue practicing.
On the field
Breaking two world records in a row, the referee team repeatedly confirmed it eight times
When he first came into contact with rope skipping, Cen Xiaolin didn’t know that there were competitions in this event, and he didn’t even dare to think that he could break the world record in the future.
It all started with a rope skipping competition held in the small town of Guangzhou where he lived at the time.
It was the first rope skipping competition that the 12-year-old participated in. “There was an event that I was good at at the time that temporarily changed the action requirements. I hadn’t practiced before, and I was eliminated in the end.” Although Cen Xiaolin won the championship in other events, Cen Xiaolin Not happy at all.
From then on, he became even harder because he wanted to represent the school, the city, and even the country and win honors.
Two years later, Cen Xiaolin participated in the 2015 Asian Rope Skipping Championships held in Malaysia. It was his first time participating in an international competition and won the championship in the 30-second single swing jump event.
In November of the same year, at the first World Student Rope Skipping Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Cen Xiaolin set two world records: 110 jumps on one foot in 30 seconds and 548 jumps on one foot in 3 minutes.
Especially for the 3-minute single jump event, Cen Xiaolin did not have high expectations. After hearing the cheers from the sidelines, he saw the results displayed on the big screen, "I can't believe it. Although I have jumped out before Such a result is not stable, not to mention the fact that the venue is unfamiliar and the physical condition is not good." Due to the different counting results of many referees, the referee team watched the game video eight times before finally determining the result.
"Actually, I had participated in international competitions before, but I was still very nervous in the Dubai competition." Cen Xiaolin recalled that various factors such as jet lag, diet, and airsickness added a lot of uncertainty to that competition.
"At that time, I only had one thought, which was to try my best to complete the game no matter what."
After the game, Cen Xiaolin was nicknamed "Lightspeed Boy".
"This is a recognition of my past efforts, and of course it also spurs me to continue to improve in the future."
Off the court
If you practice breaking a wire rope in two days, the next one will always be better.
At the 2015 World Rope Skipping Championships, Cen Xiaolin completed 220 times in the 30-second single jump event, breaking the Guinness World Record.
At the National Rope Skipping Competition the following year, he completed 222 times in this event.
At the 2017 National Rope Skipping League Finals, he once again set a new record, completing 226 times in the 30-second single swing jump event.
In July 2019, Cen Xiaolin set a new world record at the Rope Skipping World Cup in Norway with 1,141 times in 3 minutes.
On December 22 of the same year, at the Huadu Gymnasium in Guangzhou, he broke the Guinness World Record for "the most double-rocking jump ropes in 30 seconds" with 105 times.
In the following years, due to special circumstances, Cen Xiaolin, who was in high school, basically did not participate in any competitions, but after returning, he still maintained his strong strength.
At the 2023 World Rope Skipping Championships held in Colorado, USA from July 15 to 24, 2023, Cen Xiaolin once again won the men's 30-second single jump championship with a score of 228 times in 30 seconds.
When asked how many trophies he had won in the rope skipping event, Cen Xiaolin couldn't answer for a while because he didn't even count it himself, but there were at least nearly a hundred champions in international and domestic competitions.
"Every trophy (medal) is a reward for every effort." Cen Xiaolin has never stopped.
In an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News, he said that no matter what competition he faces, he will take it seriously. "For me, what I care about is always to dance better in the next competition."
As for the secret to success?
He smiled and said that there is no secret, "just don't give up the basic skills."
Cen Xiaolin revealed that during daily training, he will pay special attention to basic skills and stability.
"When there is no competition, I will train six or even seven times a week, and each training time will be no less than three hours. Before the start of the competition, I will increase the amount of training." The most intense training session involved a brand new wire rope jump It stopped in two days.
Under normal circumstances, if you train every day on a wooden floor venue, the service life of the steel wire rope is about two weeks.
"Although there is no specific calculation of how many skipping ropes have been worn out, there must be hundreds."
Despite the hard training, he always finds joy in skipping.
"During the break, my teammates will organize PK games, which is quite fun."
After each game, he will also review what aspects he did not do well enough, and then strengthen the weak areas in a targeted manner, hoping to improve next time.
future
I want to be a physical education teacher or coach, my childhood dream has never changed
Among the many competitions that Cen Xiaolin participated in, the one that impressed him most was the first World Rope Skipping Championship (i.e. 2023 World Jump Rope Championships).
In addition to winning championships in multiple events, Cen Xiaolin also ranked third overall in the 30-second single jump, 3-minute single jump and individual tricks.
The player who ranks first in total score will be awarded the title of "World Rope Skipping Master". This is also Cen Xiaolin's biggest regret this time.
To this end, while taking into account racing events, he is also strengthening his ability in figure events.
"I hope to become the 'World Skipping Master' in the future."
In Cen Xiaolin's opinion, the golden age of professional rope skipping athletes is from 17 to 26 years old, and they are the best in terms of physical fitness and strength.
"I want to work harder while I'm still young. I won't be able to jump or jump fast when I get old." However, he did not set a time or performance limit for his career. "As long as the country needs it, I will do my best." Try your best to win the game.”
When he was young, Cen Xiaolin once mentioned his dream in a CCTV program, "I want to be a physical education teacher like Teacher Lai (Lai Xuanzhi) and teach children to skip rope." Now, he is studying in Guangzhou Sports Vocational and Technical College. In addition to regular courses, Cen Xiaolin is also learning knowledge related to rope skipping referees and coaches.
"My ideal has never changed. I will still choose to be a physical education teacher or skipping coach in the future."