[Short track speed skating] From academic master to Winter Olympic champion

Liu Xu's brother...

It was the elder brother of Liu Xu who was surpassed by him twice in one day.

Gu Ran said in his heart: "Fuck!" But his face was as if nothing had happened, "Hello, brother."

Liu Fei was taken aback, but he didn't expect him to come up and call his brother: "Since the game with you, my brother has mentioned you every day at home."

Gu Ran nodded: "We have a good relationship."

Liu Fei laughed and said, "He said he was overwhelmed by you."

Gu Ran's expression remained unchanged: "He was joking."

"He also said that you are a genius, and you have only practiced short track speed skating for less than a year."

"Yes, yes!" Gu Ran put a sheath on the skates and walked out of the ice rink, "It's been a year and two months."

For a while, Liu Fei didn't know whether he was modest or Versailles, so he waved his big hand and patted him on the shoulder twice: "It is impossible to catch up with me and Ren Yongjie without some real skills. Look forward to playing against you again in the final."

Gu Ran laughed awkwardly, wanting to say that the preliminaries would cost him half his life, and there was a high probability that he would not make it to the finals.

At this time, the results came out on the big screen.

Liu Fei and that Ren Yongjie ranked first and second, and Gu Ran ranked third with a slight advantage.

He glanced at his score, 1 minute 33 seconds 513, this score is a little faster than Chi Lang, in some slow groups he can even take the first place, but in this group of gods fighting, he only took the first place Three, you have to compare with No.3 in other groups to enter the next round.

Gu Ran sighed in her heart: "Oh, I tried my best."

When he passed by the coach command area, Xu Qing stretched out his hand and patted his head: "Don't worry, it's no problem to enter the next round with this score, return to the team!"

Gu Ran nodded, and returned to the stands with sore hands and feet.The whole person slumped on the seat.

Fortunately, he will not be required to play in the next mixed-gender relay, otherwise he is very likely to drag the team back.

Zhao Ting handed him a bottle of water: "This is just the preliminaries, why are you working so hard?"

Gu Ran smiled bitterly: "Senior sister, if I don't work hard, there will be no next round."

"Oh..." Zhao Ting sighed, "You are just unlucky, and you are in the same group as these two big guys."

Gu Ran asked curiously: "What are their backgrounds?"

Zhao Ting gave him a popular science: "Both of them are 18 years old this year, and both participated in this year's World Short Track Speed ​​Skating Youth Championships. One bronze medal and one fifth."

"Then..." Gu Ran recalled the results of the two just now, it shouldn't be the results of those who have participated in the international competition and won the ranking.

Therefore, there is only one truth-they really put their strength in the preliminaries.

The gods were fighting, and he tried his best to join in the fun.

Is there a sadder story than this?

Zhao Ting didn't pay attention to the change of expression on his face, and continued: "It's the age limit, otherwise they should go to the adult group with their strength. Many people say that they may enter the national team next year."

The Elite League will be held every one and a half months, with a total of four stations, and the last one will be around February next year.Gu Ran has already pondered in his heart whether it is possible for him to surpass the future national team members within five months.

"Idol!"

Behind the area where Province J gathered happened to be the aisle, and people kept walking back and forth.Suddenly someone shouted directly behind his seat, Gu Ran turned around and saw that it was Liu Xu.

He had just been eliminated in the 1000m heats.

Gu Ran turned around to greet him, and joked casually: "Don't call me an idol, I'm not worthy!"

Liu Xu asked anxiously, "Why are you unworthy?"

Gu Ran was a little puzzled: "Your brother is so powerful, how can you still recognize others as idols?"

Liu Xu waved his hand: "What's so good about him? When he was your age, he was not eligible to participate in the elite league."

The elite league only started to allow cross-age groups to participate in competitions this year. In the past, the age limit of the youth group was 16-18 years old, so the number of participants has increased sharply this year.

"Thank you!" Gu Ran patted his arm, "I have been comforted."

After the competition of the youth group, it is the competition of the adult group.

If we say that the youth group has a large number of people and their levels are uneven, the difference between the upper limit and the lower limit is hundreds of thousands of miles.Then the level of athletes in the adult group should be much more balanced. There are some who are particularly strong, but none who are particularly hip-stretching.

Gu Ran also saw for the first time the level of a real national team active athlete.

Although it was only the preliminaries, Gu Ran was left with a very shocking impression by the smooth gliding and the calm momentum.

Now, sitting in the auditorium, he looked at them like insurmountable mountains.

But he has always believed that one day, he will stand tall in the clouds and become the pinnacle that countless people look up to. This is the ultimate goal of competitive sports.

In the end, the results of the preliminaries and the promotion came out, and Gu Ran happened to be ranked fourth among the eight No.3s, entering the next round.

In the quarter-finals, he was lucky. Among the three opponents, there was no outstanding strength.

He was originally ranked second, and the two opponents behind him had the idea of ​​overtaking him at every corner. Gu Ran wanted to bite the opponent in front of him in terms of speed, and also had to take into account the defense of the two behind. Physically overdrawn, I can't recover today.

The first six laps of the race made him miserable, but on the seventh lap, the two behind got into a fight, one fell off the track, and the other fell behind.

Gu Ran's stretched thread loosened a little bit, followed by a slowdown, and finally entered the semi-finals as No.2.

After the game, when he came to the coach command area, Xu Qing put his arms around his shoulder and said with a smile, "Good luck."

These words made Gu Ran feel ashamed: "Only if you are not strong enough, you need luck to make up for it. Those with strong strength can crush their opponents to advance in any group."

"Who said that?" Xu Qing squeezed his shoulder twice again, as if to comfort him, "In a truly high-level game, there is no crushing. Luck is also a part of strength, so don't be too stressed."

Gu Ran shrugged: "I really don't have any pressure. In fact, the goal I set for myself before the competition was to enter the semi-finals in the 1000 meters and the final in the 500 meters. Now I have achieved half of it."

A strange smile suddenly appeared on Xu Qing's face: "Then I wish you good luck."

Gu Ran is a typical short-distance player with outstanding explosive power, and 500 meters is also his main event.For this event, he is much more confident than the 1000 meters. After all, he was the first in the group in the preliminaries and entered the quarter-finals.

The luck in the quarter-finals was also very smooth. A group of opponents who were taller than him and three or four years older than him did not show any weakness. They won the game steadily and entered the competition with the first score. semifinals.

On the second competition day, he also participated in the semi-finals of the men's and women's 2000-meter mixed relay, partnering with Liang Kexin, Zhao Ting and Gao Ziyi.

Many athletes have to participate in multiple competitions. In order to save energy, some strong teams will choose to use substitute players in the qualifying rounds, and then use the tactics of the main players in the finals.

Xu Qing also planned this way, but for the sake of stability, he did not use all four substitute players, but alternately let the two main players play with the substitute players.

Zheng Wenkang and Wu Kaize led the other two female players to skate in the quarter-finals, while Gu Ran partnered with Gao Ziyi to skate in the semi-finals.

The four of them cooperated fairly tacitly, and did not encounter any major accidents during the period, and successfully entered the finals.

In the afternoon semi-final, 1000 meters, Gu Ran was in a group with Wu Kaize and Ren Yongjie.

His senior brother was already stronger than him, plus that Ren Yongjie who was said to have won international competitions.

In the end, Gu Ran ranked third, and was eliminated without any suspense.

Immediately afterwards, in the next group of competitions, Chi Lang was worse than him, accidentally fell down, got up and insisted on finishing the competition, and finally won the fourth place in the group.

After the game, the two brothers and sisters met each other and punched each other in the chest.Don't say anything, see you in Group B tomorrow.

Xu Qing originally wanted to comfort Gu Ran, but was interrupted by Gu Ran's bold wave of his hand: "You don't need to comfort me, I still have some self-knowledge. At this stage, I will continue to work hard with this strength."

Xu Qing looked at him with a complicated expression, swallowed back what he wanted to say, and finally said: "Go and have a rest, there will be a 500-meter semi-final in a while."

Chi Lang failed to enter the semi-finals in the 500m race, and Gu Ran and Zheng Wenkang were not in the same group.

He looked through the list of people in his group, and saw the familiar name again—Liu Fei.

There is no need to think about it, with his strength, he has already secured a place to advance to the finals.Then, the remaining three people need to compete for another promotion spot.

Gu Ran took a look at the other two, one was No. 35 from Province R, and the other was from WE Club, named Meng Yuqiao.

Gu Ran thought of the little girl in the stands almost instantly, and gave her the mascot herself. She said her name was Meng Yuxin, and her brother also practiced short track speed skating. She hoped that they could compete together one day.

Man, it's been a pretty fast day.

Gu Ran remembered that the little girl named Meng Yuxin was fair, generous and beautiful.

He was a little curious, and when he was in the inspection area, he also tried to tilt his head to see what the little girl's brother looked like. Unfortunately, he kept his head down the whole time, so he didn't have a chance to see what the little girl's brother looked like.

When it was time for them to play, Meng Yuqiao had already put on the helmet and goggles. Gu Ran could only tell that he was tall, about 178-180 centimeters in length, with a slender figure, very eye-catching.

After playing, there was a track introduction on the live broadcast. Liu Fei was on the first track, Meng Yuqiao was on the second track, Gu Ran was on the third track, and the fourth track was the No. 35 from Province R.

Gu Ran noticed that the No. 35 contestant next to him glanced at them, and he could feel that that person was not looking at him, but looked past him and at another person.

That person is Meng Yuqiao.

And Meng Yuqiao just focused on arranging the helmet strap on her chin, looking forward.Suddenly, he seemed to feel the gaze from the side of him, and he also glanced this way. The gaze was cold and a little creepy.

Gu Ran, who was sandwiched between the two, was a little puzzled.

Now, the distance between the two is less than one meter. Gu Ran could clearly see his face when he was a brick. My younger sister is somewhat similar, and the siblings look exactly the same.

Although he is a handsome guy, Gu Ran can easily feel that he is a ruthless person from the cool and cold demeanor he casts.Moreover, there is a lot of hostility towards the No. 35 of the R province.

Gu Ran was very impressed with the WE club.Among so many participating club teams, WE is the one with the largest scale, the largest number of participants, and the most outstanding results.

But he really didn't know this Meng Yuqiao, and he had never seen him, and he didn't even have a big impression of him in the preliminaries and quarterfinals.

This can only explain two points, first, this person's strength is average, and second, he has kept his strength in the qualifying round.

If one had to choose between the two, Gu Ran would prefer the latter.

The referee raised his hand to signal the scene to be quiet and the game was about to begin.

The contestant stepped forward, placed the skates on the starting line, and the moment the starting gun sounded, Gu Ran reacted very quickly, rushing out like an arrow off the string.

However, someone was faster than him. The No. 35 contestant in Province R in the fourth lane moved before the starting gun fired.

The referee blew his whistle immediately, someone made a false start, and everyone was called back, and the game restarted.

Gu Ran couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He felt that he was in a particularly good state just now, especially when he set off, the starting speed was directly full.

Now I have to do it again, standing in front of the starting line, it is difficult to find the feeling just now.

Do it all over again, it's not like you haven't done it all over again.

However, just before the first bend, another moth appeared.

When the starting gun fired, the contestants began to scramble for the start, the lanes, and the corners. Gu Ran's small body was sandwiched between Meng Yuqiao and No. 35, and the two of them were desperately fighting for a favorable position. In this way, the three of them huddled together, and the innocent Gu Ran was brought down to the ground by them.

At this time, the referee blew his whistle again and recalled the re-skating.

An unremarkable semi-final, with such twists and turns, instantly raised the tense atmosphere.

The coaches in the command area on the sidelines took advantage of this time to shout at their players to let them adjust their mentality quickly.The audience in the stands couldn't help but sit up straight.

Gu Ran took a deep breath. It was the first time he encountered so many situations on the field, so that his competitive state had subtle changes.

He turned his head and glanced at the people next to him. Liu Fei still looked relaxed, as if these were nothing to him.

Meng Yuqiao glanced to the right again, and there was even a hint of ferocity in her eyes.

The number 35 on the other side also stared back unceremoniously. The moment the two people's eyes intersected, sparks flew everywhere.

Gu Ran: "..."

Why is he in the third lane, why is he caught between these two, what did he do wrong?

The race started again. This time, Liu Fei seemed to be tired of fighting in Xinshou Village. He started at a very fast speed. Before reaching the corner, he grabbed the first position and followed his own route to Slip forward.

Gu Ran was mentally prepared. Knowing that Meng Yuqiao and No. 35 were going to "fight", the sprint after the start was almost exhausting, just to rush into the curve before the two of them.

However, he only took the lead for half a lap, and at the interruption of the first straight, he was overtaken by Meng Yuqiao behind him.

When he passed by Gu Ran's left side at an extremely fast speed, Gu Ran only felt a "wow", something unknown exploded in his mind, and then quickly shattered and collapsed.

Gu Ran's whole mind paused for a moment, then became clear, and quickly accelerated the speed of pedaling to catch up again.

But Meng Yuqiao in front was very steady, following his established route without any deviation, it took a lot of effort for Gu Ran to keep up with him, let alone find an opportunity to overtake him.

The 500-meter race is not like the 1000-meter or 1500-meter race. There are many laps and many curves. The athletes can frequently overtake and reverse overtake. The later the race, the more likely there will be a change in position.

There are only four and a half laps of 500 meters, and everyone's speed has been increased to the fastest. Once the distance is widened, it is almost impossible to catch up and surpass.

At the last corner, there was not much time left for Gu Ran, he didn't care about any chance, even if there was physical contact, and he fell off the track, he still had to bite the bullet.

When he appeared in the inner lane, Meng Yuqiao was even a little surprised and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. At this moment, Gu Ran rushed forward and almost crossed the line side by side with him.

"My God, it's the number 77 of that province J again."

"Why...he always appears at critical moments!!!"