Selling seafood, being a coach, the retired athletes received applause in the short video
2024-08-14
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
They were the champions in the past.
After retirement, they have a bigger "arena" and audience, and are the champions in life.
Many people's impression of champions stays on the moment they stand on the podium. However, when the applause stops and the lights dim, what kind of life do retired athletes have?
According to the Sports Statistical Yearbook compiled by the Sports Economics Department of the General Administration of Sport of China, about 3,000 athletes retire in China every year. Statistics show that 40% of athletes usually announce their retirement after the Olympic year. During the Paris Olympics, the gold medalist in women's epee, Hong Kong player Jiang Minhui, announced her farewell to her full-time fencing career just after winning the Olympic championship. In addition, British tennis player Andy Murray, German table tennis veteran Boll, and Cuban wrestling star Mihain Lopez are also preparing to retire after the Paris Olympics.From now on, they will face completely different lives.
In recent years, more and more retired athletes have opened up a new "track". In the past year, more than 2,500 retired athletes were active on Douyin, and the number of people entering increased by 15% year-on-year.
They use short videos and live broadcasts to popularize sports knowledge, transform into national coaches, explore e-commerce income, find more possibilities in life, and encourage people to understand and love sports. In addition to winning many competition honors, they have also become "champions" in the arena of life. Live broadcast room becomes new arena When Fan Zhendong won the men's table tennis singles championship at the Paris Olympics, former national table tennis player Guo Yan excitedly stood up from her chair in the live broadcast room, with countless colored paper and sequins scattered on her hair and clothes. She has won many world championships and had three chances to compete in the Olympics, but she missed them all. This time, Guo Yan wore a red sportswear like she did on the field, but she became a commentator for table tennis events. On the background of her Douyin live broadcast room, it was written "Let's go to Paris and pursue our dreams on the field." Last year, Guo Yan mentioned in her Douyin account the "game she least wanted to recall in her career." It was 13 years ago, in the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships, when she, then ranked second in the world, lost to Liu Shiwen. After the game, she locked herself in her room for three days to digest this "biggest blow in her career." "If I can make it to the finals, I think I will definitely be able to play in the Olympics. This has been my dream for many years. I didn't participate in the previous two Olympics, so I have the best hope for the last one," said Guo Yan. Unfortunately, the last chance was missed. After retiring, Guo Yan could never forget the regret of not being able to participate in the Olympics, and always thought about having the opportunity to make more people fall in love with table tennis. Since 2019, she has opened a new window on Douyin - teaching people how to play, commenting on competitions, and popularizing sports knowledge. As her career path expands, more and more people call her "Coach Guo". A fan sent a video of himself playing tennis: "Coach Guo, please take a look at my forehand problem." Guo Yan responded the same day. This surprised the fans, and one netizen commented: "Coach Guo really came to give guidance." Ten years after retiring, Guo Yan's playing field has become a small mobile phone screen. For the majority of middle-aged and elderly fans, her live broadcast time on Douyin is usually 7:30 in the morning. At the peak, there are 10,000 people online at the same time. One netizen told her that he is over 90 years old and is not very good at using a mobile phone, but he loves to watch her live broadcast. During this year's Olympics, Guo Yan also became a "cloud commentator" for table tennis events. She would watch the games with everyone in the live broadcast room, and would also post short videos to explain the players' technical points and comment on the lineups of various countries. Netizens gave thumbs up: "I admire Guo Yan's commentary the most" and "Guo Yan's commentary is very clear and accurate"... During the Olympics, Guo Yan's most popular short video has received more than 200,000 likes. In the new window of Douyin, Guo Yan has more opportunities to show her abilities and charm to the public, which to a certain extent makes up for her regret of missing the Olympics three times. Li Yuanyuan has the same regret as Guo Yan. During her 11 years in service, this former disabled cyclist won 46 medals, broke the world record twice, and stood on the world championship podium three times, but she regrets not having participated in the Paralympics. The prefix of her Douyin account name is "Unpopular Champion". In 2012, Li Yuanyuan officially retired. Her career as an athlete gave her the courage to fight and some prize money, but because she had been training in the team since she was young, had a low level of education, and had a disability in her right leg, it was not easy for her to find a job. The title of world champion gradually slipped away from her in real life. She worked as a waitress, telephone operator, and clothing salesperson, trying 20 or 30 jobs. She wanted to use her experience as an athlete to start a cycling club in the county, but because she lacked connections, it was difficult to attract investment. Later, because of her son's medical treatment and her husband's job search, she was in debt. Later, she turned her attention to short video platforms, taught herself e-commerce operation knowledge, and sold seafood from her hometown on Douyin. At first, she just recorded her daily life of buying and selling goods. In the camera, she loves to smile and is strong. She often carries 200 kilograms of seafood around. In the early morning of winter at the dock, she wears a thick coat and drives a forklift to transport goods. Her simple and natural style gradually gained fans, and the number of orders also increased little by little. She began to slowly open herself up to everyone. Once, she sang a song on a fishing boat and talked about her experience as an athlete for the first time. Fans were surprised that this smiling "boss" turned out to be a world champion. Li Yuanyuan's story has touched more and more netizens, and her Douyin has become a "tree hole" for everyone to tell their life stories. Some people say that they have found long-lost strength in her account. People hope that they can break through themselves and find the strength to move forward like this champion. The live broadcast room continued to receive a lot of orders, and slowly, Li Yuanyuan paid off all her debts. Now, she has teamed up with two retired athletes, Kuai Xuetong and Luo Renjuan, to try live broadcasting and form their own "Disabled Champions Team."
According to statistics, the number of retired athletes earning income on Douyin increased by 54% year-on-year in the past year. They used their influence to help sell more than 4.32 million domestic products and more than 80,000 agricultural products in one year. "My motto is to strive to become a champion in life." Li Yuanyuan feels that she is very lucky among people with disabilities. "At least I have reached a very good node and come out of the state of inferiority. The experience of striving for the championship has also given me a better mentality, which has changed the trajectory of my life." In the past, Li Yuanyuan always hid her medals, unwilling to face the regret of missing the Paralympics. Now, she has untied this knot, and in the live broadcast room, she generously hung medals all over the background cloth. Encourage more people to fall in love with sports After getting out of trouble, Li Yuanyuan and her friends also wanted to help more people. In 2019, Luo Renjuan took over a disabled assistance center, which includes various disabled assistance services. They put the handmade products made by disabled friends on the live broadcast room. The most sold in the live broadcast room was 8,000 bars of handmade soap, far exceeding the stock. Fans suggested accepting pre-sales and letting disabled friends make the soap slowly. The income from the live broadcast room is used to pay the disabled friends. The mother of an employee with Down syndrome framed the more than 300 yuan and hung it in the living room. She told Luo Renjuan that she never thought her child would be able to earn money one day. During the peak season of seafood sales, the disabled friends at the disability assistance center will do light physical work such as packing, labeling and after-sales service. Guo Yan is also connected to the bigger world through this small screen. At the beginning, her fans were very vertical, all of whom were people who wanted to learn table tennis. After she started commenting on large-scale events, her fans gradually accumulated to more than 900,000. Previously, the most popular live broadcast was the semi-finals of the men's team of the Asian Games, with a peak of 340,000 people online at the same time. "I got into table tennis because of your commentary." Many fans said that they originally just liked a certain table tennis star player, but through Guo Yan's humorous commentary, they understood the game. Guo Yan said that the short video platform has given everyone "equal table tennis knowledge." A netizen told her, "Now many people in the county like to play table tennis, and we all follow you." This touched Guo Yan. In the past, national players could only go to counties and towns when participating in charity activities, and the table tennis knowledge points they conveyed could only be limited. Today, Guo Yan has created her own table tennis brand. In her live broadcast room, some orders come from Xinjiang, Guizhou, Yunnan, and even from the four to five thousand meters high altitude areas of Ali in Tibet. "This represents the improvement of the national sports awareness." "Let more people learn to play table tennis, like table tennis, and enjoy the joy of sports. This is what I am doing now." Seeing netizens appear in the live broadcast room on time and posting "I learned it" on the public screen is Guo Yan's greatest source of sense of accomplishment now. Many more retired athletes have found the "second arena" of their lives on Douyin. Li, the physical fitness coach of the national swimming team, was once a top player of the national synchronized swimming team. She and her teammates won the silver medal twice in Rio and Tokyo. Now, she uses short videos to share her work and training routine, including professional training, mass fitness, scientific rehabilitation, etc. Many athletes follow Li's Douyin to learn, and netizens also understand and like this niche sport through her videos. Yang Lina, who won the gold medal in the women's 200m freestyle at the World Short Course Swimming Championships at the age of 20, is now 45 years old and has 1.2 million followers on Douyin. In addition to teaching swimming, she also teaches people practical knowledge on drowning prevention. Some netizens told Yang Lina that it was because of watching her videos that they successfully saved themselves after drowning. Luo Dan, a former national trampoline athlete and two-time world team champion, is a "champion personal trainer" in Douyin's live broadcast room, and she takes netizens to do aerobics every day. She once helped her 350-pound cousin lose 170 pounds, and also helped countless fans in the live broadcast room lose weight. Yang Yang, the first Chinese Winter Olympic gold medalist, holds 59 world championship titles. After retiring, she served as a member of the International Olympic Committee and founded the charity organization "Champions Fund". Over the past 10 years, she has provided career development support for more than 5,000 retired athletes and has been exploring richer expressions of sports. Three years ago, she became a Douyin creator, popularizing ice and snow knowledge through short videos. In Yang Yang's view, in the era of short videos, retired athletes outside the top have gained more opportunities. Popularizing sports knowledge can better bring out the professional abilities of athletes, and teaching output is also an opportunity for self-improvement. "More importantly, through connecting with the public, retired athletes have assumed social responsibilities, gained a sense of value, and found a new fulcrum in life." Once upon a time, these athletes were champions on the field; after retiring, they have a bigger "field" and audience, and are champions in life.
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
Producer: Hou Xinyuan Editor: Liu Wanru
