Report: China's Olympic female boxing champion returns home
2024-08-18
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China News Service, Shijiazhuang, August 17, Title: China's Olympic female boxing champion returns home
China News Service reporter Chen Lin
On the makeshift stage in the courtyard, Chang Yuan, wearing sportswear and long braids, was giving a speech at the ceremony to welcome her home. On the background board behind her was a photo of her winning the gold medal in the women's 54kg boxing final at the Paris Olympics eight days ago.
On the 17th, 27-year-old Chang Yuan returned from Beijing to her hometown, Nanzhaying Village, Xingtang County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. This was her first time to return to the place where she started her dream after becoming China's first Olympic female boxing champion.
"'Boxing' to surpass oneself and finally realize the dream of becoming an Olympic champion" "Xingtang daughters have great ambitions and strive to create brilliance" ... The more than 1,000-meter path from the main road of the village to Chang Yuan's home is full of various welcoming banners. Neighbors along the street gathered in groups of three or five to discuss the topic of Chang Yuan returning home after winning the gold medal. Near the door of Chang Yuan's home, a red carpet dozens of meters long was laid on the ground. Passing through the gate full of red lanterns, the background board with the words "Welcome Olympic champion Chang Yuan home" attracted attention.
Hundreds of people crowded around the open space of more than 100 square meters to see the Olympic champions. Many even climbed onto the rooftops to take photos and record the scene with their mobile phones or cameras. Chang Yuan was smiling on the stage, and "thank you" was one of the most frequently used words in her brief speech.
On August 17, Chang Yuan returned to his hometown. Photo by Chen Lin, a reporter from China News Service
Inside the house, Chang Yuan's parents were staring at their daughter on the stage through the glass on the window. This is a familiar scene to Chang Yuan's mother Wang Sufang. On August 9, Beijing time, when Chang Yuan won the championship in the Paris Olympics and won the first Olympic women's boxing gold medal in history for the Chinese team, Wang Sufang, crying with her face covered, told China News Agency reporters that she had visited her daughter at the training base several times during the years when her daughter was training for her Olympic dream. She had always "dared not watch her daughter training", but she would not help but go outside the door and watch her child training through the window. "Whenever she trains, I cry."
When her daughter came home after fulfilling her childhood dream, Wang Sufang, who had been watching her quietly, could not help crying again. Her husband Chang Guojun also cried. Tens of minutes earlier, as soon as Chang Yuan got home, he took off the Olympic gold medal hanging around his neck and put it on his father Chang Guojun. At that moment, this northern man who had practiced martial arts for many years, cried while holding up the gold medal high again and again.
This is a martial arts family. Chang Yuan's grandfather and father both practiced martial arts. When Chang Yuan was a child, she was first sent to a martial arts school by her father, and then to Shijiazhuang Sports School to practice Taekwondo. When the Hebei Provincial Women's Boxing Team came to the school for an exchange, Chang Yuan took the initiative to find a coach and began to practice boxing. At the Tokyo Olympics, Chang Yuan, who unfortunately stopped in the quarterfinals, once said, "I won't give up." After winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, she knelt down and kissed the boxing ring, saying in tears: "For these last few minutes today, I have waited for 15 years."
Chang Yuan gave the Olympic gold medal to her father. When the media asked Chang Guojun how he felt, he smiled with tears in his eyes and said excitedly, "I am happy. I am very excited and I just want to cry." When someone asked him if he made his daughter's favorite fish stew, Chang Guojun said a little embarrassedly, "I don't have time to make it now. If (my daughter) doesn't leave tomorrow, I will make it tomorrow."
The posters hanging on the wall of Chang Yuan's house are full of pictures of the medals she won in various competitions. Many nearby villagers took photos here. In front of the posters, Guo Mengde, a 12-year-old boy from a neighboring village, said that Chang Yuan realized her dream through hard work. He rode his bicycle here just to see "the star I want to chase." (End)
