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“if i had to choose again, i would still choose swimming.

and he will still be a chinese swimmer. "

author: yu bing

sun yang cried again.

recently, swimmer sun yang choked up when he shared with students the story of his injury in preparation for the olympics in 2016.

afterwards, he wiped away his tears and continued: "no matter how many difficulties and obstacles there are ahead, you must believe that you can overcome everything and realize your dreams."

just a month ago, sun yang, who had been suspended for four years, officially made his comeback in a national swimming competition and won the championship.

sun yang, 32 years old, is the oldest active chinese swimmer. "every time i play from now on, i'm pushing the limits."

"no matter what the result is, as long as i stand on the starting platform, i have won." sun yang told the global people reporter.

after 1,680 days of absence, sun yang is back.

a difficult 4 years and 3 months

wearing a white short-sleeved top and light blue jeans, sun yang was sitting opposite the reporter, looking very relaxed. he was also very calm when talking about the suspension that once caused a sensation in the world of swimming.

· sun yang was interviewed by a reporter from global people. (photo by yang hao)

"that incident made me experience the ups and downs of human relationships, and i felt like i was 'abandoned.'" sun yang said.

in february 2020, the court of arbitration for sport ruled that sun yang failed to comply with world anti-doping agency regulations and sabotaged doping sampling, and was suspended for eight years.

later, his suspension period was reduced to 4 years and 3 months (starting on february 28, 2020 and ending at the end of may 2024). this also means that he will miss the tokyo olympics and the paris olympics.

when the final arbitration result came down, sun yang was in beijing preparing for the tokyo olympics.

before leaving the swimming training center of the state sports general administration, he told his parents and team staff: "you must believe in me. i will definitely come back in four years. please support me."

being suspended does not mean giving up swimming. after returning to hangzhou, sun yang became a "lone swimmer" without a coach or a work team.

at that time, the swimming pool at the zhejiang provincial swimming team base was being renovated, and during the epidemic, many swimming pools were closed.

he found a semi-abandoned swimming pool with no heating or electricity, and the pool water temperature was less than 20 degrees celsius. every morning, he swims here for an hour.

"the museum is very empty and windy. every time i go ashore, the cold winter wind makes me shiver." sun yang smiled and told reporters about the situation at that time.

pain, helplessness, and loneliness often troubled sun yang, and he once didn't want to talk to anyone. "my physical condition was very good at that time, but i couldn't use all my skills." he just soaked in the swimming pool and swam non-stop, until his parents were scared, fearing that his mental state would suffer.

growth is always accompanied by pain, but no suffering is in vain. sun yang told reporters that a week after returning to hangzhou, he found himself in the world of water.

he read many autobiographies of athletes, watched their interviews, and called foreign coach dennis to get positive information. "the foreign coach told me that you should train when you should train, live when you should live, and stay away from the swimming pool when you should stay away. you can't stay in the swimming pool all the time."

the coach's words inspired sun yang a lot. more than 20 years of athletic career have left many marks on his body - the cartilage of his two knees has degenerated, the cartilage of his shoulder joints has almost been worn flat, the teres major muscle on his back has been seriously strained, and there is also some strain on his waist.

"later i figured it out. i used to be too busy. god allowed me to use these four years to rest well, recuperate my body, and spend more time with my family. the meaning of life is not to be in the swimming pool all my life. every athlete will have it. it was a day of transition away from the sport, and my day came a little earlier than expected.”

for four years, sun yang's life consisted of the training center and home, traveling between two points and one line every day. "every day i tell myself that i am a professional athlete and i have to do what i have to do every day."

he made a training plan for himself and arranged a massage after training. since there was no rehabilitation practitioner, sun yang went to find a master in a foot bath shop whom he had known for many years.

"that master's skills are very good. he even repaired my paronychia before." sun yang said.

because he had been soaking in the swimming pool all year round, he had severe paronychia on his toes. the nail bed was almost cut off, and he needed 20 stitches on each of his two big toes.

sun yang began to learn to calm down and reconcile with himself. the biggest change since the reconciliation was that he no longer refused to watch swimming meets.

"because i no longer participated in competitions, and because i might be reminded of that experience, i stopped paying attention to swimming events for a while. it was not until after the tokyo olympics that i began to watch competitions as a sports fan, hoping that the athletes would achieve their ideal results. "

· sun yang conducts swimming training.

four years have passed, and sun yang has survived.

according to world anti-doping agency regulations, sun yang can conduct public training two months before the end of the suspension period. starting from march 28 this year, he resumed the rhythm of training twice a day to prepare for his comeback.

"one training session is about 7,000 meters to 8,000 meters, and two training sessions take five hours. after the training, i have physical therapy and it is already 90 o'clock in the evening when i get home."

two weeks before his comeback, sun yang, who had already signed up, was still hesitating whether to participate in the competition. especially when the competition is approaching, he is under increasing pressure. he is afraid that there is not enough training time, he is afraid that he will not perform well, and his results are not up to expectations. the end time of daily training is getting later and later, and the time for training and recovery is also getting longer and longer. the longer.

until the moment he stood on the championship podium, sun yang said to himself, "i have no regrets."

"do you really think you are a genius?"

the comeback battle will be held in hefei, anhui, which is the hometown of sun yang’s father, sun quanhong.

sun quanhong graduated from shanghai institute of sport and was a player on the men's volleyball team of the anhui provincial sports team. sun yang's mother yang ming was once a main player of the zhejiang women's volleyball team.

sun yang was named after his parents, and his body also inherited his parents' good sports genes. he is known as a "swimming genius." but his mother said: "do you really think you are a genius? are others really inferior to you? if you don't put in the effort, you will never get the reward."

in sun yang's impression, his mother was strict with him. if he doesn't do well in swimming lessons, his mother will make him run home; if he doesn't do well in school, his mother will beat him.

but his mother never skimped on her love for him. since sun yang started practicing swimming, as long as it is food that can help his son grow stronger and supplement nutrition, no matter how troublesome it is, the mother will learn to do it.

in addition to daily life, his mother will also give sun yang training advice. she would first check the sectional results of sun yang and his opponents online, and then list them so that sun yang could see them at a glance. for a mother, her son's good grades are the best reward, and it doesn't hurt to work harder on her own.

for a long time, most of the men's awards at world swimming championships were won by americans and australians. it wasn't until sun yang appeared that this situation was changed.

at the 2012 london olympics, sun yang first won the championship in the 400-meter freestyle final. while breaking the olympic record, he also became the first chinese male swimmer to win an olympic gold medal. a few days later, he won the men's 1500-meter freestyle final, improving his own world record by 3 seconds.

· on august 4, 2012, sun yang celebrated after winning the men's 1500-meter freestyle championship at the london olympics.

four years later at the rio olympics, sun yang won the men's 200-meter freestyle final, becoming the first asian to win the olympic championship in this event.

the "four-wheel-drive god of war" and "light of asia" suddenly received unprecedented attention, and sun yang, who was in his 20s, was a little overwhelmed.

he confessed to reporters: "i have never experienced many things before, and no one told me how to deal with the media. maybe i said some inappropriate things at the time, and the accusations and pressure that followed made me breathless. especially for some online reports, i went from wanting to defend myself to becoming numb, to feeling that it didn't matter. everyone has the right to express their opinions, and i just have a clear conscience. however, if i were to walk the same path now, it will definitely be better than that time.”

say "one more time" three times in a row

during his suspension, sun yang worked hard to live a more fulfilling life, studying finance at the cheung kong graduate school of business and marrying rhythmic gymnast zhang doudou.

on july 20, 2023, sun yang posted on weibo "look up and see the joy" and shared a photo of his marriage certificate with zhang doudou.

they met at a party two years ago. at that time, zhang doudou, who was wearing a white dress, made sun yang's eyes shine. in later contacts, he learned that zhang doudou lived a simple life, was a girl with a strong sense of family, was filial to her parents, and was also very kind. soon, the two established a romantic relationship.

"i talk a lot and like to share with her what i see and hear every day. she also likes to listen to me and be a listener." this is a way for the two to communicate. in sun yang's view, communication is part of the atmosphere of a family with a good atmosphere.

every day, zhang doudou will prepare three meals a day for sun yang. because he is preparing for his comeback, sun yang often arrives home very late. "during that time, the messages she sent me the most were 'how long until it ends' and 'where are we?'. no matter how late it was, she would always wait for me."

when talking about his wife's every detail, the corners of sun yang's mouth kept rising.

· sun yang and his family.

after coming back to win the championship, zhang doudou suddenly appeared, which surprised and delighted sun yang. it turned out that she told sun yang before the game that she did not get a ticket. sun yang originally made an agreement with his wife not to cry as much as possible, but the moment he saw her, the grievances, pain, and pressure of the past four years flooded into his heart and was released all at once.

in the future, sun yang wants to go to the north pole with his wife to see the aurora, because "that is her wish." sun yang still has many ideas about the future.

for example, he is already a doctoral student at shanghai sport university and wants to complete his thesis next year, and his research direction is his own.

over the years, sun yang has done a lot of sports tests at school and collected some data. he wants to write this content into a paper to provide some help to young athletes. "i hope more and more chinese athletes will achieve good results and set new world records."

during the paris olympics, sun yang’s request to raise the national flag again became a hot topic on weibo.

it was the 2018 jakarta asian games. sun yang won the men's 200-meter freestyle championship. during the process of raising the national flag and playing the national anthem, the flagpole broke and the national flag fell. after seeing this, sun yang covered his face with his hands, then walked off the podium to negotiate with the officials and staff of the organizing committee, saying "one more time" three times in a row.

"i think when an athlete wins a gold medal on the field and stands on the podium, the most important moment is raising the national flag and playing the national anthem. at that time, it is no longer your personal honor, but the country's honor, which is always higher than everything else. so i must say, insist on letting the national flag rise normally," sun yang said, "just like at the paris olympics, some western media smeared chinese athletes, but chinese athletes are indomitable and will not be defeated because of some setbacks and difficulties. , they will stand up again with perseverance, like warriors.”

as the interview came to an end, the reporter asked the last question: "if you could go back in time, would you still choose swimming?"

sun yang said: "i can firmly say that if i choose again, i will still choose swimming, and i will still be a chinese swimmer."