China won a total of 38 gold, 32 silver, and 18 bronze medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games, ranking second in the medal tally respectively. Among them, 7 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medal are contributed by Zhejiang athletes, which is regarded as the best result for the whole province to be a member of the Olympic Games and ranked the top nationwide. 

On August 8, the Chinese Sports Delegation sent a letter of thanks to the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, expressing heartfelt thanks for its atmosphere of overall fitness, deep cultivation of reserve talents, and full cooperation in the preparation for the Olympic Games. 

Wangshun and his coach Zhu Zhigen at the Tokyo Olympics

In the 33-member Zhejiang Olympic team, Chen Yufei, Guan Chenchen, Shi Zhiyong, Wang Shun, Wang Yilu, and "Double Gold King" Yang Qian contributed seven gold medals to jointly create a new history.

Why are there so many champions from Zhejiang? Why Zhejiang sports undertakings has performed so well?

The stories of how these Zhejiang native athletes got involved with "sports events" and embarked on a professional career can provide a glimpse into the selection system for sports talent in Zhejiang Province.

In 2004, when Chen Yufei (Tokyo Olympics Women's Singles Badminton Champion) was still in her kindergarten class, her father, Chen Zhe, heard that a badminton coach from the Chen Jinglun Sports School in Hangzhou had gone to Tonglu to select young players, and immediately took Chen Yufei for an interview. Subsequently, she joined the provincial team at the age of 10, the national youth team at the age of 13, and the national second team at the age of 15.

Like Sun Yang, Wang Shun(Tokyo Olympics Men's 200m Medley Champion) studied under Zhu Zhigen. At that moment, the group was already full, but the coach recognized his natural talent and applied for a post for Wang Shun. "This child, I’ll take it." After more than 10 years, the boy, who had made an exception, finally broke out at the Tokyo Olympics.

Yu Lihua, the first coach of Yang Qian( Double Champion in Shooting 10m Air Rifle at Tokyo 2020 Olympics), remembers vividly that at the end of 2000, he went to Maoshan primary school in Jiangshan town to select shooting talent, and picked 10-year-old Yang Qian at a glance. Since then, he has taken her on the road of shooting.

In a sense, many projects do not lack good sports seedlings but lack a set of the perfect system for discovering, excavating and cultivating talents.

Chen Yufei and her parents

In the past, we have immersed ourselves in creating heroes, focusing more on the "extraordinary" created by athletes on the field, while the soft and ordinary moments hidden behind are often overlooked. In fact, these athletes who bring honor to the motherland are real and lovely. They will cry, will love beauty, and will miss home, just like the people around us in general.

"She told me she wants to grow her hair long but should wait until she retires," said Chen Yufei's mother, Zhao Genfeng, smiling as her daughter became more concerned about her image. "Sometimes when I chat with my daughter, I see her talking to me with a mask on the face and would ask me which brand was the best."

 Byles, from the United States, took bronze in the female balance beam final at the Tokyo Olympics. This is a great figure that Guan Chenchen (Women's Balance Beam Winner of Tokyo Olympics) once sat in front of the TV to watch her match carefully. Nevertheless, when Guan Chenchen really competed in the match, the little girl actually just wanted to compare her height with Byles: “It seems almost the same.”

Unconsciously, "little cry baby" Xu Jiayu, who used to follow other older brothers, has become the big brother of the Chinese swimming team. Xu Jiayu also cried at the Tokyo Olympics; however, it is not that he was disappointed with the results or felt tired, but he heard that his mother intended to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes and stewed duck to welcome him. "I wasn't as close to my parents as I was to my teammates and coaches because I left home as a child, but that didn’t prevent me from missing my parents and my family."

Wang Yilu and his partner finally defeated the "Yasi Team" in the badminton mixed doubles final at the Tokyo Olympics

"No.1" is a dream for every athlete, but most of them have to endure lonely "darkest hours" before heading to the championship podium in the spotlight.

The 200m and 400m medley are Wang Shun's main event. Anyone who has ever practiced swimming knows how tiring they are! For Wang Shun, the blue pool, once was only black to him: one was the blackness of his eyes as he entered the water, the other was the blackness of his unconscious eyes as he swam to the end.

On the night of July 28, Shi Zhiyong of Zhejiang Province won the men's 73kg weightlifting gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with a world record of 364kg. However, there are countless sleepless nights behind the crushing of power. On June 23, Shi Zhiyong pulled himself out of a 170 kg snatch and then again a week later. The injury sent Shi Zhiyong into a panic, failing to sleep and dropping his weight from 77kg to 74kg in a week. Even he was tempted to give up at one point, for fear of losing face in a field that he had dominated for years.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Yilu and Huang Dongping eventually defeat the powerful opponents — "Yasi Team" and gain their first badminton mixed doubles champion at Olympics. Wang Yilu also had a low point in his career. He drew his own happiness curve, hitting rock bottom when he entered the national team. "At that time, his grades were not as good as expected, so he had a lot of self-reflection and persistence. With a sense of crisis increasing, he began to have a 'want' mentality," his father, Wang Kuanyong, said.  

Xie Zhenye in the men's 200m race at the Tokyo Olympics 

There were some athletes who did not win medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games but were worth applause for their outstanding performances. We believe that they will write a more brilliant chapter at the next stop—— the Paris Olympic Games.

On the morning of August 3, Xie Zhenye ran to the men's 200m semifinal in a time of 20.34 seconds, setting a new Chinese track & field record in Tokyo and becoming the first athlete in Chinese Olympic history to qualify for the semifinal of this event. "I never worried about my son's running ability," Xie Zhenye's father, Xie Gangqiang, told reporters after the race that night. "He did his best this time, and I am proud of him." Xie Zhenye said in an interview after completing the final of the 4x100 relay, "The current relay team is strong enough to stand on the podium, but some parts did not do well, I hope we can present the story more perfect three years later in Paris."

For some young athletes whose Olympic journey has just begun, despite the regrets of this Tokyo Olympic Games, their future can be expected.

Yu Yiting broke her own record by finishing 5th in the Women's 200m individual medley final in 2:09.57 on July 28. Yu was an athlete originally developed for the Olympics in 2024, but her rapid progress, coupled with the one-year extension of the Tokyo Olympics, allowed her to be selected to stand on the Olympic stage in advance.

On August 1, 18-year-old Wu Qingfeng finished fifth in the Women's 50m freestyle final in 24.32 seconds. "This kid has a lot of potentials," said Tao Rong coach, "There hasn't had any swimming performance beyond her at this age in China." Tao said in an interview that the most impressive thing about Wu Qingfeng was that she had "a big heart", and she has the potential to be the next generation leader of the Zhejiang Swimming Army.

In recent years, Zhejiang has been good at reform and innovation and has summarized and refined many achievements in various fields such as mass sports, competitive sports, and sports industry, for example, the introduction of social forces to do sports, through digital reform to enhance the convenience of public sports and so on. All these are continuously improving the public sports service system, planting the soil of sports spirit and culture, correspondingly, the level of competitive sports will rise. In the future, Zhejiang will focus on the overall goal of building a high-level modern sports province and take multiple measures to promote the overall level of sports in Zhejiang province. In addition, Zhejiang will host the 19th Asian Games in 2022, and preparations for the Hangzhou Asian Games are underway in an orderly manner.

(Editor: Cai Yuelai)