Here is a video of what I guess is about Wu Jingbiao taking Long Qingquan’s spot in the Men’s 56kg at London 2012.
Warning: Video does Auto Play. I can’t disable it. So turn down your speaker if you are at work.
If you speak Chinese, then please leave a comment below and tell us the main points.
Update: Everybody please thank Shawn for translating this for us.
Here’s what’s going on in the video:
Starts out talking about Long Qingquan’s meteoric rise to gold at 2008, from out of nowhere. His coach says he’s never seen such a fast rise for a lifter. Long Qingquan says he felt no pressure back then, because he was so young (only 18). Also, he says one of the bad things about his rise was being seen in public and getting swarmed for autographs.
After the 2008 Olympics, though, Wu Jingbiao started catching up. At the 2010 World Championships, Wu Jingbiao won gold over Long Qingquan. He also won the 2010 Asian Championships, 2011 World Championships, and 2012 National Championships.
The interviewer asks Wu Jingbiao if this consistent progress over the past few years were planned step by step. Wu Jingbiao says that this isn’t planned; this sort of stuff is impossible to plan. The main thing is to focus on practice and training, and he says the experience he’s been gaining over the years has helped too. When he started competing in 2007, he would always think about what kind of numbers he wanted to lift, but thinking so much had negative impacts. Now he just focuses on training well, and naturally the performances come.
Interviewer asks him if he thinks he’s one of the most enthusiastic/hard-working guys on the team. Wu Jingbiao humbly replies that this isn’t exactly the case, but relatively maybe he’s a little more self-disciplined. But sometimes he gets lazy too. When he’s tired he just has to communicate with the coach and adjust the training. Training is also very mental. You have to cooperate and communicate with the coach and adjust for your particular physical weaknesses. After all, everyone has different bodies and situations, so you can’t be fixed on one particular method. If you don’t train well, there’s no way you can compete.
After 2008, Wu Jingbiao and Long Qingquan basically dominated 56kg class for China and have put up some spectacular competition.
Interviewer asks Wu Jingbiao who he thinks is his biggest rival, since most people paint Olympic champion Long Qingquan as his number one rival. Wu replies Long is pretty much it, but the biggest competition is still against himself.
Interviewer asks Wu what he thinks Long’s strengths are. Wu says he thinks Long’s strength and power are better than his own. Also, Long’s technique is good.
Long’s coach says that his (Long’s) strengths are his light weight and that his clean and snatch are pretty balanced. Wu’s leg strength is a little inferior, which influences his clean. Also, Wu’s heavier, so cutting weight for a meet makes it harder for him.
Long talks about the different training methods between Fujian and Hunan’s provincial teams. He says that Fujian really focuses on power/strength training, and he jokes that watching them train scares him. Apparently the Fujian lifters are noticeably more muscular, and if you put a Hunan lifter like him next to a Fujina lifter you could tell who’s who.
Long’s coach talks about his admiration for Wu Jingbiao, particularly his character and disciline.
Wu Jingbiao says the same thing; he thinks his strength is probably his spirit. He focuses on his own goals and doesn’t think of others. Sure, his opponent might beat him this time and next time, but he can’t beat him always, because he’s also working very hard. As soon as his opponent relaxes a little, he’ll catch up a little. Next time his opponent relaxes, he’ll catch up a little more. His competition with Long can be thought of this way too.
Long’s coach says Long should learn from Wu’s persistence and spirit.
Wu says he’s trying to go at his own pace. If he’s not focused on himself, he won’t be able to compete with others. He also talks about how lucky he is to not have to cut weight for competition. On this topic, Long says he cuts off phone calls a few days before the competition and talks about how tough it is to cut weight. He can’t eat much after weigh-in either, because the stomach is already shrunken. He can only get some water.
Off the court, the two are great friends. Long talks about how he feels he’s always learning from Wu and his character. He feels like he’s always “chasing” after Wu, not the other way around. When he sees Wu, he feels like Wu is an extremely admirable and excellent person. He says he feels very lucky to have this type of competition, and even if he loses to Wu he is okay with it.
The video ends with a sentimental conclusion about how Wu beat Long to the London spot in the 2012 National Championships, but even despite their competition they will remain great friends for life.
Wow, how did you find this? This is an absolutely great video.
Here’s a rough summary:
Starts out talking about Long Qingquan’s meteoric rise to gold at 2008, from out of nowhere. His coach says he’s never seen such a fast rise for a lifter. Long Qingquan says he felt no pressure back then, because he was so young (only 18). Also, he says one of the bad things about his rise was being seen in public and getting swarmed for autographs.
After the 2008 Olympics, though, Wu Jingbiao started catching up. At the 2010 World Championships, Wu Jingbiao won gold over Long Qingquan. He also won the 2010 Asian Championships, 2011 World Championships, and 2012 National Championships.
The interviewer asks Wu Jingbiao if this consistent progress over the past few years were planned step by step. Wu Jingbiao says that this isn’t planned; this sort of stuff is impossible to plan. The main thing is to focus on practice and training, and he says the experience he’s been gaining over the years has helped too. When he started competing in 2007, he would always think about what kind of numbers he wanted to lift, but thinking so much had negative impacts. Now he just focuses on training well, and naturally the performances come.
Interviewer asks him if he thinks he’s one of the most enthusiastic/hard-working guys on the team. Wu Jingbiao humbly replies that this isn’t exactly the case, but relatively maybe he’s a little more self-disciplined. But sometimes he gets lazy too. When he’s tired he just has to communicate with the coach and adjust the training. Training is also very mental. You have to cooperate and communicate with the coach and adjust for your particular physical weaknesses. After all, everyone has different bodies and situations, so you can’t be fixed on one particular method. If you don’t train well, there’s no way you can compete.
After 2008, Wu Jingbiao and Long Qingquan basically dominated 58kg class for China and have put up some spectacular competition.
Interviewer asks Wu Jingbiao who he thinks is his biggest rival, since most people paint Olympic champion Long Qingquan as his number one rival. Wu replies Long is pretty much it, but the biggest competition is still against himself.
Interviewer asks Wu what he thinks Long’s strengths are. Wu says he thinks Long’s strength and power are better than his own. Also, Long’s technique is good.
Long’s coach says that his (Long’s) strengths are his light weight and that his clean and snatch are pretty balanced. Wu’s leg strength is a little inferior, which influences his clean. Also, Wu’s heavier, so cutting weight for a meet makes it harder for him.
Long talks about the different training methods between Fujian and Hunan’s provincial teams. He says that Fujian really focuses on power/strength training, and he jokes that watching them train scares him. Apparently the Fujian lifters are noticeably more muscular, and if you put a Hunan lifter like him next to a Fujina lifter you could tell who’s who.
Long’s coach talks about his admiration for Wu Jingbiao, particularly his character and disciline.
Wu Jingbiao says the same thing; he thinks his strength is probably his spirit. He focuses on his own goals and doesn’t think of others. Sure, his opponent might beat him this time and next time, but he can’t beat him always, because he’s also working very hard. As soon as his opponent relaxes a little, he’ll catch up a little. Next time his opponent relaxes, he’ll catch up a little more. His competition with Long can be thought of this way too.
Long’s coach says Long should learn from Wu’s persistence and spirit.
Wu says he’s trying to go at his own pace. If he’s not focused on himself, he won’t be able to compete with others. He also talks about how lucky he is to not have to cut weight for competition. On this topic, Long says he cuts off phone calls a few days before the competition and talks about how tough it is to cut weight. He can’t eat much after weigh-in either, because the stomach is already shrunken. He can only get some water.
Off the court, the two are great friends. Long talks about how he feels he’s always learning from Wu and his character. He feels like he’s always “chasing” after Wu, not the other way around. When he sees Wu, he feels like Wu is an extremely admirable and excellent person. He says he feels very lucky to have this type of competition, and even if he loses to Wu he is okay with it.
The video ends with a sentimental conclusion about how Wu beat Long to the London spot in the 2012 National Championships, but even despite their competition they will remain great friends for life.
———————————————————————————————————–
After watching this, I can say that Wu Jingbiao has definitely won my greatest respect. The humbleness and down-to-earthness of his statements and speech is amazing. I can definitely see why both Long and Long’s coach have such high praise for him.
Wow Shawn! Thanks so much for taking the time to translate that for us. Lot’s of interesting things in here.
No problem! Although unfortunately I didn’t fully understand what Long meant exactly by the different training methods. Maybe someone with better Chinese could clarify.