In the hit variety show "I Can 47", former Chinese swimming team athlete Zhang Yuhan was quite eye-catching
She is the only female captain in the program group, and she is one of the three people who fell into the water at the end of the "King of Volumes" link. Sun Punan, an extreme sports expert, said: "Yuhan made me stupid, she (professional) just swam for a swim, and it ended up hanging for so long." In this link, those who can generally persist until the end are either rock climbing masters or bridge climbers and acrobatics, but Zhang Yuhan's profession has nothing to do with it.
According to fashionable sayings, Zhang Yuhan is "out of the circle" this time, not relying on beauty, but on willpower, calmness and tenacity. This is clearly another beautiful feminine light.
Interestingly, Zhang Yuhan almost passed by this show. After retiring from the army, she is now a university teacher. After receiving the invitation, I was worried that the variety operation method would make my image not positive enough in front of the students, but at the same time, Zheng Yi (sailor), who received the invitation, tried her best to persuade Zhang Yuhan to try it, and she agreed to the program team.
As the so-called "the gears of fate begin to turn", "I Can 47" seems to be changing Zhang Yuhan's life after retiring "so calm that there is no trace of waves".
Is this the kind of life that Zhang Yuhan wants?She wasn't sure. What she can be sure of is that through the show, she has gained valuable friendship and a certain inner strength, and it is some moments in the show that make her begin to believe in the power of the ordinary.
Ordinary power", when Zhang Yuhan said such words, many people may be inexplicably surprised. After all, she holds the title of champion in several major competitions, such as the World Swimming Championships, the Asian Games and the Military World Games.
But Zhang Yuhan does see herself this way, and since 2009, she has known that she may never be able to be the person at the top of the pyramid.
In the City Games that year, Fu Yuanhui's 800-meter freestyle score was 8 points 31, while Zhang Yuhan swam more than 8 points and 50 points. After the game, she watched Fu Yuanhui running around the stadium wearing a red tiger head hat, and then fell into her mother's arms and cried bitterly, and her mother comforted her and said: "They are all 'monsters'." ”
Perhaps it is because of the gap in talent that Zhang Yuhan has always had a particularly good mentality in his career: if he can't do his best, he will always surpass himself. In the women's 4 200m freestyle relay at the 2018 World Swimming Championships, Zhang Yuhan, who was in charge of the third base, caught up with the team when she was behind, and finally won the championship with her teammates with a breaking Asian record. As a result, she also won the most important title of her career.
The aura brought by the world championship is not as dazzling as people think. After retiring in 2021, Zhang Yuhan even fell into a state of unemployment for half a year. When she sent her carefully prepared resume with "former world champion swimmer" to more than 20 companies, almost all of them were lost, and the only response was from a company owned by her friend.
Recalling those difficult days, Zhang Yuhan admits that her heart is inconsistent, and it took her a long time to accept the cold reality that the world champion could not find a job. Especially after participating in a non-profit organization's documentary project about retired athletes, she gradually saw herself: "I am no longer the pride of the sky Zhang Yuhan, I am just one of countless ordinary people." This is Zhang Yuhan's first job, and it is also an examination of himself.
After the documentary project ended, the company failed to survive the epidemic, and Zhang Yuhan also made a compromise in the struggle with his parents - to return to the system as a university teacher. Zhang Yuhan, who returned to ordinary people, lived an ordinary life, but also played a different self in an ordinary life - she led students to participate in the Chengdu Universiade and climbed the podium, and the project of "Zhang Yuhan's 100 Lives" on the social platform has been ......echoed by many netizens
Zhang Yuhan's story is yet to be continued, and this is a typical example of a retired athlete making his own life choices. As she said, she wants to let more retired athletes see through her life that there are still many ways to leave competitive sports.
For all athletes, it is a painstaking and long process from "sports person" to "social person". Retirement means the second life climb, which is another kind of struggle, which requires social care and institutional arrangements, and more importantly, their self-psychological adjustment, continuous learning and enrichment.
In a new environment, it is a great challenge to unload the aura of the past and find a new self, but also a beautiful journey of discovery. In the process, they will also rediscover the value and power of sport. Zhang Yuhan has done it, and I hope that more and more retired athletes will do the same.