Xie Zhenye
The first Asian to run 20 seconds in the 200 meters is back!On the field of the Hangzhou Asian Games, Xie Zhenye not only became the flag bearer of the Chinese delegation at the closing ceremony, but also carried the banner of Chinese sprinting. He won the championship in the 100-meter final, and led his disciples to regain the gold medal in the 100-meter relay, taking on the role of "China's new leader in sprinting".
And the story we want to know is about his former silence, about how he grew from a willful teenager to a tough and mature man.
The late autumn sun shines on the blue and green plastic track of the training base, and the teenagers in training clothes are scattered in the corners of the venue, or stretching, or strength Xi training, or repeatedly polishing the start, one by one, tight, sweat crystal shiny.
Thirty-year-old sprinter Xie Zhenye stood in the stands, looking down, full of the shadow of his sixteen-year-old.
Athletic tops, gym trousers Golden Goose
Color-blocked sneakers Jimmy Choo
In the 100-meter final of the Hangzhou Asian Games that just ended, Xie Zhenye not only ran 10 seconds for the second time, equaling his personal best set in Montreuil, France in 2018He also became the third Chinese male athlete to be crowned "Asian Flyer" after Lao Yi at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Su Bingtian at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. In addition, with Su Bingtian unable to participate, Xie Zhenye led three young athletes, Chen Guanfeng, Yan Haibin and Chen Jiapeng, to win the team gold medal in the 4 100m relay, defending China's track and field position in Asia.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games, Xie Zhenye, Chen Guanfeng, Yan Haibin and Chen Jiapeng won the team gold medal in the 4 100m relay.
Many track and field fans will call him Xiao Xie, a title that fits his trademark humble smile. Meeting at the vocational sports institute where Xiao Xie began to study in middle school may have brought a little relaxation. After the meeting, he comfortably led us to a meeting room that we could borrow, and while the makeup artist did the makeup and hair, he answered all kinds of curious questions from us.
Castleford trench coat Burberry
T-shirts, suit pants, and leather shoes are all dunhill
As soon as he debuted, he almost retired.
The glory of the Asian Games made Xie Zhenye fierce, but he has actually been famous for a long time. The sprinter first came to the public eye at the 2010 World Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. In that men's 200-meter race, Xie Zhenye, who had just turned 17, won the championship in 21.22 seconds and was recognized as another promising star in Chinese track and field. Speaking of the battle for fame, he felt a lot: "I want to thank myself for not giving up." ”
Athletic puffer vest, sweatpants prada
Wulu18 for MEN necklace Qeelin in 18k white gold
So to speak, because a year before the Youth Olympic Games, he was almost on the verge of retiring.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jamaican Usain Bolt shined on the 100-meter track, and Xie Zhenye, a teenager who was practicing sprinting in the Zhejiang Sports Institute, was shocked after the final. He began to see Bolt as an idol in his life and vowed to follow in the professional arena. However, the hot blood was quickly poured cold by a basin of cold water. On the eve of a national competition, he suffered a severe hip fracture in training, how serious is it,"It is the doctor who directly advises not to practice anymore, the hip is the core part of the force, which is equivalent to the engine of the car, how to run if the engine is broken?
Of course, this injury can be recovered from surgery, but it is unpredictable to what kind of recovery it will be, and it may leave a lot of trouble, so that future games will not be able to exert good force. Because Xie Zhenye was in the stage of starting out and not achieving results at that time, unlike famous athletes who have a medical security system that can be relied on, it is too risky to wait a few years to see the situation. Even the coach suggested, why don't you go back to studying?Because Xie Zhenye's cultural class results are quite good, he does not have to stumble on the road of professional competitive sports.
Looking back now, he doesn't even know how he got through that time. At the biggest crisis point of his career, teenager Xie Zhenye made a decision: to persevere until he returned to the arena. “(It's like) a willful decision, or a child is relatively simple, and he thinks that there are not so many interests and purposeful considerations, so he thinks I want to do it, so he ......does itWell, that's what I think. ”
Athletic puffer vest, sweatpants prada
Wulu18 for MEN necklace Qeelin in 18k white gold
This "willful" courage is also thanks to his parents. Xie Zhenye is from a place called Hutang Village in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, which has now been renamed Hutang Street West Cross-Lake Village. When he was in the sixth grade of primary school, he was selected by professional coaches and went to Shaoxing City alone to receive track and field training while studying. As a child, he made this choice out of curiosity and wanted to see the outside worldAnd his parents feel that the most important thing is that their son is happy to do what he wants to do, even if he can't practice in the future, "Then you can come back, you will definitely be able to live anyway." ”
After the operation, he couldn't get on the runway, so he could only go to the physical fitness room every day and practice strength silently by himself. Because he hadn't run for too long, his classmates thought he had changed his project. After practicing like this for more than a year, with his young body, his injuries finally healed. At the end of 2009, a national junior competition held in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, was the first competition Xie Zhenye participated in after recovering from injury, and in a sense, the result of this game will guide his fate. "If I run badly, people around me will think that you have tried and tried, and there is no need to stumble [if you can't do it]. ”
Tweed coats, undershirts, and trousers are all zegna
Sneakers Prada
As it turns out, dreams don't end abruptly. "I both achieved a level 1 in both 100 (m) and 200 (m), which is one of the best results in our team. ”
In the years that followed, every year he managed to get a score of 0A one-second improvement, a seemingly tiny number, is already very exaggerated in the field of sprinting. After winning the Youth Olympic Games, at London 2012, at the age of 19, he was lucky enough to reach the B standard and compete in the 200m. This means that Xie Zhenye will experience the first Olympic Games in his life, and he will be able to get closer to his idol. Although he only ran one shot, he met Bolt. "It seems that the seeds planted in 2008 can already see the branches and leaves in 2012, at least they can play on the same field!It gave me a lot of confidence. ”
In 2014, he broke the Asian record with Chen Shiwei, Su Bingtian and Zhang Peimeng and won the gold medal in the men's 4x100m relay at the Incheon Asian GamesThe following year, he made a historic breakthrough with Mo Youxue, Su Bingtian and Zhang Peimeng at the World Championships in Beijing, winning a silver medal in the men's 4x100m relay, the best result ever achieved by an Asian team in the event.
The distance from "a few sheets" to "phone case".
For Chinese track and field, there was also an exciting event in 2015: Su Bingtian ran a time of 9.99 seconds in the 100m at the IAAF Diamond League in Eugene, becoming the first yellow man to break the 100-meter barrier. In addition to being shocked and inspired, Xie Zhenye remembered that he said to "Mr. Tian" at that time: "You are the first yellow person to break 10 seconds in 100 meters, so I want to be the first yellow person to break 20 seconds in 200 meters." ”He explained the bold words: "I don't care if I can do it or not, for athletes, this is a result of hard work." You have to be brave enough to take that step, you have to have this heart, [then] you will do that goal. ”
Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye.
Four years later, at the 2019 IAAF Diamond League in London, he ran 19.88 seconds in the 200m. He told us a funny story about the state of that game. When preparing for the event, the little junior brother Liang Jinsheng ran up and said: "Brother Xie, I bet that you can break 20 (seconds) in this competition, if it breaks, you can buy me a mobile phone." But he was as witty as Xie Zhenye, and he didn't accept this bet: "I don't bet with you, I think I can break it." ”
It was as if a voice in his heart was telling him that it was time to fulfill his vows.
However, 19.88 seconds is still better than he expected, and even if this result is won at the Olympics, there is a chance to reach the podium. He has never been so eager to compete in the Olympics.
In the 2019 IAAF Diamond League London Station, Xie Zhenye ran a 200-meter time of 19.88 seconds.
However, the development of events has not been satisfactory. Because of an epidemic that caught everyone off guard, Xie Zhenye and foreign teachers could not train together for a long time, and there was some technical instability;This situation can easily hurt, which in turn causes him to develop psychological anxiety. At the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed for a year, he reached the semi-finals of the 200m, but he couldn't go any further, which is a pity.
In the middle of 2022, he finally reconnected with foreign teachers and carried out systematic adjustments. "At the beginning of this year, I suddenly felt relieved, probably because I was old, and I felt that I recognized something: it was useless to be anxious, and it couldn't help you solve anything. Xie Zhenye said that although this hurdle is "not a good thing for my career, it may not be the same for my future life." It has given me a more relaxed attitude to look at some things and my life in the future, and if I go all the way, I may get lost in the process of rising to the top.
He tried to slow down, adjust his pace, his mentality, and the pace of his training. It's like going back to the age of sixteen, waiting slowly, but differently. By conditioning the body, the injury is controlled, and the good state is restored little by little.
Xie Zhenye on the field.
For a player of his level, it is difficult to improve just by hard training, and it is more important to change the understanding of technical movements. Sprinting looks simple, but it's hard to make it fine and beautiful. "Just like a diamond, you have to cut the so-called ** line in such a small place to make the optical angle better. It looks like it's just a few cuts, which is quite easy, but it's actually a very particular thing. "Whether it's nitpicking, or picking bones in eggs, what Xie Zhenye has to do is to find out the imperfections in every action that already seems perfect, and then make it more perfect.
Because the game is compared to that 01 second, or even 001 seconds.
Maybe you've just won a little distance as thick as a phone case, but this distance is not just the last time you cross the finish line, but you save up a hundred meters. For us, the pursuit is to be a little bit ahead of others at each step, maybe only a few pieces of paper thick, and slowly accumulate into a 'phone case'.
Grow up together, grow old together.
The scene after the men's 100-meter final of the Asian Games has made many people have endless memories so far: Xie Zhenye, who was the first to the line, rushed directly to the stands, hugged his wife Lu Minjia tightly, and then he pointed to the sky above the field and shouted, do you hear, this song is for you!At that time, the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium sounded "We are all the same".
Xie Zhenye and his wife Lu Minjia hugged tightly.
Lu Minjia is the famous "queen of long jump", who became famous earlier than Xie Zhenye, won the women's long jump championship at the World Youth Athletics Championships in 2009, and has won the national championship and Asian championship many times, and announced her retirement due to injury in 2021. As a track and field mobilizer, they have also experienced the ups and downs of their sports careers, they understand and support each other, and after 16 years, it can be said that this song is completely a portrayal of the emotions and experiences of the two. "Every lyric is writing about us", before the competition, Xie Zhenye went to the organizing committee and asked that if he won the championship, he would ** this song, and the result also gave him what he wanted.
When this sibling relationship began, Xie Zhenye said that they themselves did not know. Both of them came out of Shaoxing, and as fellow countrymen, they communicated more when they were in the provincial team, and they were together unconsciously;Later, they felt that they had to set a date, so they chose Lu Minjia's birthday. So this day became extremely important for them. One year, Xie Zhenye was training abroad, and Lu Minjia was in China, on her birthday, Lu Minjia didn't wait for zero o'clock blessing, she couldn't help but ask angrily: "My birthday has passed, why don't you even have a message?"Xie Zhenye was stunned when asked, isn't it time yet?Then they realized that there was a 13-hour jet lag.
On September 9, 2022, Xie Zhenye proposed to Lu Minjia, which is also a good story that has been praised. **, he used a special effect to turn himself into an old man with a wrinkled face and gray hair, and he said that he wanted Lu Lu to see his eighty years old in advance, because the two will be together forever in the future. The proposal ceremony was held in a gymnasium in their hometown, and it was sports that allowed them to find each other and the love of their lives.
Xie Zhenye and his wife Lu Minjia.
Although he has done these things that make netizens cry out for romance, Xie Zhenye said: "Personally, I don't think I'm romantic." The reason is "I don't show much affection in the circle of friends." Since both of them have been training and fighting in various places all year round, they have not had the opportunity to travel together, and they can only think of twice: once to Erhai Lake and Yulong Snow Mountain in Yunnan, and once to Shanghai Disneyland. Gathering less and leaving more, they don't even watch each other's games very much;If you can still see it in the same arena, but more often than not, you go to different competitions.
Athletes need regular and professional training or**, so there is not a lot of time in the day to spend free ......"But now that she's retired, she's much freer, so now she can come and watch me play whenever she wants." ”
Xie Zhenye and his wife Lu Minjia.
There are no limits to the roles in life.
Xie Zhenye has liked to read since he was a child, and it is this that makes him often able to give a series of rich and vivid expressions in the process of chatting. In an online live broadcast, his classmate at the sports school and badminton mixed doubles world champion Huang Yaqiong revealed that Xie Zhenye was very "well-behaved" in middle school and always read books alone in the back. When we asked, do you remember what books you read?He laughed and said that in addition to textbooks, it was some**.
On his thirtieth birthday, he wrote a passage on the Internet, which roughly meant: When I was a child, I always fantasized about becoming the hero of the book, but in reality, not everyone can become the protagonist of their imagination;But that's okay, we're still on the road.
Xie Zhenye Weibo.
In addition to being a sprinter "on the road", Xie Zhenye also broadened the possibilities of his role as much as possible. He has had good grades in Xi since he was a child, and after completing his undergraduate and master's degrees at Zhejiang University, he is still studying for a doctorate in physical education and training at Zhejiang University. On weekdays, he likes to watch variety shows of exploration, and he also likes to experience different lives by watching vlogs.
During the quarantine period, because he couldn't go out, he stayed in his room and taught himself the violin: "The violin and piano have always been my favorite instruments, but the piano is too big and the cost is high, so it's still the violin." Since he had no knowledge of music theory, he could only learn from the staves, and after two months of "sawing wood", he finally pulled out the tone and learned one or two practice Xi songs.
Xie Zhenye Weibo.
Later, he learned that it is best to start with the keyboard for the first time learning an instrument, and it is not recommended to learn strings for beginners, especially the most "dead" violin ...... in stringsSo he already has the next goal, "Isn't technology advanced now, I'm going to get a portable piano that rolls up." ”
These fresh challenges, for him, are not to pursue exams, nor to show others, but to find something he likes and then do it. It's the pleasure of the process itself that counts.
This article was originally published in Harper's Bazaar December 2023 issue of Prominent People
Edited by Li Jin.
Photo by Zhang Hongkai.
Interview and writing by Xiao Zhuang.
Styling rain analysis.
Makeup and hair Chen Ling.
Styling assistant Novi
Part of *** on Xie Zhenye's Weibo.