Original title: Sports bring these middle school students more than medals
The Normandy D-Day was one of the key battles and iconic events of World War II. For a middle school student, it must be no stranger to Normandy, France. It is undoubtedly a desirable experience to be able to visit Normandy in person and meet high school students from all over the world here. From May 15th to 21st, the 19th World Secondary School Summer Games was held in Normandy, France. Thirty-five Chinese middle school students have finally walked into a city that had previously only been in the history books for them. They showed their images of themselves and China in the World Games, and communicated and learned with their peers in different countries and regions, and gained another valuable growth experience brought by sports.
On May 15, the opening ceremony of the 19th Gymnasiade was held in Normandy. The romantic French moved the opening ceremony to the street, allowing middle school students from all over the world to get in touch with the city of Normandy by cruising along the street. The process of parading the participating delegations along the street is also the process of showing their own image. A reporter caught the scene where a student from the Chinese delegation was improvising street dance, attracting other delegation members and the French audience to watch. This scene contains a strong atmosphere of youth, sunshine and passion, which made Sun Xiaozhong, the principal of Taishan Foreign Language School in Tai’an City, Shandong Province and the leader of the Chinese middle school boys’ beach volleyball team, who was at the scene at the scene, sighed, and took the initiative to show himself and actively communicate with the outside world. It is one of the most obvious characteristics of Chinese middle school students in the new era.
At the World Games for Secondary School Students, Yu Ziang, a senior high school student at No. 2 Middle School in Botou City, Hebei Province, who won 1 gold, 1 bronze and 2 medals in the breakdance event recalled his growth experience and believed that breakdance children had become accustomed to Express yourself and accept admiration from others. Yu Ziang has been exposed to breakdance since he was 4 years old. “I was too shy when I was a child. My family hoped that by learning breakdance, I might be more outgoing.” But what the family did not expect was that the change that breakdance brought to Yu Ziang would not be the same. just character.
Being able to perform a dazzling set of breakdance anytime, anywhere makes Yu Zian more confident. At the same time, on the road of pursuing faster, higher and stronger, Yu Ziang also has a deeper understanding of the word “achievement”, “I can better understand the hardships behind everyone, and it is the same in all walks of life.”
Yu Ziang began to practice breakdance at the age of 4. He only interrupted his training for one year in the third year of junior high school because of preparation for the high school entrance examination. However, it was also because of the interruption of training that Yu Ziang realized the difficulty of working hard for his dreams. “Because of the one-year interruption of training, my physical ability has dropped sharply. Some movements are completely impossible to do. When everything started from scratch, I found that it was really difficult to return to the previous level.” Yu Ziang recalled, “During the past six months, In time, in addition to training hundreds of times a day, it is also a test of perseverance.” If you can’t get past this bottleneck period, you can only give up. But Yu Ziang had already outlined his goal of participating in world competitions and even the Paris Olympics, and he was determined to break through this bottleneck period. Persistence finally paid off. One year later, he passed the bottleneck period. This year, he represented China for the first time in the World Games for Secondary School Students.
Like Yu Zi’ang, Liu Yuan, a second-year high school student at No. 19 Middle School in Urumqi, Xinjiang, who won 1 gold, 1 bronze and 2 medals in the track and field throwing event at the World Games for Secondary School Students, thinks that the biggest gain brought by sports is also the same as breaking through. bottleneck period.
For the sake of exercise, Liu Yuan began to practice throwing when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school. “Seeing myself throwing the shot put and discus farther and farther, I thought it was fun, so I persevered.” Liu Yuan recalled that in the third year of junior high, her sports performance suddenly stagnated. “I shot a 4kg shot put, and my score was always around 13 meters, and I didn’t see any improvement,” Liu Yuan said. Although she knew that the bottleneck period was normal for athletes, she was still very tormented when she was in it. After persisting for a year, Liu Yuan’s performance improved by leaps and bounds, breaking through 14 meters, 15 meters and 15 meters 5 successively. In addition to the surprise, Liu Yuan had a more comprehensive understanding of how to deal with setbacks, and also made her feel particularly deeply regarding the words of her idol, the famous Chinese female shot put player Gong Lijiao, “People must have dreams. What if it does happen.”
For students who love sports, they do have a deeper understanding of their dreams. Li Wan, a taekwondo player who won 1 gold and 1 silver at the World Games for Secondary School Students and a senior from Chongqing Beibei Vocational Education Center, said that if she hadn’t insisted on her dream, she would not have been able to stand on the field of the World Games for Secondary School Students. of this day.
When Li Wan was in her second year of junior high school, she was attracted by the heroine who loves taekwondo in the TV series “Whirlwind Girl” and began to get in touch with taekwondo. After that, with the continuous improvement of Taekwondo level, Li Wan thought that she should try to develop in a more professional direction. When she was in high school, Li Wan applied for the Chongqing Beibei Vocational Education Center (Secondary Vocational), which featured Taekwondo. But following enrolling in school, her family began to oppose her taking Taekwondo as her major, and persuaded her to drop out of school in various ways, so that she might choose to study in a regular high school once more. Li Wan recalled that during that time, she had already made plans to go out to work as a part-time coach and earn tuition for herself to ensure that she would continue to learn taekwondo. She said that only she knows how much I love taekwondo. Later, Li Wan’s perseverance moved her family, and she was able to continue to learn taekwondo. In this World Games, when Li Wan won 1 gold and 1 silver back home, the family was all happy for her. Persistence in her dream has brought Li Wan to where she is today, and it has also made her more confident in the future. The taekwondo skills that Li Wan is engaged in is not an Olympic event, but an Asian Games event. Li Wan’s next goal is to participate in the postponed Hangzhou Asian Games.
Sports can help students understand what a dream is and what it means to be a human being. This is the feeling of Lin Meifang, a senior high school student at Yangzheng Middle School in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, who won the gold medal in fencing at the World Games for Secondary School Students.
Lin Meifang has been practicing fencing since the fifth grade of elementary school. What impressed her most was the sentence the coach once said, “If you can’t do well, you can’t practice this sword well.” How to be a person, in Lin Meifang’s view, first of all is to be down-to-earth, to endure hardship when it is time to endure hardship, and sweat when it is time to sweat.
What impressed Lin Meifang the most was a team quiz match shortly following practicing fencing, where she won the bottom of the team. The coach told her at this time that she had long been found to be lazy in training, and this result shows that how much effort you put in will get what kind of results. From then on, Lin Meifang will no longer be lazy in training, and this quality also affects her study and life.
According to Sun Xiaozhong, who has been concerned regarding sports in middle schools for a long time, the vast majority of Chinese students participating in the World Games will not take the path of competitive sports. Sports is their specialty and hobby, but not their profession. However, the growth help brought by sports to them is obvious: let them have a positive attitude towards life, the spirit of hard work, the pursuit of dreams, etc. The vast majority of the students participating in the World High School Games may have only this opportunity to represent China in international competitions in their lifetime. This experience is also of great help in cultivating their patriotism and sense of responsibility. Sun Xiaozhong said that when the children put on the team uniforms with the five-star red flag, they know that their every move no longer only represents the individual, but the country. It can be seen that the students’ strong sense of national pride and responsibility is reflected from the moment they set foot on the trip. I believe this experience will also give them a deeper understanding of how patriotism should start from themselves. (Reporter Ci Xin)