“If I can’t change the way others skate, I can only focus on improving my own.”
In this week's interview, we have a special guest, YangYang, who was a former Chinese women’s short-track speed skater. She has an extensive background in which she also graduated from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University with a bachelor’s degree. Today, she is a member of the International Olympic Committee and Vice President of the World Anti-Doping Organization. She also holds a record as a Chinese athlete with the most world championships to date with a total of 59 world championships. Included is the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics where she won China’s first Winter Olympic gold medal. In this interview, she talks about her story of speed skating, conflicts with the adults around her, and differing opinions. In this interview, YangYang shares about her challenges, physically and emotionally, during adolescence.
The start of YangYang's journey
YangYang was born in a county in the Northeast of China, where winter is very long. In her county, the only thing she sees in the winter is skating because there is an ice rink between her house and school, and she would pass by it every day. Because YangYang loved sports and when she was young, she would actively participate in the school’s physical education class and sports meets, she learned that the school’s teachers were recruiting students for the skating team. After signing up, there was a short period of training at the sports school, where they would train for one to two hours after school every day. At that time, many children were training together, however, after two weeks, only four remained. These four started straining at the county sports school. The training at the county sports school was extremely intense.
“At that time, there was not as much homework as now, so we started the second training session when we came back from school. We practiced from about five to five-thirty or six o'clock, and then had dinner. At that time, we started going to sports school. This was my everyday life.”
Additionally, YangYang would go to school, but every morning she had to get up at five o’clock because it gets bright earlier in the north and northeast. YangYang and her fellow athletes wake up at five o’clock and train until seven o’clock, and would come back after school at around three o’clock. This was YangYang’s daily routine since she was in the third grade of elementary school.
Rebellion
At that time, there weren’t names like puberty or rebellious period, and there wasn’t much research on it. When YangYang was in her teenage years, she won her first national championship at the age of 15, however, there were a lot of conflicts between YangYang and her coach in the following years. Thinking back, YangYang believes it’s that stage of age, the so-called rebellious stage.
Many individual conflicts may reach the point of running away from home. YangYang argued with her coaches once and she wanted to go home. At that time, transportation was not as convenient as it is now, so she rode her bicycle to a very far place but then found out that she had no money in her pocket. But generally speaking, the longest conflict she had with her coach was probably for about two months. The coach ignored her and she was also very stubborn. However, YangYang needed to find a way to repair her relationship. “My coach also wants to let it go and I was also looking for opportunities to return to my normal training routine.”
After YangYang won the championships at age of 15, she really wanted to change her skates because the skates she wore at that time were made in China and were very bulky. She thought that after her victory, she should be qualified to make a request asking her coach to change for new skates. However, her coach refused, believing that it would inflate her ego. This decision left YangYang frustrated, especially seeing her teammates with poorer results receiving new skates.
Another situation that weighed heavily on YangYang was when she was accused of arrogance for seemingly ignoring other coaches post-victory. Although she may not have intentionally ignored the coach, others started to have such expectations from her. She was very upset as the environment around her began to change. As a result, YangYang ended up confronting and arguing about the matter. She reflects on this as part of the causes and effects of adolescence, where she tended to be too stubborn about what she perceived as right or wrong.
However, her coach’s advice, “If there’s an issue, address it, and if not, encourage it.” resonated with YangYang. It made her realize that even if she didn't agree with others' perceptions, she could use them as reminders to stay grounded.
Reflecting on those experiences, YangYang concludes that personal growth isn't just about her own experiences; it’s also about learning from others. Looking back, she sees the various challenges that she faced during her adolescence that shaped her into who she is today. Hence, YangYang highlights two key points. Firstly, she believes it's essential to set ambitious goals. She emphasizes the importance of not dwelling too much on present issues but rather kicking them away like a stone. “Without big goals, it’s easy to get tripped up by current problems,” she notes. Secondly, YangYang advises treating unfair criticisms as learning experiences. She suggests using them to grow and make peace with the present while also serving as reminders for the future.
“If you have bigger ideals, dreams, or goals, you will find it easier to let go of the things happening at the moment.”
A different way of thinking
YangYang believes the difference in mentality will bring about a huge difference in the next solution and the final result. When we encounter a problem, if you have a positive attitude and your way of thinking, it must be a way of thinking that is used to solve the problem. On the contrary, if you are in a negative state, it will be a different result, relatively speaking, you may be blaming or passing the puck to others, never having a way to really solve the problem. This is something that YangYang feels is very important and not just in adolescence but at any time, because we always have to face various failures. When you fail, if you always put the blame on others, it wouldn’t resolve the problem.
“As a matter of fact, in short track, there are many issues, and there are various kinds of situations. There are times when I am very clear that there is an obvious penalty, where sometimes it is very obvious that someone else pushed you out, or someone else made you out. Even then, you shouldn’t pass the responsibility to your opponent.”
In this sport, YangYang must confront and solve the problems herself. When others intentionally push her out, she strives to learn from the experience and ensure that it doesn’t reoccur. YangYang doesn’t want something like this to happen again so she actively seeks ways to prevent being sidelined and create opportunities for herself and others.
“If I can’t change the way others skate, I can only focus on improving my own.”
At that time, there was a certain referee who was biased against YangYang and her teammates. It can't be said that the judge deliberately judged them, but every time he was there, the probability of them committing a violation would be higher. So, YangYang learned from her experience, and wouldn’t give the judge a chance to judge her. If you can't change things, then go back and change yourself. This is the education that sports brings to us, this is especially relevant when you become an adult. After entering society, these are the challenges we frequently encounter and must learn to navigate. This is why YangYang believes physical education is very important. It is one thing to win the gold medal in the end, but physical education is a positive mentality for us. We still need to think and consider from the perspective of solving problems, rather than saying the steps are simple. Even when the issue may not directly concern us, we should approach it as if it were our own. Ultimately, this approach leads to us being the catalyst for positive outcomes.
Drugs
There are currently many drugs that delay puberty. As the Vice-Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency, if such a drug appears, YangYang must go and confirm with them. YangYang isn’t very clear about this and need to do more research, but generally speaking, they cannot tolerate any purpose that destroys health for the purpose of achieving results. Especially in adolescence, when many teenagers are still underage, if such drugs are used, the Anti-Doping Agency will not tolerate it.
YangYang hopes to tell everyone that “Turning other people's problems into your own problems to improve is the most positive attitude towards solving problems, and it is also a way to survive the emotional problems of adolescence.”
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