Olympians share stories of pain and overcoming hardship

The national delegation of China’s Olympic athletes which has been touring the region in a four-day visit met yesterday with local Macau students.
In a meeting held at the Macau Forum, eight athletes had the opportunity to share their stories with an excited and cheerful audience of around 1,500 students from different schools of the territory as well as members of the local government’s highest authorities.
The meeting was presented by the director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ), Leong Lai. While both the athletes and Lai highlighted the health benefits of sport, the meeting was primarily held to share the experiences and motivational messages of the athletes with local youngsters as well as providing them with an opportunity to meet some of their sporting idols. Contrary to expectations however, most of the stories that surfaced during the Q&A dealt with episodes of difficulties, pain and how the athletes managed to overcome such adversities.
Zhang Mengxue, winner of a gold medal in the women’s 10 meters air pistol event at the Rio Games, was very happy to have the chance to participate in the Games and the fact that she managed to bring home the gold. When asked about overcoming issues such as the stress of the competition, she said “just the participation made me very happy so I didn’t feel much stress,” adding that moments of stress do happen in different stages of preparation and the way to solve it is “to fight it with concentration.”Although she did not take home a gold medal from Rio, the highly regarded and popular athlete, Fu Yuanhui, a swimmer famous for her honesty and joyful spontaneity, was in a different mood as she addressed the issue.
On the topic Fu said, “we all have stress,” adding that many things during the intense training for the Olympics are “left behind”, such as school duties.
“Study comes second most of the time. We only have time to study at night and sometimes we are so tired that we can’t put [anything] inside our heads,” adding as advice, “don’t think you are the only ones to have a hard life. Everybody has. You must find ways to overcome that.” Fu remarked that she had moments of heavy depression during the training period held in Australia before the games and concluding by saying “when you are in pain, the secret is to be persistent and not to go complain to your coach.” Still, the unconventional Fu appeared in front of the audience with her trademark irreverent style that she is known for; in this case including a relaxed pose, a prominent wristwatch and flashy nail polish.
Replying to the students’ questions, Zhu Ting and Hui Ruoqi, both members of China’s national women’s volleyball team also shared similar stories of pain and overcoming with team. Captain Hui shared a personal episode of a heart condition that required a surgery in order to prevent her leaving the sport prematurely.
“During those times everyone gave me a lot of support,” she said, adding like Fu before that “persistence in the ‘down moments’ is the key to success.” The event ended with some words from DSEJ’s director, citing China’s president Xi Jinping that “to be a hero we have to fight for glory.”
As a surprise for the fans, all the athletes of the delegation joined the eight presenters on stage for a victory round of the Forum. Fourteen-year-old Li, a student from Santa Rosa de Lima – Chinese Section, when questioned by the Times as the event finished said “I’m very happy. I came to see mostly Fu Yuanhui. She is awesome.”
Chi Kin (15) from Hou Kong School was a little disappointed. “I wish[ed] to ask something of my fan [idol] Lin Dan but he was not on stage,” he said, adding that he is a keen badminton player.
After the event at the Forum, the delegation continued to tour the city, namely the Ruins of St Paul and the Macau Museum.