In China, training hard and a lot is the norm. And Gao Tingyu doesn’t.
“I’m slow and lazy, but on the ice I like speed and the sound of the air whizzing past my ears.” It is the longest sentence that Gao uttered during the international press conference after his golden 500 meters. He is a man of few words. Asked how he would describe his personality, he aptly answers: ‘I’m a quiet boy.’
Peter Kolder endorses this concise characterization. The Dutch skating trainer knows 24-year-old Gao well. Four years ago, when the Chinese took bronze at the Games in Pyeongchang, Kolder was national coach in China. They are still in regular contact. ‘He’s a very quiet boy. He likes to hide and prefers to be out of the picture.’
At the same time, when Gao says something, he is clear. Much more than the other Chinese skaters Kolder worked with, Gao dares to say what he thinks.
And the way he celebrated his victory in front of the invited Chinese audience revealed another part of his personality. He cried out in the center field when it turned out that he was the winner with 34.32, Cha Min-kyu (34.39) second and Wataru Morishige (34.49) third. Kolder: ‘Tingyu can be much more exuberant than the other Chinese.’
Despite those extroverted moments, he is the opposite of that other non-Dutch winner in the men’s long track: Nils van der Poel. The Olympic champion in the 5 and 10 kilometers gets the media with firm statements and enjoys it. In addition, the Swede shared a 65-page document on Saturday with his views on the 5 and 10 kilometers and with a detailed overview of his training program over the past 2.5 years. At the same time, in the press conference, Gao announced through the interpreter that his training approach ‘classified‘ is. Secret.
He was willing to give away one detail. He does little. But how does that compare to others? “I couldn’t say that.” Kolder knows. He does much less than usual. Not only compared to his fellow skaters in China, but also compared to the competition elsewhere in the world. “I don’t think anyone dares to do as little as he does.”
That stems from his love for the 500 meters. That is the best distance for him. ‘The 1,000 meters doesn’t interest him,’ says Kolder. And so the short powerful workouts, to which he owes his unparalleled opening, are sufficient.
This season he showed the fastest 100 meters ever at the World Cup competitions in Poland: 9.32. During his Olympic stage he was a tenth of a second slower with 9.42. That is still a bit faster than the world record on the athletics track of Usain Bolt: 9.58.
On Saturday, even the 500 meters seemed a bit too long for the sprint specialist. For the last 100 meters, Gao’s shots were shaky. His final lap of 24.9 was not the fastest in the field. No fewer than six men had a better full round. “He is a pure speed boy. You could tell by how tired he was after the 500 metres.’
quirky
It is also out of self-preservation that Gao uses his powers so sparingly. He is very injury prone. After his sensational first World Cup race in Poland, he missed the sprint in Stavanger a week later. According to the Chinese team leader, that was planned, according to the national coach there was a ‘minor injury’. In reality, it was severe back pain that prevented him from taking action.
Gao withdraws from the Chinese sports infrastructure with his approach and works with a private coach, Liu Guangbin. That is unusual and the cooperation was not always appreciated by the Chinese skating association and Olympic committee. Yet it was allowed, because Liu is his mainstay. “Without him I probably would have quit after the 2018 Games,” Gao said.
‘He is idiosyncratic within the system’, says Kolder. But he is also a patriot. Gao proudly walked into the Olympic stadium as the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. When asked, he said he would dedicate his gold medal ‘to the country’ and that he expected his example to be followed. ‘We are unstoppable in the future.’ Those statements were enthusiastically noted by the nearly 50 Chinese journalists.
Kolder hopes that Gao will remain his stubborn self and continue his skating career. That is not obvious. Zhang Hong, who won the women’s 1,000 meters in 2014, continued for another four years, but as an Olympic champion could barely focus on the sport. She was considered more important next to the ice rink. She is now an IOC member.
“Gao is also a celebrity now. That will bring him a lot of attention’, expects Kolder. And that’s exactly what the sprinter doesn’t care about. He didn’t do television commercials like the Chinese 1,000-meter speed skater, Ning Zhongyan. He even avoided the ice rink in the days before his golden race. “That’s typical Gao: hide and then explode.”