For followers of freestyle skiing and fashion alike, the buzz surrounding Winter Olympian Eileen Gu at this year’s Games has become     1     hit.

Gu’s gold-medal     2     (perform) in the competition pushed her into the global spotlight on Tuesday, sparking     3     a craze in China that social media platform Weibo crashed. But Gu has spent years establishing herself as both a top athlete and a     4     (huge) reliable model.

Having switched her sporting devotion     5     her mother’s home country in 2019, Gu has also got her place in Chinese TV ads. JD. com is among the famous brands that she     6     (model) for in recent months. In fact, she arrived in Beijing with more than 20 commercial partnerships,     7     (range) from Beats to Cadillac.

“The fashion world has helped balance my training,” Gu said. “Just like skiing, modeling     8     (require) creativity, confidence and the ability     9     (learn) and adapt. The transition between modeling and skiing becomes a practice for each other,     10     helped me feel more motivated in each area.”

Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu was already a     1     (win) on the FIS World Cup circuit before competing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2020. After winning YOG gold in both halfpipe and bigair, the 17-year-old has     2     (firm) established herself as one of the rising stars in the sport, and is now hoping to inspire others.

If I'm 80 years old and looking back at my life, I don't think     3     number of medals is going to matter as much as memories of reading messages from young girls     4     (say) that I was the one who inspired them to start skiing, or who showed them that it was possible to do bigger tricks and that     5     (woman) could do it too.

To be able to inspire them-that's a really big thing for me. And I also just want     6     (enjoy) the experience. I have a lot of things going on in my life,     7     I think it's important to be able to enjoy the road that I feel very     8     (luck)to be on. Not many people have the chance to compete at such a high-level event in front of the world. So, I'm really, really thankful     9     all the chances I've had. And my     10     (big) ambition is just to make a difference and to be able to use those chances for the greater good.”

3 . American gymnast Simone Biles flies through the air as though she was made for it. She has won more World Championship gold medals than any other female gymnast in history. She is also the first women gymnast to win three World all-around titles in a row. A complicated flip (翻转动作) she introduced in the 2013 World Championships is one of four skills that are named after her, and some consider her the greatest of all time.

Athletes are under pressure, and a small mistake can result in serious injury. At the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Biles experienced something gymnast call “the twisties,” which is when a gymnast has no idea where his or her body is in the air. Instead of putting herself and her team at risk, Biles gave up the competition. However, she worked out in a private gym and was able to compete in the last-scheduled individual event: the balance beam, winning the bronze medal.

When she was young, Biles was raised by her grandfather Ron, and was introduced to gymnastics at the age of 6 on a school field trip to a gym. She saw some gymnasts practicing, began copying their moves and insisted that her parents send her for gymnastics lessons. A coach at the gym also recognized her talent and sent a letter home asking her parents to send her for lessons.

Throughout her career, Biles has kept her passion for the sport, which can be seen clearly in the huge smile she often wears while competing. But she also wants people to know the importance of putting mental health first and not ignoring how stress can influence them.

In Biles’ 2016 memoir (回忆录), titled Courage to Soar, the book tells in her words “how my faith and my family made my wildest dreams come true. And how embracing a dream can give you courage to soar.” Biles’ ability to perform at the highest level has inspired new generations of athletes, but her willingness to be honest about her struggles inspires everyone.

4 . Eric Moussambani is the first swimmer from Equatorial Guinea to compete in the Olympics. He found his passion for swimming shortly after high school. At the time, he didn’t know how to swim, but he knew it was a sport he wanted to pursue.

Unfortunately, there were no standard swimming pools in his country. Eventually, he found a hotel pool where he could only swim three hours a week. When he couldn’t use the pool, he trained in rivers and the sea, with the local fishermen guiding him on how to use his legs and arms.

After about eight months of swimming, Eric gained entry into the 2000 Summer Olympics through a program designed to encourage sports development in developing countries.

In Sydney, Eric saw an Olympic-size swimming pool for the first time. It was so big that Eric said he was so frightened to compete in it. In preparing for his event, Eric trained at the same time as the US team and took the opportunity to study their techniques closely. A South African coach gave him a pair of competition trunks (泳裤) and some goggles (护目镜), which were what he needed badly.

On September 19, 2000, Eric stepped out for the men’s 100m freestyle competition. With his two fellow competitors stopped from taking part for making false starts, Eric suddenly found himself racing on his own. “I swam the first 50m really well,” said Eric after the competition. “I focused all my energy on telling myself to keep going.” After turning for the second length, however, Eric began to pay for spending so much energy on the first. As his legs stiffened (变僵硬), he felt he was going nowhere. “It was then that I heard the crowd shouting, encouraging me to ‘Go, go, go’. It gave me the strength to make it to the end.”

Eric finished the race with a time of 1:52.72, the slowest recorded time in Olympic history. But the audience did not care. They cheered him as if he had broken the world record. To this day, Eric is still an Olympic hero.

6 . Very often, it seems that the athletes we watch on TV effortlessly win the game. However, it’s _________ to remember that things don’t always go their way. At one time or another, everyone has a bad game or becomes _________. Here two top athletes tell us about a time when they had to _________ back and what they _________ from the experience.

Maya Moore was a member of the U.S. women’s basketball team that won gold at the Olympics in 2012, “My team was playing at the national championships when I was 13. I could not hit a _________ during the whole game. We _________ and I felt like I let my team down. I was extremely _________. My mom helped me see that my _________ does not define who I am. She helped me realize that it is how I respond to difficult times that _________. I learned to bounce back from __________ times in life.”

Swimmer Natalie Coughlin has ever won 12 Olympic gold medals. “By the time I was 16, I had already worked for years to __________ for the Olympic team. __________, I tore a muscle in my shoulder, which meant I had to temporarily __________ my goal. It made me hardly wish to __________ because swimming was my whole world. The injury __________ me to seek things outside of swimming, like friendships and hobbies. It helped me realize that swimming was not life and death.”

7 . Qian Hongyan waited on the starting block, supporting herself using her hands and torso (躯干). When the starting signal sounded, Qian pushed herself in. She won the silver medal in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke (蛙泳) SB5 final in the 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities held in Xi’an, Shaanxi province in 2021.

Qian, from Luliang of Yunnan province, had both of her legs cut off after getting into an accident in 2000 when she was 4 years old. Her family were extremely poor. With little resources available, her grandfather cut up an old basketball to replace her lower body. Since then, she became well-known for moving around while balanced on an orange ball, earning her the nickname “basketball girl”.

Qian’s passion for swimming dates back to 2007, when she was invited by the local disabled people’s federation to watch the 2008 National Paralympic Games in Kunming, capital of Yunnan. At 11 years old, she joined the provincial swimming team for people with disabilities. However, without legs, it was difficult for Qian to keep her balance in water. “Swimming without legs is like rowing a boat without a rudder (船舵). I tended to swing due to a poor sense of direction.” Qian said. To help her overcome the difficulty, her coach designed a special training plan for her. Every day, she practiced for at least four hours. She made great efforts to enhance her arm strength and balance.

In 2009, she won three gold medals in the provincial contests in Yunnan, as well as one gold medal and two silvers at national events. In 2014, she won another gold medal in the 100m breaststroke final in the Yunnan Provincial Paralympic Games. In the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, she placed ninth in the 100m breaststroke.

Qian’s journey to create a future for herself, despite losing both legs in a tragic accident, has become the story that inspired thousands of disabled people in China.

8 . Halfway through the women’s slalom event at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin held a commanding lead over the greatest women’s slalom skiers in the world. On her final run, she burst from the start house at top speed, zigzagging around the poles. Suddenly, her left ski slid out, causing her to temporarily lose control. It seemed as if her dreams of a gold medal might slide down the mountain, out of her reach. But in the blink of an eye, Mikaela stopped her mini-skid and rocketed through the rest of her run. She became the youngest slalom skier ever to win an Olympic gold medal.

Skiing has always been a big part of Mikaela’s life. At two and a half years old, Mikaela made her first ski run down her steep driveway on plastic skis. From ages 8 to 11, she worked hard, repeating hundreds of training runs on small hills to learn the correct techniques. When Mikaela was 11, she enrolled at the Burke Mountain Academy, a Vermont boarding school for skiers.

According to headmaster Kirk Dwyer, “What separated Mikaela from others was the degree of her commitment to be the best. Mikaela practiced more than anyone and believed in herself then and now.” At age 14, Mikaela began her international career when she raced in the world championships for 13-and 14-year-olds. And she won! By the time she was 17, she had already won her first World Cup race.

For Mikaela, working hard is a full-time job. In the summer, when Mikaela is off the ski slopes and in the gym, her daily training consists of six to seven hours of weightlifting, core body work, and biking to improve her strength and agility.

“If you’re passionate about your goals, whatever they are,” she says, “there’s no limit to what you can achieve. Give it your all!”