It was at the 2012 1SU World Figure Skating Championships that I first saw Japanese figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru. He was competing in free skating with a piece of music from Romeo and Juliet. I was    1     (immediate) attracted to his incredible     2    (perform) along with the expressive music.

Yuzuru has been     3    inspiration for me in my years as a senior high school student. In his career, he    4     (experience) innumerable difficulties and countless injuries so far. In 2014’s ISU Grand Prix, he was badly hurt on the ice due to a collision (碰撞). Though he was bleeding, he still insisted on     5    (compete) with no regrets. What’s more, in the 2018 Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, he couldn’t even walk because of a problem with the ligament (韧带) in his right ankle. But he ended up winning the championship and then    6    (award) the gold medal.

Yuzuru has always trained hard despite the suffering from asthma (哮喘). He bravely     7    (overcome) difficulties so he can dance on the ice and live life to the fullest. From 2012 to 2021, I have been inspired by Yuzuru’s spirit,    8    has helped me push forward no matter what. When    9    (face) with any problem that I think I can’t handle in life, such as being burdened with homework or when my grades are sliding (下滑), I watch videos of Yuzuru skating over and over again to search     10     hope and perseverance. After all, he succeeded against so much uncertainty. So how could I not face my own problems?

4 . A marathon is a long running race of 42,195 kilometers, Runners must not only be fast, but they must be strong enough to keep their speed up over a very long distance.

On Sunday, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shocked the running world by smashing the women’s world record for the marathon by over two minutes. Assefa finished the Berlin Marathon in just 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds.

Assefa’s record was far beyond what most people could expect. After all. it was only her third time running a marathon. “I wanted to break the marathon world record.” she said. “But I couldn’t imagine that it would result in a time under 2 hours and 12 minutes.”

When Assefa was younger, she started by running short races, Then she ran the 800-meter race. Her best time in the 800 meters was about 1 minute and 59 seconds. Last March, she ran her first marathon. Then last September, she entered the Berlin Marathon. She won, and set a new women’s record for the course, finishing in 2 hours15 minutes and 37 seconds. This year, she ran almost four minutes faster than she did last year. In both races. Assefa ran faster in the second half of the race than she did in the first half.

Though Assefa made winning the race look easy, she said it was the result of hard work. Assefa was coached by Gemedu Dedefo, who has helped train many Ethiopian star runners. Besides, the shoes Assefa wore are built in such a special way that they collect energy every time the runner lands and give a special spring as the runner’s foot leaves the ground again. Though the shoes are expensive, they only last for a few hours of running.

The home crowd erupted when China’s Eileen Gu     1    (win) the Women’s Freeski Big Air gold in Beijing. Gu jumped into the top position with her third run,     2     (score) 94.50. Her total score was 188.25 in the event’s debut at the Winter Olympics. The 18-year-old, who also goes by her Chinese name, Gu Ailing, is a freestyle skier, model and grade-A student with     3    American father and a Chinese mother. She grew up in the United States. It was there     4     she grew to love skiing. By 2018, she was representing the US in the world cup for the sport. Then, she decided to switch from representing the US     5     representing China. The decision met with shock and    6     (confuse) from her growing fan base but Eileen Gu was more than     7     (determine), sharing her reasoning on Instagram at the time. “This was an     8     (extreme) tough decision for me to make...Through skiing, I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication and forge friendships between     9     (nation). If I can help to inspire one young girl     10     (break) a boundary, my wishes will have come true.”

6 . Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 in a very large and poor African-American family in Tennessee. When she was four years old, a deadly illness made her left leg useless. She had to wear an iron leg brace. Her doctors told her she would never walk like a normal person without the brace. Yet she was lucky in having a mother who encouraged her to have faith and courage.

At nine years of age, the little girl removed the leg brace and took the first step, which her doctors had said was impossible. Then she got the idea that she would like to be the worlds greatest woman runner.

At the age of thirteen, she began to enter races, but she came in last in every race. Everyone asked her to give up. One day, however, she came in next to last. Then there came a big day when she won a race. From then on, Wilma Rudolph won every race that she entered.

In 1957, Wilma went to Tennessee State University, where she met a coach named Ed Temple. He trained her so well that in 1960 she went to the Olympic Games in Rome. There she beat a German girl named Jutta Heine, the greatest woman runner of the day. Wilma had just won two Olympic gold medals both in the 100-metre race and the 200-metre race. Then came the 400-metre relay. Wilma Rudolph had got her third Olympic gold medal in the 17th Olympic Games.

That day Wilma made history as she became the first woman to win three gold medals in the same Olympic Games. Later she said, “The triumph can’t be had without the struggle. I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share the importance of being a woman first in the world of sports, so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.”

9 . Every time Oksana Chusovitina competes in a gymnastics event, she catches the audience’s attention. The Hangzhou Asian Games proved no exception. When the 48-year-old Uzbek gymnast took part in the event on Monday, thousands of audiences cheered for “Qiu Ma”, which translates to “Mother Chusovitina”.

“I’m touched by Chusovitina’s story. She tried to save her son and just never gave up. She is beautiful both as an athlete and as a mother,” said Zhang Anqi, a Hangzhou local who attended the event.

After completing her competition, Chusovitina blew a kiss to the audience and formed a “heart” shape with her hands. “It is the love and support of the people that keep me going and give me the strength to achieve more,” Chusovitina said. “I am not very satisfied with my performance tonight. Actually, I was a little over-excited. I will increase the difficulty in the final,” she added.

Chusovitina has a storied history at the Asian Games, having won eight medals, including two golds in 2002. Her Olympic journey began in 1992, representing the former Soviet Union. She later stood for Uzbekistan. When Chusovitina’s son got a serious illness in 2002, she chose to take German citizenship (国籍) to compete at global events for a higher income and better medical treatment. She took her Uzbek citizenship in 2013 again.

Her heartfelt feeling, “I dare not grow old until you are well,” has moved many. After her son’s recovery, Chusovitina continued her gymnastics journey simply out of love for the sport. Though she announced her retirement after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she decided to return shortly after. “The biggest power is my desire. I want to perform. I love gymnastics, and it brings me great joy. I’m just doing what I love, so why should I stop?” Chusovitina said.

10 . Born in California and representing the United States before switching to China, teenager Gu Ailing will be most likely to be one of the faces of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The 17-year-old is a freeskier (自由式滑雪运动员) and grade-A student with an American father and Chinese mother. She grew up and still lives in the United States, but in June 2019 she made the “quite difficult” decision to compete for China. She wrote on Instagram that she was “proud of my heritage and equally proud of my American upbringings (培养)”.

As for the decision to compete on behalf of China, she said it is a “valuable opportunity to help inspire millions of young people in China where my mom was born”.

Gu graduated from a San Francisco high school last year and is focusing on her Beijing 2022 training. It is reported that she scored 1,580 points out of a maximum 1,600 in the SAT (美国大学入学考试), and has been offered a place at Stanford.

Gu started on the snow at the age of 3, was competing in national competitions at 9 and won her first World Cup event at 15. She won two gold medals and a silver for China at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. On Jan. 30th, 2021, Gu made her debut (首次亮相) at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado and won two golds and a bronze.

“My goal is to win Olympic gold,” she told the official Olympic website. “It’s the top achievement. And that would be rewarding for all the work that I’ve done to achieve greatness in the sport.”