1 . When Su Bingtian was first added to the track and field team of his junior high school, what he did most was not training or competing, but carrying bags for his senior teammates and watching them running.

Nobody, including Su himself, would believe the small boy could one day become the first Asian man to reach the 100m final at the World Championships, running side-to-side with the fastest sprinters in the world.

Born in a rural area in China’s southeastern province of Guangdong, Su started training in athletics in 2003. After 12 years of fast progress, Su emerged from a bag-carrier to the fastest man in the world most populous country, breaking the national record after he clocked 9.99 seconds at the IAAF Diamond League Eugene leg on May 30. He is the first and only Chinese that have ever dipped under the 10-second barrier. He attributed such progress to a revolutionary technique change starting from last winter.

When Su first began to train in sprinting, he had been using his right foot to start off. But he always found his third step a little bit weak and unsteady which would affect his intermediate running and the whole rhythm. After consulting with his coach Yuan Guoqiang, China’s first national record holder, Su has changed his way to start with his left foot going forward first.

“It was like a desperate gamble, a brand new start for me. I knew if it works I would find some room to improve, otherwise it could lead to the end of my career,” Su said.

“To be honest, I am not fully prepared for such pressure and intensive media coverage. I will learn to deal with it as soon as possible. But training and competing will always be my priority,” said a determined Su. “I hope my story can encourage those young people to believe that Chinese can also run fast. I do not think I am a hero. I am just a step-stone, like my coach Yuan, a step-stone to pave the way for more youngsters to push the speed limit for China.”

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 . 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.”

4 . 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.