15-year-old Zhu Yuanling won the Asian Games skateboarding championship. The young "whirlwind" has accumulated a lot of experience

China News Service, Nagoya, Japan, September 27th. Title: 15-year-old Zhu Yuanling won the Asian Games skateboarding championship. The young "Tornado" has accumulated a lot of experience.

Reporter Kim Wook

"I'm very excited. This is my first gold medal in an international competition." Zhu Yuanling, a female skateboarder of the Chinese team, said in an interview with reporters.

The Aichi Nagoya Asian Games held the women's street skateboarding final on the 27th local time. Zhu Yuanling won the championship with 166.57 points. At the competition site, Zhu Yuanling wore headphones and a skateboard to complete difficult moves on the handrails, steps and other obstacles on the street track.

Zhu Yuanling ranked fifth in the preliminaries. In the routing round of the finals, the score slipped above 70 twice and ranked first with a score of 79.73 in the third round. In the big trick stage, Zhu Yuanling scored 86.84 points in the second round, further expanding her lead.

"I have practiced this move for a long time, and it is something I can achieve every time I want to do it, so I don't need to be particularly nervous." Zhu Yuanling said frankly that she did not set a medal goal for herself before the competition. "I keep telling myself, just do every move well."

After winning the gold medal, Zhu Yuanling could not hide her excitement. She said: "I feel so powerful now, I'm so handsome!"

Behind her playful answers lies her years of training and competition.

Zhu Yuanling was born in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province in 2011. She started practicing trampoline at the age of 6. In 2021, she was selected into the national skateboard training team and officially turned to skateboarding.

Women's street skateboarding became an Olympic sport for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Zhu Yuanling, who was only 13 years old at the time, stood on the Olympic court for the first time and won ninth place in the women's street style. For Zhu Yuanling, that game left regrets, as some of the originally prepared moves were not fully utilized. She said that being able to compete with high-level players also allowed her to grow.

In daily training, Zhu Yuanling said that when faced with difficult movements, she would start with the basics and slowly improve. If you fall, get up, if you fall again, get up again.

Coach Yu Wenhao said that Zhu Yuanling's growth was accumulated bit by bit in competitions, setbacks, summaries and adjustments. "We continue to revise training goals and directions, and always encourage her to believe in herself. One day, she will be able to stand on the top podium."

This day finally arrived at the Asian Games. "After winning the gold medal, I like skateboarding even more." Zhu Yuanling said, hoping to perform more difficult moves in different competitions and achieve better results in the future.