来帖一下Shanghai Daily的文章，2hearts skate as 1
来自官网 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=478529&type=
KNEELING on the ice and clasping hands, Chinaís triumphant figure-skating duo Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo made a perfect picture as they ended their gold-medal career in a moment frozen in time and memory.
That was last year at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, after clinching gold in a spectacular career comeback that inspired their countryman and figure skaters around the world. Sheís 33 and he is 38, old for Olympic figure skaters, making their comeback especially meaningful.
Since then, they have skated in exhibitions ó notably a spectacular one last year in which they got married and one last week in which they played a married couple having spats.
They have skated as a pair for the past 19 years.
"Figure skating is our mission in life," Zhao said last week in Shanghai before the "Artistry on Ice" show on July 22 tour that featured top skaters from around the world.
Zhao, who turns 38 in August, said they want to encourage figure skating across China, especially in southern China where few people follow or take part in winter sports due to the warm climate. They have already opened a figure-skating school in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province and say they plan to spend five to 10 years cultivate a market for figure skating.
The two hail from Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, where winter sports are popular, as they are in Jilin and Liaoning provinces. There too they want to encourage young figure-skaters.
China's General Administration of Sport is planning to make ice skating and other winter sports more accessible to people in southern China.
"So we specially brought our 'Artistry on Ice' performance this year to Shanghai to give more people an opportunity to learn about the sport," said Shen, noting that Shanghai is a fashionable and trend-setting city. "Performance is the best way to display the beauty and the speed of figure skating and we're confident Shanghai will take to the elegant sport."
They expressed hope that "Artistry on Ice" would become a well-known brand. "Artistry on Ice" is a two-year-old figure-skating brand, created by SECA Ltd, the China Skating Association and Amway Artistry. It has attracted world-class skaters from around the world.
In an interview before the performance, the two said that for years, no matter how hard they trained, their performances in China did not win many points from judges or applause from the audience. At that time Russians dominated the ice and were famous for their performance flair.
But they had a breakthrough in 2002 when they joined overseas figure-skating performances and became more creative.
Shen said they hope the ice show is not simply entertainment but also a platform for young skaters to demonstrate their skills and accumulate experience.
In 2010, their wedding on ice was the centerpiece of the show staged in Beijing. Shen wore a white wedding gown and Zhao took her hand in a ceremony that touched people all over China.
In 2007, their romance began to unfold for the public.
"Xiao Xue, please marry me," Zhao proposed in front of the audience after they completed their performance at the World Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo where they won a third world championship gold medal.
They married several months later, but were too busy to hold a wedding ceremony until they claimed the only title missing from their collection last year, the Olympic gold. To win it, they returned to the ice after an absence of around two years.
In her early career, Shen was a singles skater. It was her mother who loves figure skating who persuaded Shen to team up with Zhao in 1992 when his original partner retired due to injury. Zhao has always been a pairs skater and was quite well-known in China when he and Shen joined up.
They have been together since then, both on the ice and off.
In 2005, the pair withdrew from the World Championships because Zhao injured his Achilles tendon and later ruptured during training.
Miraculous recovery
While the whole world assumed they would miss the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, the following year in 2006, Shen was alone in insisting that her partner could recover in time. She trained alone every day, hoping her perseverance would inspire Zhao and lead to a miracle.
They returned to the ice weeks before the Olympics after missing the entire competitive season. Despite lack of preparation, they won their second Olympic bronze medal.
And their love story began during Zhao's recovery. Shen had been under a lot of pressure from teammates, the public and the media and Shen alone responded to inquiries about Zhao. But Zhao only saw her smiles.
When he saw Shen smile, he believed he had to continue his career and spend the rest of his life with his partner, he said.
Shen and Zhao had disappeared from public life for two years and stopped figure skating until Zhao persuaded Shen to return to the ice to fight for the Olympic title in 2009.
"The Olympics has always been our dream. We knew Vancouver would be our last shot, and we wanted to realize it after winning all the other titles. It did require great courage, but we could take the defeat if it came because we had tried," Zhao explained earlier.
Their emotional free skate to "Adagio in G Minor" by Tomaso Albinoni was enough to seal gold ahead of teammates Pang Qing and Tong Jian.
"We're too old to continue skating, so maybe it's time to have a baby," Shen was quoted as saying in Vancouver.
They kept postponing pregnancy but the "Artistry" organizer said they might not perform next year because of family plans.
Shen has said that she hopes their child would try figure skating, but that the parents wouldn't insist their child follow their own career.
"Our duty now is mostly to promote figure skating," Zhao said. "We had better skate more while we are still able during these years."
The couple said they might start a figure skating club, especially to teach children.
They have been called China's busiest retired athletes and Shen jokes that she hasn't even had time to learn to cook.
When Shanghai Daily observed their "Artistry on Ice" rehearsal, it was clear they treated it as a formal performance, with every detail and every facial expression perfect. In rehearsals other skaters sometimes hold something back.
Not Shen and Zhao.
"We love the ice arena. We love figure skating. And we will stay with figure skating throughout our life," he said.
考验我英语水平的时刻到了！！俺得硬着头皮往下看了......
|
显身卡
