Veteran Winter Olympians: Embodiments of the Olympic Spirit (5)

 Wu Dajing: "I'm taking every race like it's my last one."

The essential thing about the Olympic Games is not to have just conquered your achievement, but to have fought well along the way, with the recent performance of China's short-track speed skater Wu Dajing at Beijing 2022 having provided a vivid illustration of this profound sentiment.

The 27-year-old Wu had a tight schedule at Beijing 2022. Before the final race of his signature event, the men's 500 meters, he had competed in 11 high-intensity short-track races within four days. During those races, Wu and his teammates won China's first gold medal of the Beijing 2022 Games in the short-track speedskating mixed relay event.

However, not every race has ended in a good result. Wu finished 4th in the men's 1,000 meters on February 7; a few days later, he missed out on the chance to seize a medal at his signature event as he failed to move onto the championship-deciding final A. Pressing his lips downward, Wu reacted disappointedly after swallowing the result.

"It's a great pity. I have prepared for this for so many years. Everyone in the semifinals has a chance to finish on the podium. But no matter the result is good or bad, I can accept it," said Wu .

In his final B race, Wu finished in first place after leading in every lap. Even though Wu failed to get back on top of the podium a second time at Beijing 2022, his resume in short track speaks for itself: the first Chinese male skater to win an Olympic gold medal in short track and the world record holder in the men's 500 meters at 39.505 seconds.

For Wu, the most important thing is not about defending his title in the 500m event, but instead about enjoying every competition.

"I'm taking every race like it's my last one, because I don't know if I'll be able to compete at the next Olympics, or any international competition later," he said.