Sports and Education Integration Training Universiade Champion: Shanghai Girl Song Jiayuan Has Two "Masters" Song Jiayuan | Shanghai | Champion

At the track and field event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Shanghai athlete Song Jiayuan won fifth place in the women's shot put final with a time of 19.14 meters, creating the best Olympic result for Shanghai athletes in shot put in recent years. After the competition, this highly anticipated Olympic rising star once bluntly stated that it was her alma mater's motto of "self-improvement and perseverance" that inspired her to achieve excellent results.

The "alma mater" referred to by Song Jiayuan is Shanghai University.

On the morning of August 1st, the track and field events of the Universiade began in full swing at the Shuangliu Sports Center Stadium. Song Jiayuan won the women's shot put competition with a height of 18.56 meters. Every appearance of Song Jiayuan has attracted everyone's enthusiastic attention. This girl, who just won the championship at the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships, used her championship to put a perfect end to her college life.

Song Jiayuan has two coaches, one is the famous shot put athlete Sui Xinmei, and the other is the coach of Shanghai University's high-level sports team, Zeng Chaogong.

Master Sui led the door in

Song Jiayuan is a native Shanghai girl who has loved shot put since childhood. She enjoys the belief that "every drop of sweat will not go to waste" on the field. She said that every time she watches her shot put fly far away, she feels happy.

Since entering the Shanghai Sports Training Management Center in 2013, Song Jiayuan has been training with Coach Sui Xinmei. With her love for shot put and a strong determination to never give up, she has been working hard all the way, from being a newcomer to winning a silver medal at the Youth Games, from the Asian Championships to entering the Olympic battlefield. Through daily training, she has accumulated experience, continuously absorbed nutrients, and turned them into her driving force and a ladder of progress.

Song Jiayuan has a high level of intelligence and is willing to endure hardships. In just two years, she improved her performance from 17.7 meters to 19.23 meters. In 2022, she jumped to a new platform with a score of 20.38 meters, ranking third in the world this season and sixth place at the Eugene World Athletics Championships. Her experience in the competition has been continuously strengthened. In the women's shot put final of the 2023 National Athletics Grand Prix, she won the championship with a time of 18.79 meters. This year, she won the Asian Championships again, one step closer to her goal. This girl, known as Gong Lijiao's successor junior sister, is following Sui's guidance and striving to pursue her dreams.

I chose to study at Shanghai University because the "Bole" in the school was once Chaogong. When Song Jiayuan was still at the Xinzhuang training base, Zeng Chaogong went there and found that the little girl had good qualifications. He took the initiative to throw an olive branch and recruited this local Shanghai girl to Shanghai University.

While learning, training, and competing, Song Jiayuan's coach was guided by Sui when she was on a professional team. When she returned to school, she followed Zeng's guidance in training. More often than not, Zeng Chaogong was like a bridge, bridging the gap between professional teams and schools, allowing Song Jiayuan's training and learning to seamlessly connect.

Full support from university education

After entering Shanghai University, Song Jiayuan studied at the School of Management. In order to allow her to focus on her studies without any distractions, the school tailors courses for her and periodically delivers them to her doorstep.

"Song Jiayuan is an athlete trained together by the school, local team, and national team, truly embodying the concept of integrating sports and education in her," said Liu Bing, Dean of the School of Physical Education at Shanghai University. He once instructed that besides teaching at school, he would often go to the base to "work", and he had to take care of his disciple Song Jiayuan's learning and training.

In Liu Bing's eyes, Song Jiayuan is a very hardworking Shanghai girl. "She trains hard and reads conscientiously. Professional teachers give feedback and assign homework to her, and she will work tirelessly to complete it without any delay," Liu Bing said. Song Jiayuan is still a very approachable child, and she will definitely attend activities such as club festivals, school opening ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, and outstanding student exhibitions. "She always manages to find time to meet them without saying a word, using her own personal experience to motivate them." This year, Song Jiayuan was named the National Excellent Communist Youth League Member of 2022.

Liu Bing said that Song Jiayuan's success is a microcosm of the integration of sports and education, and more sports stars are standing out in this talent cultivation model.

For many years, Shanghai University has focused on the five major events of men's volleyball, athletics, martial arts, women's football, and tennis. Based on traditional advantages, Shanghai University has actively expanded into emerging projects, vigorously promoted the construction of the school's high-level sports team, and achieved remarkable results.

Among them, the athletics team is the earliest high-level sports team established by Shanghai University. Over the years, the high-level track and field team of Shanghai University has repeatedly achieved excellent results, drawing and breaking competition records multiple times. At the 14th National Games track and field competition, renowned athlete Yuan Qiqi won silver medals in the women's 100m and 4x100m relay events; Athlete Anubek Kuwan won the Beijing Marathon championship; Wei Ruichen, the champion of the women's 100m hurdles at the Shanghai Municipal Games, is also from Shanghai University. Nowadays, under the cultivation of schools, a group of strong domestic track and field talents are emerging.

For example, martial arts: The high-level martial arts team of Shanghai University was established in 2011, and after 10 years of construction, the team has become a strong force; The Shanghai University Women's Football Team, established in 2015, has also become a significant new force among universities in Shanghai, winning the women's first division championship of the Shanghai University Football League.

At present, all high-level sports team students in the school are studying Business Administration at the School of Management of Shanghai University, and the employment rate of high-level sports team students in the school reaches 100% every year. "In addition to professional skills, we also hope that these athlete students can have more gains in school and have more room for development in the future," said Liu Bing.