Shen's family hails ending of 20-year wait for Olympic gold
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"We have waited for this gold medal for 20 years!" said weeping Shen Jie, father of Chinese ace figure skater Shen Xue, in Vancouver on Tuesday noon (Beijing time) when he saw his daughter claiming the pairs title at the 21st Winter Olympics.
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Paired with her 37-year-old husband Zhao Hongbo, the 31-year-old Shen Xue made her golden dream come true in Vancouver with a world record high marks of 216.57.
In Harbin, a Chinese city thousands kilometers away from Vancouver, the whole family of Shen sat in front of TV at dawn to watch the live show of the pairs final despite Shen/Zhao, who ranked the first in the short program, would appear last in the free skating.
Standing for quite a long time in the medal-studded room, Shen Jie murmured," This one (Olympic gold) only......"
Shen/Zhao, the two-time Olympic bronze medalists, have been crowned as the world champions for three times before they gave up the national team training in March, 2007. They have also lifted six trophies of the ISU figure skating Grand Prix Finals. They came back for the Olympic title from retirement nine months ago.
At 8:00 a.m., Shen's home was fully packed with relatives and journalists. Many people had to sit on the floor to watch the live broadcast.
Shen Xue's two-year-old niece became a star because of her No. 1-shaped hair style and her only words "the first, the first" when she faced countless video cameras.
All Shen Xue's relatives were in red as the color symbols victory in China and also the color of Shen Xue's skirt in the final.
Although Shen Xue's mother Lv Manli repeatedly told the crowd to keep calm, not to worry, she fell down into a sofa when her daughter and son-in-law roared to celebrate their win on TV.
Throwing away the medicines to cure high blood pressure and heart attacks, Lv said in tears," It's too hard, too difficult for them in these years......"
Having teamed up for 18 years, Shen/Zhao won the first world pairs title for China in 2002 and then retained it in 2003 before incurring a string of injuries.
Zhao suffered from a torn Achilles' tendon which affected them at the Turin Olympics and forced them to pull out of the 2006 worlds.
In the following year, the pair overcame a dismay 2006 to sweep all in front of them during the season, winning the Cup of China, the NHK Trophy, the Grand Prix final and the Four Continents event.
After lifting the 2007 world championships title in Tokyo, Shen and Zhao left the national team. In their words, it's a temporary leave.
The pair started to ponder retirement after finishing third in the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006 but the Olympic victorious aura is always appealing to them.
Their previous collection of a double bronze medals from both the Salt Lake City and Turin Olympic Games can never remedy the regret of the elusive Olympic crowns for their nearly two decades' skating career.
Now, the golden dream has come true. It has been China's first ever Olympic title in figure skating. And Shen and Zhao become the first ever non-European couple to top the Olympic pairs podium in history, snapping a 12-Games winning streak of Russia who had dominated the Olympic figure skating pairs events for 46 years.
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