Athlete's new book conveys 'never give up' message

On Saturday, a sharing session on Galloping Through 8,000 Mornings and Evenings, the first life essay collection by Qi Jia, a retired athlete from the national figure skating team and full-time coach of the national pairs skating group, was held in Beijing.

The new book draws on the author's over 30-year ice skating career as its backdrop, weaving together her training and perseverance spanning 8,000 days and nights. It records her transformative journey from a professional figure skater to coach, from a dream-chasing teenager to a "torchbearer" of the sport.

With delicate, warm, and powerful prose, the essay collection conveys the life conviction of "fall long enough, and you will surely win", offering the public the spiritual nourishment to face setbacks head-on and hold fast to their passions.

During her years as an ice dance competitor, she took part in many major domestic and international events, honing her competitive skills and on-ice experience. In 2014, Qi joined the national figure skating team as a coach, where she trained two Olympic champions, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.

The new book is a tender, affectionate look back at her career, and its writing style is light yet profound, with a touch of humor and vivid warmth.

It not only records her daily routine of rising at dawn and returning late at night from the rink. It also includes moments of perseverance when, despite repeated injuries and countless falls, she stubbornly kept getting up. She was not only embraced by her family's warm, tender companionship, but she also grew from a naive young girl into a resilient spirit with the professional caliber required of a figure skater.

The essay collection fully presents her accumulated life reflections throughout the evolution of her roles as an athlete and coach, reaching beyond the sports sphere to accurately mirror the struggles and confusion that ordinary people encounter.

Han Cong, the Olympic champion Qi trained, says that what Qi imparted was not just figure skating techniques, but also a life foundation for facing adversity head-on and never giving up. Every word in the book comes from her real-life experiences of tumbling and fighting, enabling every reader to draw from it the indomitable strength to keep moving forward.