Shaoang Liu: If luck doesn't come, I have to make it for myself

– It's also hard for us to talk, and it seems it's not easy for you either...
– I'm indeed a little speechless. We can say that I got tired, and I don't realize I've won yet – said Shaoang Liu, gold medalist in the 500m at the Beijing Olympics and Hungary's first-ever individual winter Olympic champion. – I know that when I reached the finish line, I didn't have any emotions on my face. I also wonder how and when it will hit me later what I achieved on Sunday. It's going to take some time.

– Although a few weeks ago you talked to Nemzeti Sport about the need for a little tragedy before every race, and then can the miracle, the good performance, come. But have you ever thought that you would reach the top after such adversity?
– I had a really difficult start at this Olympics starting. I tested positive for the coronavirus in Hungary, and I could only travel after to my teammates later. Following the unsuccessful 1000m, we didn't perform in the 1500m and the relay the way we wanted. I had to realize in Beijing that I couldn't wait for luck because it doesn't just come to me, I have to make it for myself.

– Strange or not, this firm determination and purposefulness could be felt in your voice as soon as you learned that you had tested positive in Hungary.
– Yes, it could be... When I got the call with the result, I wasn't worried. However, as the days went by and the start approached, I became nervous. It's not unexpected that this happens to me because I'm usually the one with whom something unlucky happens all the time. The fact that I was able to go to Beijing only a week later gave me some reassurance, but when I arrived, my teammates were training, and I felt very strange. I was in the Olympic Village, which I didn't know at all at the time, I was loitering alone in the apartment, and I began to feel as if I didn't belong here. Fortunately, it was over the next day, and everyone knows the rest.

– When you decided not to wait for luck to come, what did you do?
– Nothing. I woke up on Sunday morning and said I was going to be an Olympic champion today.

– We've heard this from you before. The same happened at the Dordrecht World Championships in March.
– I felt the same as I did in the Netherlands in March. I didn't tell anyone about my intuition then, and not this time either. But all along I had the same feelings as in Dordrecht: I knew I was going to become an Olympic champion. I thought about everything in detail on Saturday night. Obviously, I could only play my quarterfinal race in my head, because it had the draw, but after I was over it, I imagined everything I could face myself with. I woke up in the morning calmly and stayed that way throughout the day because all the experiences I've had over the years and the many failures I've had before helped me.

– But do we assume well that you didn't recall the failures?
– I just gave way to positive feelings. I didn't think about what would happen if I didn't advance. Every time I stood at the start, I told myself that I can do it. I didn't have a single hasty move — neither on nor off the ice.

– Of course, you are a professional athlete, but he is your brother after all: did it not deter you from your composure that your brother had already said goodbye in the quarterfinals?
– Since I was in the last heat in round one, I saw Shaolin's race, so I knew he didn't make it. Things were moving so fast that we couldn't even talk to each other, but I felt he was on my side the whole time – as he always does. But I excluded everything so much, I was focused on my own task that Shaolin's fallout didn't throw me off. I found my inner peace, and after Shaolin's farewell, I wasn't nervous, I wasn't rushing, I just focused on my job. I had to because the semifinal was much more difficult than the final. In the latter, I just had to focus on keeping the first position and everyone else behind me. That's what I did in the semifinals as well, but some things were happening there behind me.

– So, we weren't wrong when we said this Sunday that Shaoang Liu's victory in the sprint distance was so obvious.
– No. That's what happened, that's the truth.

– But on 500...? Where anything can happen?
– Let me tell you again: I was expecting this victory.

– You two have said so many times that your parents raised you in such a way that you became aware as children that you can always count on your brother, that he is always there for you. Also, both of you have often stated that it doesn't really matter which one of you wins because success remains in the family. Is this gold medal yours and also your brother's?
– This gold medal is not only mine, not just ours with Shaolin, but the whole team and everyone's who stood by us. And this victory belongs to Hungary. I hope that I have brought joy to Hungarians. We are such a small country, so few of us live there, maybe this gold medal brings Hungarian people together a little bit.

On behalf of Nemzeti Sport, Gergely Kohán, Erika Kovács (text), Károly Árvai (photo) report from Beijing.

Translated by Vanda Orosz