斯坦福学霸+冠军收割机！18岁滑雪天才美少女谷爱凌为何如此优秀？四种人生皆开挂！（附视频&采访稿）
2021年12月5日，2021-2022国际雪联自由式滑雪大跳台世界杯美国斯廷博特站，谷爱凌以总成绩184.25分获得冠军，创造两个历史，这是她第一个大跳台世界杯冠军，她也成为第一个在比赛中完成“Double Cork 1440”动作的女子选手。
赛后，谷爱凌在社交媒体中写道：“首次大跳台世界杯，拿了一枚金牌。最后一次机会，我选择了挑战Double Cork 1440动作，并成为历史上第一个女子在比赛中完成它！！”
在过去的这个雪季，年仅18岁的谷爱凌在自由式滑雪大跳台、U型场地和坡面障碍技巧三个项目上都取得了出色的成绩，也一人拿到了三个项目的冬奥会参赛资格，她将毫无疑问也是本届北京冬奥会上最受关注的中国运动员，如果她能在北京冬奥会上成功圆梦，谷爱凌将再次为中国体育创造新历史，成为最年轻的全满贯得主。
除了冬奥会的出战名额，谷爱凌也由于个人的热度拿到了二十多个代言合同，经济价值近乎比肩东京奥运会的几位热门的冠军获得者，而拿到这一系列的谷爱凌年龄才不过18岁，这才是真正的人生赢家吧！
今天英语演讲君和大家分享一个IWC对谷爱凌的英文专访，听她聊滑雪运动的乐趣，第一次获得冠军的感受以及不同文化环境下的生活体验。
↓↓↓ 上下滑动，查看对话稿 ↓↓↓
Free skiing, I mean, that's an extreme sport.
Can you tell us a bit what it is because I think not everyone around the globe really knows what that discipline really is.
So free skiing is you're on skis, and the skis look a little bit different from race skis or your typical rental skis because they are twin tips .
So the front goes up and the back also goes up.
So that allows you to ski switch backwards and you'll need to ski backwards because it's pretty much like gymnastics on skis, you're doing flips, you're doing spins.
There's a half pipe which is shaped like this and you jump out and back in.
And then there's another discipline called slopestyle, which is jumps and rails.
And then finally, the last discipline is called big air, which is just one big jump.
And in terms of skiing, what makes it different from anything else is that it is very expressive.
It's very creative in terms of gymnastics, right, it's beautiful, it's so difficult, but at the same time, there are set difficulties for different tricks, whereas in skiing there is no score based on only difficulty is scored on difficulty, amplitude, execution , variety and style.
So if you do it differently than anybody else, it'll score higher even if you're doing the same trick and everybody will do that trick differently.
And so in that way, it makes it really interesting because it allows for a lot of freedom and creativity and self-expression, and it allows you to kind of personalize your own skiing.
I always like to say that if everybody was wearing black and everybody was doing the same trick and I was watching from a far distance, I would be able to tell who is who, because you can really show your own style and influence into skiing.
So that's what I love so much about it.
You achieved your first World Cup victory in Italy in 2019 when you were only 15.
What has happened since then? Wow...
A lot has happened since then.
I would say, I think what's really fun is because things have happened so fast I definitely still have the kind of underdog mentality in the sense that I now have enough confidence to enter any competition and have the intention to win, but also not really the age or the time experience to really expect it.
So what that means is I feel like it's created a really healthy mindset for me competitively.
I have won X-Games, I've won world championships.
I've made history as the first person of Chinese descent to ever win X-Games, I'm the first female rookie to ever win three medals at X-Games.
I'm the first female rookie to win ski halfpipe.
One of my biggest goals in skiing has always been to inspire young girls, especially young Asian-American girls or young girls who don't really see representation in our sport yet.
And so that is really exciting to me because I've always had that as a goal.
But being able to see those records being broken and see myself taking those steps towards it is kind of a mind bending moment for me.
So it's happened really fast, but I'm really grateful for all the people who've been around me, my sponsors, IWC, my family, my mom, my coaches who have supported me the whole time.
Sometimes you feel like as a young person, you feel like, Oh, I have to wait until I'm older before I can really make change or before I can really do things that are important and impactful to the world.
But really, I think it's important to be a young person and to show that age doesn't dictate capability and that experience teaches more than anything else.
And so, yeah, I think that is my biggest goal, and it's something that I wish I had more of growing up.
But also, I'm really grateful because I grew up in a very healthy and supportive environment with my mom and my grandma, who are both incredibly empowered women and who served as the role models that I didn't really see on TV or in this sport or other extreme sports, for that matter.
So I wanted to be kind of the one to introduce skiing to people to show people the joy of it.
And so that when people think of free skiing, they don't think of a older white man.
They think of a young, worldly biracial girl who is bubbly and likes to do a bunch of different things and has this genuine passion for the sport.
And that was probably my biggest goal.
And now, you know, looking in China, it absolutely has paid off.
Before there was nobody at the ski resorts.
I knew everybody who freeskied in China because there were only a handful of them.
There were probably 20 or 30 people in the whole country who knew about it and who were really doing the sport.
And now, you know, I could never count.
I show up to a resort and there are just lines everywhere and people are with their families and their friends, and everyone's having a great time.
And so it's really exploding.
So I'm really glad to have even made a small impact in that.
You often say that your Asian-American background has shaped your character.
Could you describe that a bit what it really taught you? I think that growing up between two different cultures helped me a lot with diversity and with understanding and learning in the sense that I was very aware of the similarities and differences of culture from a very young age.
So by the age of three, I was fully bilingual and I was noticing the little differences in the kinds of food, but also in the way that people interacted over dinner or hot water versus cold water, the age-old debate.
And so growing up in that environment, I think, has allowed me to then become more receptive of even more cultures as I grow older.
So now coming to Europe more often or traveling to different cities with kind of different traditions in their own geographical locations.
It has made me more receptive to that and made me appreciate it more, I think.
So it's something that has allowed me to accept differences more easily and something that has allowed me to celebrate cross-cultural friendship more easily.
And so those are both things that I continue to try to promote, What does empowering women mean to you? I grew up in an all girls K-8 school, and I loved my experience there so much.
When I started freeskiing, I was the only girl on my team.
And it was such an incredibly harsh culture shock and dichotomy when from Monday through Friday, I would be with all girls.
And on Saturday and Sunday, when I went skiing, I would be the only girl.
And so in that sense, I became hyper aware of my gender and my expression because I felt like in the beginning, all of a sudden everybody around me was male, and when I looked at the great idols of skiing, all of them were male too, and so kind of feeling, should I be ashamed of my femininity, should I try to be more like the boys? Should I dress like them? Should I talk like them? And would that make me more accepted? Would that make me better at skiing? You know, these kind of questions went through my mind at a very young age, and I'm really grateful that I had that super strong and empowering educational environment during the weekdays because I think that it could have been pretty detrimental to my kind of esteem as a female if I hadn't had that foundational support, but I did.
And so instead of kind of crushing it down, I learned to to celebrate differences and to kind of communicate and make friends and use skiing as a way to create bonds and to create friendship.
And so that was a big learning opportunity for me, and it was also a way for me to kind of embrace being a woman and to embrace the innate power that we have as individuals.
And so it has always been really important to me.
In seventh grade, I gave my first speech on women in sports.
It later got used as a voiceover for an international brand for their International Women's Day commercial.
And since then, you know, in high school, I've led workshops for women in sports.
I've led discussions and workshops about female athletes and their portrayal in the media and how that affects people's perception of female athletes.
I think that these are all really important questions that now more than ever, we should be asking ourselves and questions about inclusion and diversity should always be involved in that conversation as well.
We know that social media is really influencing and forming the opinions of many people.
Where do you see the benefit of social media? Social media is a double edged sword, right? Because I think that especially in my generation, everybody has social media.
Everybody uses it as their primary source of information.
It's the way that you consciously or subconsciously view what is trendy or what is cool, or how to live your life or kind of what goals to set.
And so that last piece, I think, can be extremely beautiful and extremely inspiring, or it can be extremely detrimental, depending on which side you end up on.
And so in terms of the extremely beautiful side, it shows you what's possible, right? Like through skiing, a lot of so many people had never heard of skiing before, and maybe they are scrolling on their discover page or whatever.
And then they see a video of me skiing and be like, wow, this looks great.
This looks fun.
This looks cool.
I want to try this boom.
Maybe that changed their life.
It would have changed mine, for sure.
And so I think that there's that side or they see someone doing something who they didn't think was possible and suddenly they feel inspired and they think, if she can do it, maybe I can try it too.
Or maybe I can enjoy that too.
She looks like she's having fun.
Why don't I give it a shot? Right? That's the best thing.
Life is all about joy.
So they can find all these different ways to find joy through social media.
It expands your perspective, and it shows you what's possible.
On the other hand, there's the toxic, hurtful beauty standards that can impact young women and men everywhere by seeing unrealistic beauty expectations or kind of lifestyles and unrealistic portrayals of joy that make them think maybe if I looked a certain way or had a different amount of money or lived in a different place, or had a different job, or were born into a different setting than maybe I would be happy.
But I think what social media can really obscure are the beautiful imperfections of reality.
So it's it's a double edged sword.
And so in that sense, I always try to make my social media as authentic as possible.
Every few months I'll do like a question and answer thing to kind of show the more real sides of myself, because on one hand, I'm not going to post: “Hey guys, I had a bad day period.” And that's it, or like: “Today I fell and it hurt, and I didn't feel too great.” Like, I'm probably not going to post that, but I do want to kind of show that occasionally.
And so I do want to make an effort to converse with people and really say, you know, I'm not perfect all the time.
And that's what makes everything fun, because if you were perfect all the time, then you would adapt to that and that would be your normal.
And then you wouldn't feel perfect anymore.
And so in that sense, you got to have both sides and social media is a great way to spread information about both.
I couldn't agree more, but there is this other part, you know, when you are criticized, how do you work on this? How do you act on this? You know, when you when you have critical feedback? When I first started getting hate, I used to search for it.
I think that it's so much easier to hold on to negativity than positivity.
And I really love psychology.
So I've read a lot of stuff about this and how kind of as animals the animal brain goes like: “Oh my god, there's danger.” It's more beneficial to remember where the danger is because you want to avoid being hunted.
If you can remember where the.
Super sweet tasting berries were hidden in the forest.
That's great.
Bonus points but like you'd rather remember where the predators cave is, and so it's a lot easier to remember the negative parts.
And that really is embedded into you because you could have 1000 really positive messages and maybe ten negative comments.
But you will remember the ten negative comments and you will hold on to it and ingrain into yourself and repeat that to yourself.
And so it's really easy to get into that cycle when I first started getting hate.
I definitely was looped into that cycle.
But, you know, now I really think that I don't really pay too much mind because at the end of the day, it's my life like I'm in control of my life.
If you don't like what I'm doing, you don't have my life like, Oh, you don't like my new trick, then don't do it like great.
You know, that's good for you.
Everybody's entitled to their opinion, but I'm entitled to not listen as well.
And so it's kind of the sense of I can do my thing and you can like it or you don't have to.
My goal is to spread positivity.
If your goal is to spread negativity, do that.
It's your prerogative, but I'm not going to have any part in it.
So that's kind of my philosophy now.
And now we talk a bit about the shared values.
We just welcomed you as a member of the IWC family, which values do you think that we share that you share with our brand? There are several values that I share with IWC, one of them is truly being a world citizen.
Like we mentioned before, it's, you know, IWC is literally International Watch Company.
So it's, you know, it's international.
It's got different people from all over the world.
I think it was 55 countries you have employees from.
And so there are so many different perspectives and cultures and ideas that are going into the design, the creation and the production of all of these gorgeous watches.
And so there is that aspect, which I really love.
Another is sustainability, which is really important to me, especially as a winter sports athlete, right? With global warming, our sport is the first one to see the changes and our sport is the first one to go.
Even now, over the years, we can really notice it.
Maybe over the summer or in the fall.
We used to go to a few locations and we'd be able to ski for months, and now we can only ski shorter and shorter every year.
Suddenly, it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at a glacier when everybody was supposed to be skiing, and instead people couldn't even leave their houses because there was a heat wave.
And so things like that are really impacting the sport.
So being able to hear about IWC’s initiative.
I was just chatting to someone about it, about there was like a 95% compacted paper watchband that IWC is working on.
And so it looks chic.
You look at it and it's gorgeous and the design is spectacular, but also you know that it is sustainably made and that it is something that is made to be carried through generations and that itself is really environmentally friendly.
It's very beautiful what you say about the way we work and the sustainability topic as well as you just mentioned it, I mean, our watches are built to last for generations.
So everything that goes into the watch on the entire way, from the sketchbook to the wrist needs to be most responsibly done.
And talking about your generation now and talking about your thoughts, what would you and your generation like to change for a better future for us and our planet? Someone once told me that we don't need one person to do everything perfectly for the planet.
We need everybody to do everything imperfectly, but at least try, right? We don't need one person to hit 100%.
We need everybody to hit 70%, and that is how impact is made.
So maybe, you know, one day I drink from one plastic bottle and I feel not the best because I should have brought my own bottle.
But you know, it's not that one bottle that is destroying the planet.
It's kind of everybody combined ignoring that kind of aspect.
If everybody cared more, you know, then the difference would be made in that sense.
So it comes differently for different kinds of people, depending on people's lifestyles, you know, choosing different modes of transportation if possible, or eating a little bit differently, if possible, or, avoiding fast fashion or buying sustainably made products.
And it looks different for different kinds of people, and that is what's important about it, right? It's different approaches.
So that's kind of my perspective, especially for young people, because it's our planet to be inherited ultimately.
And as planet change is exponentially growing, then the impact is very urgent.
It's very urgent for us to make change in our generation, before things get out of hand, even more.
I mean, we have a lot of possibilities to choose from, right? We can choose as you just described it, and these are the little things as well, which matter a lot and to think before we act.
And there is another topic which I would have never guessed.
You know that you are a big fan of the blue angels of the US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron.
How come? Yes, I mean, growing up in San Francisco, the Blue Angels would perform every year.
And I remember when I was probably in second grade they came to our school to to talk to us.
And I remember I came home so excited.
I was telling my mom about the different formations they flew in and the number of people they had and the people who I had met.
So the next year, I was pointing them out to my mom and my grandma, and I was telling them all about it.
And it was it was really exciting for me.
And now, you know, we watch them every year from our balcony because we see them where I live, we’re like right under where they are.
So it's really a spectacular sight to see.
And also, you know, I'm a little bit biased because I am an adrenaline addict.
So given the nature of my sport and also the nature of flying upside down in a plane like it definitely goes together, maybe at some point, you know, it would be a dream to go in one of the planes myself.
But it is spectacular to watch.
And therefore it's always very interesting to talk about time in your discipline as a free skier Time might not be the most important element as you just described it, but what does time mean to you? I actually have always been really fascinated by time that was actually one of the first entries in my journal, and I write about it quite frequently.
And I think that ever since I was little, I've always been very aware of the passage of time, which I know is an odd topic for an eight or nine year old to be talking about, but I would often bring it up with my mother.
And she was like: “Are you OK?” or something like: “Why is this what you're thinking about? Why are you not thinking about like toys or something? Like, why are you talking to me about like inevitable passage of time you are a child?” But I always thought it was so fascinating, right? Because it's the one constant.
It should be the one constant.
And yet it doesn't feel like that because, you know when your little one year feels like so much.
And right now, especially as I'm growing older and I'm going through my teenage years, I'm growing into myself and becoming more self-aware during my adolescence.
I think that I'm hyper aware of all the changes that are occurring in my own life and the relationship of time to those changes.
So I think that it's really such a fascinating thing.
And you know, the whole time flies when you're having fun and growing up as a runner and also a skier.
I used to think about this all the time because if I'm running for an hour, it feels like a pretty long time if I haven't been training.
But when I start training again and I get in better shape.
Suddenly, I feel like, whoa, like it's a breeze an hour.
It feels so nice.
And then when I'm skiing, it feels like a blink of an eye.
Like, I don't even know.
I do like a few tricks.
I'm talking to my friends and suddenly an hour is gone.
And so really, being able to to keep an eye on it, I think, is something that I am very fascinated in, and that's why it's really exciting to be partnering with IWC.
在公众眼中，她是天才滑雪少女，也是斯坦福学霸，更是2022冬奥会中国队的夺冠热门选手。
但是最让人印象加分，或许还是她“加入中国国籍为国争光”。当初15岁就回归中国国籍，恨不得立刻告诉全世界“我是个中国人”，真的是圈粉无数。
人生一路是坦途的她，17岁就考上了斯坦福大学，看似“一路开挂”，又有多少人了解她的心酸呢？
2003年出生于旧金山的谷爱凌，父亲是美国人，毕业于哈佛，母亲谷燕是北京人，毕业于北大和斯坦福，也是谷爱凌的滑雪启蒙人。
谷爱凌从小就时常被母亲带着回北京度假，加上谷燕特别重视对谷爱凌的中文和中国传统文化教育，也许这是她对中国有很浓厚感情的原因吧。
大多数时候串在北京胡同里生活的谷爱凌，不仅中文流利，绕口令也颇为地道，她也称自己是胡同里长大的北京妞。
妈妈谷燕是一个温柔又干练的人，对滑雪运动有着难以割舍的爱，以前曾担任过北大速滑队的队员，并兼任滑雪队的教练。
3岁的谷爱凌第一次被妈妈谷燕带着去滑雪场时，她刚刚接触到滑雪的那一刻起，心陷进去了。
她后来回忆道，“有一次滑雪摔倒了，我突然意识到这里的雪比我还高”。还有一次我在滑雪场时睡着了，妈妈花了好长时间才在雪堆里找到我”。
谷爱凌会喜欢上滑雪，走上滑雪运动员这条路，也算是意料之中的事。因为妈妈的熏陶，等谷爱凌稍微长大一些，为了多培养她的爱好，谷燕开始教谷爱凌滑雪。
刚接触滑雪的谷爱凌对滑雪展现出了极大的兴趣，她学习的速度很快，妈妈教的技巧，她很快都能掌握。
在谷爱凌8岁的时候，她对滑雪的兴趣没有丝毫减少。总之她和滑雪的缘分匪浅，也成为了她真正热爱的运动。
别给孩子的人生随意设限
简单的尝试并不能支撑起她的爱好，看着谷爱凌一天天深爱着滑雪这项运动。于是妈妈决定把她送去专业的滑雪俱乐部。
谷爱凌第一次正式参加比赛，是九岁那年。此时她已经有6年滑雪经验了。“除了吃饭和睡觉，滑雪是最重要的事”。
谷爱凌选择的项目，是滑雪项目里面最难的一种——自由式滑雪。尽管和同组赛手有一定的年龄差距，但技术上完全不输他人，甚至更为优秀。
加入中国籍以后，她也不负众望，在短短三个月内就为中国赢得了三枚金牌。即便是已经拿金牌到手软的她，还是对自己非常严格，不允许有丝毫自满的心态。
谷爱凌是个非常自律的女孩，她用所有训练之外的碎片时间用来学习，也没有放松训练。
于是时间不会辜负任何一个有准备的人，2020年末她以1580分接近满分（1600分）的成绩被斯坦福大学录取。除此之外，她还自学了量子物理，永远在努力的路上。
2022年的北京冬奥会即将到来，为了能够为国争光，她毫不犹豫地申请了延迟入学，全身心投入到备战训练当中。
上个月因意外受伤临时退出世界杯奥地利施图拜站的谷爱凌，在本站比赛中同样一举登顶，还成为世界上首位在正式比赛中完成1440度难度动作的女运动员。
这位新的中国籍女孩谷爱凌，在她的滑雪事业中一路开挂，也妥妥地成为了大家眼中的”别人家的孩子”。
很多人称她为“天才少女”，分明是只强调了她的天赋，忽略了她在私下里吃了多少苦，而如今的这些成就都离不开她的刻苦，还有妈妈对她的托举和鼓励。
谷妈妈曾说自己的教育秘诀其实是，必须让谷爱凌睡足够的觉，不是一味地强迫她训练。
顺应孩子的爱好，不给她的人生随意设限，也不同孩子说“你不行”这样的话，才是对她最好的帮助。
谷爱凌的妈妈就是当她迷茫时，给予建议和引导；当她想要放弃时，给她足够的力量，重拾信心。
教育，不只是物质条件，更是少不了父母对孩子的陪伴与爱。正如谷爱凌这样的运动员，她坚持滑雪也是因为父母的托举和自己的热爱。
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