China's Xu Shixiao and China's Sun Mengya Photo: VCG

Chinese athletes Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya won the women's canoe double 500 meters competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday. By embracing the double titles of a "manager" and an "athlete," Xu has impressed Chinese netizens with her life story, which has inspired people to call her a "versatile life winner." 

At the Saturday event, the Chinese pair won the first Olympic gold medal for China's women's canoe by hitting the finish line at 1 minute and 55 seconds, two seconds ahead of the silver medalist Ukraine team. 

After winning the competition, the personal stories of the Chinese pair with almost a 10-year age gap impressed Chinese netizens, especially that of Xu, a 29-year-old veteran medalist who was once an HR manager. 

Despite winning gold at the 2007 National Games in China, Xu gave up her passion for canoe in 2013 to pursue a corporate career as an HR manager at a Chinese company because she considered her sport was out of the "mainstream" at that time.

If it weren't for the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision in 2017 to add women's canoeing as an event to the Tokyo Games, Xu would most likely have not returned to the field of sports again. 

Despite years away from the sport, Xu still had a talent for it. Partnering up with Sun, She got her ticket to the Tokyo Games in 2019 by winning gold at the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.  

"What she did makes her a 'dreamer' to me. You have to not only be passionate amid the uncertainty of returning to sports, but also be light-hearted concerning realistic issues such as physical condition, finances, family and sometimes self-esteem," Wang Jianxin, an athlete turned restaurant owner in Chongqing, told the Global Times.    

Xu's "double" life also inspired many netizens to point out that she is not the only multi-talented Chinese athlete, adding that such versatile sports veterans can break stereotypes about Chinese athletes.  

"I know there are some sour impressions like "diligent robot" or "sports nerd" when it comes to athletes, especially Chinese athletes because of their long dedication to their careers is wrongly interpreted, like deliberately describing one's virtue as one's weakness. They are disgraceful, but they won't change how athletes perform, because most of them have strong determination," Yao Wei, a former volleyball player, told the Global Times. 

Besides Xu, the 20-year-old Sun Mengya is also a determined sport talent who has improved over the years. 

"From the beginning of the competition, to getting the gold medal, to standing on the podium, I feel like this is my thing," she told media.