011HOLIDAY SPORTS – THE BEAT DECLARING

Long Daoyi’s two lives: performing as hip-hop artist Dragon One (left) and competing as an Olympic champion springboard diver with his partner Wang Zongyuan.

Clockwise from top: Long Daoyi celebrates winning his Olympic gold in Paris; Long is working on some music in his dorm room at the diving training center; Long poses for a publicity photo.

In the world of hip hop, gold chains have long been a symbol of success, cultural pride and personal expression.

Such bold accessories add to a rapper’s presence both on and off stage.

In July, a hip-hop artist with the stage name Dragon One released an original song where he boasted in his lyrics, “I’ll wear the gold medal like a gold chain.”

It seemed like a typical case of bravado – the kind the genre is known for – until Dragon One put its money where its mouth is.

Less than a month later, the 21-year-old Olympic debutant in Paris under his real name, Long Daoyi, won gold alongside his teammate Wang Zongyuan in the men’s synchronized 3-meter springboard diving event.

After turning his lyrical swagger into reality, Long began writing another hip-hop song titled Champion, in which he described the bond between him and his partner Wang, as well as his emotions after realizing their dream in Paris.

The lyrics – “Just woke up from a dream, with a gold medal in my left hand; Just woke up from a dream, with a microphone in my right hand” – illustrate his dual identity as both a diver and a hip-hop artist.

During the grueling and monotonous training hours far from home, “music has given me great spiritual support,” Long confided.

He starts his day with soothing melodies and switches to more energetic songs during intense training.

“Before my Olympic debut in Paris, I listened to a particularly energetic song called Cute Pinch to fuel my fierce spirit,” he recalls.

Long’s path to Olympic glory from the springboard began in 2010, when as a seven-year-old he was spotted running around a sports stadium in Rongjiang Province, Qiandongnan Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

He caught the attention of Cao Liye, a coach of the Hebei provincial diving team, who offered a direction in which the child could focus his boundless energy.

“From an early age, he fearlessly imitated fellow athletes on the one-meter board, daring to attempt somersaults and spins despite his lack of fundamental diving skills. Although his execution was imperfect, his exceptional ability for self-control in the air impressed me” , Cao said.

Among his fellow divers, Long often insisted on jumping first.

“At the time, I found diving exciting and exhilarating,” Long recalls.

“I was considered one of the better interns among my peers, which boosted my confidence,” he said.

When he started winning some prizes at competitions, he felt a strong desire to become a better diver.

“I started dreaming of one day competing alongside the best divers on the national team,” he said.

Seize the opportunity

In 2016, 13-year-old Long was selected from the Hebei provincial diving team to participate in training with the national diving team.

However, after three months, while the three female teammates who went with him stayed, Long was sent back.

“At the time, I felt young and unencumbered, and still felt confident to continue my training,” he recalls. However, the same frustrating situation occurred again in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

In March 2023, after Long took third place in the men’s individual 3m springboard at a national diving championships in Shanghai, he received a fifth invitation from the national diving training team.

Despite feeling somewhat discouraged, he was determined to “seize the opportunity.”

He was paired with Wang, who was an Olympic medalist at Tokyo 2020.

The duo trained together for less than a month before winning the gold in the men’s synchronized 3-meter springboard event at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup 2023 Super Final in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, in April last year.

The pair then consistently climbed to the top step of the medal podium at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, the 2024 World Aquatics Diving World Cup and other international events.

Long describes Wang as an “amazing” person who helped him better understand his responsibilities.

“My skills are inferior to his, but after a year of training and competition, he continued to believe in me and lead me forward. I can learn a lot from him,” Long said.

Long’s talent for seizing opportunities is also reflected in his passion for music.

While listening to music continuously, an idea arose in his mind: “One day I want to write my own song.”

In 2020, at the age of 17, he fell in love with a girl. “I wanted to express my feelings with a song I wrote myself,” Long explained.

Melodies came into his head, prompting him to hum and record each melody using voice messages on WeChat. Then he started writing lyrics.

“It was quite a challenge at first. I didn’t know how to use the lyrics to describe ‘wind’ and ‘rain’, or how to express the emotions when I liked someone.”

Despite training intensively during the day, his musical creation kept him awake for two days and nights.

Using some simple editing and synthesizer software, he completed a song titled Good Night and uploaded it to the NetEase Cloud Music platform.

Two years later he bought good music recording equipment and installed it in his dorm at the diving training center.

“I really wanted to meet friends in the music industry who could help me make better songs. I wanted to learn the songwriting process.”

One night in August 2022, he attended a performance at a live house in Qinhuangdao with local rappers. “While I was standing in the audience, I thought, ‘If I were to perform, what style of music would I choose?'”

After the show, he took his chance again, approached the artists and expressed his desire to learn music creation from them. They added him on WeChat and invited him to join a group chat for music lovers.

“One day, one of the members of the group shared a demo of a song she had written, hoping to get some feedback. When I listened to it, I thought her singing was amazing. I was surprised to find that there were people contained the group that was seriously involved in making and singing songs,” Long said.

As a result, he began meeting more musically inclined friends, collaborating with them on recordings or seeking help developing musical arrangements.

So far, he has uploaded six songs on NetEase Cloud Music.

In late August, Long returned to his hometown in Rongjiang province to perform an original hip-hop song and participate in China’s hugely popular Village Super League football tournament, an event with its roots in his home country.

He then performed at the Greater Bay Area Film Concert in Macao on September 22, together with popular Chinese actor and singer Huang Zihongfan.

“In the future, I hope to have more opportunities to perform and communicate with everyone through music,” he said.

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