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00:00As she crossed the line and secured a medal, she thought that she would be celebrated.
00:04But instead, the crowd was silent, and her own country had abandoned her.
00:08But why?
00:09Well, in 1994, Wang Leping's coach, Wang Kui,
00:13told her father that he could train Wang to win on the world stage.
00:16And her family believed him.
00:18After all, Wang Kui was famous across the country for his ability to train
00:22some of the greatest athletes to ever come out of China.
00:25However, he was also known by his nickname, the Devil Coach.
00:29Due to his intense training regimens.
00:32So, in the lead up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games,
00:35only one month before the national qualification race,
00:38Wang was pushed too far during training, and she sustained a debilitating knee injury.
00:43Wang was understandably devastated,
00:45but she rested up and she cheered from the sidelines as her teammates competed in Atlanta.
00:50But after the Olympics, when her knee was strong enough for her to return to training,
00:54her coach insisted that she was a lost cause, and she had missed her window of opportunity.
00:59Wang's father was furious,
01:00and he insisted that the coach make good on his promise to help her reach her potential.
01:05And the coach eventually, reluctantly, agreed.
01:08As the Sydney 2000 Olympics arrived, Wang qualified,
01:11but she wasn't considered to be a leading medal contender.
01:14And she was overshadowed by Liu Hongyu, China's world champion race walker at the time.
01:19However, as Liu and the other two favorites from Italy and Australia
01:23surged ahead through the first half of the race,
01:25they each started accumulating warnings for not maintaining contact with the ground,
01:29which is a violation of racewalking's rules.
01:32So when China's champion Liu received a red card for her third violation,
01:37and she was disqualified from the race,
01:39the Chinese team and officials gave up on their hopes of winning,
01:42and they left the stadium, leaving Wang behind.
01:45As the race came down to the last few kilometers, Wang thought she was in third place,
01:49and it seemed like bronze was the best she could do.
01:51However, what Wang didn't know was that the Italian,
01:54Elisabetta Pironi, had already been disqualified.
01:57She just refused to believe it.
01:59I can't imagine why the judges haven't pulled Pironi off the course.
02:02This woman has been disqualified as far as we know.
02:05So as Pironi eventually accepted the harsh truth and she fell away,
02:09all Wang had to do for a silver medal was keep up the pace and not get disqualified herself.
02:14However, as Wang followed the Australian Jane Seville into the Sydney Stadium,
02:18with only 200 meters left in the race,
02:21that's when she looked up and saw the one thing that all athletes in race walking dread,
02:26a race official holding up a red disqualification card.
02:29But it wasn't for Wang.
02:34Wang pulled into first place, she hurried to the finish line,
02:36and as she crossed the line to a devastated Australian crowd,
02:40securing the only gold medal that China would win in track and field for that year,
02:44she desperately looked around for a Chinese flag to celebrate,
02:47but she couldn't find one.
02:49Her country had abandoned her.
02:50In the years that followed, Wang went on to become a coach.
02:53She specialised in training and rehabilitating injured athletes,
02:57vowing to never give up on her athletes.