Zhang Guowei, once doubted for shifting to entertainment, self-funded training to return. His "I'm a genius" remark comes from years of unpublicized persistence, reminding people not to judge others rashly.
Zhang Guowei looked straight into the camera and said, “I’m definitely a genius.” As soon as he said that, the entire internet went wild.
No one believed him before.
In the eyes of most people, Zhang Guowei is no longer the professional athlete who once gave his all to break the world record in the high jump.Previously, his short videos mostly featured lighthearted routines like the “Dragon Sucking Water” and “White Crane Spreads Its Wings,” and his schedule was packed with variety show appearances. As a result, many netizens have criticized him, believing he has long since set aside his professional training and is using his status as an athlete to gain attention—or even treating it as a mere gimmick to attract viewers.
Few people mention his 2013 achievement of breaking the national indoor high jump record, nor do they recall the silver medal he won at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. Even fewer remember that jump at the Eugene Track and Field Meet where he cleared 2.38 meters——a height that many high jumpers in China struggle to reach even over the course of their entire careers. Later, when he faded from the national team due to injuries, he was readily labeled as a “wasted talent,” and his subsequent attempts at various cross-industry ventures were all taken by the public as evidence that he had abandoned his profession to focus solely on becoming an internet celebrity.During that period, his personal choices and perseverance went largely unnoticed by outsiders.
He paid for it out of his own pocket and took it upon himself
During his return-to-training phase, he hired a coach and rented a training facility at his own expense. Every day before dawn, he would head to the training field, repeating the run-up, takeoff, and bar-clearing motions over and over. When his back injury flared up, he would lean against the high jump stand to rest briefly; as soon as he recovered, he would resume training.At the 2023 National Track and Field Grand Prix, he soared over the bar, and the scoreboard ultimately read 2.25 meters. Yet when he stood on the podium as the champion, the reaction from the crowd was surprisingly subdued.
One wild remark left everyone dumbfounded
Even at the recording of his exclusive interview on August 2 of this year—with criticism that he was in it for the money and unworthy of being an athlete still swirling—he opened his mouth to the camera and uttered the phrase that surprised many: “I’m definitely a genius.”
In the ensuing conversation, he mentioned that talent itself is not rare; reaching his current position is half due to serendipity and half due to the grueling dedication that most people would find impossible to sustain.He said there’s no need to deliberately frame hard work as a means to elicit sympathy; giving it your all is simply part of an athlete’s job. Talent is merely a stepping stone to entering the professional arena; once you’re in, how far you go depends on unwavering self-discipline day in and day out, as well as the resilience to refuse to give up easily even in the face of repeated setbacks.
It turns out we were all wrong.
It turns out that all those years, he had never truly walked away from the high jump; he simply never deliberately revealed the hardships of his training to the outside world, nor did he put his perseverance through long, sleepless nights on display for others to judge. What others saw as boastful talk was, in fact, the confidence he had built up over several years—a confidence he had never spoken of publicly.
The public is always quick to define others with short-sighted labels, passing judgment on people’s lives based on scattered glimpses. All too often, we mistake others’ quiet, steady accumulation of strength for self-indulgence.
In the future, when evaluating others’ choices, let’s be more patient—wait a little longer, observe more closely—and avoid letting the scattered glimpses we see cloud our judgment.
