The 2023 Tsinghua University Students of the Year were announced, and Xia Yuyu, a master student enrolled in 2021 to the School of Social Sciences, was selected as the Student of the Year.
Xia clinched her first championship at the National Athletics Championship in 2018, followed by those at the 13th and 14th Student Sports Games, and those in the 5,000m and 10,000m events at the First Student (Youth) Games. Since the moment she was admitted to Tsinghua University, Xia has been pursuing the goal of representing China in athletic competitions and the dream of becoming a world champion. For the glory of China, and to let China's national flag fly and national anthem resound on the field, she worked hard day after day, training relentlessly.
Her hard work paid off at the 2023 Chengdu Universiade, where she finally realized her ideal and goal, and her dream bloomed into victory. "With the final bell ringing of the 10,000-meter race, Xia Yuyu took the lead and accelerated in the last lap, overtaking her competitors at the decisive moment. Xia won a hard-won gold medal, which was also the first track gold medal of the Chinese delegation in the track and field events of the Chengdu Universiade." "Being fearless in the face of difficulties and strong opponents and having courage in fighting" is the deepest public impression of Xia. She also pocketed an individual silver and a team bronze later in the women's 5,000m event and half marathon respectively, successfully concluding her Chengdu Universiade journey with a gold, a silver and a bronze. When she was pupil, Xia used to run six kilometers to her school and back home, just to help her parents do more farm work. Running has taken her out from a small town in the mountains of Guizhou to Beijing, and then to the world.
