When Donovan Carrillo entered the ice rink at the Beijing Winter Olympics, he was the first Mexican to do so in 30 years. And although he came in 22^nd in the free skate, his journey is so inspirational that he can only be viewed as a true champion.

When Carrillo was selected for the Olympics, he described it as “a dream comes true,” according to an article in The New York Times. It came after years of devotion to a sport that is seriously underfunded (资金不足的) in his hometown of Guadalajara in Mexico.

The 22-year-old started his athletic career with gymnastics and diving. However, with his parents’ support, he started ice skating, and thankfully his sporting past lent itself nicely to the sport. The only problem was the cost and the lack of facilities. As Carrillo’s father jokingly explains, Mexicans normally associate ice with something you put in a drink and not with the sport. So his son is actually one of the very few young men ice skating in their home country.

In fact, in 2013, while Carrillo was just a teen, his usual ice rink closed and he had nowhere to practice. In the end he had to move to Leon, in Guanajuato, and lived with his coach, Gregorio Nunez, so he could still practice. The move was hard on the whole family, both emotionally and financially, and what was meant to be just a few months away from home turned out to be nine years — nearly half of Carrillo’s life.

The ice skating hero’s story isn’t about medals: it’s about determination and effort. Looking at the Olympian’s face, you can see he’s more than happy. He wants to show what anyone can achieve, even if you don’t have state-of-the-art equipment.

Looking at him glide along the ice rink with ease, it’s hard to imagine that he trained on a small ice rink with substandard ice, and used a run-down skatepark to imagine performing in front of the judges. Carrillo is a young man who’ll jump over any obstacles to achieve his dream and honor his family. And that’s a true champion!

In the past week almost 120 global leaders have resolved to triple (使增至三倍) the world’s renewable energy capacity before 2030 in an attempt to reduce the global consumption of fossil fuels. As the second half of the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai unfolds , more countries may join the calls for a global target of 11 TW (太瓦) of renewable power by the end of the decade, three times higher than the 3.629 TW in place at the end of 2022.

Renewable energy really could be tripled in this decade, but it won’t be a breeze, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) .

Based on the rate of growth for wind and solar power, the world is on track to meet this target. But the global energy watchdog (监察人) has warned that “stronger policy actions by governments” will be required to overcome challenges, such as rising costs, uncertain supply chains and grid (电力网) bottlenecks, which are considered essential to hit the goal of limiting global heating to within 1.5C of preindustrialised levels.

Renewable energy sources tripled, the global demand for coal power would be cut in half by 2030, according to estimates. “This is crucial for 1.5C,”said Dave Jones, the global insights lead for climate think-tank Ember. “The tripling goal would take renewables to the next level, with solar and wind reaching 40% of global electricity generation by 2030.”

The goal has won the support of 118 countries. In practice, not every country will triple its renewable capacity to meet the global target. Some countries starting from a lower level would need to more than triple their wind and solar power, while for others with a high share of renewables already, it would not be practical to triple their capacity again.

The prospect of having demand for coal is a goal worth struggling for, but governments must stay the course. Increasing capacity may have been simple in recent years with low interest rates and government support schemes, but the sector’s progress for the rest of the decade is less certain.

Joy Chapman, a singer from British Columbia, recently set a new Guinness record for the lowest musical note (音符) sung by a female, a C1.

For as long as she can remember, Joy Chapman has always been able to sing in a very wide vocal range (音域), but it was not until her niece started encouraging her to go for a world record that she actually considered it. The girl had learned that the former record for the world’s lowest vocal note (female) was held by a singer who hit a D2 (the second lowest D note on a piano), and she was sure that Joy could go obviously lower than that, She turned out to be right!

“I initiated my singing notes at C2 at the beginning, so she said, ‘you sing much lower, then you should try for the record,’” Chapman recalled about how the idea of a Guinness record attempt came about.

That was a year ago, and Chapman had to overcome a series of challenges in order to get her name into the world’s most famous record book. Her mother passed away, which left her in deep sorrow. She even stopped working for a while, During one of her attempts the video cameraman turned on the limiter (限幅器) on the microphone, but it couldn’t pick up Joy’s lowest notes…However, in the end, she got it done.

On February 2lst, in a music workshop in Surrey, Joy Chapman recorded a C1 (33.57hz), the lowest C note on a piano and the lowest note ever sung by a woman.

“I wanted to leave something behind since I could do it,” the singer said.