Chapter 79 suggests that I hope there can be more public figures on the field...

After the women's singles free skate, a row of coaches stood in front of the barriers, their expressions varying. The most stiff-looking were the Russian, Japanese, and Chinese coaches.

In front of the camera, Yang Yiyan sat on the right side of the table where the temporary rankings were displayed, still in a daze. It was Mengchuan Liya's excited shouts in the middle that woke up the other two people sitting on the sofa.

Looking at the final scoreboard, her eyes stung slightly, and her hands were still trembling.

Before the last contestant took the stage, Yang Yiyan had already climbed to third place.

The later the competition goes, the fiercer it becomes, and the greater the chance that players will make mistakes.

Claire fell during her 3LZ jump, causing her to lose the combination jump. Due to exhaustion in the second half of the race, she could only make up for it with a 3-2 combination jump, ultimately finishing behind Yang Yiyan.

Cheng Enxi's difficulty level was far below her peak, and her stamina had also declined. In order to make the program look more coherent, she added two consecutive jumps in the first half, and there was also a triple jump in the middle of the program. Even with the advantage of a shorter program, she only scored less than two points higher than Yang Yiyan.

Yumikawa Ria used a double 3A setup. To ensure the stability of the program, she replaced all the consecutive 3LOs with the more stable consecutive 3Ts. Even when there was a gap in the middle, she made up for it in time. With her high skill score and good mentality, she secured at least a silver medal.

These unexpected events happened one after another, almost as if they were sending warmth to Polina. As long as she could keep her composure, the referee could simply bend down and hang the gold medal around her neck.

But she just couldn't catch it.

Two triples followed by a single fall, and then a double fall in the second half, which wasn't even corrected. Those two points were deducted, plus two negative three-point GOEs. No matter how high the judges' score for the program components went, it wouldn't matter.

Xia Yuezi was startled by the push from behind and stumbled, then heard a thunderous shout from behind: "My goodness! I never thought we could bring a token back with us!"

When she turned around, she saw that not only Meng Xin, but even Li Tan had tears welling up in his eyes. He turned away from the camera and wiped away his tears.

Ms. Chishima went even further, rushing to the table where the provisional rankings were displayed and hugging Yumikawa Ria, while waving to the Japanese spectator area.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Yiyan, who had been sitting comfortably on the sofa, ran into the coach's arms. Xia Yuezi opened her arms to catch her and silently comforted the little girl who was crying and trembling in her arms.

If there's anything in the entire ice rink that doesn't quite fit the atmosphere, it's probably the stands and the judges' box.

Polina kept her head down, knowing she had messed everything up, and didn't dare to look anyone in the eye.

Sidorov looked at her quietly. Polina had taken off her gloves, her fists were clenched, her knuckles and the back of her hands were white, and she was trembling slightly.

As a highly decorated coach who has produced countless world and Olympic champions, the old man is known for his bad temper and his fierce protectiveness. The ice rink has given him everything, including glory and setbacks. Now that he is one foot in the grave, Seedorov is more accepting of the results his students bring than when he was younger.

He reached out and placed his hand on Polina's forearm, patting it gently: "Ponia, you used up a lot of energy in the team competition, plus the individual competition, I think you should go back and rest now."

Polina was speechless for a moment, her sapphire-like eyes still glistening with tears. After a while, she finally came to her senses: "But the reporters..."

Sidorov remained expressionless, but his tone gradually became more affectionate: "I'll make arrangements; they won't necessarily break off relations with me."

When the award ceremony began, the president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, standing on the other side of the podium, had a fake smile on his face. Before he took on this task, everyone told him it was a good job and that he should have a good chat with the newly crowned Russian Olympic champions. But in the end, not only were there no Olympic champions, but none of the three flags on the podium were the tricolor flag.

The order of appearance at the awards ceremony started from the third person. The Chinese coach had already prepared his phone and was taking lots of pictures of Yang Yiyan standing in the center of the spotlight.

Fans watching the game frantically took screenshots and uploaded them to the forum. The top post on the forum contained only one sentence.

Am I the only one who noticed that the flags of three East Asian countries were gathered on the women's singles podium at the Winter Olympics?

In fact, many coaches noticed this scene when the overall rankings were released, and the impact of seeing it during the flag-raising ceremony was even greater.

After the national anthem ended, while the three athletes were parading around the field draped in the national flag, Meng Xin couldn't contain herself: "I guess Russia itself didn't expect that after going to such great lengths to organize a competition and promote its own athletes, not only did they lose all their titles in singles skating, but Asian athletes also dominated the podium in women's singles."

Li Tan cleared his throat, signaling Meng Xin to watch her words, but the upturned corners of his mouth betrayed his true thoughts.

In this era, whether it's men's or women's singles, only Japan and South Korea have consistently benefited from the competition, while Chinese players have only been able to enjoy the spoils from the sidelines. But now, they also have players who are competitive on the podium of major tournaments.

Thinking of this, Li Tan looked at Xia Yuezi with a hint of emotion in his eyes: "Xia, I remember you wanted to buy a house in Beijing, right?"

Xia Yuezi, who had just pressed the shutter button on her phone and was recording this historic moment with the bright light, heard the voice and replied in confusion, "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Seeing Li Tan's fox-like expression, as if he had caught his prey, Xia Yuezi inexplicably felt that she had stepped into a trap.

“After we get back, I will report to the General Administration of Sport and apply for the title of International Master of Sports for Xiaoyan and Simai based on their Olympic results. I will also apply for an extra bonus for you so that you can settle down in Beijing as soon as possible. If all goes well, we might even be able to transfer your household registration here.”

Xia Yuezi paused for a moment, then her eyes crinkled into a knowing smile.

The original owner was introduced by Li Tan and entered the Beijing team through an exam. She was a coach with a formal position, but her household registration was still in Heilongjiang, where she had family. After this Olympics, even if she didn't want to leave, it was hard to guarantee that the Heilongjiang provincial team wouldn't have designs on her.

Li Tan was able to secure the bonus and, incidentally, allow her to pursue a special talent recruitment program, enabling her to directly obtain Beijing residency without meeting individual income tax requirements, thus effectively thwarting the ambitions of other provincial teams and clubs.

Logically, no one should have a reason to refuse such a condition, but Xia Yuezi was not alone, so she could only make excuses and say that she needed to go back and discuss it with Yu Qian.

Li Tan looked regretful, but could only stop while he was ahead and try to persuade her again when they got back.

On February 23, the exhibition skaters finished their performance. At the closing ceremony on the same day, Russia and South Korea, the host of the next Winter Olympics, completed the handover, signaling the start of a new cycle.

The first World Championships of the new cycle featured mostly new athletes. After the Winter Olympics, many veterans announced their retirement. Yang Yiyan and Feng Simai seized the opportunity and both stood on the podium, adding another glorious chapter to their careers.

Among these retired athletes are Sung Eun-hee and Shirai Nanako.

These two athletes, who are considered "white moonlight" level, have taken different paths. One has refocused on their studies, while the other has established their own ice performance brand, inviting many athletes to participate in exhibition skating, including Chinese athletes.

Feng Simai said he had to go back to prepare for the college entrance examination. His mother had already found a tutor to help him catch up on the lessons he had missed. He would not be able to participate in the ice show until the college entrance examination was over.

Yang Yiyan was in the same boat. She had just finished choosing her major and then hurriedly began preparing for the Olympics. She hadn't even taken the qualifying exam yet, and when she got back, she would have to catch up on all nine courses she had missed. She probably had even less rest time than Feng Simai.

Nanako Shirai expressed her understanding and told them to study hard so that they could have another opportunity to work together in the future.

The students were all incredibly busy, and Xia Yuezi was no exception. As soon as the season ended, in addition to assessing the new players, she also had to attend a debriefing meeting at the General Administration of Sport.

This debriefing meeting was primarily for the Winter Olympics athletes, and also served to set development goals for the next cycle.

Before the meeting, Li Tan had instructed Xia Yuezi to prepare the content in advance, since her value was constantly rising and even the parents of athletes who used to train at the club had come to inquire about her, so she might be called upon by the president of the Skating Association.

Xia Yuezi's preparations were quite simple, focusing on the judges' scoring.

"As a scoring sport, the importance of having a say in figure skating is something everyone understands. Compared to similar sports like diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming, I don't think our current talent pool is bad, but we can't get a relatively normal score like those sports."

"Is it because our players didn't perform well enough? No, it's because the referees were too biased."

Before the presentation, Xia Yuezi prepared a PowerPoint presentation that recorded the scoring differences between Chinese and European/American competitors in the same competition, highlighting important information in red.

"This is the breakdown of the top six women's singles scores at the Sochi Winter Olympics. We can clearly see that Yang Yiyan's technical score is second only to Yuya Yumikawa, but her goe score and point score are second to last, which is very illogical."

"The next picture shows the competition in which our judge Zhao Shuhua participated, and next to it is the score difference table of the contestants. Compared with other competitions, the contestants' scores will be slightly higher in the competitions in which our judges are present. This does not mean that our judges are giving our own contestants a lower score, but rather that they are getting a score that they deserve for the program."

At the end of the PPT, Xia Yuezi mentioned the origins of other projects.

“Not all sports develop smoothly. For example, synchronized swimming, which I just mentioned, didn’t get good scores at first, but through the joint efforts of several generations, although it is still subject to Russia’s control, it can at least give normal scores.”

"As coaches, all we can do is to cultivate talent for the country and build up the project's talent pool as much as possible. However, there is very little we can do about scoring. Therefore, I can only suggest that when the General Administration of Sport is looking for a way out for retired athletes, it should include the option of becoming a referee."