For major figure skating competitions, the season is calculated from the end of summer in the northern hemisphere. For example, the current 2020-2021 season starts with the Grand Prix held in August and September 2020, and ends with the World Championships in February or March 2021.
Because the youth group does not participate in the European Championships (EC) and the Four Continents Championships (4CC), there will be a long period of preparation for the World Youth Championship after the Youth Grand Prix.
For figure skaters, it is very important to maintain the so-called "sense of the game". There will be a big gap in the sense of the game between skaters who have not participated in competitions for a long time and skaters who are active on the field.
Because of this, in order to maintain their competitive form, many players choose to participate in some small domestic competitions.
For example, the Russian Championships and Russian Youth Championships of the Big Goose will be held about a month before the World Championships and World Youth Championships. The players can adjust their game rhythm through these competitions.
However, this year's National Championships had already been held, and there were very few figure skating competitions in China. In order to practice, Lu You and Xie Yunjun often registered under their former clubs and participated in some inter-club competitions.
Of course, for them, this kind of competition is mostly about the king entering the bronze league, which is a downgrade. As long as Lu You and Xie Yunjun don't lie on the ice and take a nap, they will definitely be the first.
After many twists and turns, the 2021 World Youth Championship is about to start in March.
This year's World Youth Championship is a home game for the Chinese team, which gives them a certain advantage. In the eyes of Lu You and Xie Yunjun, it is equivalent to playing the game directly next door, because the World Youth Championship is held in Xinluo Province.
Because the domestic results in various events were not good last season, there was only one spot for each of the World Junior Championships in individual, pair and ice dance. The spot for pair was taken back by Si Nan and Xu Zhen, but this year it was given to Lu You and Xie Yunjun.
"Whoever performs better in the test match will get the spot," Si Nan patted Lu You on the head before leaving. "Don't think too much. When Xu Zhen and I first participated in the World Youth Games, the spot was won by our predecessors."
Because his condition has recovered well recently, Sinan's mental state has become much more relaxed.
Previously, she and Xu Zhen participated in some B-level competitions, including the famous Challenger series in the B-level competitions, and achieved good results. Although the strength of the opponents and the quality of the competitions cannot be compared with those in the A-level competitions, the success in these competitions has also brought Sinan great confidence.
Sinan believes that it won’t be long before he will be able to completely get rid of the troubles brought by growth.
The World Youth Championship is held in the neighboring Xinluo Province, and the Jianglin Provincial Team is almost making a move.
Just because the provincial team leader has spoken, no matter whether you are participating in the competition or not, anyone who wants to go can go. The team will provide food, accommodation and transportation, so it's good to just look at it as a way to broaden your horizons.
Therefore, when the Jianglin Provincial Team's bus stopped at the hotel entrance and people got off one after another, the staff from Xinluo Province who were responsible for arranging food and accommodation for the World Youth Championship were all stunned.
The head coach of the Xinluo Provincial Team smiled wryly: "How come I didn't know that there were so many people from Jianglin Province participating this year?"
Jiang Yang laughed: "Coach Ma, you are exaggerating. Our Jiang Lin only participates in the men's singles, pairs skating and ice dancing events. We are not like you Xinluo, so we keep a low profile."
Coach Ma was so angry that he rolled his eyes.
Jiang Lin and Xin Luo have been comparing secretly for many years. In the past, Jiang Lin could only beat Xin Luo in pair skating. But this year, he got lucky for some reason. Not only did he pick up a pair of young geniuses in pair skating, but his ice dancing also improved. Even though they offered Lin Yinian unprecedented favorable conditions, this talented young men's singles athlete finally chose Jiang Lin.
On the other hand, Xinluo only got one quota for the women's singles competition, and this young female player cannot be called a genius. It can only be said that in today's declining women's singles competition, they are the tallest among the short ones and are slightly better in the test match.
Coach Ma didn't even expect her to make it into the top ten, he would be satisfied as long as she could make it into the free skating.
Yes, in figure skating, if the result of the short program is too bad, you will not even be qualified to participate in the second free skating competition.
Generally speaking, only the top 24 skaters in the short program can enter the free skating of the World Championships or World Junior Championships.
People not involved in the competition are not allowed to enter the athlete hotel dedicated to the competition. The hotel for other members of the provincial team is booked not far from the World Youth Championship hotel.
When Jiang Shi walked past Coach Ma with her big wavy hair, he almost immediately recognized this female singles player who was once as bright as a shooting star and also flashed across the court like a shooting star.
"Has Jiang Shi resumed training?" Coach Ma asked, "Didn't she take the college entrance examination after retiring? Is it too late to pick it up now?"
After saying this, he seemed to have thought of something, with a look of deep sorrow on his face: "You Jiang Lin are too cruel. In order to surpass us in the women's singles in the future, you even pulled Jiang Shi back to retrain! How inhuman!"
Jiang Yang looked at an idiot. "I haven't seen you for many years. You seem to be seriously ill. Don't say that I was on the national team with you."
Coach Ma: "We went to the capital together for the annual summary meeting two days ago."
Jiang Yang: “Really?”
Coach Ma: “…”
"She asked to train with Lu Tingsong herself. She was not included in the system and is still paying for it herself," Jiang Yang finally explained. "This girl has a spirit of not admitting defeat. Maybe she can really return to the international arena in the future."
Coach Ma rolled his eyes and said, "If she is not included in the system, then does that mean she is not a member of the Jianglin Provincial Team yet?"
Jiang Yang: "...I declare that I will recruit her after this competition."
Coach Ma said "huh". He didn't expect to recruit Jiang Shi because he was a native of Jianglin. Besides, Jiang Ran was from the Jianglin provincial team. How could Jiang Shi join Xinluo?
But as long as he could make Jiang Yang feel unhappy, he would be happy.
The list of people involved in the competition was submitted to the organizer early in the morning, and the players' rooms were also allocated early. The Chinese team was the first to arrive at the hotel and their rooms were arranged on the sixth floor, which is a very quiet floor.
Moreover, "6" is an auspicious number in China, which means "everything will go smoothly".
The organizers have put a lot of thought into arranging this number of floors for their players.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun's rooms are still next to each other as usual, and the lighting is particularly good. However, for the contestants, they stay in the room for less than ten hours a day. At best, this is just a place to sleep. Once the curtains are drawn, it doesn't matter whether the lighting is good or not.
Lu You put down his luggage and ran to knock on Xie Yunjun's door.
Compared to Lu You, who has grown very slowly and is only 155cm tall now, Xie Yunjun has been growing steadily in height over the years. When his data was last measured, he was already 178cm tall, and it is only a matter of time before his height exceeds 180cm.
It is generally recognized that the most comfortable height difference for two-person events is 15 to 20 cm. If the height difference is larger, the visual effect will be a bit abrupt.
The standard pairing for pair skating is that the female partner is petite and flexible, while the male partner is tall and strong. Therefore, there are many combinations with a height difference of about 30cm in international competitions. However, if this height difference is placed on ice dancers, it can easily make the dance look uncoordinated.
However, there are also ice dance groups that can turn the super cute height difference into their own characteristic, and they have proved with their strength that as long as the skills and tacit understanding are good, the influence of height can be overcome.
Lu You was probably a head shorter than Xie Yunjun, so Xie Yunjun had to bend down and lower his ears to listen to her.
Lu You grabbed Xie Yunjun by the collar and stood on tiptoe stubbornly: "Kavira sent me a message saying that they will be at the hotel soon. Shall we go down to pick them up?"
Xie Yunjun took out his cell phone: "Anatole sent it to me too."
Fortunately, they both used phone cards from China Unicom, which allowed them to receive roaming text messages from Russian users. If they used other operators, the text messages sent from Russian numbers would have been received as a string of garbled characters.
"It's cold outside. I'll get you a scarf." Xie Yunjun turned back to the room, took out the black scarf Liang Jie had knitted for him and wrapped it around Lu You's neck. "Let's go. Anatoly just said we'll be at the hotel in ten minutes."
Lu You rubbed her face against the woolen scarf around her neck and squinted her eyes in comfort. She naturally also had a hand-knitted scarf made by her mother, but Liang Jie got her a bright red one, which was too eye-catching to wear, so Lu You rarely used it when she went out to compete.
The two went downstairs together. When they were leaving the main door, a staff member kindly reminded them: "It just rained a little bit. The ramp to the right at the hotel entrance is frozen. We have asked the staff to spread salt to melt the ice, but it is still a bit slippery."
"We have put up warning signs, so contestants please be careful when you go out."
Xie Yunjun said politely: "Thank you."
"I'll send a message to Cavilla," Lu You said, "It would be troublesome if he fell before the game."
Xie Yunjun: "No need, they are already here."
Upon hearing this, Lu You tilted his head and looked outside the hotel. He discovered that the bus going to the airport to pick up the Russian athletes was parked on the slope because the road was icy and they did not dare to drive down. After all, the bus was filled with the darlings of the figure skating world and it would be disastrous if something unexpected happened.
The Russian team thought there was a traffic accident ahead and got out of the car to check the situation. When they found out that they stopped only because the road was icy, the fighting nation fell silent.
The expression on their faces was almost like "That's it?"
Kavira saw Lu You at the gate and waved his arms excitedly. Even from a distance, Lu You could hear Kavira's magical tongue-twisting sounds, followed by a shout in a thick accent: "My fellow melon-eaters! I miss you so much——"
This made Lu You very suspicious that the girl had watched a skit in the Spring Festival Gala and thought that this was a common term used by Chinese people to greet each other.
Lu You also raised her hand and waved, then pointed to the icy slope. She searched her mind and found that she didn't know how to say "the ground is slippery" in English, so she had to squeeze Xie Yunjun's hand.
Xie Yunjun understood and pointed to the slope: "Slippery (very slippery)."
Cavira in the distance tilted her head, and no one knew how she understood it. Finally, she showed an expression that said, "Don't worry, I'm a citizen of the Russian Federation," then took a few steps back and made a running start gesture.
Lu You: Something is wrong.
The next second, the blonde girl howled with excitement, rushed down the slope, stepped on the ice, and slid to the bottom.
Kavira: “Ulla!”
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