With the end of the World Youth Championship Gala, for most youth players, this season's A-level competition has come to an end.
Due to various force majeure factors, the third Youth Winter Olympics was postponed from 2020 to 2021, and then from January to April. It finally opened in Lausanne, Switzerland after the World Youth Championship.
The number of participants in the pairs skating event once again gloriously ranked last.
Some netizens joked that any pair skater participating in this competition can claim that they have been in the top ten in the Youth Winter Olympics.
After all, there are only seven groups participating in the competition.
On the Big Goose side, because the cost-effectiveness of the Youth Winter Olympics is really too low, the number one and two players of the Russian youth group will not play. They sent two pairs of young players who will replace them after YM and VA are promoted to the next group.
As for the Chinese team, the World Youth Championship champions Lu and Xie launched a direct dimensionality reduction attack and won the YOG doubles gold medal without any suspense.
At this point, the 2020-2021 season has officially ended and the players have entered the off-season.
As two rising stars, Lu You and Xie Yunjun received many invitations to ice performances, and the provincial team's cooperation mailbox was almost flooded.
Jiang Yang and Lu Tingsong picked and chose before finally deciding on a commercial performance.
Elf On Ice is an ice show brand with a ten-year history that is held in Tokyo, Japan in the summer.
Unlike most foreign figure skaters who have to pay for their training at their own expense, Chinese figure skaters, as athletes within the system, do not need to pay for their own training, clothing, and choreography and can just focus on their training.
Therefore, few Chinese contestants participated in commercial performances in the past.
However, the commercialization of ice and snow sports is now a general trend, and participating in ice shows to polish the new season's programs is also a way to exercise. Therefore, in recent years, Chinese athletes have gradually begun to get involved in international commercial performances.
However, they cannot accept activities privately, and the financial income earned after the performance must be shared with their units.
As the highest-profile ice show every year, ElOI invites a large number of world-famous athletes. Because it is a commercial ice show, the organizer's only goal is to make money.
Considering the commercial value, ElOI rarely invites young players to participate in the performance.
China's Lu You, Xie Yunjun and Lin Yinian and Japan's Nakazaki Yuto are the only four youth athletes participating in ElOI this year.
This shows how popular these people are in Japan.
Although the appearance fee given by the organizer was not high, even less than that of ElOI, which is one twentieth of the leading actor's, Jiang Yang was still happy to let the three boys get to know the adult contestants.
Besides, you have to bargain when buying vegetables, so you can discuss the price and other things.
After a series of contacts and communications, the Jianglin Provincial Team finally sold the ice performance debut of Lu, Xie Lin and other three people to ElOI for a price of several hundred thousand RMB, including food, accommodation and round-trip air tickets.
"Just think of it as earning some money for ice skates," Lu Tingsong said. "Wait until Olivia finishes editing the first version of the program, and then we'll release it to test the waters."
After the World Junior Championships, Lu Tingsong and Jiang Yang contacted Olivia Lee in Moscow and expressed their intention to have her serve as the choreographer for Lu You and Xie Yunjun's new season.
When Olivia heard that she was going to choreograph for the future light of her motherland, she agreed without hesitation.
During the song selection discussion, this former national ice dance team member made a special trip to Huai City to discuss the music selection with the contestants and coaching team.
In the past, men's singles, women's singles and pairs skating were not allowed to use vocal music as background music, only ice dancing was not subject to this restriction.
But with the lifting of the ban on vocal music in the 2014-2015 season, soundtracks with vocals began to appear frequently on the field.
The Chinese team has also tried using pop songs as figure skating soundtracks. For example, someone on the women's singles team once skated to a song called "Ruhua", which achieved good results at the time.
The coaching team also struggled for a long time about whether or not to use vocals.
Olivia said, “If we want to use human voice, there are still many difficulties that need to be solved.”
As an ice dancer who often uses vocal accompaniment, she has the most say in this regard.
“In order to meet the time limit stipulated by the ISU, the songs are mostly selected in a patchwork format.”
Olivia said: "Edited and spliced music is often interpreted by the contestants into colorful stories that are different from the original music. However, if you choose pop music with vocals, splicing and editing will be very difficult."
“And if the vocals are not chosen well, it’s easy to give people a sense of a set framework, which not only suppresses the audience’s imagination, but also restricts the players’ freedom on the ice.”
"But looking at it from another perspective, with the help of human voice, empathy and appeal will indeed be stronger."
Olivia clearly explained the pros and cons of the two song choices, and rubbed Lu You's furry head.
The coaching team always respects the contestants' opinions when it comes to song selection. They will only help choose songs if the contestants really don't have any ideas.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun's new short program was almost finalized when they participated in the Youth Winter Olympics. The song is "Beauty and the Beast", which is selected from the theme song of the movie "Beauty and the Beast".
This song selection discussion was mainly focused on the free skating which had not yet been finalized.
Lu Tingsong grabbed his hair and felt very bald: "Why don't we do the same as Jiang Ran and Yu Botao and choose a Chinese style?"
"This program is for the first year of promotion," Jiang Yang slapped Lu Tingsong on the forehead. "In the early stage of promotion, you will be suppressed by the old players for a while. You chose a Chinese style that doesn't suit the judges. You should wake up."
"Jiang Ran and Yu Botao are international stars and have the capital to be willful. We don't have the diamond drill now, so we shouldn't take on Chinese-style porcelain work and just follow the judges' aesthetic taste."
Lu You, who was sitting in the corner and whispering to Xie Yunjun, immediately raised his hand:
"I understand. Then choose "Carmen", "Romeo and Juliet", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Swan Lake".
"You know what you know," Lu Tingsong also gave Lu You a slap on the forehead, "Don't touch these songs. If you do, you will become unlucky."
As these themes are popular choices, they are often played as the competition song. This is especially true for "Carmen". It is no exaggeration to say that in almost every season, there are at least one or two contestants who choose it as the competition song.
Whenever "Carmen" is played on the field, the Battle of the Carmens in the women's free skating at the Winter Olympics in the last century will be brought up for discussion by ice fans again.
As the leader in the world of hit songs, "The Phantom of the Opera" was not willing to admit defeat. At a World Championships, when the first group of men's singles took the stage, they created a magical scene of playing three consecutive songs in a loop.
Due to the frequent occurrence of various song collision incidents, there is also a popular saying in the figure skating world:
There are singing ghosts everywhere, Romans and Romans flying everywhere, and piles of Carmen masks.
After repeated proposals and vetoes, Xie Yunjun finally suggested that the free skating song for the new season be a song from the Broadway musical "Jekyll&Hyde", also known as "Jekyll & Hyde" in Chinese, which depicts the conflict between the two personalities of the protagonist.
Olivia Lee was so excited when she got this song: "Jekyll & Hyde? Two people play two personalities, good and evil? God, this song is perfect for pair skating!"
"I will definitely try my best to choreograph for this show. I have a feeling that this will be a show that will amaze the world!"
A week later, Olivia gave the second version of the choreography for "Beauty and the Beast" and the first version of "Jackson Hyde" at the same time.
After practicing and finding problems, returning to the factory for modification and other steps, by the end of May, Lu You and Xie Yunjun's short program and free skating were roughly completed.
In early June, Lin Yinian, Lu You and Xie Yunjun, accompanied by their coach, boarded a plane to Tokyo, Japan. Lu Tingsong also took his new apprentice Jiang Shi on board.
By the way, ever since Lu You and Xie Yunjun completed the Philips triple jump at the World Junior Championships, Jiang Shi, a female singles player, was greatly encouraged. After training day and night, she finally succeeded in jumping out a triple F two days ago. She was so happy that she hugged Lu Tingsong and cried on the spot.
Since Lu You and Xie Yunjun had Jiang Yang's professional guidance, Lu Tingsong turned most of his attention to Jiang Shi.
Just like he had stayed up late to write plans for Lu You and Xie Yunjun before, Lu Tingsong also developed a detailed training plan for Jiang Shi, including a diet plan.
The fact that Jiang Shi was able to regain the advanced level 3 week so quickly was not only due to his own efforts, but also inseparable from the fact that Lu personally handled every case.
He sincerely hopes that Jiang Shi can return to the arena he loves.
In order to repay his coach for his hard work, Jiang Shi not only trained hard, but also gave some of his gratitude to Lu Tingsong's two most beloved children.
Elf On Ice was held at the largest ice rink in Tokyo, Japan. Before the performance began, Jiang Shi took his "seniors" to the backstage to recognize people.
There's nothing she can do about it. It's her fault that she joined the sect late. No matter how younger Lu You and Xie Yunjun are, they are still her senior brothers and sisters according to the seniority of the sect.
It’s just that people don’t usually call it that.
Most of the participants in ElOI are active players in the adult group. These people are new faces to Lu You and Xie Yunjun, but for Jiang Shi, who participated in various A-level competitions three years ago, there are many old acquaintances among them.
Although the competition is constant but the players come and go, and her female singles competitors of similar age also almost all retired after participating in one Olympics, Jiang Shi, who has been following the competition, still knows all the single skaters by heart.
"That's the top female singles player in the adult group, Aurora from Big Goose," Jiang Shi pointed at a blonde girl, "She is the younger sister of Ajelina, the champion of the women's singles in the last Winter Olympics, and she is also the one who has the best chance of winning the gold medal in next year's Winter Olympics."
When Jiang Shi was at his peak, Aurora had just been promoted to the youth group and was pinned to the ground by her seniors.
At that time, Aurora could only bury herself in her sister's arms and cry foolishly, and Jiang Shi even used candy to coax her several times.
Jiang Shi felt a little sad when thinking of Ajelina, who once competed with him on the same ice rink, won the gold medal in the Olympics in her first year of promotion, but is now semi-retired.
For women's singles, their youth is dedicated to the ice rink, but in the end they can only be a flash in the pan on the field.
Even if they have won the highest honor, they are just a meteor that flashes by in the public memory. They may have shone brightly, but it is extremely difficult to maintain their popularity.
Like Ajelina, as the new Winter Olympics is approaching, this former Winter Olympic champion has rarely been mentioned.
"Jiang?" Jiang Shi was still in a daze when a clear voice unique to a young girl sounded beside him, with an uncertain tone.
When she saw the person's face, Aurora said in surprise: "Sister Jiang Shi! It's really you!"
Jiang Shi touched Aurora's head with a smile, and the two stood together and talked for a while. When Aurora heard that Jiang Shi would make a comeback in the new season, she gave her most sincere blessings.
"Oh, by the way, let me introduce you," Jiang Shi pulled Lin Yinian over, "This is Lin Yinian, the men's singles player in our flower planting youth group."
Lin Yinian whispered "Hello".
Lu Youze stood holding Xie Yunjun's hand with an expectant look on his face, waiting for Jiang Shi to introduce himself.
"This is my...younger brother and younger sister?" Jiang Shi even thought it was a little funny. "Anyway, it's the first time for these three kids to participate in an ice show, and I want you to help take care of them."
After Jiang Shi finished speaking, the blonde beauty's eyebrows twitched violently.
Aurora held it in for a long time before quietly asking Jiang Shi: "Has your senior sister... graduated from junior high school?"
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