Lu You, who was once described by his good friend Cavilla as someone who could eat a lot without gaining weight, finally failed miserably during training abroad because the food was too good during the off-season.
After the second measurement, Eugene was silent for a long time.
Lu You covered his head and threw himself into Xie Yunjun's arms, hiding himself.
Xie Yunjun smoothed her long hair as if to soothe her.
When Erica told Cavella about this, the girl laughed mercilessly on the other end of the phone, "Goose, goose, goose."
Lu You poked at the fat-reducing meal, which was less than what he fed a cat, and looked at Caveira in the video with resentment.
"The face seems to be a little rounder," Kavira looked at Lu You through the camera and couldn't help laughing, "Hmm... a little bit of baby fat."
Erica: “Yeah, but it feels amazing!”
Cavira talked about a lot of things, and finally sighed: "I really want to train with you, but it's definitely impossible."
Olaf and Eugene are known as the two greatest coaches in pair skating. As players in Olaf's group, Anatoly and Kavela have little chance of training under Eugene.
Moreover, for the self-funded players, the sky-high coaching fees charged by Eugene are really too expensive.
Afternoon lunch is exclusive to female athletes and is their only meal of the day besides breakfast. After a half-hour rest, they will start a new round of training.
The training model in Canada is somewhat different from that in China. The club only provides physical and technical training. For courses like dance, the players need to find teachers outside to teach them.
Erica also introduced her ballet teacher to Lu You.
When they were in the provincial team, Lu Tingsong would always watch Lu You and Xie Yunjun during their warm-up and stretching, but Eugene was used to letting them do whatever they wanted and would only provide guidance during the players' land simulations and on the ice.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun performed the new season's free skating for Eugene. During the 3F and 3FTh moves, Lu You fell to the ground, which made old Mr. Eugene frown.
"Lu, you're too fat for a figure skater."
"Xie, you also need to improve your upper body strength."
Eugene spoke very directly, without giving Lu You and Xie Yunjun any face just because they were the youngest in the group.
Eugene took a pen and crossed out 3F and 3FTh at the same time. He said earnestly, "Lu, your coach seems to want to develop you into a power type. I don't object to this training direction, but my suggestion is that before you develop, you should focus on rotation speed."
"Speed is a skill exclusive to pre-development female players. If used well, it can greatly increase your difficulty limit."
"Although the moves that rely on rotation speed will most likely be lost after growth, it's better to have had them than never... Of course, these are just some suggestions from me as an external training coach. Before obtaining the consent of your coach, I will not go against their training plan."
As Eugene's direct disciple, Erica relied on high speed to practice 3 loops before her development. Even after she passed the development stage, she was still half a speed party.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun looked at each other, and while taking advantage of the break to call their uncle and Jiang Yang, they repeated Eugene's suggestion.
Jiang Yang: "This is why each generation of the Olympics brings its own talents. What Eugene said makes sense. For a country with a rich talent pool, this is indeed the easiest way of training to achieve results."
However, if we simply rely on speed to increase difficulty, the player's career cycle will be greatly shortened. When they develop, the difficulty reserve will shrink. Players who cannot adjust in time will easily be beaten to death on the beach by the next generation.
The key point is that there is not even a shadow of the next wave in the world. Jiang Yu and Nie Han are about to retire after the Olympic season. Although Si Nan and Xu Zhen's condition has been gradually improving recently, in today's increasingly inward-looking pair skating, their difficulty reserves are not enough to compete for the podium.
Now everyone’s hope is that nothing will happen to Jiang Yu and Nie Han, and that they will safely get through the Olympics and wait for the Lu Xie combination to fill in.
By then, Lu You and Xie Yunjun will truly be the only two people who grow flowers together.
"You guys don't need to shoulder the heavy responsibility at home yet, so don't be so anxious to raise the difficulty," Jiang Yang said, "but you can also train according to Eugene's method for a while. The leaders have invested a lot of money this time. After you come back from the training, we expect you to win a gold medal in the Grand Prix final."
The Olympic season is not just about the adult group; the General Administration hopes that the youth group can also achieve good results.
Overseas training is actually equivalent to letting the players jump out of their comfort zone and handing over the players to other coaches for guidance in a short period of time. If the provincial team interferes too much at this time, the effect of overseas training will not be achieved.
Jiang Yang gave a few instructions and then handed the phone to Lu Tingsong, who was standing nearby and looking around impatiently.
When Lu Tingsong saw the two children on the screen, he felt distressed: "Why do they get thinner every time I call them?"
Lu You touched his own face, then touched Xie Yunjun's: "Really? Maybe Canadian food is not to my liking."
The uncle and nephew chatted about some family matters. Erica's voice came from a distance: "You, Jun, Teacher Eugene is calling you!"
Lu You replied: "Coming right up!"
"Go train now," Lu Tingsong sniffed, "Call me when you have time."
The days in a foreign country always seem to be extremely long. By the end of July, the training in Canada was only halfway through.
As the Grand Prix approached, Jiang Ran and Yu Botao began to try 4STh under the guidance of Eugene. They had tried this move several times when they first entered the adult group, but it was shelved due to the low success rate.
Now, for the Olympics, the two are preparing to pick up this difficult throw jump again.
In this Olympics, they will face Russian athletes who are six or seven years younger than them and have a 3ATh throw jump.
The two are just one Olympic gold medal away from their pair skating career, and the pressure is huge both for themselves and their country.
For Lu You and Xie Yunjun, Eugene's rotational speed training method was very effective. After Lu You's weight and body fat dropped a bit, the success rate of her and Xie Yunjun's 3F and 3FTh has increased to about 70%.
Eugene's wife, Lily Louise, was a musical actress when she was young. After accidentally seeing Lu You and Xie Yunjun practicing the free skating of "Jackson Holmes" at the ice rink one day, she tactfully suggested that the two might swap roles.
"Jackson Hyde" is a musical adapted from a British short story. It tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll who used the secret medicine he developed to separate his good and evil sides. Unexpectedly, the separated evil formed an independent personality named Hyde who did evil everywhere. In the end, the protagonist committed suicide in endless self-doubt and repentance.
Before this, Lu You had always played the kind-hearted Jekyll, while Hyde, who represented evil, was played by Xie Yunjun.
Lily Louise said: "Hyde is trying to devour and forever imprison the freedom of Jekyll, who represents kindness. My boy, your eyes are too gentle. In fact, the look you give your female companion should be - Even if I have to go to hell, I will drag you with me."
Upon hearing this, Lu You stood on tiptoe and held Xie Yunjun's face, looking left and then back, feeling as if something was missing.
Lu You asked quietly, "How about you try to be mean to me?"
Xie Yunjun thought for a long time: "How fierce should I be?"
"..." This question stumped Lu You, and she answered honestly, "I don't know either."
Lily Louise smiled and said, "If you think it's too difficult to express emotional tension, why not try to break the routine and let a girl with an elf-like pure face play an evil and rampant demon? Isn't that also very exciting?"
Lu You said "eh" and began to think about this problem seriously.
Because they are young, they don’t choose love-related songs like most pair contestants. So since Lu You started participating in the competition, they have always skated to positive heroine images that are kind, pure, and brave.
In fact, she herself has long wanted to try something different.
For her and Xie Yunjun, the workload of swapping roles was not large, and the choreographed movements did not need to be changed. All they needed to do was change the feeling of the performance.
It just so happened that the Four Seasons Opera House in Toronto was recently performing "Jackson Holmes". After watching the show, Lu You and Xie Yunjun each wrote a 500-word review and officially decided to swap roles.
Lily Louise once played Emma, the protagonist's fiancée in "Jackson Holmes". This Canadian lady, who is over 50 but still has charm, was very enthusiastic to provide some guidance on acting.
After Lu You sent the new free skating video back to China, it received unanimous praise from the coaching team and choreographer Olivia.
Lu Tingsong: "I was wondering why it felt weird before, but now it looks much better to the eye."
It is hard to say how well Lu You and Xie Yunjun performed the roles of Jekyll and Hyde. It is simply because Lu You has an innocent face and the visual contrast when he plays the devilish Hyde is amazing enough.
Jiang Yang: "You have been struggling to pass the passing line for years with a P score, but when you were skating to Chopin's music, you were as happy as if you were getting married tomorrow. Of course I don't know."
Lu Tingsong: Refuse to pull down others and do not cue others.
When he participated in the Challenger Series event that year, he skated to Chopin's "Farewell", and the photo of him with an excited smile after successfully performing a quadruple jump is still widely circulated in the figure skating circle as an emoticon.
The caption was: Look how happily I am smiling.
While Jiang Yu, number one in the adult group, and Lu Xie, number one in the youth group, were training in Canada, Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang, who did not participate in overseas training, were also preparing for the Olympics in China.
Nie Hanhan had undergone surgery on her waist, so the quadruple throw was a thing of the past for her. With her current physical condition, it was a bit difficult for her to do the quadruple twist, but as the number two player of the national team, she had to bear the pressure.
As August approached, Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang officially resumed training in the quadruple twist.
There was a sudden heavy rain in Toronto in the past two days. The Polar Bear Club is located in a low-lying area. When the female players finished their lunch, the water on the road leading to the ice rink was already above their ankles.
Everyone was discussing whether or not to wade through the water for training.
Just when the female contestants were at a loss, a group of figures suddenly appeared at the end of the road, holding umbrellas and approaching this side.
When she saw who was coming clearly, the female singles player immediately made envious sounds.
Aren’t they the male contestants in pairs and ice dance?
At this time, those who had male companions began to identify their partners. Lu You recognized Xie Yunjun at a glance, ran over, jumped onto the boy's back, and hugged his neck: "Are you here to pick me up?"
Xie Yunjun caught it steadily and said "hmm" with a smile.
He weighed the person on his back. Lu Youao's weight had become much lighter recently. When the two were doing throws and twists, the height of Xie Yunjun's throws also increased a lot.
Before that, they boldly tried a 3ATh. Lu You's feet landed on the ice and he rolled over. With his hands on the ice, he slid out half the distance of the ice rink.
However, when replaying it, Akschel's triple axel throw jump was unexpectedly a full loop.
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