"Yes, teacher, Hanhan and I have made the decision."
The second week after the GPF results were released, Han Feiyang and Nie Hanhan held two tickets to Huai City and stood in front of the French window at the airport talking on the phone: "Hanhan and I are both from Jianglin Province. We still want to return to the provincial team to coach Lu You and Xie Yunjun first."
On the apron, the plane bound for Huai City slowly pulled into the parking position, and the cabin door was connected to the boarding corridor.
Liang Xu on the other end of the phone was silent for a while, then said: "Whether you choose to stay in the national team or go to the provincial team, the teacher respects your decision."
Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang were students he brought up personally, so how could Liang Xu not know that the medals of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics were their obsession.
The two held hands in their best years, and went from the city team and provincial team to the national team to fight for the country.
In their nearly ten-year partnership, they have won numerous awards and become the world's top pair skaters, but the one thing missing from their honor roll is an Olympic medal.
Three years ago, when they missed the podium by 0.31 points at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, countless ice fans felt sorry for them.
At that time, Nie Hanhan's injuries were so serious that she had to undergo two operations. Under normal circumstances, she should have retired, but because of the domestic doubles break, she had to persist in one more Olympic cycle with her injuries for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics four years later.
In order to prepare for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics, Nie Hanhan even resumed training in the four-stroke twist. Coincidentally, good news came from the youth group at that time - the Jianglin provincial team produced a pair of extremely talented young doubles skaters who might be able to shoulder the important task of China's future pair skating.
At that time, Nie Hanhan smiled and said, "The national team finally has a younger generation to take over. After skating at the Olympics, I can retire without any worries. If I can win a medal, I will definitely ask Brother Yang to take me to eat all the delicious food that I couldn't eat in the past few years!"
Who knew that fate would play such a trick on us? When you think everything is going to be fine, it makes a 180-degree turn as if it is a joke.
Nie Hanhan was injured, and the national team had to recruit players from the youth group to fill the vacancies.
"The two kids from the Jianglin provincial team made it to the Grand Prix Finals in their first year of promotion, and also won third place in the short program and fourth place in the overall score. They gave me and Brother Yang hope of winning medals."
Nie Hanhan said: "Teacher, the dream that Yang Ge and I failed to realize may be placed on them."
"We will do our best to send these two children to the podium of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics."
Nie Hanhan made a firm promise.
Liang Xu sighed and said, "Okay, the teacher believes in you."
The Jianglin Provincial Sports Bureau was naturally happy to see the Nie-Han duo join the provincial team's coaching team, and gave the green light to all kinds of procedures. Even the provincial team's leaders felt like it was a piece of cake.
They couldn't understand why the Nie-Han duo, with their achievements, would choose to coach the provincial team instead of staying in the national team?
In order to feel at ease, the provincial team leaders who couldn't figure it out could only approve an annual salary for Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang that was not inferior to that of the national team.
It was Monday at that time. Nie Hanhan, who had just recovered to the point where she could walk slowly, threw away her walker and went to the Jianglin provincial team training base with her male companion.
Although Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang also came from the Jianglin provincial team, they could not stand the great changes in the provincial team in recent years. They thought they could find the way by relying on their memory, but they got lost in the provincial training base and had to call someone to pick them up.
While being supported by Han Feiyang, Nie Hanhan sighed: "When we were first recruited into the national team, the provincial team hadn't built a separate ice hockey stadium yet, right?"
Han Feiyang put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Yes, at that time the provincial team only had two rinks. The short track speed skating results were good that year, so one rink was allocated to them for special training. The rest of our events were squeezed into the same rink."
There are many ice and snow sports events, and the results are bound to be good and bad every year. Whether the athletes can achieve good results also determines the allocation of resources to different events.
Six or seven years ago, short track speed skating did have the capital to have the provincial team set aside a special ice rink for their training.
The nearly ten years from the 2006 Lingnan Winter Olympics to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and then to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics can be said to be the peak period of Chinese short track speed skating.
The undefeated legend of the national team who led women's short track speed skating into the Chinese era was from Jiang Lin provincial team.
"Yeah," Nie Hanhan laughed, "When we were doing morning exercises, we were secretly competing with the ice hockey team, because whoever finished 10,000 meters first would get to use the ice rink first."
Recalling the time in the provincial team, Nie Hanhan still remembers it vividly. After all, that was the most relaxed and happiest time for her. Later, when she joined the national team, she began to face various pressures of performance, and when she skated, she lost the original purity.
By the time Jiang Yang picked up the two lost new coaches, the players of the provincial team had already started their daily training for the day.
After seeing the national team players whom they could only admire on TV before, many young players from the provincial teams suddenly felt their backs and legs no longer ached and they trained very hard as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
"Senior, here are some stools for you," a little boy dragged two plastic chairs over, "Please sit down, both of you."
Lu Tingsong chased him and shouted, "Chi Hui! Stop right there! You ran away when I tore your waist and legs apart! Look at your Dnout Spin! Is that called a donut spin? Huh? You're almost turning it into a tender beef five-way spin!"
Chi Hui looked exactly like Lu You, holding his head and howling while running around. It was obvious that they were fellow disciples.
"Coach! Coach, I'm just bringing a stool to you, senior!"
"What are you holding? Stop right there and come here and practice your flexibility!"
"Wow, I want to thank Senior Brother and Senior Sister Lu."
"Don't even mention Xie Yunjun and Lu You. Even if the king of heaven comes today, you will still have to tear your legs, waist and hips."
Lu Tingsong grabbed Chi Hui by the collar and took him to a corner. The little boy tried to get away with it by being cute, so he had to obey him, put one foot on the stool, and did a split.
Lu Tingsong half-knelt behind the boy and pressed his knee against his thigh. Chi Hui immediately let out a scream.
Chi Hui: "Ahhhhh it hurts so much! Help! Someone is killing the child!"
Lu Tingsong knocked him on the back of the head and said, "Do you still want to practice Biellmann? If you want to, just bear with it."
Chi Hui whimpered, but finally held it in. After the flexibility training was completed, the child's legs trembled when he walked and he didn't dare to use force on his toes.
Facing the puzzled looks of Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang, Jiang Yang explained, "This is a young boy newly recruited by our provincial team. He is currently training with Lu Tingsong. He is 14 years old and just learned the second advanced triple jump some time ago."
Han Feiyang nodded: "A very talented child."
Men's singles develop skills a little later than women's singles, and not everyone is a lucky star like Lin Yinian from the national youth team. Chi Hui can be considered talented for being able to master four types of triple jumps at the age of 14.
At this time, Lu Tingsong, who had just torn Chi Hui's leg, came over and looked up at the sky with melancholy: "He is a good seedling, but he is too skinny."
Jiang Yang thought to himself, aren't you the type who attracts naughty monkeys? From Lu You, Jiang Shi to the recently accepted Chi Hui, each one of them is more naughty than the other. When they get together, it's like the scene of the naughty monkey convention in Flower-Fruit Mountain.
Nie Hanhan looked around and asked, "Where are Youyou and Xiaojun?"
——Lu You, who was scratching his head in the final exam room, sneezed.
"Huff."
Lu You rubbed his nose, muttered to himself, "Who scolded me?", then took the pen and continued to solve the math problems.
As national athletes, Lu You and Xie Yunjun continued to go to school in the morning and train with the provincial team in the afternoon and evening after entering high school. However, high school courses were not as easy to understand as those in junior high school, and only attending classes half a day was far from keeping up with the learning progress.
At present, most of the figure skaters abroad are trying to balance their studies and figure skating by adopting the Home School model, but the Home School model in China is not mature at all. If the school teachers of various subjects had not cherished these two little world champions in the class and given them special tutoring from time to time, Liang Jie would have to enroll them in an extracurricular tutoring class.
Upon learning that the two kids were taking their final exams and would not be able to come back until the afternoon, Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang were not in a hurry to go back. Nie Hanhan looked through the training schedules of Lu You and Xie Yunjun, borrowed a laptop, and started typing while discussing with Jiang Yang.
Currently, the head coach of Lu You and Xie Yunjun is Jiang Yang. Although Lu Tingsong will accompany them to play when he has time, he is no longer their direct coach in name.
As a single skater, the help he can provide is limited, so the focus is more on Jiang Shi and Chi Hui.
When Lu You and Xie Yunjun came back after finishing their final exams, they were a little confused by the sudden appearance of two assistant coaches and a thick stack of training plans.
"Now Brother Yang and I are your assistant coaches," Nie Hanhan pinched Lu You's soft face, eyes shining, "No wonder Sister Ranran said you are good at rua, you really feel good!"
Han Feiyang reluctantly pulled Nie Hanhan's paw. There were so many people watching! Can you please maintain the seriousness of a former member of the national team in front of the students?
Nie Hanhan stuck out her tongue, coughed twice, and said seriously, "From now on, Brother Yang and I will be responsible for the throw and twist training of all the pair skaters in the provincial team."
"In one month, the Four Continents will be held, and in two months, the Winter Olympics will open. Hanhan and I are destined to miss this Olympics," Han Feiyang looked at the two children in front of him, "If you say that if you practice quadruple twists, you will have a chance to stand on the podium, are you willing to try practicing quadruple twists?"
Increasing the difficulty of twisting from level three to level four in two months may sound like a fantasy.
Lu You unconsciously held Xie Yunjun's hand, letting his palm be wrapped in the familiar warmth.
Perhaps noticing Lu You's uneasiness, Nie Hanhan pinched Lu You's face again.
"Don't think that I can barely walk now, but Brother Yang and I were once one of the most difficult pair skating partners in the world," Nie Hanhan stretched out her hand to them, "We know more than just the quadruple twist. Don't forget, we are also one of the few combinations that have successfully performed the quadruple throw, and there is more than one quadruple throw."
Speaking of technical difficulty, Han Feiyang and Nie Hanhan were indeed at the top of the pyramid during their peak period, and even surpassed the country's number one duo Jiang Yu at one point.
Even though the highlight moment of performing both quadruple throw and quadruple spin only lasted for half a season, Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang did successfully land two quadruple throw combinations on the court.
With such a coach, they have already won at the starting line, so what is there to worry about?
Nie Hanhan asked softly, "The Four Twists is more of a challenge to the female partner's physical limits. Lu You, are you willing to practice?"
Lu You took a deep breath and nodded: "Okay."
Xie Yunjun held the hand of the person next to him tightly, and stroked her knuckles one by one, as if to comfort her, but more importantly, to make a promise.
The boy's voice was gentle but solemn: "I will catch you safely."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
