Not many people knew the tactical arrangements of each team in the team competition. After Lu You and Xie Yunjun came on the court, everyone, including some staff members, showed surprised expressions.
"Hey, the team that sent out the Flower Planting Team wasn't the Jiang-Yu duo, but the newly promoted Xiao Shuang?"
Yes, now when people mention Lu You and Xie Yunjun, the impression they have is still "the rising pair from Rabbit Village". Even though they won the gold medal in the 4CC, because the gold content of this Four Continents Championships is not high, people still do not classify them as first-tier players.
Many people believe that no matter how difficult it is, their qualifications will never be able to match those of their predecessors.
When the music of "Beauty and the Beast" sounded, Big Goose coach Olaf and Canadian coach Eugene turned their heads at the same time and cast contemptuous looks at Xue Chengze.
As we all know, Jiang Yu combination is the strongest duo, but also the oldest pair. In order to maintain the form in the subsequent individual competitions, it is impossible for Jiang Yu to perform two programs in the team competition.
In previous years, in order to qualify for the free skating, the team has always adopted the safest tactics, letting the strongest Jiang Ran and Yu Botao compete in the short program.
This arrangement has remained unchanged in almost every session. For this reason, each country deliberately let its number one skater avoid the short program this year, preparing to dominate the free skating without the world's number one skater.
I didn’t expect that this year the flower planting team would go against their usual practice and send a new Xiaoshuang to participate in the short program!
"I was careless!" Olaf pulled his beard and muttered in Russian, which translated into Chinese means, "I was outwitted by this guy!"
Eugene also pushed his reading glasses: "Lu and Xie have trained under me before. Although their performance scores are not among the top ones, the difficulty is unmatched by many people - at least there is no one whose difficulty can match theirs in the current short program list."
Who says it isn't? Because they plan to avoid Jiang Yu's edge, Russia's Apollova & Biman, Canada's Isabella & Aubrey will all appear in the free skating. Among the favorite countries to win medals, only the United States and Italy have placed their first bets on the short program.
It goes without saying that the United States and Italy were both delighted at this time.
What? You ask Japan? Because the Sakura country's pair and ice dance were so bad, if Yoshimaru Hinata hadn't taken back 10 points every time, they would have been squeezed out of the free skating like the previous Rabbit Village.
Facing the glares from several old rivals, Xue Chengze laughed calmly and said, "Thank you. I will lend you my treasured copies of The Art of War and The Hundred Chapters of Military Strategy during this year's World Team Championship."
Olaf and Eugene rolled their eyes in unison.
While a few coaches were talking nonsense, Lu You and Xie Yunjun on the field had already completed the Philips triple jump. The skates scraped across the ice, making a "squeak-click" sound. Then the two of them easily switched positions and did a triple twist.
The speed is so fast and the body is so light, it seems as if this level 4 twist 3 which combines the elements of split legs and raising hands is just something they threw in when they were in the mood.
The visual effect of the 3ATh at the back is even more shocking.
A slender figure leaped across the sky, her skirt fluttering like a dark-colored phoenix tail flower blooming in high-speed rotation.
The triple Axel, as a dream jump in figure skating, has half a circle longer than any other jump, so when a skater performs this jump, the visual effect is comparable to a quadruple jump.
Although Lu You and Xie Yunjun performed a 3A throw, it was essentially a triple Axel.
As soon as Tucun Xiaoshuang performed the 3A throw, the women's singles from several countries lowered their heads and avoided the sight of their coaches - other countries' women's doubles could do the 3A throw, but they hadn't yet, which was indeed a bit embarrassing.
When the music stopped, there was warm applause from the audience.
In the broadcast camera, Xie Yunjun lowered his eyes gently, patted Lu You's outstretched hand, and after high-fived, he slid his fingers between her fingers and held her palm.
At this time, the sensible CP fans have already started editing new videos.
After Lu You finished the short program, he did not show any signs of fatigue and his eyes were bright.
The two skated to the exit and hugged their coach. Xue Chengze said "OK" happily several times, and they walked to the waiting area next to them.
The Winter Olympics Kiss&Cry did not prepare a special area like other major competitions. For convenience, the waiting area was set up not far from the exit and can be reached in two steps.
The scoring screen showed that SP "Beauty and the Beast" received a final score of 75.57.
When the next contestants from other countries came out, not only Lu You and Xie Yunjun held their breath, but the other contestants from the flower-growing team and the audience were also waiting for the final result.
Currently, the short program of Lu and Xie combination ranks first. The only ones who can compete with them are the American combination and the Italian veteran, whose technical configurations are 3FTh＋3S＋3Tw and 3LoTh＋3S＋3Tw respectively.
There are only seven sets of movements in the short program. For athletes who are capable of participating in the Olympics, lifts, rotations and step sequences cannot create a gap in points. If they want to win, they can only work hard on jumps, throws and twists.
Lu You counted on his fingers and muttered: "3F has one more point than 3S, and 3ATh has 2.02 more points than 3FTh. If they don't make mistakes, it seems that we only have a three-point advantage in terms of technical points."
With this little score, the referee just drank some water, waved his hand and gave the team a P point.
As for GOE... Although she and Xie Yunjun have a good relationship with the referees now, the other person's nationality is there after all. As long as she doesn't make mistakes, GOE will only be higher.
Lu Tingsong poked Lu You's head and said, "Stop using that little calculator."
The situation in figure skating competitions changes rapidly, and no one knows what the outcome will be until the last moment.
——This statement was confirmed in this team competition.
The American team that everyone was optimistic about made a mistake in their first single jump. While they were pulling to the bottom, the Italian pair of veterans in their thirties temporarily changed the difficulty of their short program, replacing 3LoTh with 3FTh.
When she won first place in the short program, Italian veteran Margaret's face was full of disbelief. She hugged her male partner Feiqi and cried out in excitement.
Xue Chengze looked at the two Italian centenarians in the figure skating world and said, "They have persisted for so long and tried their best not to retire just to wait for this Olympics. Finally, they got what they wanted. It turns out that God will not let down anyone who works hard."
With the help of these 10 points in pair skating, the Italian team jumped directly to second place in the overall score list. Margaret and Feqi are well aware that they do not have medal competitiveness in the following individual events, but the Olympic medal they desire may be achieved through the team competition.
After the short program, Lu You and Xie Yunjun were stopped by Margaret.
The Italian lady stuffed chocolates into the two people's arms and said, "You two performed really well today. You have the most expressive power among your peers. You are just still young, but you have a promising future."
In fact, Margaret knew in her heart that as far as today's competition was concerned, the short program of this pair of young doubles was obviously better. The reason why they were able to win was more due to the good relationship with the judges accumulated over more than ten years of hard work in the adult group. Even if Margaret didn't want to, the judges present would spontaneously give her preferential treatment.
Lu You was confused for a moment.
Huh? The encouragement came so suddenly.
Xie Yunjun and I got second place in the short program today, right? It was second from the bottom, not second from the bottom, right? She didn't seem to need any consolation!
——For Lu You, she has become accustomed to the fact that her GOE and performance scores are always lower.
Lu You was holding a pile of chocolates and was pulled close to the Italian veteran's arms, burying his face in the softness. After a moment, Margaret said in Italian, "See you at the individual events," then touched the black-haired girl's face and floated away.
Lu You stood there in deep thought for a while.
Before getting on the car, she suddenly pulled Xie Yunjun's sleeve. When Xie Yunjun turned around, Lu You put her arms around the boy's waist, pressed her whole body against him, and even rubbed against him.
Xie Yunjun suddenly froze.
The girl rested her chin on her male companion's chest, tilted her head back and asked earnestly, "How do you feel?"
Xie Yunjun pulled Lu You off his body, and his earlobes began to turn pink: "There are so many people here, You You, stop messing with me."
"Then I don't feel anything," Lu You was hit all of a sudden. "It's ok to have a nationality advantage in the competition, but do I have to have one in terms of physical development as well?"
"What……"
Xie Yunjun was stunned for a moment, then he understood something when Lu You lowered his head to look at his chest. He suddenly choked as if he was scalded and let go of Lu You's hand.
When he raised his head, several heads lying on the bus windows shrank back "whoosh whoosh whoosh".
Zhao Zixuan took off his blindfold and pretended to catch up on his sleep.
After today's battle, the score of the Flower Planting Team rose to 27 points, and they qualified for the free skating with the fourth place in the total score. The free skating of the team competition will be held one day apart. The order of performance of each event will be ice dance, women's singles, pairs and men's singles.
Zhonghua's ice dance free dance performance was average. Although not outstanding, she has achieved certain results by spending a lot of money to train abroad in Maple Leaf countries every year. Although she is not as good as European countries such as the United States, Canada, Russia, etc., she is also a leader in Asian ice dancing.
And for some reason, the Rabbit Village Ice Dance Group, which was participating in the group free dance for the first time, seemed to have drunk ten bottles of Pulse before going on stage. They were in surprisingly good shape and performed the highest quality synchronized twist in history, winning fourth place with 97.88 points and earning seven points.
The women's singles players who played right after them were also in a similarly high spirits. Although they only got fifth place because there were so many amazing players in the women's singles, it was undoubtedly the best ranking in recent Olympic Games.
It’s a pity that there was no post-match interview for the team competition, otherwise the ice dance and women’s singles players would definitely rush up to grab the microphone - of course, the team competition card is still a card, if they can get a team medal, then they will create the best record in their careers!
In short, perhaps due to the blessing of the host's luck, this year is the closest that Rabbit Village has ever been to the group podium.
When Jiang Ran and Yu Botao won first place without any suspense and pushed the total score to 50 points, Zhao Zixuan, the top men's singles player who was under pressure to win a medal, silently picked up the tissue and went to the bathroom.
Since the figure skating team event was added to the Olympics in 2014, the lowest team medal score came from the Sochi Winter Olympics, which was 60 points created by the US team.
The ten-point gap means that Zhao Zixuan needs to win first place in men's singles.
The best result in his career was the bronze medal in the World Championships.
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