If a reporter came to the provincial team or the national team for an interview and asked everyone what the most troublesome thing was at the beginning of the season, the coaches would answer in unison: making plans for the new season.
At the end of August, the new season's competitions began one after another. The most popular one was the Junior Grand Prix. The JGP is different from the Adult Grand Prix. There is no fixed number of stations each year. For example, this year's seven sub-stations were all located in North America and Europe.
Chi Hui and young player Wei Zhixing from the national youth team will represent Zhonghua in the men's singles this season. For pair skating, they will continue to use the pair of players selected from the south by the Ice Skating Association last year.
As for the A-level competition in the adult group...Jiang Shi took over Tian Diyun's position in the women's singles, and in addition to Zhao Zixuan, there will be another Lin Yinian and Yi Zhu/Wu Tianrui in the men's singles this year, and the doubles team will still have the double insurance of Jiang Yu and Lu Xie.
Because Chi Hui had never been abroad, Lu Tingsong, who was worried that his child would not be able to adjust to the jet lag, set off with his team five days in advance and flew to St. Petersburg to participate in the second stop of the Youth Grand Prix.
Also traveling with them were Micha and the pair of pair skaters from the south.
It is worth mentioning that due to his mediocre performance, Micha, who is a Russian national, was not originally qualified for the Grand Prix. However, he was very lucky to encounter the Grand Prix held in Russia. According to the rules of the Grand Prix, each host country has three wild cards, plus a little bit of competition among fathers, so Micha received a wild card issued by the Russian Ice Hockey Association this year.
Olivia Lee and Bayekov are typical laissez-faire parents. They simply left their child to Lu Tingsong and asked him to set off with the flower-growing team. What's more, after the draw results of the short program came out, Chi Hui was the first to appear in the third group, and Mi Qia was the last one in the third group.
Ice hockey fan: Oh, why is Coach Lu, who just accompanied Chi Hui away from Kiss&Cry, coming up again with a little mixed-race boy?
Micha raised the paw of the giant panda doll in his arms and waved towards the camera obediently.
Just when everyone thought that Rabbit Village had naturalized another young contestant from somewhere, they took a closer look and saw that the Russian tricolor flag was clearly in front of the child's name!
Olaf pulled his beard and angrily called his student: "When will you change your habit of sending your child to other coaches? You used to cause trouble for me, and now you are causing trouble for coaches from other countries!"
Bayekov held the phone farther away, leaned against the baffle to pick his ears, and seamlessly switched between Chinese and Russian: "Lu You, be careful with your blade... Oh, the round-trip air tickets to Europe are so expensive, diligence and thrift are the traditional virtues of a son-in-law who grows flowers."
Olaf: “…”
"You will bring Micha back with you, right?" Olaf asked him. "Micha's talent is not bad, he just doesn't put his heart into figure skating. If you want, you can give Micha to me and I will help him contact the best coach for single skating."
Bayekov: "It's not that Micha doesn't have a heart, it's just that he's not interested in it. Figure skating is just a hobby for him. As a father, I just want my son to be who he wants to be."
No one stipulates that the offspring of Olympic champions must follow in their parents' footsteps. Although everyone hopes that Micha can inherit his father's career, humans are not plant seedlings. It is not decided whether they will become roses or sunflowers in the future when they are still seeds.
People have self-awareness, and it is up to them to choose how they want to grow.
Well, just like Bayekov's ambition is not to become a famous coach, the reason he wants to be famous and have his training methods recognized is just to make more money and achieve his ultimate life goal of buying a house in Bora Bora and swimming with humpback whales.
In a sense, Micha inherited his character perfectly.
Olaf, who couldn't win the argument, hung up the phone angrily and looked downcast. So after Micha's free skating the next day, Kiss&Cry had another Russian old man with a white beard and red face.
Lu Tingsong: Sitting in Kiss&Cry with the masters of the coaching world, I suddenly felt like I was a big shot too.
Although he is not well-known internationally, as a famous lake bottom salvager and the first coach of the Lu Xie duo, there are countless parents in China who want to put their children under Lu Tingsong's care.
In early October, when all the youth group races were over, Lu Tingsong accepted a new pair of small doubles.
Yes, they were the couple he took to participate in the Russian leg of the competition. They were from the same city as Lin Yinian. The boy was called Fu Wenxing and the girl was called Deng Manyue. They skated out of the club at their own expense. After being spotted by the Ice Hockey Association in the club league, they were eliminated in the first round of the JGP last year.
However, this year with the help of the Ice Hockey Association, they were able to apply for two branch stations.
In order to be able to join Lu Tingsong's school, Deng Manyue and Fu Wenxing transferred their student status to Huai City half a year in advance in order to participate in the selection of Jianglin provincial team. After being selected, they hinted that they wanted to become Lu's apprentices. The provincial team leader thought about it and agreed to this request.
Today, everyone agrees that pair skaters can also effectively increase the score gap through jumping, and can even make up for the lack of the quad throw and quad twist, so they must take it seriously.
The excellent jumping ability of Lu You and Xie Yunjun is closely related to the solid foundation laid by Lu Tingsong in their childhood.
Lu Tingsong is a mysterious figure who is a single skating coach but has a mysterious attraction to pair skaters.
He looked at Deng Manyue, who was wearing a bright yellow headband and looked at him with admiration, and suddenly thought - if he had practiced pair skating back then, maybe he wouldn't have failed so badly?
"Coach, are Senior Sister Lu and Senior Brother Xie training? Will we be able to see them when we enter the stadium?" Deng Manyue looked up and asked questions one after another, "We will train together in the future, right?"
If Jiang Ran and Yu Botao are the predecessors that the figure skaters of Rabbit Village look up to, then Lu You and Xie Yunjun are the idols who inspire them to continue on this difficult path.
When Deng Manyue saw Lu You and Xie Yunjun carrying the mission and expectations of the entire country into the battlefield and finally winning the bronze medal, the feeling of blood boiling was unforgettable.
Deng Manyue trained hard and left her hometown to come to Huai City, just to be closer to them. She hoped that one day she could stand on the podium with them and sing the March of the Volunteers together.
Lu Tingsong smiled and said, "You can see it. Today, CCTV5 reporters happened to come to interview us. They should be in the ice rink now."
Deng Manyue suddenly became happy, jumped onto her male companion's back with a cheer, kicked her legs, and smiled as she let her male companion carry her on his back. The two of them played and played all the way, but immediately quieted down when they reached the ice rink.
The training ground within the system is different from that in a commercial club. There is no noisy voice and everyone on the ice is concentrating and doing their training seriously.
In the corner, Lu You, wearing a black training suit, faced the camera calmly: "What's the current rehabilitation situation? The success rate of 3Lo is not very high, and I can't do the four-twist for the time being. It may be because I changed to new skates. I can only wait for Coach Nie and Coach Han to come back before I can find the state of twisting."
Speaking of Han Feiyang and Nie Hanhan, after the Olympics, the couple went traveling around the world contentedly. When Lu You's height was rising, Nie Hanhan once wanted to take a flight back from the streets of Paris, but Jiang Yang persuaded them in the end.
As for the development level, even if a god came, it would still be the same.
Now that Nie Hanhan and Han Feiyang’s travel plans are almost complete, it shouldn’t be long before they can return as coaches again.
After Lu You and Xie Yunjun were promoted to the next group, the youth group's pair skating was in a situation where no one was available. Fu Wenxing and Deng Manyue had mediocre results in the recent Grand Prix and they are still a long way from entering the finals. The provincial team leader wanted Nie Handuo to guide Fu Wenxing and Deng Manyue to fill the talent gap in the youth group as soon as possible.
Lu You tilted his head and thought for a while: "In the next Grand Prix, Xie Yunjun and I will probably still use 3S for single jumps, and the newly practiced 3T+3T for combined jumps."
CCTV commentator and reporter Tang Fengbai nodded and handed the microphone to Xie Yunjun. "A few days ago, we saw the new songs you released, "Stray Cat Strut" and "A Train Full of Cherry Blossoms Heading to Spring". The styles of the two songs are completely different. Why do you want to try the country rock style?"
Xie Yunjun looked at Lu You: "You say it?"
Lu You had the habit of biting the thermos cup and making two unclear "hmm" and "ah" sounds.
"The main reason is that we want to try out different styles. We rarely try music with a distinct sense of rhythm," Xie Yunjun took the microphone helplessly. "It just so happens that Youyou also likes this song, so we discussed it with the coach and decided on it."
Tang Fengbai: Okay, you don’t have to say the first half of the sentence, just say the last sentence.
In order not to disturb the contestants, the TV station people did not pester them for interviews while they were training. The conversation was kept as brief as possible, and when they returned to the TV station to organize the materials, the editor exclaimed "Huh".
"When did the provincial team hire a foreign coach?"
Tang Fengbai came over: "Where?"
The editor pointed at Bayekov, who was training Jiang Shi with a sling in the picture, and said, "When we did the coach special before, it seems that this person was not there yet?"
Tang Fengbai looked at the blond man who was a little fat but still handsome. The water cup in the hand of this gold medal commentator shook, and he wondered what kind of feng shui treasure land this Jianglin provincial team was that could gather such a group of big Buddhas!
Not only has Jiang Yang, who was transferred from the national team, currently the most sought-after coach in the country, the former national doubles number two, and a world-renowned choreographer, but now they have even brought in the Olympic champion of Big Goose.
The Jianglin Province branch of the national team is indeed worthy of its reputation.
Tang Baifeng said: "Cut out all the parts related to this coach. If they can't be cut out, blur them out in post-production so that the coach's face is not clearly visible."
Although in theory coaches are free and can teach players of any nationality as long as the other party pays enough fees, the nature of other players going to other countries to study and coaches taking the initiative to join a team is still different.
Tang Fengbai didn't want this matter to be used by people with ulterior motives, and the provincial team didn't publicize it, probably because of the same consideration.
Three days later, CCTV5 released a 2022-2023 season preview documentary, announcing the season plans for all the national team players.
Yes, regardless of whether Lu You and Xie Yunjun still share profits from the provincial team for their current commercial endorsements, everyone concedes that the two are non-members of the national team, and the only thing left for them to officially join is to go to the capital after the college entrance examination.
Lu You is stuck at the development stage and needs to slowly find his form. 2023 is the college entrance examination year for both children. Even Xue Chengze has said that there is no need to arrange Lu You and Xie Yunjun's schedules too full to avoid affecting their results.
As a result, Lu You and Xie Yunjun got the most relaxed season schedule in history.
It was not until mid-October that the two set off for Kazakhstan to participate in the first game of the new season - the B-level Challenger Series, the Dennis Tan Memorial Tournament.
In fact, according to the original plan, they were supposed to participate in the Asian Open to be held in Georgia ten days later.
Pair skating is the least popular event in figure skating, so it is often the case that no one participates (or wins prizes as soon as they participate). In order to ensure the fairness and value of the points, among the 10 Challenger Series competitions last season, only the Fodi Cup, Finland Cup, Asian Open, Lombardy Cup and Golden Spin Cup had pair skating events.
However, in recent years, pair skating has gradually recovered and a large number of contestants have flocked in. This year's Dennis Tan Memorial Tournament also took advantage of the situation and reopened the pair skating event. In order to ensure the smooth development of the pair competition, they offered the world-renowned pair players free airfare, food and lodging, as well as free entry fees.
At the sincere invitation of the organizer, Lu You and Xie Yunjun temporarily changed their competition plans, but the nature of the memorial match was special. Although the organizer was surprised, they did not use the two of them for publicity.
Despite this, thanks to Lu You and Xie Yunjun's extremely high popularity in Asia, the tickets released online were sold out within half an hour, and the room rates of surrounding hotels also soared.
Three days later, the Dennis Tan Memorial Tournament officially started.
But in this game, every audience member who came to see the Lu Xie combination saw the game reminder posted by Lu You and Xie Yunjun on the social platform. Without exception, they did not cheer or scream. The only sound that resounded at the scene was applause.
Dedicated to Lu You and Xie Yunjun, and also to the people who named this competition after them.
During the performance skating, the contestants changed out of their brightly colored costumes and completed their programs quietly and reverently to commemorate the Kazakh athlete who worked hard for his country’s figure skating career for many years and whose life was frozen at the age of 25.
May you continue dancing in another world with the halo of an angel.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
