Ice flowers splashed on the field again and again, the music continued to flow, and the two figures on the field kicked the ice and flew, stretching their arms and looking towards the sky in unison.
They all knew that a 3-Loop was not enough for this game.
When skating past the coach's seat, Lu You glanced over there with the corner of his eye. Jiang Ran and Yu Botao each held a corner of the national flag and raised it up, facing them on the ice rink, as well as the audience and the referee's seat opposite.
Such a bright and warm red, forged with blood, should not be tainted with prejudice.
Fairness, justice, openness and transparency should be the principles of all actions, but in the event of figure skating, such treatment has become a luxury for Asian countries. In this case, let's do as our predecessors did and try our best to break the shady dealings.
Xie Yunjun placed his hand gently on Lu You's waist. Lu You took a deep breath, and the two of them faced each other and made a waltz gesture. Their interlocked fingertips were facing the direction of the national flag.
Jiang Ran: "Throw the Aksher triple."
After Lu You’s development, he was the first to throw 3A.
Almost at the same time when Xie Yunjun exerted force on his hands, the girl pushed hard on the ice with her left front outer blade, swung her right leg forward with force, and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
One circle, two circles, three circles.
All the coaches and spectators stared at the girl who was tumbling rapidly, watching her spin hard, fall heavily on the ice, and then get up without changing her expression.
The dull sound of flesh hitting the ice was enough to make people gasp.
"What a pity," Tang Baifeng said with regret, but he quickly adjusted his tone and said, "This is the first time that Lu You tried 3ATh after his development. Although there was a mistake in the landing, the score of a full-circle 3ATh is not low. Let's take a look... The referee marked this jump in red and gave a GOE of -0.72 in the end."
So the final total score of this 3ATh is 5.28.
After completing two difficult jumps, 3T+3T and 3ATh, in succession, and falling at the end, even Lu You, whose core strength is among the best among female players after gaining muscle, felt muscle weakness and fatigue.
3T+3T is a jump combination that every female and male skater can do, but for pair skaters who do not focus on jumps, the fact that most skaters would rather choose 3+2+2 triple jumps than 3+3 jumps can be seen.
In continuous jumps, there is no standby or buffer time for the second jump. The athlete must perform a 1080° aerial rotation while maintaining a smooth landing. The difficulty is definitely not as simple as completing a 3T. The requirement for instantaneous explosive power of the hip and leg muscles is abnormal in the eyes of ordinary people.
Therefore, in single skating, especially women's singles, some skaters who play with rotation speed cannot really achieve various difficult jumps just by relying on rotation speed. Without muscle strength to drive the jumping height, it is useless even if they can rotate n times in one second.
If it were the previous Lu You, with her soft way of touching the ice, it would be impossible for her to practice the triple triple jump in just half a year. It can only be said that as a single skating coach, Bayekov's sensitivity to jumps is indeed higher than that of ordinary people.
Three minutes into "The Train Loaded with Cherry Blossoms Heads to Spring," the technical score reached 53.28. When Lu You and Xie Yunjun completed another level 4, five-set reverse cable lift worth 9.1 points, the score reached 62.38 points.
This is already a T score that exceeds the total score of many athletes' short programs, but in the Grand Prix Final, the highest level of competition, this score is still within the range that the judges can control.
Everyone saw that after the lift was over, Lu You, who was caught from the air by Xie Yunjun, seemed to say something to his male partner, but due to the long distance, no audience could really hear what they were saying.
Lu Tingsong and Xue Chengze looked at each other, and at this time they had some guesses in their minds. The relapse of Jiang Ran and Yu Botao's injuries came suddenly. At this moment, they were the only ones left in the flower-planting team. If they didn't fight hard at this time, they would have no chance of winning.
"There's only one throw left."
3ATh has been used. According to the original arrangement, Lu You and Xie Yunjun's next arrangement should be 3STh. In order to increase the score as much as possible, it is not known whether they will change to 3LoTh or 3FTh when their physical strength is almost exhausted.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun chose 3FTh.
The girl jumped up heavily to the rhythm of the piano notes. Even the audience who had not been deeply acquainted with figure skating could see that this was not a light jump and it even looked a bit forced. But what was indisputable was that this was a triple Phillips throw!
"Philips triple axel! This young pair once again changed the composition of their program at the last minute!" Tang Baifeng shouted excitedly, "Lu You and Xie Yunjun turned the tables at the World Youth Championships with 3FTh and won their first gold medal in their lives!"
Tang Baifeng: "The triple Philips throw was their best move. This throw sent them to the top of the podium in the youth group. I think it will also witness the return of the two in the adult group."
Lu You landed on the ground in less than a second. The pain she felt while breathing even exceeded the impact of falling on the ice on her knees. She adjusted her breathing as much as possible, taking in oxygen from the air in big gulps, and then jumped up holding on to Xie Yunjun's arm.
Do one last three sets of hand-held hip raises and start ascending.
The female partner changes her posture in the air and the male partner removes one hand.
Grading
Level 4!!
When the sun rises and the sun awakens, all things enter spring. There is no insurmountable winter. The spring breeze always brings the warmest sunshine, blowing open the cherry blossoms on the trees before people realize it.
Lu You's hair was lifted by the wind. She felt dizzy due to chest pain caused by physical exhaustion and could only complete the Ending Pose by mechanical memory. When she lay on the ice, the bright white light flashed into her eyes. She didn't know if it was too bright or what, but tears slowly overflowed from between her fingers.
Even if you do your best, you won't get the gold medal.
Although she did not promise Teacher Xue a gold medal, she had never longed to stand on the champion's podium as much as she did today. It was a very uncomfortable feeling to burn out the last bit of strength in her body but still be unable to meet everyone's expectations.
Every athlete has moments of crying on the field. The dreams are big, the places they want to go are far, and the positions they want to stand in are high. But at this moment, Lu You just feels so unwilling.
I can obviously do better, and my ceiling is obviously higher than this. If I had trained harder during the off-season and picked up all my skills again, wouldn't our country have missed out on the gold medal?
Tears mixed with sweat slid down, sparkled in the air for a moment, and quickly condensed into ice.
Xie Yunjun's breath approached silently. He knelt on the ice, bent down, hugged his female companion into his arms, and gently stroked her hair with his hand: "Our Youyou has done a good job."
“We skated really well and everyone loved our new program.”
…
Lu You's emotions came and went quickly. Every player has experienced failure. They had to keep moving forward no matter what. Lu You was sad for a while, but he came back to life after a few minutes. When the time was right, he started blowing kisses in the Kiss & Cry area.
The two children took a few sips of water, then raised their heads and stared at the big screen intently. Not long after, the scores were calculated.
The score for the free skating was 150.89, and yesterday's short program was 78.27, for a total score of 229.16. They are currently ranked first.
Seeing this score, Lu You realized belatedly that even though she fell flat on her butt in 3ATh, her score for the free skating was unexpectedly good. She didn't know whether the referee was in a very good mood or what, but due to the influence of the fall, her P score was not as low as she had expected.
Next up are Sally and Jeffrey from the United States.
This is a very wonderful combination. They are good at using energetic and rhythmic music to mobilize the emotions of the judges and the audience. Their body movements are also very contagious, but their own difficulty reserves are not high. They often use 3T for single jumps and the highest throw jump can only be 3Lo. Their only feature is the silky smooth skating, which made Lu You always think that they should go ice dancing.
It is reasonable to get a high score for a good skating performance, but it is outrageous to raise the GOE as much as the P score.
If Lu You and Xie Yunjun had not changed the throw jump in the end, they might not even have won the silver medal, let alone the gold medal.
Fortunately, the referee did not dare to give a free pass as the difficulty difference of the programs was too big, and Lu You and Xie Yunjun narrowly defeated Sally & Jeffrey with a difference of 0.87 points.
When the awards were presented, officials from the United States Ice Hockey Association first enthusiastically said a lot of comforting words to their third place winner. But when it came to the silver medal, they only had a stern face and gave two symbolic words of encouragement. When it came to presenting the awards to the gold medalists Apollova and Biman, the officials' faces became even more grim. They quickly hung up the signs and started taking group photos.
When Apolova looked at the camera, she had a smug expression on her face, as if to say, "So what? I just like the way you can't stand me but can't get rid of me."
After the Grand Prix Final, Jiang Ran and Yu Botao did not participate in the exhibition skating the next day. They rested for a month and won the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships held in late January, but their names did not appear on the list of the World Championships.
When the pair skating team led by Lu You and Xie Yunjun set out for the 2023 World Championships again and won a silver medal, Jiang Ran and Yu Botao finally issued their retirement announcement.
【To all the ice fans who have always loved us:
Every athlete has to leave the field one day, and Yu Ge and I are no exception. We grew up together, competed together, and have become accustomed to each other's presence. Whenever we see each other on the field, it is like seeing another self.
As pair skaters, we are very lucky that we have never been separated for any reason in the more than ten years we have been together. From the beginning to the end, we have been each other's only partners, and this has never changed.
Retirement is a decision we made after careful consideration. We have devoted our childhood and youth to figure skating and spent our youth on the ice. Along the way, we have cried and laughed, won honors and felt regrets. When I was 29 and Yu Ge was 34, we finally had to say goodbye to the ice that had accompanied us for 20 years and pursue our future life.
Figure skating is not only a sport that challenges the limits of difficulty, but more of an exploration of beauty. Each program displays a myriad of postures and emotions. These performances are more like telling stories. We have told enough stories, and in the next chapter, there will be others who will continue to tell the stories for everyone.
We never want retirement to happen, but we have to say goodbye after all.
I sincerely look forward to seeing you all again outside the ice rink.
Jiang Ran & Yu Botao
2023.4.16】
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