As the performance progressed, Li Xiaoyue felt as if she had entered a wonderful state. All the pores on her body were relaxing, and her brain was no longer nervously recalling the musical nodes corresponding to the technical movements.
At this moment, she only needs to dance according to her feeling and present the opening debut for the Chinese team.
Whether it was jumping or spinning, she had an inexplicable feeling that she could definitely accomplish it.
After all, those were actions that had been repeated countless times over tens of millions of days and nights and had been etched into muscle memory.
As it turned out, she actually did it.
As the last set of bows and turns ended, Li Xiaoyue opened her arms to welcome the applause that belonged to her.
She picked up the flowers and dolls thrown down by her teammates, first said shyly "Arigato" to Yuto Nakazaki, and then smiled at the camera.
[Hey hey hey! This little girl is so small, she looks so familiar but I can’t remember her name! ]
[This is Xiaoyue’er, Zhao Zixuan’s junior sister in the Capital City Team. It turns out that Yuexuan CP has become the tears of the times. 】
[Xiao Yueer finally realized her dream of participating in the Olympics with her senior brother, tears in my eyes]
[Ahem, that’s what. Xiaoyueer once said in an interview that her idol is Yo-Yo (Nakazaki Yuto), so Yuexuan is a thing of the past. Yueyou is the light of righteousness! ]
[The configuration of this women's singles is not very good, why doesn't Jiang Shi just appear in two programs? ]
[Your sister is already 24 years old and is a senior female singles skater. Now you have to do two sets. Don’t do the individual competition later. Besides, isn’t Li Xiaoyue skating well?]
The performance received mixed reviews in the forum, but Li Xiaoyue knew that this would be her best performance ever, and it might even be impossible to replicate it. But for her, who was destined not to stand on the podium, being able to dedicate the most perfect short program of her life to the Olympic team competition was already a result of the goddess of luck's favor.
The little girl lifted up the hem of her skirt and saluted deeply to her teammates who were holding up the national flag and cheering for her. Then she slid off the court, took the knife sheath and towel handed to her by Lu You, and walked towards Kiss & Cry.
After sitting down on the sofa, Xue Chengze pressed her shoulders and said, "Xiaoyue, well done. Keep up the good work in your individual events."
Li Xiaoyue pursed her lips and smiled: "I don't have a triple A or quad jump, so I'm not competitive in the individual competition. I can only try my best not to drag everyone down in the team competition."
The scores will be out soon.
The program "The Whole New World" finally scored 74.93, including 41.62 in technical points and 33.31 in performance points.
For an unfamiliar Asian face who seldom appears in big competitions, the P score given by the referee was expected. If nothing unexpected happens, Li Xiaoyue will have no problem competing for the sixth or seventh place.
Lu You, who had been jumping up and down for a long time, ran to the contestant seat at some point. After seeing the score, she breathed a sigh of relief, leaned softly against Xie Yunjun, and continued to watch the next game.
Xie Yunjun held her shoulders and pinched the back of her neck. I don't know what kind of bad taste the director had. When the ice was being cleared on the spot, the camera that was scanning the audience seats for kiss cam interaction shook, and the next second stopped at the contestant seat.
Kiss Cam originated in the NBA, and later became part of many other games, including baseball and hockey. The kissing game was also played at the Rio Olympics, and figure skating started with the U.S. Championships.
When the camera stopped in front of the Chinese team's cruise home port, the scene instantly became boiling.
Yi Zhu, in old couple mode, shrugged her shoulders, turned Wu Tianrui's face and kissed him. Si Nan also shyly leaned over and pecked Xu Zhen lightly on the cheek, making the young man who had just started a relationship feel at a loss in front of the camera.
Only Lu You refused to believe it and kept staring at the camera.
Until the booing at the scene became louder and louder, Xie Yunjun sighed helplessly. When Lu You muttered, "This director must be Mi Lijian," he put his arm around his female companion's shoulders and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
The audience ate dog food of various brands with gusto. Half an hour later, the women's singles competition continued.
Li Xiaoyue's outstanding performance made the Chinese team happy, but coaches from other countries frowned.
Currently, the five countries that are most likely to win team medals are China, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Russia. Except for Russia, the remaining four countries all have their own shortcomings. At this time, whether to protect the team or the individuals is a question worth considering.
However, despite the lack of young talents four years ago, Tucun still won a team bronze medal. At that time, the Milan Winter Olympics was at the height of a boom in domestic figure skating. If they didn't bring back a team medal, the national team would not be able to give an explanation to the fans and their superiors.
Zhao Zixuan analyzed: "At present, Russia has the strongest overall strength, so they must be aiming for the gold medal. We can't eat a fat man in one bite, so we should focus on retaining the bronze medal and competing for the gold medal."
"I looked at the list this afternoon. Only the American No. 1 will compete in the short program. Yuto Nakazaki from Sakura and Yeslav from Goose will not play."
“I know that many of you here are participating in the Olympics for the first time, and perhaps the last time, so I will give my best effort in the short program this afternoon.”
Everyone understood what Zhao Zixuan's words meant. In weighing the pros and cons of the individual and team competitions, he chose to give his best form to the team.
Yi Zhu nodded and said seriously: "Tian Rui and I will also do our best and will not drag down everyone's scores too much."
Jiang Shi raised his arms: "It should be no problem for me to secure a top three in the free skating."
After making their grand statements, everyone looked at each other, and finally Yi Zhu burst out laughing: "So our dream this year is a silver medal? Then it seems that the biggest competitors are... the United States and Canada?"
Yuto Nakazaki, who was standing by, listened attentively for a long time and finally couldn't help but speak up: "We in Japan are also very visible this year! Our men's and women's singles are the only ones in Asia that can compete with the United States and Russia!"
Lin Yinian raised his face, and the World Championships silver medalist stared at Yuto Nakazaki with his beautiful eyes.
Yuto Nakazaki, who had just won the bronze medal with hatred not long ago, coughed and turned around to find some water to drink.
The last player to compete in the women's singles team event was Russia's current top player, Hagiyanova. Unlike Aurora, who won the Olympic gold medal four years ago, Hagiyanova is one of the few female players in Russia who has performed quadruple jumps through pure strength.
The 16-year-old Hajiyanaeva has reached an astonishing height of 163cm, which makes her undoubtedly a tall player. Her well-proportioned and strong body stands out among the thin and frail female singles players of Russia.
Xue Chengze commented: "Well, you can tell whose work it is at first glance."
Sure enough, after the game, he found Bayekov in the KC area, wearing a Russian team uniform with a floral shirt stuffed inside.
The first brother of Big Goose finally proved that his theory is correct and effective. Although four weeks are prohibited in the short program, the 3A, 3Lz and 3F+3Lo that Hagiyanova stuffed in the program is almost the configuration that maximizes the score under the current rules.
Stability is more important than anything else in the Olympics. There are many women's singles players in the world who have these configurations on paper, but Hagiyanova is the first one who dares to compete in the Olympics.
Lu Tingsong said: "When I was still struggling in the arena, the Russian women's singles stood at the top. After dominating the Olympics for several dynasties, the status of the Russian women's singles is still unshakable."
Xue Chengze: "That's right. I dream every day that our figure skating can flourish like Russia."
At the end of the first day of competition, Li Xiaoyue scored five points and Zhao Zixuan scored the crucial nine points. The Chinese team ranked third with a team score of 14 points.
When he returned to the Olympic Village in the evening, Xue Chengze called over the two pairs who were going to perform the next day.
"Xiaozhu, Xiaorui, you are the best ice dance team in Asia. You have been filling the gap in ice dance for the country for a long time," Xue Chengze said. "After seeing today's score, we think we can compete for the silver medal this time. Can you continue to skate in the free skating the day after tomorrow?"
Yi Zhu and Wu Tianrui looked at each other, as if they had expected this result. They nodded together: "Ice dancing is not that exhausting. Besides, other countries also have the same pair of contestants for rhythmic dance and free dance, so we can certainly do both sets."
Although the team had initially decided that Yi Zhu and Wu Tianrui would compete in rhythmic dance, and another younger pair would skate in free dance, Li Xiaoyue and Zhao Zixuan's victory in their first battle today gave everyone hope of winning the silver medal.
Although Huazhong is currently only in third place, don't forget that their strongest main players have not yet played.
Yi Zhu and Wu Tianrui have been working in the adult group for nine years. In the ice dance event where seniority is also a part of the scoring, even if their strength is not enough to stand out, they will have no problem securing a top five spot in the team competition. If they are in excellent form, they can even strive for fourth place.
The team competition is ranked based on points. Even if strength is the main factor and tactics are secondary, it is undeniable that the deployment of troops does have the potential to turn decay into magic.
Xie Yunjun also said: "If necessary, Youyou and I can also do the free skate."
Lu You nodded, "Xie Yunjun and I both have a lot of health and blue bars. Big Goose AB is confirmed to participate in tomorrow's short program. Given their age and physical fitness, they will definitely not participate in the free skate for the sake of individual gold medals. In this case, we can completely reduce the difficulty of the group free skate."
Ice fans like to compare the athlete's physical fitness to the health bar in the game, and the athlete's status to the blue bar. Over time, these two words have become popular among figure skaters.
"In the free skating without Apollova and Biman, we were able to get first place without the quad toss and quad twist."
Today's Lu You and Xie Yunjun have already grown into people who make the judges think twice before taking action, and as the only real boat among the three giants of pair skating, they also have a slight advantage in performance points.
Last season, the Big Three of pairs all chose the theme of love in their free skating, but interestingly, Lu You and Xie Yunjun's "Orfeo" P score was always slightly higher than Apolova/Byman and Anjo Haruna/Yoshioka Kentaro.
Therefore, after winning the gold medal at the 2025 World Championships, some people used this selected song to attack Lu You and Xie Yunjun just for the sake of smearing them.
What's so great about that? You are just like those people who benefit from nationality privileges, and you got such a high performance score by taking advantage of your lover's bonus!
Naturally, ice fans fought back, saying that with the performance of Lu You and Xie Yunjun, they deserved a few points higher in P score, but you have to know that those who criticize them are deaf and blind when they are unreasonable, and they bite people everywhere with red eyes.
Fortunately, Lu You and Xie Yunjun's mentality will never be affected by the outside world.
Yi Zhu tilted her head in confusion: "But Japan only has one pair of good pair skating. The Anji combination must have both routines. They also have a quad throw + quad twist."
Lu You: "That girl just had ankle tendon repositioning surgery six months ago. She may not even be able to compete in the individual competition, let alone the team competition."
After sending the four players who were going to play tomorrow to rest, the coaches continued to study team tactics.
Lu Tingsong pondered and said, "Japan's ice dance has always been at the bottom, and they are not interested in the team competition... Let Youyou and Xiaojun prioritize the more valuable individual competitions, and then decide after the team competition and other short programs are finished."
Xue Chengze also nodded: "Bringing back a gold medal is a hard target set by the higher-ups. Lu You and Xie Yunjun are the biggest gold medalists this year, and we really can't let a team silver medal affect our form."
Finally, everyone unanimously decided to wait and see the ice dance rhythmic dance and pair short program on the second day.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
