At the Milan Winter Olympics pairs free skating competition, the competition entered the final stage, and the commentators from various countries sitting in the commentary booth could not hide their excitement.
“Dear audience, next up is the Chinese team of Lu and Xie, who have broken many world records and are the youngest pair skating team to ever win an Olympic medal in the 21st century.”
"The Empire Twins are on stage. Their song of choice this year is Secret Garden's "You Raise Me Up". Before the competition, Tori and Kimi said that this is a gift to each other and all those who stand with them on the road of figure skating."
"The designer of this set of performance costumes, Yuri Ito, said that the final version of Costume was made by herself and LX together. Costumes use a lot of beige and gold and blue and black colors to represent dawn and night respectively."
"Not only the costumes, but also the choreography of the entire free skate was completed by the two contestants and the world-renowned choreographer Olivia Lee. Lu You and Xie Yunjun set the theme of this performance as light."
Because there is always light around me, I will never be afraid of darkness.
"This is the most crucial and tough battle, so fight well," Lu Tingsong held Lu You and Xie Yunjun's hands and said the same words as when he first took them to the competition, "Don't worry, your uncle will be waiting for you here."
The staff opened the barrier of the ice rink.
After stepping onto the ice rink, Lu You turned around with a smile and opened her arms towards her uncle. Lu Tingsong tapped her forehead with a smile, and finally pulled Lu You and Xie Yunjun over and hugged them together, just like when they were competing as children.
Even though Lu You has grown into a slender young lady, even though he has to stand on tiptoe to pat Xie Yunjun's shoulder, but in Lu Tingsong's place, Lu You and Xie Yunjun will always be children who can act like spoiled brats.
"Youyou, Xiaojun, go and bring back the gold medal."
Lu Tingsong stretched out his hands and pushed them hard on their backs.
Two figures with interlocked fingers slid into the center of the ice rink.
Amid the noisy crowd, Xie Yunjun lowered her head and gently pressed it against Lu You's forehead, and his fingertips with thin calluses gently brushed her collarbone. Lu You looked at her male companion, her curved smiling eyes filled with fragments of light.
Under the camera, the same pendants around their necks reflected beautiful light under the light.
【A fairy couple on ice. 】
Guan Lin instantly thought of this adjective that is often used to describe pair skaters. The female partner’s sparkling smile and eyes full of love, this beautiful scene is the best interpretation of this word, isn’t it?
At the same time, the staff at the console pushed the disc into the playback device.
The speakers first heard the crisp sound of an ice skate cutting across the ice, followed by the clicking sound of the hour hand turning.
The show "Raise Me" has been polished for a season, and the choreography, costumes and music have been modified dozens of times. The opening ice skate sound was also recorded by Lu You and Xie Yunjun before the game and added by the editor.
Anyone who has heard the song "You Raise Me Up" knows that the vocals of this English song are cut in very quickly and the lyrics are repeated very frequently. Therefore, in order to prevent the audience and judges from getting aesthetically fatigued, they also cut in many other songs into the four and a half minute long song.
The initial music was a gentle piano playing, accompanied by invisible fingertips dancing on the black and white keys. The ice blade under Lu You's feet smoothly swept across the ice surface, first gliding around Xie Yunjun in a swallow-like posture. After the waltz turn, the two hugged each other's waists, raised their floating legs and spread their arms.
European Style Commentary: "This is a very classic double flying swallow posture in the double swallow style. The perfect height difference between You and Jun is the finishing touch of this action."
"They are about to enter the first technical element... 3Loop+1Eu+3S! Perfect!"
Lu You and Xie Yunjun pushed off the ice with their right rear outside edge, raised their hands neatly in the first jump, used the Eu jump to turn over and change their take-off feet, and then pushed off the ice again with their left edge.
The sandwich jump is a well-known tool for scoring points, but because few people can make the Eu in the middle look coherent and beautiful, many ice fans believe that it is a product of figure skating's excessive pursuit of difficulty.
Different from the contestants who made the sandwich part look like a mistake, Lu You and Xie Yunjun's sandwich dance rhythm was very smooth, and even the two difficult jumps 3Lo and 3S looked seamless.
The commentator pounded the table excitedly: "It took Lu and Xie a year and a half to stabilize this new killer weapon! A shocking series of jumps!"
During the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics cycle, the double 3S sandwich jump is recognized as the top difficulty in pair skating, but figure skating is always on the road of pursuing new difficulties. Just as some men's singles athletes have successfully jumped 4A in the competition, Lu You and Xie Yunjun have also been thinking about new difficulties during the Milan cycle.
In terms of single jumps, they reached the ceiling of pair skating single jumps after successfully landing 3Lz. Although Lu You and Xie Yunjun also wanted to become the first players in the world to jump out of 3A, they both knew that they had the task of winning gold medals at the Milan Winter Olympics.
As the number one duo who enjoy the best resources in the country, Lu You and Xie Yunjun cannot pursue personal satisfaction without regard for the national achievements. Besides, no one is looking forward to the gold medal in Milan more than themselves.
So how difficult is the triple Axel?
Let me put it this way, except for Hagiyanova, many of the other young female singles players who have a lot of quadruple jumps have not yet figured out this jump. They can show you a perfect 4Lz jump in a big competition but explode miserably on 3A.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun also finally decided on a training plan of sandwiching 3Lo and 3S after trying 3Lz+2T+2T, 2A+1Eu+3S and other combo jumps. With the experience of double 3S sandwiching the heartbeat jump, they found it easier to practice 3Lo+3S, which is also a double-edged jump, than a direct three-three combo jump.
And at least the heartbeat gets an extra 0.5 points!
After the scores were updated, Apolova and Biman looked at each other in the audience, and saw admiration and some...helplessness in each other's eyes.
This opponent who has been competing with them for four years is really a difficulty bug in pair skating!
This is a jump sequence with a basic score of 9.7 points. Including the GOE given by the referee, the score reaches an astonishing 11 points, which is twice that of many athletes' jump sequences.
This is just the first action of Lu You and Xie Yunjun.
Soon, they followed the music's accents and performed their signature Mushroom Lifts, quad twists and a 3LoTh throw.
The scoring box in the upper left corner flashes and updates the real-time score.
Current player technical score: 37.32
The two people chasing the wind on the field achieved this result with only four moves.
Seeing this, Haruna Anjo and Kentaro Yoshioka had surprise and admiration in their eyes. Although they have different nationalities and beliefs, Haruna Anjo still showed a proud expression - this is the person they regard as their role model and who encourages them to persist in the path of pair skating!
At this point in the performance, a deep, magnetic male voice finally came.
"I was at a loss as to what to do"
"Until you came to me and sat beside me"
Lu You jumped up lightly and let Xie Yunjun hold her waist and lift her up. While in the air, Lu You smiled and stretched out her hands in a hugging gesture.
[Thank you for looking up at Lulu with such a gentle look that tears are about to drip]
[Because that is his light! ]
[When I heard this song, I remembered that when Lu You was in the development stage, Xie Yunjun would rather change his partner than accept other female companions. They are really each other's only one. This song is so suitable.]
[I don’t know if you still remember the time in 2024 when Xie Xie’s shoulder was injured. Lu Lu didn’t eat or drink and tried his best to lose weight to more than 80 kilograms so that Xie Xie could lift him up more easily. We ran to each other in both directions and I cried my heart out.]
A beam of light gently embraced the dim stars in the dark night. From then on, the stars approached the light, chased the light, and finally became luminous bodies that brought warmth to people and pointed the way.
When the song was about to reach its climax, Lu You turned his back to Xie Yunjun and gently stroked Xie Yunjun's hand on her waist. When his fingertips touched a cold and hard object on his left middle finger, Lu You was slightly stunned.
However, Lu You did not have time to think too much during the game. When the male voice finally sang the line "You raise me up" and Xie Yunjun exerted force, Lu You's hip and leg muscles instantly cooperated, and his left blade kicked out a string of flying ice flowers on the ice!
Throwing Sahov - all around!
The moment he successfully landed on the ice, Lu You raised his arms and pushed hard, his face full of joy after success.
Applause and screams filled the venue in an instant. At this moment, even the audience could not contain their excitement.
The commentator shouted excitedly: "Throw 4S! The double 4 configuration appears for the second time in the Milan Winter Olympics! And the Lu Xie combination's throw 4S is more difficult than the big goose's throw 4T!"
Apolova patted her male partner's chest helplessly and said, "This free skating has too many difficult moves. Lu and Xie's physical strength can no longer keep up. But even if they fall flat on the ground now, we can't win."
Once the twisting and jumping elements, which are most prone to errors, are over, the outcome of the game is self-evident.
Lu You and Xie Yunjun, aged 16 and 17, tried their best to win bronze medals at the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics, and this year, at the age of 20 and 21, they have reached the peak of their expressiveness and technical condition.
They are the masters who control everything on the ice.
Twist four, throw 4S, 3Lz, 3Lo+1Eu+3S with a heartbeat, any one of these can be used as a killer regardless of its difficulty.
But Lu You and Xie Yunjun put them in the same program, and together with the 3ATh that appeared in the short program, they can be said to have performed all the world difficulty levels.
As the song came to an end, the vocals became louder and louder, and Lu You was already relying entirely on instinct and muscle memory to complete the spiral and choreographed steps.
"Because of your encouragement, I can climb mountains and brave the storms and waves."
"Because I have your shoulder to lean on, I am so indestructible."
The ending of the song continued to lengthen. Xie Yunjun knelt on one knee on the ice, holding Lu You's left hand. Lu You leaned on his male partner like a flying bird, and they both looked towards the direction of the five Olympic rings above their heads.
The song ends.
The two knelt on the ice amidst the torrential applause and rain of dolls. Lu You's lips turned slightly purple due to lack of oxygen, and beads of sweat kept rolling down his forehead and falling into his collar.
Lu You opened his arms, buried his head in the neck of Xie Yunjun, who was also breathing rapidly, and smiled ostentatiously.
When Xie Yunjun kissed the top of her head and reached out to pull off the pendant around her neck, Lu You had already put his chin on Xie Yunjun's shoulder, and slowly raised his left hand and made a "1" in the direction of his coach, teammates and the Chinese cheering team.
Winner!
At the moment of this unprecedented free skating clean, the outcome of the game was already determined.
Dots of red billowed up from the audience seats, instantly dyeing the entire Asago Stadium into a sea of fire in the red of the national flag!
Guan Lin's voice was filled with emotion and relief. She said with red eyes: "They use their bodies and blades to interpret the various postures and emotions of figure skating. They are the prosperous times, and the prosperous times decorate them."
Suddenly, the already heated atmosphere in the audience reached another climax.
The hand that Lu You raised high was suddenly held by someone, and he felt a cold touch on the middle finger of his left hand.
In the camera, Xie Yunjun had kneeled on one knee at some point. The young man, with his forehead wet with sweat, lowered his eyes and slowly pushed a ring onto the other person's finger. On his left middle finger, he was wearing an identical couple's ring.
Lu You seemed to have expected this. She tilted her head, took off the pendant from her neck, and blinked: "Why don't you put the other one here?"
Xie Yunjun stood up and kissed her fingertips, saying in a gentle voice: "I was originally planning to do this, but I don't want to give you the opportunity to hesitate. I won't let you wear it when you receive the award. Maybe I don't want to wait any longer."
Lu You looked at the ring reflecting the colorful light, raised his head and kissed Xie Yunjun on the chin: "Stamp!"
"Also, Xie Yunjun, congratulations on winning the Olympic championship."
Xie Yunjun held her hand and said, "Congratulations to you too. You have realized the dream in your diary."
Lu You was stunned for a moment, then his eyes widened: "You peeked at the girl's diary! I clearly locked it!"
Just as she was about to say something, Cavila and Erica, who had had enough of the dog food, laughed and shouted, "You two! Even though you are the last to appear, you still have to share the points!"
Lu You and Xie Yunjun looked at each other and both laughed. They clasped their hands with wedding rings and walked towards Kiss and Cry together, surrounded by their coaches.
The referee's score had already been announced. As soon as Lu You and Xie Yunjun sat down on the stools, the final score appeared on the big screen.
You Lu/Yunjun Xie【中】
Short program score: 86.64 (WR)
Free Skate Score: 163.37 (WR)
Total score: 250.01
Although victory was already in their grasp, the Chinese ice fans in the audience couldn't help but jump up the moment they saw the score. Lu Tingsong's tears couldn't stop flowing from his eyes, and the man in his forties hugged Lu You and Xie Yunjun into his arms.
After four years, the Olympic gold medal in pairs skating is once again hanging on the chest of a Chinese athlete!
We are Olympic champions!
At the award ceremony, the five-star red flag was once again slowly raised on the ice rink in Milan accompanied by the March of the Volunteers.
"Tonight, the stars are shining and the blood is burning. The younger generation of Chinese figure skating pairs has finally taken over the legacy of the veterans and fought hard to defend the glory of Chinese figure skating for the motherland."
"Lu You and Xie Yunjun, from their teens to their prime years, they have walked hand in hand through countless springs, summers, autumns and winters, and flown across the globe. They have gone from obscurity to the red carpet. At this moment, the princess and the knight have finally won the golden medal of honor that belongs to them, and let the five-star red flag bloom warmly and wantonly on this white ice rink."
As the explanation was being given, Xie Yunjun gently raised a corner of the five-star red flag. Lu You smiled and looked up, holding the flowers.
Under the national flag, a kiss fell.
You and I are draped in the national flag, and the bright red flag is the most beautiful veil in the world.
(End of full text)
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