Chapter 121, "Learning This Leap," bears a resemblance to Little Goose and Polina...
For various reasons, Yang Yiyan rarely won first place in the short program, especially when competing against Polina and Yumikawa Ria.
This time, with her coach's approval, Yang Yiyan attempted a triple A in the short program and successfully completed it, making her the only athlete in the entire Asian Winter Games women's singles competition to achieve a triple A in the short program.
Even if this 3A has flaws and is marked with "q" on the sub-score sheet, it does not affect its high base score of 8.5.
It is worth mentioning that, since the Asian Winter Games are only held among Asian countries, the judges who come to score are also of Asian nationality, with a maximum of two seats per country.
There are only a handful of athletes capable of competing for the podium, and there are often instances of judges vying for power on the score sheets, though not as exaggerated as in other competitions.
With Yang Yiyan's top technical score and the support of referees from mainland China and Hong Kong, she still managed to pull ahead of Yumikawa Ria by five points, even with two Japanese referees on the bench.
The situation is similar in men's singles. If nothing unexpected happens, Lin Ye, Feng Simai, and Fujiwara Yoshino will be vying for the podium, and the order is still undecided.
South Korea's Kim Do-woo is also eyeing the podium, and the South Korean referees are doing their best to get him on the podium.
He also mastered two different quadruple jumps, but his talent was not high enough, and those two quadruple jumps were enough to cause him to suffer from injuries. Even if there is no successor in the South Korean men's singles, he will have to retire after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
As for the other two events, pairs skating is not a problem at all, while ice dance is the best of the worst.
Overall, the four short programs allowed China to experience what it's like to be a figure skating powerhouse.
"Is your foot alright?"
Xia Yuezi watched as her two apprentices sat side by side on the bench, both wearing retainers on their right feet and suffering from varying degrees of strain.
Players who can master the Super C skill are more prone to injuries than other players. Even if Xia Yuezi adjusts their training plans based on her experience and makes them receive physical therapy on time, it can only delay the onset of injuries and give them an advantage in health among their peers.
But looking at them now, I have a feeling that they might not be able to keep this advantage for long.
Yang Yiyan skillfully picked up an ice pack and placed it on her ankle for a cold compress. There was a band-aid next to her thumb, and the area around it was chafed, but she didn't stop talking.
"It's okay, I'm sure I'll be fine in the free skate tomorrow. I can even cheer on the short track skaters in the stadium before I go on."
Feng Simai nodded in agreement, despite being a tall man, he now looked like Yang Yiyan's underling.
Xia Yuezi put one hand on her hip, glanced back and forth between them, and sighed helplessly: "You guys should stick to the original setup for the free skate. As long as you can stay clean, it'll be perfectly fine, especially Xiaoyan, did you hear me?"
She wasn't worried about Yumikawa Ria suddenly adding a 3A to her free skate. Since she didn't do it in the short program, it's very likely she won't do it in the riskier free skate either. What she was worried about was that if a low-probability event happened, this girl might impulsively change her own setup.
Yang Yiyan moved the ice pack to a different spot and asked, "I know, Coach. Do I look like that kind of person?"
The master and apprentice beside her glanced at her and said in unison, "They look alike!"
What Feng Simai really wanted to say was, "Have you done this kind of thing too many times?"
But because they were sitting too close, he was afraid Yang Yiyan would slap him. She wouldn't dare lay a hand on the coach, though; he wouldn't hold back against her, after all, an athlete's strength was no joke.
Fortunately, Coach Xia was still nearby, so Yang Yiyan just glared at him and didn't say anything more.
Xia Yuezi took in her apprentices' little actions and couldn't help but shake her head and laugh: "Alright, I still need to go check on Mengyi. You two get some rest, and remember to go see the therapist after you've finished applying the compress."
Zhang Mengyi's coach didn't come to this competition. It's said that one of the club's players had an accident during training, and he had to go and deal with it. Li Tan could only ask the coach, who is also from the Beijing team, to take extra care of her.
They can accompany her in daily life, but when it comes to the scoring zone, only the players and their nominal coaches can sit there, so they can only wait outside the scoring zone.
Fortunately, this incident did not affect Zhang Mengyi's performance. She ranked fifth in the short program, and the score difference between her and the top two contestants was not particularly large.
If this were done according to the headline-writing habits of domestic media, phrases like "aiming for the podium" would probably have come up.
However, fans familiar with the sport know that although Zhang Erjie still has combinations like 3LZ+3T, her previous excessive dieting has really taken a toll on her health, and with her age, she almost never does 3LZ+3T combinations in her free skate now.
In other words, she was several levels below the South Korean and Kazakhstani competitors in terms of difficulty, and had almost no chance of standing on the podium.
However, these factors did not affect the attention Chinese sports fans paid to the Asian Winter Games. As soon as the women's singles free skate began, CCTV immediately switched to live broadcast. Many parents of athletes turned on their TVs at the designated time and immediately saw Team China being shown in close-up on the viewing area.
Athletes and coaches in team uniforms stood in two rows, each waving a national flag. Some sharp-eyed ice skating fans noticed that He Jiayun, who had just won a silver medal at the Asian Winter Games, was wearing a yellow five-pointed star hair clip.
No matter how you look at it, this scene warmed the hearts of ice skating fans, and the performance of the skaters on the ice was even more heartwarming.
The Kazakhstani skater was the youngest in the last group, and she was also quite petite. In the words of figure skating fans, she was "the chosen one."
No one expected that she would attempt a 3A on her first free skate jump without having launched a satellite into the competition.
Although it was a two-footed landing and the number of rotations was missing, it was still a genuine 3A.
Meng Xin stroked her chin and hissed, "Why does this jumping motion look a little familiar?"
It's unlikely that she accompanied Yang Yiyan to practice 3A and, after watching her practice so much, started to think that every move looked somewhat similar to hers.
Xia Yuezi didn't show any extra emotion and explained, "No, her jump was somewhat imitating Polina and Xiaoyan."
Polina's 3A involves forcefully swinging her arms, jumping with the same force, and then raising her arms overhead to maintain her balance, giving the impression that she is swinging the jump.
As her body grew larger during puberty, this feeling became more pronounced, but her core and tightness remained quite good.
Xia Yuezi has always felt that, given that no Russian women's singles player had broken out of the 3A pattern before her, her 3A pattern might have been based on Russian men's singles and Japanese women's singles. However, they all followed a power-based style, which did not quite fit Polina's own path, which is why her 3A pattern was sometimes effective and sometimes not.
Yang Yiyan's 3A is a very typical speed-based style. Even though her weight and height have increased and her speed is not as fast as before, Xia Yuezi is constantly helping her improve her physical fitness and strength, at least ensuring that her jump height is not lower than 45 centimeters, otherwise it would be difficult for her to complete the full number of rotations.
This Kazakhstani athlete's 3A clearly follows a speed-based style, but her tightening and pivot point are comparable to Polina's.
Xia Yuezi smiled, not thinking it was a bad thing. The fact that some contestants were willing to refer to the techniques of Chinese contestants showed that they recognized and believed the techniques were helpful.
This is entirely beneficial for Chinese figure skating and for the long-term development of the sport, just like how a bunch of female singles skaters used to come and learn the spinning techniques from Chinese female singles skaters.
Kazakhstan's athlete also became the biggest dark horse in the women's singles event at the Asian Winter Games, as she almost pulled Yumikawa Ria, who had fallen 310, to the bronze medal position.
If it weren't for the fact that Yumikawa Ria's original program content and treatment were already set in stone, and the two Japanese judges hadn't intervened, the color of their medals would have been hard to predict. Yumikawa Ria even received a lot of criticism from Kazakhstani figure skating fans.
However, after the Asian Winter Games, some technically-minded ice skating fans compared the videos of the two skaters and found that the Kazakh skater missed several jumps that were marked, while Yumikawa Ria's jumps were not low in difficulty. In the end, the technical scores of the free skate were about two points apart.
Taking into account the scores of the two athletes' short programs, the final scores may be reduced, but the rankings will not change.
This video essentially cleared Yumikawa Ria's name.
However, the biggest winner in the figure skating events at this Asian Winter Games is probably the Chinese Skating Association.
Apart from the men's singles, they won gold medals in all other events, and also won silver and bronze medals in the men's singles. The Mede Skating Federation issued five announcements on its official website.
However, the coaches and athletes are the ones who suffer, because they all received quotas from the Skating Association before heading to the World Championships.
Men's singles, women's singles, and pairs are all aiming for the maximum number of spots, while ice dance only needs to secure one.
The Skating Federation stated that since these three events were able to secure the maximum number of entries in the last World Championships, this year's World Championships should not be too different.
Xia Yuezi was so angry she laughed when she received the notification. In the last World Championships, they were lucky. There weren't many strong opponents, their own players were in good physical condition, and no one messed up and caused a big incident on the field.
What about this World Championships?
Knowing that this competition is related to Olympic qualification, athletes will fight to the death, even with painkillers, unless their injuries are so serious that they can't go on the ice.
Their athletes have just gone through a fierce battle and desperately need to replenish their strength. Several of them have also aggravated their injuries during the preparation period. It is hard to say whether they can perform at 80% of their Asian Winter Games level.
Thinking of this, Xia Yuezi glanced back at Yang Yiyan, who was bandaging her ankle to stabilize it. Yang Yiyan had recently been diagnosed with a sprained ankle ligament.
The team doctor not only reduced her training volume, but also secretly told Xia Yuezi to inform Yang Yiyan's parents in advance.
If I really can't make it through the World Championships, I might have to go into isolation therapy.
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