Chapter 31: An Invitation to Perform Ice Sports in Japan?
All three players on the men's singles podium will be promoted to a higher group next season.
Fujiwara Yoshino won the World Junior Championships gold medal before being promoted to the junior division, bringing a perfect end to his junior division career.
Feng Simai was a substitute player last year, but this year he has stepped onto the stage of the World Youth Championship. Most importantly, he stepped on Andrei's head.
Although he might not have won the silver medal if the other athletes in the short program hadn't performed so poorly, sports competitions are always a combination of strength, hard work, and luck, and he doesn't think he deserved the medal.
Although Andre was scolded by his coach, he is still a Grand Slam winner in the junior group. With this title, his mistakes in this match don't seem so regrettable.
The three children came down from the podium and went straight to their coach. Feng Simai took off the silver medal around his neck and stared intently at his coach.
Xia Yuezi understood, smiled and lowered her head, letting Feng Simai put the silver medal on her.
Meng Xin wasn't jealous and stood by, recording the moment with her phone.
She joined later, and the training plan was usually formulated by Xia Yuezi before she implemented it. If she had to choose, she would give it to Xia Yuezi first.
However, Feng Simai, despite his young age, had already learned the art of diplomacy. After giving the medal to Coach Xia, he handed the bouquet to Coach Meng and asked Coach Yamada next door to take a picture of them.
Coach Yamada counted down the time in English with his Japanese accent, watching the young Chinese man on the screen arm in arm with his two coaches, and smiled brightly.
In Beijing, Li Tan turned on the television and switched the channel from Channel 8 (Drama Channel) to Channel 5 (Sports Channel), which was rebroadcasting this year's World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
CCTV rarely broadcasts niche sports, but this time it was because Chinese athletes performed well at the World Junior Championships, and there are really no popular competitions right now, so figure skating was included on Channel 5.
Zhao Shuhua walked over with fruit, watching the pairs figure skating competition being replayed on TV, and muttered to her husband, "After the World Championships, Yao Ming and the others are going to retire. Lu Yi has really pushed the two kids this time."
Li Tan sighed, touching his hair and feeling that his hairline had receded a few centimeters again: "There's nothing we can do about it. If our national youth team had done a better job, we wouldn't have to put all the pressure on the youth group."
The development of talent pools in China is an old problem. As soon as a promising player emerges, they are used like donkeys in a production team. Only when that donkey is injured or old do they start looking for a new one.
The veteran pairs figure skaters carried the team through three Olympic cycles until they couldn't take it anymore. Only then did the authorities turn their attention to other skaters and suddenly realize that there was no one in the senior group who could take over. That's why Cao Lu and his partner were urgently promoted to the next level.
The same situation applies to singles skating, but after Lu Ying retired, Jiang Shuyu was left to fill the gap in women's singles. Men's singles had been relatively unremarkable until recently when they finally saw some hope in the junior group.
As for ice dance, it goes without saying that the senior and junior groups are equally bad, and the talent pool is the smallest among the four disciplines.
Zhao Shuhua understood this principle, but her face showed even more worry: "But then again, let alone us, looking at the whole world, I can count the number of countries that can truly do a good job in building a talent pool in figure skating on one hand."
Building a talent pool requires not only time and resources for training, but more importantly, it requires people. If no one is willing to come, no matter how much funding is approved from above, it will be useless.
The most typical examples are Japan and South Korea.
Although Sung Eun-hee and Shirai Nanako were at their peak during the Vancouver cycle, introducing a group of young children to the sport and stimulating the domestic figure skating market, Japan had already won the women's singles title at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, bringing considerable shock to Japan.
Japanese athletes, including Yumikawa Ria, have admitted that although they had been exposed to the sport before, they only made up their minds to become athletes after watching the Turin Winter Olympics.
So far, however, China has not yet produced a top-tier player capable of driving the development of domestic projects.
"Forget about that, let's not talk about it anymore. Have you gotten your ISU-level referee certificate yet?"
Li Tan pinched his brow, pretending to have a headache, then turned his head and saw Zhao Shuhua smiling. He thought of the referee exam Zhao Shuhua had taken in July.
ISU-level judges are the highest level in figure skating competitions and can officiate all figure skating events. Zhao Shuhua was previously an international-level judge in all four figure skating disciplines, but she could only officiate events below the A-level and the Grand Prix for junior and senior groups. In addition, she also passed the technical supervisor exam.
Zhao Shuhua, biting into an apple, glanced at him sideways: "You finally remembered to congratulate me. These past few days, all I've seen you do is call South Korea to congratulate me."
Sensing something was off, Li Tan quickly apologized and said he would cook more dishes to celebrate that night.
Zhao Shuhua looked at the children on TV, concealing the sorrow in her eyes. She would be able to see Chinese players in the A-level competition next season.
But she also understood that achieving fairness on the field was as difficult as achieving world peace. The power to decide on the field always rested in the hands of a few countries, and even if she were on the referee's bench, she couldn't do much to help.
She can only score with a fair mind and without bias.
Before the start of the World Junior Championships exhibition skaters, the Korean Skating Association issued a statement on Twitter acknowledging that there were indeed improper transactions between coach Kim Min-eun and the referees, revoking his lifetime coaching license and blacklisting him.
The report also pointed out several referees and the parents of the contestants involved, with Choi Yoon-seo being the first on the list. The report concluded with a statement from most of the relevant government agencies: "Thank you for your attention. Further investigation results will be released promptly."
But anyone familiar with this tactic knows that announcements containing such statements rarely have any follow-up investigation results.
When Xia Yuezi saw the statement, she was actually quite satisfied. Despite the statement's fair and impartial wording, Han Xie probably cursed the meddlesome reporters and whistleblowers countless times in his heart.
However, they have suffered a significant blow this time, as the list includes many referees and players under training, as well as many officials from the Korean Association. Xia Yuezi decided not to dwell on the Korean Association's petty motives.
The attendance at the World Junior Championships exhibition skating event was not as high as that at the Grand Prix Finals. Most people still believe that the performance skills of the junior skaters are not yet mature, but this does not hinder the social interaction between athletes from different countries.
The number of participants in the finals is not as large as in the World Youth Championships, so you can actually see very few big names. However, the World Youth Championships brings together players from most countries, and some people you only hear about in sports news will also appear here.
The coaches with a bit of fame will take their kids to other well-known coaches to show their faces. Maybe one day when they go out for training or transfer to another team, they will become students of these coaches. If they are lucky, they may even get some ice performances or something.
It was at this time that Ms. Chishima from Japan extended an invitation to Xia Yuezi to perform on ice.
There are three main players in the global ice performance market: Russia, the United States, and Japan.
Russia has abundant ice and snow resources, and ice sports have always been well-known and popular in the country.
The development of the ice show market in the United States is comparable to the rise of marketing accounts.
It is said that before the 1998 Winter Olympics, two American figure skating stars had a major feud, which even led to an incident where an athlete deliberately broke his leg. The United States went to great lengths to promote the feud between the two athletes before the Winter Olympics, which made the viewership of the Winter Olympics day surpass that of the Super Bowl, and caused great resentment within the International Skating Union.
The athlete with the leg injury ultimately won the silver medal and performed a face-changing act at the awards ceremony. However, the incident was so sensational that it directly led to a golden age of ice shows in North America for more than a decade.
Japan has a huge ice show market due to the large number of housewives with both leisure and money. It is on par with the United States and Russia now and will continue to be so for a long time to come, and may even surpass the United States.
Ms. Qiandao smiled warmly at Xia Yuezi and the two children behind her.
Japan has two main ice shows, each with a famous Japanese figure skater serving as the permanent seat captain.
The so-called "seat leader" is simply the main leader of the ice show. After the ice show ends, the seat leader can receive a portion of the ice show's profits.
Ms. Chishima's student, Nanako Shirai, is one of the chairpersons. After the World Junior Championships, Ms. Chishima asked her for her opinion. While preparing for the World Championships, Ms. Shirai also watched this year's World Junior Championships and was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the two Chinese athletes. She said that she was willing to offer the highest price for the junior group athletes.
There are many benefits to participating in ice shows. The most direct benefits are money and fame. At the same time, there are potential brands that want to hire athletes to endorse their products at ice shows.
Xia Yuezi looked down at the two children and said in Japanese, "I am not the guardian of these two children. You will have to ask their parents for details."
Ms. Chishima expressed her understanding and exchanged contact information with Xia Yuezi.
Although the youth group's performance skating wasn't as sophisticated as the adult group's, it was more fun, and many skaters, like Yang Yiyan, wore costumes of their favorite characters.
The most typical example is the Japanese athletes, who all dressed up as characters from One Piece on the ice.
When Fujiwara Yoshino, wearing a straw hat, led the other male skaters onto the ice, Xia Yuezi's eyes widened. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that one of the ice dancers was dressed as Chopper.
However, the Japanese players probably didn't get along, because the female players who came on stage later wore magical girl battle outfits. Yumikawa Ria wore a golden wig, put one hand on her hip and made a peace sign, which awakened the childhood memories of many Asian children, and the cheers from the sidelines grew louder and louder.
During the group dance, Yang Yiyan and Feng Simai went on stage together. Both of them chose American elements for their performance skating, and their ice popping drew cheers and attracted the attention of American skaters.
Nina's veil was also white. She slowly glided forward with Yang Yiyan in her arms. Yang Yiyan's veil fluttered up, covering their heads. In the dim light, they looked like two runaway brides from afar, leaving the two male singles players standing there in awe.
Many ice hockey fans jokingly refer to this scene as "Victor being abandoned by Emily and his fiancée".
Xia Yuezi stood outside the barrier, watching the harmonious scene before her. Suddenly, her phone vibrated a few times. She took it out and saw that it was a message from Yang's mother.
"I can go to the ice show, but I also have to bring my summer homework with me."
Ms. Qiandao's ice show invitation was in July. By then, Feng Simai had finished her middle school entrance exam and could go to Japan to have fun, but Yang Yiyan was about to begin her long journey of middle school entrance exams.
Xia Yuezi suppressed a laugh and looked at the ice rink. Xiao Yan was still helping Nina adjust her skirt, her face beaming with a happy smile, completely unaware of what she was about to experience.
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