Chapter 41 Dog Lovers: Girls Who Like Dogs Aren't Always Very Lucky...
In the training hall, Yang Yiyan sat on a chair, tied her shoelaces, and then wrapped a circle of plastic tape around the upper of her shoe. She moved her ankles to check the tightness before going onto the ice.
Polina had already performed two triple Aces on the ice, the thunderous sound of which made one's knees ache just to hear it.
Sidorov stood behind the barrier, smiling as he stroked the teddy bear that kept peeking out of his arms.
Most Russian athletes have a habit of keeping pets. When competing on home soil, they bring their cats and dogs to the venue and hand them over to their coaches or family members in the stands before going on the ice.
Polina slid back to the barrier, turned on the tap to drink water, and reached out to touch the puppy's chin.
At that moment, the same thunderous sound came from behind. Like Polina, Yang Yiyan also landed a 3A. She twisted her ankle slightly and jumped to the side in a 3Lo quadruple jump.
Sidorov's smile faded, replaced by a serious expression. In just two months, the Chinese girl's progress had been so remarkable that it was impossible to ignore.
The four girls who also made it to the finals all looked over there, their expressions tense.
After skating a lap along with the program's pace, Yang Yiyan returned to her coach and put on the heart rate monitor on her wrist, which showed that her average heart rate reached 160.
"Your heart rate is a little high, take it easy for now."
Xia Yuezi handed over the thermos, and warm steam rose up, but her gaze swept over the other contestants through Yang Yiyan's back.
The pre-match music time on the day of the competition was only one hour, and the first matches in the afternoon were the men's and women's singles in the youth group.
When Yang Yiyan was waiting backstage to finish clearing the ice before going on stage, she happened to see Polina holding a teddy bear. She greeted her very kindly and generously let her pet the puppy in her arms.
Polina is a well-known dog lover with about five or six dogs at home. She recently posted a video of herself walking her dogs on ice skates, but ended up being walked by her own sled dogs instead.
Yang Yiyan has a golden retriever at home, and she has no resistance to fluffy dogs. After confirming that it wouldn't bite, she reached out and stroked its head.
This teddy bear was well-trained and showed no hostility towards Yang Yiyan; it even nuzzled her hand with its chin.
Xia Yuezi laughed from the side, "If you like it so much, after the competition ends and you return to China, I'll have your golden retriever play with you."
"Coach, please don't mention it. My mom treats it better than me. Every time I come home, it doesn't come to greet me. It just lies at my mom's feet wagging its tail. It only gives me a nice look when I feed it bones."
That's what she said, but there was no dissatisfaction in Yang Yiyan's tone; on the contrary, it was somewhat indulgent.
An English announcement came over the loudspeaker, reminding the six youth women's singles players to prepare for their sixth practice session.
Yang Yiyan was the only Asian in this competition, while Russian athletes made up half of the field, including two who had just been promoted this year.
Besides the Chinese athletes who weren't competing, there was also Yumikawa Ria in her casual clothes in the stands. She found a relatively quiet corner and silently watched the girls on the field.
This newly promoted player will face a group of top female singles players tomorrow, including her senior, Shirai Nanako. However, she showed no nervousness and instead calmly observed Yang Yiyan.
Yang Yiyan tried a 2A jump, and then followed up with a 3A jump. After receiving a glare from the coach after the barrier was lifted, she silently switched to other footwork and jumps.
Seeing the successful triple A, Yumikawa Ria was not surprised at all. She said to her coach, "This girl is getting better and better."
Ms. Chishima nodded: "When I watched the Italian Grand Prix, I thought she wouldn't make it to the finals. I didn't expect her to be able to hold her own in the free skate. She has the mental qualities to be a major competition skater."
After the sixth practice session, the other five athletes left the ice, but Yang Yiyan remained on the ice.
As the last contestant to enter the finals, she will be the first to perform.
Yang Yiyan ran her hand over her head to her hair, which was tied up with a blue and white hair tie, and jumped a little before entering the ice rink, as if getting used to the ice.
She raised her left hand to her chest and put her other hand behind her back, assuming a one-finger Zen pose in preparation.
A deep, resonant piano melody filled the air. Yang Yiyan stood still, circled her other leg, and then glided to the right, forming a large "I" shape with the audience. With a light touch of her skate blade, she landed a powerful 2A.
The sound of ice skates hitting the ice blended with the cymbal sounds of music, followed by a clapper-like sound, much like the background music that plays before a great hero is about to appear in a Chinese martial arts film.
Yang Yiyan accelerated her gliding speed with the gradually increasing speed of the nodes and easily landed on the ice at 3F.
This selected piece incorporates many instruments unique to China. Yang Yiyan steps to the drumbeats that appear later, enters the side swallow with a twisting step, then changes her posture to the back swallow donut posture, and finally gradually pulls her legs over her head from a front squat turn, forming the I-shaped turn commonly seen in women's singles.
Xia Yuezi discovered that this girl was very flexible; when she did an I-shaped spin, she could even make her head and thighs touch. As long as the spin speed was fast enough, she could be a spinning top on ice.
The coach from Heilongjiang Province, who was sitting in the stands, also noticed this. He glanced silently at Lin Ye sitting next to him, wondering where the problem lay.
The spin of Chinese women's singles is clearly among the best in the world, no worse than that of Switzerland, so why is it not as good in men's singles?
He glanced at Coach Xia standing by the barrier and felt that he couldn't generalize, after all, there was also Feng Simai, whose spinning footwork was no worse than that of the women's singles players.
Lin Ye sat there quietly, enjoying the performance, completely oblivious to the coach's inner thoughts; otherwise, he would have surely thrown a tantrum in front of him.
Yang Yiyan's last set of jumps was 3lz+3lo, and after she successfully completed it, a round of applause erupted from the stands.
This time, she was in top form, and with the music gradually softening in the second half, she slowly revealed the inner world of the female knight-errant, letting the world see that they too can be both tough and tender.
Yang Yiyan was completely immersed in the music, her posture was exceptionally graceful, and she displayed excellent ballet skills. One of the female judges gave her a score of over 28 points.
However, the final score presented for the program content is the average score after removing the highest and lowest scores. With the debuffs of nationality and being the first to appear, Yang Yiyan was mentally prepared for the results.
The short program score was 65.97.
If the referee had been a little more lenient, the score could have easily reached 66 points.
Looking at the scores on the big screen, Xia Yuezi barely managed to suppress the urge to roll her eyes and gave Yang Yiyan a hug: "The judges' trick of lowering scores is an old one. You can't really differentiate scores in short programs."
"I know, I'm used to it after competing so many times."
The next two to compete were both Russian newcomers. They performed a 3LZ+3T jump, which was placed in the first half of the routine. However, they did not outperform Yang Yiyan in terms of technical score.
The third to last to perform was Alisa, an old friend as well.
Alisa's jumps were still in good shape. She probably didn't twist properly during the 3LZ single jump and fell. She quickly got up, glanced at the barrier, and then continued her performance.
Xia Yuezi glanced at the first-place platform and met Yang Yiyan's gaze. Yang Yiyan even smiled at her.
Throughout the match, besides Polina, Xia Yuezi was most focused on Vivian from Canada.
Technically, she is impeccable. Her skating spins, while not perfect, are above average in women's singles. In addition, her Canadian citizenship helped her win two world championships after moving up to the senior level.
Many figure skating fans felt sorry for her because she missed the Sochi Winter Olympics due to her age; otherwise, it's hard to say who would have been the last three athletes standing on the podium.
Vivian's performance was very consistent, managing to squeeze 3LZ+3T into the second half, and her short program score reached 66.
Polina was the last to take the ice. When she appeared on the ice, the whole stadium erupted in enthusiastic applause. As the ace of the Russian junior team and competing on home ice, her popularity was undeniable.
Yang Yiyan had already come down from the platform, holding a thermos in her hand, gently stroking it with her fingers, her gaze fixed on the figure on the ice, just like the coach's.
Polina's short program featured a folk song that is very popular in Russia. The music is grand and majestic, which fits the stereotype of the Russian people as tough.
She started with a 2A, raising both hands above her head, creating such a strong sense of suspension that it looked like a 3A.
Xia Yuezi's expression was serious as she whispered to Yang Yiyan, "Her control over 3A has improved."
Only by fully mastering 3A can one jump 2A so skillfully and with such ease.
Yang Yiyan didn't speak, she just nodded slightly.
Polina seemed to be encouraged by the home crowd, and her spins and glides were better than before, with near-perfect posture control.
Polina unsurprisingly won first place in the short program, but her score was less than two points different from Yang Yiyan's.
After stepping down from the podium with her small medal, Yang Yiyan didn't show much emotion on her face. Xia Yuezi knew her student well; she didn't seem to care about the score difference in the short program and believed she could catch up in the free skate.
Back at the hotel, Xia Yuezi carefully examined her ice skates and stuffed something into the uppers of the new skates to stretch them out as much as possible.
Yang Yiyan sat to the side, tapping on her phone and occasionally letting out a few laughs.
Xia Yuezi put down her ice skates and walked over curiously, only to find that it was a video of a golden retriever that her mother had just sent.
“I told my mom I missed DouDou, and she sent me a video of it eating last night. My mom also said that it kept looking at the gold medal I won yesterday,” Yang Yiyan explained to her coach.
Xia Yuezi looked at the golden retriever grinning in the video and casually placed her hand on Yang Yiyan's shoulder.
"This means the little golden retriever is sending you blessings, wishing you a good result in your free skate."
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