Chapter 48 Double 3A 200 Mark
When Xia Yuezi groggily opened her eyes in the morning, she felt dizzy and lightheaded. After realizing where she was, she reached out to touch the oxygen cylinder on the bedside table.
Altitude sickness spares no one, including coaches.
She went to bed late, and coupled with the high level of stress she experienced yesterday, it was to be expected that she would feel unwell today.
Xia Yuezi took out the altitude sickness medicine given to her by the team doctor, drank it with the warm water on the table, and sat on the edge of the bed watching the training video that Meng Xin had sent her last night. She decided to go out after she felt better.
She stood in the hallway and gently knocked on the door of the next room. Yang Yiyan was already awake, wearing sportswear, her long hair loose and still looking a little damp, probably from her morning workout at the hotel gym and a shower.
Another female contestant was sitting in the room with a breakfast for two that she had brought back from the restaurant in front of her.
Xia Yuezi didn't intend to come in, but just asked a few questions at the door: "How are you feeling today?"
Yang Yiyan's voice was still a little hoarse: "It's alright, at least my muscles didn't hurt that much when I was exercising just now."
After learning about it, Xia Yuezi reminded her, "Your mother cares about you a lot. If you have time before the free skate and music chorus, you can give her a call."
Yang Yiyan nodded, indicating that she understood.
Xia Yuezi noticed that the girl was in low spirits, so she didn't chat with her much. After giving her a few instructions, she paused and said, "Don't go out unless necessary today. Get some rest. If you feel unwell, go see the team doctor. Don't be stubborn."
Upon hearing the last sentence, Yang Yiyan finally smiled. She lifted her eyelids, leaned against the wall, and gazed leisurely at the coach, exuding a subtle air of nonchalance and a sense of closeness.
"Coach, what you said sounds just like my mom. She always says I'm stubborn to the extreme."
Xia Yuezi laughed in exasperation, cursed "ungrateful wretch," then gently slapped her on the head and pushed her back inside.
The lights in the corridor were a bit dazzling, so Xia Yuezi squinted, raised her hand to rub her throbbing temples, and returned to her room to continue dealing with her business.
On the day of the free skate competition, the audience attendance was only half of what it was in previous years, probably because even ice skating fans were unwilling to come to the high-altitude region.
Yang Yiyan has recovered from altitude sickness, but she still feels tightness in her chest if she engages in strenuous exercise during warm-up that causes oxygen deficiency.
Xia Yuezi stood to the side, occasionally observing the contestants from other countries in the room.
Some people with better physical fitness can recover before the free skate, just like Yang Yiyan; while some people with poorer physical fitness have to catch their breath after only a couple of jumps.
Most of the coaches looked grim, including some who had played in Salt Lake City during their active careers, and from the moment they entered the stadium, they were constantly radiating resentment towards the place.
The pairs figure skating competition will begin after the women's singles free skate. A Chinese pairs figure skating coach, carrying a large bag and followed by two children, entered the penultimate group, looking for a place to warm up and train.
When Xia Yuezi saw them, she took a step back to make room for the two contestants.
The pairs skating coach stood beside her and quietly asked, "Coach Xia, how is Xiaoyan doing?"
Xia Yuezi glanced at the two children without making a sound, and smiled somewhat reluctantly: "They're just so-so. But you two, I heard you threw up last night."
The pairs skating coach had a wry smile on his face: "That's right. We were up until the middle of the night last night, and in the end, we had to get Dr. Li to prescribe some medicine to finally get her to sleep."
Xia Yuezi sighed. There was nothing she could do to help the coach, so she could only tell him to try to think more positively.
Not long after, a staff member stood at the door and knocked, asking the last group of women's singles players to gather in the corridor in English to prepare for their sixth practice session.
Xia Yuezi stood by the backstage entrance and saw the athlete who had just finished the competition kneeling on the ground, leaning on the shoulder of the coach who was squatting down. His lips were cyanotic, and cold sweat was sliding down his hair from his forehead. He was breathing heavily and taking in oxygen.
She gripped the oxygen cylinder tightly, her gaze fixed on the ice rink with a complex mix of emotions.
Yang Yiyan was clearly in the game, and her first dive was a 3A. Her biggest competitor, Polina, followed closely behind and also did a 3A.
Two figures passed each other on the ice, leaving sharp marks like those left by ice skates swiftly gliding across the surface.
Xia Yuezi's fingers unconsciously dug into her palms. After seeing Yang Yiyan, she jumped a few times, seemingly adjusting her breathing rhythm.
The announcement signaled the end of practice session six, and the remaining five skaters left the rink. Xia Yuezi, standing at the exit, immediately handed Yang Yiyan an oxygen cylinder.
Yang Yiyan's face flushed, but her breathing rate remained normal, and she was in better condition than after the sixth rehearsal for the short program.
When Yang Yiyan took the oxygen cylinder, her fingers touched Xia Yuezi's. She felt the girl's fingertips were slightly cool, and when she reached out to pull her closer, she found her palms were burning hot and sweaty.
Xia Yuezi took out a hand warmer from her pocket and put it in Yang Yiyan's hand, then silently put it in her pocket.
Yang Yiyan stood in the aisle, constantly pounding her thigh muscles. An English announcement came over the loudspeaker, accompanied by applause from the audience.
"It's our turn," Xia Yuezi said softly, taking the coat that Yang Yiyan had taken off.
Yang Yiyan stood at the entrance, holding her breath as she skated towards the ice rink, her black skating vest flashing. Xia Yuezi stood behind the barrier, hearing the sporadic cheers from the audience behind her, a smile appearing on her lips.
As the music began, Yang Yiyan glided out quickly, and when she reached a certain musical point, Xia Yuezi couldn't help but stand on her tiptoes.
This jump was a 3A+2T, and it was a jump that Yang Yiyan herself suggested practicing after the finals.
In the last finals, Polina's double 3A setup served as a wake-up call for the coach and his student – even though there aren't many women's singles players who can do 3A now, it doesn't mean that Yang Yiyan's current program setup is very competitive.
While a consistent 3A jumper certainly has some initiative and can make up for a loss of jumps when there is a mistake in the basic triple jump, judges still tend to prefer athletes from established powerhouses among athletes of the same level.
This is also the main reason why figure skating events have become so incredibly difficult in later generations.
During Xia Yuezi's era, there was a group of female singles athletes with extremely high difficulty levels on paper, and quite a few of them even combined quadruple jumps and triple A jumps.
Due to unfair scoring, they were forced to use more technically difficult techniques to achieve higher rankings, resulting in many athletes ruining their careers by the age of thirteen or fourteen.
Even so, only a small percentage of the contestants can truly achieve perfection, but as long as they can clean up even one match, they can stand on the podium.
Just like the current male singles players, they desperately cram four quadruple jumps into two programs, but after a season, the probability of them being clean is very low.
The second jump was a triple A, and Xia Yuezi counted the rhythm in her mind, watching the ice intently. When she saw her land again, she couldn't help but jump up and applaud.
"good!"
Sidorov stood behind the barrier, his face so dark it looked like it could rain at any moment. He looked at Polina beside him, wanting to say something, but he couldn't bear to put pressure on her.
After spending these past few years together, he also realized that his student's ability to withstand pressure was not very strong, and he could easily be overwhelmed if he wasn't careful.
He believed that Yang Yiyan's performance just now had already made Polina feel nervous.
Vampires have endless vitality, but Yang Yiyan's physical endurance is limited. After two A jumps, Yang Yiyan entered a spin and turned the third jump into a 3S, trying to give herself as much time as possible to cushion the numbness in her thighs.
As the race progressed into the second half, Yang Yiyan's speed gradually decreased. Xia Yuezi noticed this and her heart clenched.
"Hang in there, three sets of exercises left..." she murmured.
The ice skates made a crisp sound as they hit the ice; this was her final jump.
When landing on the ice, Yang Yiyan's center of gravity shifted backward, seemingly about to land on her buttocks. However, she managed to stabilize the jump by using her thigh muscles and knees to squat down when her buttocks and knees were level.
"Yes!" Xia Yuezi shouted, tears welling up in her eyes.
She had skated on this ice rink before, so she naturally knew how difficult it must have been for Yang Yiyan to achieve this level of skill.
As the music drew to a close, Yang Yiyan's physical strength reached its limit. Every breath she took squeezed out the last bit of oxygen in her lungs, and she made a rare mistake on the last set of rotations.
After barely completing the entire program, Yang Yiyan could no longer hold on. After finishing the ending, she lay on the ice, supporting her upper body with her hands, her head against the ice, her chest heaving violently.
Applause erupted from the stands, and toys rained down onto the ice rink.
Yang Yiyan took a few deep breaths, then stood up shakily and bowed to the surroundings of the ice rink in thanks.
She placed her hands on her knees and slid off the track with the momentum. Apart from heavy breathing, she had a smile on her face and opened her arms as if she wanted a hug. However, she did not expect that her coach would burst into tears instead.
Xia Yuezi shoved the oxygen cylinder into Yang Yiyan's face, stopping her from saying what she was about to say. But the little girl seemed busy; she held the oxygen cylinder in one hand and pulled a tissue from the partition with the other to wipe the coach's tears.
Yang Yiyan took a breath and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Coach, please don't cry. If you keep crying, I'll start crying too."
Xia Yuezi was so taken aback by the girl's words that she raised her hand to punish her, but seeing the sweat on the girl's forehead and the tears in her eyes, she changed her mind and hugged her instead.
Yang Yiyan was very well-behaved this time, putting on her jacket on her own and pulling the coach, who was still catching his breath, towards the waiting area.
Xia Yuezi cried so much that she was a little short of breath. In the camera shots of the waiting area, there was only Yang Yiyan, but she was not lonely. She tilted her head, pouted and acted cute at the coach standing to the side, and even stretched out her hand to make half a heart.
Many European and American coaches and spectators standing nearby were charmed by this scene, and the score was announced at that moment.
With a technical score of 77.82, a program component score of 57.66, a free skate score of 135.68, and a total score of 199.36, he is currently in first place.
This score is almost six points ahead of the next player, and it is also the closest score to the 200 mark among Chinese female singles players.
It's important to know that this score was given based on the P-point system for the youth group. If it were for the adult group, it would definitely have broken the 200 mark.
Before the fans outside the screen could even rejoice, they heard another faint sobbing sound coming from the live stream. Looking up, they saw Yang Yiyan talking to her left.
Many figure skating fans couldn't help but laugh and started discussing the coach on the forum, which was a rare occurrence for them. Xia Yuezi seemed to have never expected that she would leave an impression on the fans in this way.
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