Chapter 72 Encirclement and Suppression of Our Fifth?
The team competition officially kicked off at 7:30 pm Sochi time on February 6th.
In winter, Sochi time is five hours behind Beijing time. In addition, during the Chinese New Year, many ice hockey fans stay at home and have plenty of time to watch TV. Besides, some viewers who are particularly interested in sports also tune in to CCTV-5.
The Winter Olympics is one of the events that CCTV will definitely broadcast. This grand event has just begun, and China's medal-winning opportunities have not yet started. CCTV can only select some events with relatively good results to broadcast, and figure skating just happened to be in this gap.
Countries that can participate in the team competition all have some ambition. Sending their strongest athletes to the short program can both boost their scores and conserve their energy.
Before submitting the roster, Li Tan had discussed with several coaches who should lead the team.
The two Chinese men's singles skaters are roughly equal in strength. Initially, they wanted Lin Ye to skate in the short program. Although his 4S success rate is not high, he has already mastered 4T+3T. If he can clean it, he might be able to break into the top three in the men's singles rankings. Feng Simai, although his difficulty level is not as high, has the advantage of good consistency, and his chances of cleaning it in the free skate are higher.
The problem is that Feng Simai's physical fitness is not good. If he wants to participate in the team free skate, it means that he has to make a choice between the individual and team events.
Xia Yuezi also asked Feng Simai for his opinion. With his strength, if he performs well, he can challenge for the top ten in the individual competition at the Olympics.
However, Feng Simai was optimistic. Since he couldn't stand on the podium in the individual competition no matter what, he might as well give it his all in the team competition and gladly accepted the coaching staff's arrangement.
Not only did the coaches have a meeting, but the players also had one before the draw, and they selected the player with the best draw luck to represent the whole team in the draw.
Before Cao Jinhui went on stage to draw lots, Li Tan gave her a small brocade pouch, saying it had been blessed at a temple, and told her to put it in her pocket so she could get a good lot.
I don't know if it's because Cao Jinhui is lucky or the lucky charm works, but so far the order of appearance she's drawn has been pretty good.
The men's singles event was the first match of the team competition. The ten players were divided into two groups, and the Chinese player was the third to appear in the second group.
After the camera panned to Lin Ye's entrance, it also captured shots of other Chinese athletes.
Unlike other competitions, ten platforms were set up in the venue's corridors, with the English names of the participating countries for the team competition. Athletes who were not competing temporarily would rest here, holding up their national flags or Winter Olympics mascots to cheer on their teammates.
Xia Yuezi and several coaches stood in the last row and whispered in Song Qiao's ear, "Does Lin Ye still want to use 4T+3T?"
Song Qiao nodded: "He has used this short program configuration before, and the success rate is relatively high. Even if he falls, the final score of this combination jump is higher than the triple combination jump placed in the second half. It should be no problem to secure a top-five finish."
The men's singles competition has concluded one round, with France's Antoni currently ranked first. The next round features four men's singles players who can perform quadruple jumps, the only one who cannot is Russia's Makar.
He landed a 3A smoothly, then watched as Wayne next to him lifted his foot and jumped a 4T, while the young Chinese athlete in the distance was checking if there was enough space to jump on the ice.
Before the competition, Russia confirmed that Dawer would not participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics. The Russian Ice Hockey Federation looked at the three people who had secured Olympic spots and immediately fell silent.
The strongest of the three is Andrei, who has already mastered the quadruple jump. However, he is still young and his mentality is not stable enough. He could be given a chance to shine at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but there are more than ten men who can jump quadruple at the Sochi Winter Olympics, including many veterans who are already very proficient in all aspects.
If they don't make mistakes, it will be almost impossible for them to lift Andrei to the podium on home soil, so the Russian Ice Hockey Federation has shifted its focus from the individual competition to the team competition.
In the words of those old men, it's okay if we can't keep the men's singles gold medal, but we must win back the team gold medal.
After Makar Clean's program, the home advantage was immediately apparent in the cheers of the audience. The Russian stage was not far from China, and Xia Yuezi could clearly see several familiar contestants waving their national flags and cheering for him.
Following him was Japan's Yoshino Fujiwara. Japan has significant weaknesses in pairs and ice dance, making it difficult to even reach the finals. Therefore, he and Ria Yumikawa only participated in the short program as a warm-up.
Song Qiao massaged Lin Ye from the side, the muscles under his hands taut, completely revealing his current state of mind.
"Don't be nervous, just treat it like your usual training."
Lin Ye kept adjusting his breathing, handed his jacket and scabbard to the coach, and before going on the ice, he gently glided his skates a couple of times on the ice to calm his racing heart.
Each contestant has only 30 seconds to prepare; exceeding this limit will result in a deduction of one point from the total score. Lin Ye patted his chest and slowly began his preparation.
Lin Ye's short program featured a punk-style song, and his first technical move was a 4T+3T.
Seeing him begin to gather his strength, the entire Chinese team held their breath instantly, and Xia Yuezi couldn't help but clench her fists.
After landing the 4T, Lin Ye smoothly followed with the 3T, leaving an arc on the ice.
Song Qiao raised his arm and shouted, "It's done!"
The most difficult set of jumps was over, but the Chinese team still couldn't let their guard down. After all, everyone knew that for Lin Ye, the most difficult thing was never the jumps, but the spins and footwork.
Lin Ye did a small jump, stood on one foot on the ice, raised his free leg and positioned it in a side swallow shape parallel to the ice surface. The coaches standing in the last row counted the laps without making a mistake.
To prevent incorrect posture from resulting in insufficient rotations and the posture not being recognized, the spin coach during the training camp increased his rotation count to ten.
Xia Yuezi squinted at the ice for a while, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that Lin Ye's spins met the standards.
"Not bad, this set of spins is much better than before," Li Tan said softly, standing beside the platform.
As soon as he finished speaking, his total score was updated on the big screen, and a three-level spin was displayed, but the number of goe was pitifully low.
However, for Lin Ye, who struggles with leveling up, making a breakthrough is already quite good. As for the small amount of goe, they don't mind; even a mosquito is meat.
The spin coach was happy, but the footwork coach looked miserable.
Compared to Feng Simai, Lin Ye's footwork choreography is not complicated. All the upgrade elements are added from the simplest point. The footwork coach also made special modifications to the original music to make the nodes clearer. As long as he can glide smoothly, he can also get a level 3.
But this kid's footwork is terrible. Many provincial teams in China use prescribed patterns as part of their footwork training. Most men's singles players can master more than six patterns, and women's singles players can master even more, but Lin Ye can only master three.
In the Heilongjiang provincial team, the coaches and athletes gathered in front of the TV looked at "StSq2" in the upper left corner and patted the footwork coach on the shoulder with sympathy.
The footwork coach was overcome with grief: "When this kid comes back, I'll definitely make him learn the new standard patterns."
That being said, upon seeing the score of 83.19, several coaches from the provincial team immediately hugged the person closest to them and shook them repeatedly.
On the Chinese team's platform, Feng Simai immediately stood up, raised the national flag in his hand, and made a dramatic speech: "Brother Ye, you're so cool!"
This score is second only to Anthony and Yoshino Fujiwara. Among the two athletes who haven't competed yet, only Wayne might surpass him. Another American athlete, Kevin, hasn't stabilized his quadruple jumps yet. It can be said that Lin Ye has already accomplished his task in the team competition.
Lin Ye, who was in front of the camera, visibly breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as he left the waiting area, he ran towards the stage and gave Lu Sheng, who was closest to him, a bear hug. The bump made Lu Sheng's chest sink, and before he could recover, he was hugged from behind.
Xia Yuezi stood at the back and saw several contestants hugging each other, unable to suppress their smiles.
"Alright, you guys, I'm about to be crushed to death."
Squeezed in the middle, Lu Sheng roared angrily, but he was not tall and was sandwiched between two male singles players in front and behind, with other players around him, so his voice sounded muffled.
This successful start clearly gave the subsequent competitors a boost of confidence, and their performances in the three sub-events that followed were better than the last.
At 9:50 PM Sochi time on February 8th, the team short program competition officially ended, and the organizing committee is currently tallying the final scores and rankings.
Zhang Mengyi was competing in the women's singles short program. She was wiping her sweat with a tissue and listening to her coach behind her calculating the scores with a pen and paper.
In order to give the Chinese team more opportunities, she used 3lz+3T. After training, this jump was not marked with any symbol, but the goe was very dry.
"Men's singles fourth, pairs third, ice dance ninth, women's singles fourth, totaling 24 points."
Xia Yuezi was calculating the score of the Japanese team, who were the closest to them. When she heard Li Tan's final result, she was stunned for a moment, and then asked in an incredulous tone, "We're fifth?"
The coaches' expressions turned serious as they looked at Cao Jinhui and Lu Sheng, who had already changed into their kneecaps. The two children clenched their hands tightly, realizing what this meant.
Li Tan presented the finalized free skate roster to the organizing committee and took the pair backstage to warm up.
The team competition schedule is quite tight. Today, the five countries that will advance to the finals will be decided, and tomorrow the team medal winners will be determined.
Xia Yuezi turned around, looking at the Chinese team's platform, but more so at the venues of other figure skating powerhouses.
The women's singles match ended very late. To ensure they get enough rest, the players who didn't have a match today stayed in their dormitories, but that doesn't mean they weren't paying attention to the match.
She took out her phone and sent a message to Meng Xin in the dormitory, asking her to prepare the children's mindset in advance.
If other countries do not change their skaters in the free skate, they will once again experience being surrounded and attacked by the top skaters from various countries in the Grand Prix Final in the team event.
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