Chapter 90 Leaving the Lake, I Don't Blame You
The women's singles roster for the World Championships changed two weeks before the start of the competition, and many figure skating fans noticed that the "S" after Yang Yiyan's name had disappeared.
The forum immediately erupted into chaos, with all sorts of opinions being expressed, and some even more radical ones going so far as to insult the players as well.
If Yang Yiyan hadn't been injured, even if she hadn't participated in the National Championships, figure skating fans would have assumed she would have gone to the World Championships, since she was the one who got the spot. But her current condition is unknown, and no one knows if she can shoulder this responsibility.
The most vocal group on the forum was the fans of Li Shiyu, the skater who was replaced. They started a thread pointing the finger at the coaching staff for rigging the situation, which quickly became the top post.
People have a special feeling towards the "first".
As we all know, Yang Yiyan was Xia Yuezi's first student and one of the key figures in bringing Xia's team into the public eye. From the youth team to the adult team, Xia Yuezi's doting on her is evident to all the ice skating fans.
As a fellow Xia group competitor, Li Shiyu had been in the senior group for many years and only switched after Sochi. Her technique was already very mature, and she was well past the age when she could achieve good results. There was very little Xia Yuezi could do.
In response to these events, it's inevitable that some people will start to speculate about conspiracy theories.
Xia Yuezi had anticipated this, so she suspended Yang Yiyan from the internet before the selection competition began to avoid affecting her performance later.
In the selection competition, Li Shiyu's highest difficulty level was 3S+3T, which she performed in both the short program and the free skate.
Yang Yiyan hadn't fully picked up the advanced triple jump she was familiar with, let alone the triple jump, but Xia Yuezi, based on her current skills, created a bizarre combination jump like 3S+3lo+2lo, which made up for some of the technical points.
Actually, disregarding the GOE and program component scores, with both scores being clean, the two skaters' total technical scores differed by less than two points, which can be described as evenly matched. However, the judges gave Yang Yiyan a significantly higher P score, most likely due to benefits from the Skating Association.
That's why Xia Yuezi had to do some emotional work with Li Shiyu after the competition, and also bring her some liniment.
She sat on the bench, bending down slowly to untie her shoelaces, obscuring her expression; her shadow stretched extremely long beneath the window.
"It's impossible for me to say that I have no complaints at all, but I did my best. I knew very early on that there is no absolute fairness in figure skating. If the other person has the advantage of nationality or better treatment than me, they will naturally get a higher score than me if they put out a program of the same difficulty."
“Xiao Yan’s brand can offset some of the losses, but I… I’m just an unknown contestant. It’s only because Jiang Shuyu and the others retired that they have the opportunity to compete abroad. If I were the leader, I would also choose her.”
As she finished speaking, Li Shiyu's voice grew increasingly hoarse. Xia Yuezi stood by the chair, remaining silent for a long time, or rather, unsure of how to begin.
Her career has been fraught with difficulties, but compared to many domestic athletes, she has been quite fortunate.
She won the championship in the first competition of the youth group. In the following two years, even if she did not win a gold medal, she was a regular on the podium. All the quotas and resources that the country could provide were poured into her. The young man was full of vigor and pride.
It wasn't until she was plagued by injuries and developmental issues before the Winter Olympics, forcing her to stop skating, that she realized that even those who are praised to the skies can be abandoned.
Starting from that year, the landscape before her eyes was changed. She saw the athletes who had been left far behind her and deeply felt their pain and struggle, but she still had the ability to climb out of the abyss.
Li Shiyu said she wouldn't complain, but to Xia Yuezi, these words sounded no different from complaining. The only difference was that she wasn't complaining about Yang Yiyan, but about herself and the reality she couldn't resist.
At this moment, Xia Yuezi felt as if she had returned to the past.
She moved her fingers slightly, coughed, and cleared her throat: "You're right, these are all part of sports, a very cruel part, so it's understandable that you feel angry."
"Coach, I told you, I don't blame anyone."
The girl on the bench was still untying her shoelaces, or rather, she was using this action to cover something up. Her voice was so stubborn that it was hard not to suspect that she was sulking.
Xia Yuezi paused, sighed, and turned to the side, saying, "This is the rule you think it is, but I hope you understand that this rule only applies to a group of people and will not remain unchanged."
She placed the spray bottle on the bench, her voice softening: "I know this sounds empty, but at least in my opinion, you did very well today, and you did right by yourself."
Li Shiyu remained silent for a long time, and Xia Yuezi did not disturb her, leaving the ice rink directly.
This isn't something that can be resolved with just a few words of advice; she needs to figure it out herself.
Before the World Championships began, leaders issued targets, requiring at least two athletes to be brought back for the other three events, in addition to ice dance.
Since it's a competition held on home soil, in addition to the number of slots, there are naturally medal requirements.
The requirements for pairs skating are the most stringent, and the higher-ups hope they can bring back the gold medal. As for singles skating, they are only required to try their best to reach the podium. After all, the main female singles skaters have not yet fully recovered, and the two male singles skaters are still hovering between the first and second tiers for various reasons. Whether they can get on the podium depends on the performance of the others.
To ensure fairness and impartiality, in competitions like the World Youth Championships and the World Championships, each country has only one referee seat for each event, and each country has a maximum of three referee seats.
Simply put, these referees, just like the athletes, have to rely entirely on luck to get a good position.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck, but in the World Championships referee draw, only ice dance had no Chinese referees among the four figure skating events, and the technical supervisors for the men's and women's singles were Mr. Thomas.
In addition, France, which was relatively friendly to Chinese skaters, secured spots in the men's singles and ice dance competitions, while the United States and Russia, who were eager to fight each other on the judges' bench, were absent from the men's and women's singles competitions, respectively. This means that, at least in singles figure skating, the calculator battle will not take place for the time being.
Chinese ice hockey fans were all smiles as they looked at the final list of referees, but while some were happy, others were worried.
For example, Nina from the United States still remembers how Thomas caught all her bad edges in the youth group finals. It was only because there was an American referee in the technical supervision team that she was saved; otherwise, her total score would have been reduced by at least seven or eight points.
Let's look at Russia's Andrei. The young man is currently working on his second type of quadruple jump, and he's still more than 200 degrees away from it. If things are stricter, he might be demoted or have his triple jump skipped. He's determined not to take any risks at this World Championships.
But the technically skilled players had no such worries. At least in Xia Yuezi's eyes, the two children had been honed by the harsh environment and every score was earned through their own strength, without any exaggeration.
Three days before the start of the competition, Chinese athletes arrived in Shanghai one after another, while athletes from Europe and America, who were farther away, arrived at the hotel in advance to get used to the environment.
The other contestants also knew about Yang Yiyan's comeback. The day after arriving at the hotel, she was invited away by a group of people led by Meng Chuanliya. Xia Yuezi was also happy to have some free time. She and Meng Xin took a tour with the travel guide they had prepared and then confirmed the opening ceremony program with Yan Rui.
Although Yan Rui didn't get a medal at the World Junior Championships, he secured seven qualifying spots for China in the preliminary rounds, helping him and other athletes retain three spots for next season, and also making a name for himself in front of the referees.
The skating association was so pleased that they invited all the kids from the World Junior Championships to perform, covering their travel, food, and lodging, and even paying them a small salary.
The first day's competitions were ice dance and women's singles.
Xia Yuezi asked Feng Simai to take Yan Rui to the audience seats, while she went backstage to accompany the two contestants.
Yang Yiyan has always been a troublemaker; if you don't keep an eye on her, you'll never know what she might do backstage.
As for Zhang Mengyi, she heard that many of the singles skaters were her students, and she didn't have enough energy to pay attention to everyone, so she warmed up directly with the skaters from her own country.
Before the competition started, Xia Yuezi asked her how her physical recovery was going. Zhang Mengyi immediately straightened her back and couldn't wait to show off her recent medical examination report.
Her 3LZ+3T success rate is already 50%, her bone density and physical strength are both increasing, and she has once again broken into the top ten in this year's Four Continents Tournament. It's not an exaggeration to say that she has made it out of the lake.
Zhao Shuhua stood in the aisle near the judges' table, watching An You and Qiao Wen's performance.
She is the Chinese referee who qualified to score three projects, but to avoid suspicion, she has not been with the Chinese staff these past few days and has even rarely made phone calls from home.
If Li Tan hadn't known her well enough, he would have thought he had done something wrong to upset his wife, and he would have been so anxious in the provincial team office that he was pulling his hair out.
The two chose a song related to love this time, and as soon as they came on stage, their tender and affectionate gazes alone brought smiles to everyone's faces.
Both knelt on one knee facing each other. Qiao Wen gazed at her male companion with affection, gently stroking his cheek. An You seized the opportunity to grab her wrist, helped her up, and ran together into the distance.
According to coaches from the three northeastern provinces, this pair, like Cao Lu's pairs figure skating team, showed signs of developing their relationship from the junior group. Their respective coaches kept a close eye on them until they all came of age, at which point they relaxed a little. As a result, they got together this year, but they just haven't officially announced it yet.
Due to factors such as music selection and performance, in figure skating, as long as it doesn't affect performance and the skaters aren't too obsessed with romance, most coaches turn a blind eye to adult skaters dating.
Technically speaking, the whole show was quite enjoyable to watch. Even Zhao Shuhua, a middle-aged woman in her forties, could smell a hint of romance, not to mention the young ice skating fans who love shipping couples.
Many classic love songs have already come to mind for Zhao Shuhua, and she has even created some of the programs.
Although the International Skating Union does not allow referees to take on private jobs, it does not mean that she cannot be listed as a referee. Just like an ordinary person going to work, as long as no one is so bored as to report her, she can completely satisfy her own desires.
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