Chapter 95: The Men's Singles Team Can't Be Well-Managed
After each season ends, idle figure skating fans around the world engage in all sorts of creative antics. For example, a couple of years ago, a jumping expression contest was organized by the media. When fans opened the website, most of the images were of male singles skaters making contorted expressions during jumps; even the most handsome skaters could end up looking like wild monkeys.
However, this is only a small part of the activities. The most common ones are to summarize the season for popular players or to select a certain type of person.
Since Lin Ye moved up to the senior level, Chinese ice skating fans have seen his name in the top five every year in the "explosive" competition. He either explodes in both competitions or performs well in one competition and explodes in the other.
In his most famous performance, Lin Ye went from second place in the short program to seventeenth place overall. Chinese figure skating fans still remember the coach's face in the waiting area, which looked like he was "heartbroken" and wished he could put on his skates and go skate himself.
Even many foreign ice skating fans became familiar with Lin Ye because of these polls, and during that period, the number of followers on his verified overseas social media accounts also increased significantly.
With many factors combined, as soon as the men's singles free skate at the World Championships started, Chinese figure skating fans were praying that Lin Ye would make fewer mistakes so that Feng Simai could catch up and prevent the combined rankings from looking too bad.
The two men's singles players were used to this kind of positioning, but the players in the last group were like they were drunk, each one more excited than the last. Feng Simai, who was the guaranteed player, also had a small explosion in one game.
Looking at Lin Ye standing on the ice, Chinese figure skating fans had already given up hope. But just like Fujiwara Yoshino, he didn't get 4LZ, but instead filled up with 4T and 4S.
Although there was a flaw in the landing of the 4S combination jump, the follow-up 2T prevented the two quadruple jumps from repeating each other. The technical score made up for the gap between the rating and program component scores, securing a medal.
In the footage, Lin Ye started crying as soon as he stepped off the ice. He finally managed to calm himself down, but the moment he saw his score, he cried even harder. The 1.7-meter-tall man nestled into his coach's arms, looking both pitiful and funny.
Xia Yuezi can understand it quite well. Despite having a difficulty level that ranks among the world's best, she has been called "Crazy Guy" for so many years due to various issues. The more she tries to prove herself, the more crazy she becomes. Finally, she turned the tables at the most important World Championships, so it's normal for her to be excited.
Hopefully, Lin Ye can regain his composure after this match.
She turned to look at Feng Simai, who was still deep in thought, and patted him on the shoulder: "Let's go, they've congratulated you so many times, we should return the favor."
Reminded by the coach, Feng Simai seemed to wake up from a dream, looked at the waiting area, shook his head, and left with a smile.
Shortly after the World Championships ended, the athletes finished filming the Winter Olympics promotional video and then returned to their respective provincial teams to resume training.
There's still one World Team Championship to play this season. This competition is hosted by Japan and is held every two years. However, it's more for entertainment and the medals aren't very prestigious. But many players participate for the generous prize money, and it's also a good opportunity to lower their minimum skill score.
China has qualified for the competition this year and must submit the names of two men's singles and one women's singles skater, as well as one pairs figure skating and ice dance pair, before the start of the competition.
Yang Yiyan was pulled back to school by her parents early, and coupled with her injury that prevented her from playing continuously, she was directly excluded from consideration. The final roster submitted was exactly the same as that of the Four Continents Championships.
The provincial team leaders were too busy with the Olympic bid to take other athletes abroad for competitions, so the responsibility of leading the team was left to the young coach.
Xia Yuezi has recently been teaching Yan Rui how to stay calm and collected, while also overseeing the renovation of her new house. She said she wouldn't be going to Japan to join in the fun and left Feng Simai and Li Shiyu in the care of Meng Xin.
She also learned from Song Qiao that Yu Qian's contract would expire at the end of the next season, so she hurriedly went back to Heilongjiang and persuaded them to bring her over. She took the old lady to Beijing Hospital for a follow-up visit with her medical records, and when she sent the old lady to the train station, her suitcase was still stuffed with a bunch of plasters.
In addition, she heard some news—Wang Can had left the provincial team and signed a contract with someone else, becoming the star coach of a furniture club in Beijing.
The specific reasons are unclear. Some say it was his father, Director Wang, who made him step down, because the club was opened with investment from family relatives.
Some people say that a former student of Wang Can saw that Zhang Mengyi was doing even better after leaving and wanted to follow the same path as her. Wang Can severely criticized him, which eventually pushed the parents to the brink, and they complained to higher authorities.
Xia Yuezi had just taken the children to learn to jump on the ice when she returned to the office and heard gossip from her colleagues. She felt that both versions of the story were a bit far-fetched, but given the dramatic nature of figure skating, they were both somewhat possible.
It's nice not having to work with him, though it's a pity for the kids in the club.
With Wang Can gone, the children in his group would have to be reassigned to coaches. Xia Yuezi, as the newly appointed gold medal coach of the Beijing team, should theoretically be assigned to children with good talent, but she also had quite a few players in her group, so she politely declined the offer in advance.
Li Tan didn't say anything, but instead brought up the team's situation: "The Beijing team's women's singles talent pool is almost complete. In addition to the adult and youth groups, some junior high school students also won medals last season, but the other three events are still a bit lacking."
Xia Yuezi sat at her desk, carefully considering the current domestic situation. Looking at the provincial teams with relatively good development in figure skating, only women's singles and pairs had a talent pool; men's singles and ice dance still lacked promising prospects.
She was unsure of Li Tan's meaning and tentatively asked, "So you want me to mentor a few men's singles players?"
The Beijing team excels in singles skating, but for pairs skating and ice dance, we still have to look to the Northeast. Besides, she's just a singles skating coach, and she's not familiar with the other two disciplines, so we can't just suddenly make a choice.
Li Tan countered with, "What are you thinking?"
This was actually a roundabout admission, and Xia Yuezi smiled somewhat reluctantly: "To be honest, I don't want to bring the men's singles team."
She glanced at her supervisor and, seeing no change in his expression, continued, "Simai came here with a solid foundation already laid. So far, all I can do is help him gradually overcome the challenges posed by his height. Moreover, there are almost no boys under ten years old in my group, which means I have no experience coaching young boys."
In other words, she felt she couldn't coach the men's singles team well.
In the skating world, there is no distinction between men's and women's singles coaches; they are all referred to as singles skating coaches. However, not all singles skating coaches are proficient in both disciplines; it simply depends on which one they are better at coaching.
For example, Sidorov from Russia has both men's and women's singles skaters under his tutelage, and many foreign singles skaters want to train in his group because he has produced Olympic and world champions in both of these events.
For example, Ms. Chishima from Japan also coaches men's singles in her club, but her students are always more famous in women's singles. Therefore, in the eyes of figure skating fans, she is a full-time women's singles coach, and the athletes who contact her for training are all women's singles.
Although Xia Yuezi has led Yang Yiyan and Feng Simai to numerous competitions and become an excellent singles skating coach in the eyes of many, she does not want to mislead young people and let a child waste his time in her hands.
"Instead of having me lead a project I'm not so good at, I'd rather focus my energy on developing the women's singles team. As you said, our women's singles team is just a prototype. If we want to maintain our current competitiveness for a long time, we will inevitably need a lot of human resources."
Li Tan lowered his head, lost in thought and remained silent.
Originally, he was just asking Xia Yuezi's opinion; if she really didn't want to, he wouldn't force her.
As a singles skating coach himself, he naturally understands the ins and outs. Forcing her to be paired with a men's singles skater would be a disaster for both of them.
“I understand what you mean, and I will consider it. For now, you should still focus on the children in the group, not only their sports performance, but also their academic studies and psychological issues.”
Russian star Lyubov was recently reported to be suffering from anorexia, and many industry insiders believe it will be difficult for her to return to the entertainment industry.
After Lyubov's fracture surgery, she did not recover well and could not regain her original difficulty level. Her parents were also somewhat extreme, believing it was a weight problem and strictly controlling her diet. As a result, she was diagnosed with severe depression around the time of the World Championships.
Xia Yuezi had also heard this news. She found it strange at the time, as Lyubov's trajectory in that world didn't seem to be like this.
She had some ups and downs after the Sochi Winter Olympics, but I don't recall it being that tumultuous, and it didn't drag her career into the cycle leading up to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Then she turned her head and saw the honor wall hanging in the provincial team. All the athletes who could be listed were world champions and Olympic medalists.
In the women's singles section, the latest photo is taken of Yang Yiyan during her free skate at the Sochi Winter Olympics, accompanied by her biography.
In an instant, Xia Yuezi understood.
In that world, Yang Yiyan didn't exist, and the only major competitor in Asian women's singles was Yumikawa Ria, who could still be suppressed by the referees. In Europe and America, apart from Polina, there were no other players who could produce 3A. Overall, Lyubov was still very competitive.
But now, in addition to these two, Yang Yiyan, who can jump 3A, has also joined the team. The two Asian female singles are relatively stable and can outperform European and American players in terms of technical score. At this point, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation needs to reconsider whether it needs to replace them with a female singles player with a higher difficulty level.
Xia Yuezi stood up, her tone both gentle and solemn.
"Don't worry, I will pay attention and will communicate with students' parents regularly."
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