Chapter 93 Green Sprouts Dream Sister Yi, Welcome Back
"Brother Feng, do you think the two senior sisters can withstand the pressure?"
Thirteen-year-old Yan Rui sat in the audience and asked his senior brother a question, glancing worriedly at the nearby seats.
So far, only the pairs skating competition has been completely finished. The Cao-Lu pair lived up to expectations and won the gold medal, while also breaking two world records in the free skate and total score. The other two pairs skaters also performed well, both ranking in the top fifteen.
Last night, she logged onto the forum using a secondary account. Besides congratulatory posts about pairs figure skating, there were also many posts about crediting athletes for their results, with Yang Yiyan being the most discussed.
Feng Simai was also under internet ban, but he had heard these rumors to some extent.
He looked down into the aisle and saw the penultimate group of skaters preparing for their sixth practice session. Zhang Mengyi stood near the audience seats, waving to the fans holding Chinese flags.
"There's no use in us being anxious. You should take a look at the performance of these contestants first. They are your real opponents after you move up to the next group."
This year's newly promoted players lacked top-tier talent, and with their respective national or faction's star players still performing exceptionally well, there was little to highlight. As a result, many players were placed in the second-to-last or third-to-last group at the World Championships, with only Vivian managing to barely make it into the last group.
Vivian won the World Junior Championships gold medal last season and is considered a well-known player in the youth group. In addition, she is from Canada and is one of the few American players of the appropriate age with no major flaws in her technique.
Asians have won the women's singles gold medal for three consecutive Winter Olympics. Europe and America certainly don't want this to happen again, so they started promoting promising talents early on. Vivian's program content score reached the second or even near-first tier in her first year as a member of the promoted team.
Even if players like Yumekawa Ria are very strong, they will start to decline after the Sochi cycle. After the Pyeongchang cycle, they will be around 20 years old, which is an age when they can consider retiring.
It's quite ironic, considering that Yan Rui is only three or four years older than them. In men's singles, this age difference means they could be opponents for another cycle, but in women's singles, they become seniors and juniors who might not even be able to compete again after a cycle.
Xia Yuezi, completely unaware of what was happening in the audience, stood on the sidelines, carefully observing Zhang Mengyi's technique.
The foreign coach she hired was an Olympic athlete himself and had also coached an Olympic silver medalist. His fees were extremely high, which Zhang Mengyi probably used to put pressure on herself. After just one and a half seasons, the results were remarkable.
After her free skate at the Sochi Winter Olympics, she vomited backstage. It wasn't because she ate before the competition or was sick; it was simply because she wasn't physically fit enough.
So far this season, she not only has enough stamina to complete two programs, but she can also gradually increase the difficulty.
She attempted 3LZ+3T at the National Championships and the Four Continents Championships. Although she fell, she completed both jumps with full rotation. However, there were quotas for the World Championships that prevented her from attempting it, so she switched to a more stable setup.
The moment the results were announced, the entire audience erupted in cheers. Even Zhang Mengyi couldn't control her emotions and burst into tears in her coach's arms.
She probably never imagined that she would reach the top eight in the World Championships again in her lifetime.
Xia Yuezi sighed softly, her eyes filled with longing and anticipation, silently wishing Mengyi Sister, "Welcome back."
However, when she saw her own child, Coach Xia's mood changed. She leaned close to Meng Xin and whispered, "You didn't tell Meng Yi her score, did you?"
Unlike domestic competitions, the World Championships only have a four-sided screen in the center of the ice rink. After a group of skaters finishes their competition, the overall rankings are displayed. When a new group of skaters takes the ice, the camera focuses on them and projects the results onto the screen.
As long as players don't watch the matches or listen to the scores, they can generally focus on themselves. However, some players just have to torture themselves by watching their opponents' matches.
Meng Xin quietly gave an OK sign to indicate that she hadn't said anything, and warmed up with her backstage.
Yang Yiyan barely made it into the last group and was to be the first to perform.
Xia Yuezi stood near the exit of the ice rink, explaining something to the athletes as usual. Whether it was her imagination or not, Vivian glanced over here before leaving.
The competition in this World Championships was extremely fierce.
The top three scores in the short program were all above 70 points. Yumikawa Ria almost broke the world record for the short program, and together with Polina, they broke the third-place score by five or six points. If nothing unexpected happens, the gold medal will be contested by the two of them.
The scores of the last three players in this group were very close, only one point apart. In fact, in the previous group, there were four players with scores above 65. The scores were very close, with almost no room for error.
Vivian and Claire are from the same country, so they probably want to bring back three spots for Canada. Based on the current rankings, as long as there are no mistakes, they should be able to meet the expectations of the Canadian Skating Association. But athletes always want to climb higher.
The player above her is Nina. Even though Nina's treatment isn't as good as before, she's still far superior to Nina, a newcomer. There's no point in watching from above her.
After going through the entire list, she could only focus on this former World Championship runner-up.
However, Vivian overlooked one thing: if Zhang Mengyi ranked in the top eight, and Yang Yiyan could also rank in the top five, China would have a chance to get three spots.
However, Xia Yuezi did not intend to put pressure on Yang Yiyan. Competition on the field is normal. It depends on who can keep their mindset. As long as the opponent does not use dirty tricks, she will not specifically remind her own players. Moreover, she had already taken corresponding precautions for the players in the youth group.
She recounted every underhanded trick she could think of, and was even invited by Li Tan to create a PowerPoint presentation to teach all the younger players on the team.
As the strings began to play, they gradually drew the audience into the dream of Pan.
Yang Yiyan straightened one leg, leaned her upper body completely backward, and let her arms hang naturally, as if she was still asleep and leaning against a tree branch. This was a backbend step. Then she quickly stood up and lifted her foot to complete a 2A.
During training, Xia Yuezi thought of something: since her height and distance had not decreased, did she still maintain the height of a 3A?
If 3A cannot be completed for the time being, could she reduce the difficulty while maintaining the original jump height and power, but add some difficulty to get the goe?
As it turns out, Xia Yuezi's idea was correct. Yang Yiyan was able to complete the routine with high quality and quantity during the selection trials, and she was able to present it again at the World Championships.
While the judges were still arguing, the fans watching on the screen saw that Goe's score had jumped from 1.4 to 1.1 on the live scoreboard in the upper left corner. They didn't have time to think about whether it would change again, because Yang Yiyan had entered the power-up phase for her jump once more.
The second jump is 3S+3lo+2lo.
After all, it's a competition. Even if double 3lz double 3lo has a higher technical score than double 3lz double 3F, Xia Yuezi wouldn't dare to risk letting Yang Yiyan do 3S+3lo+3lo. It would be easy for the referee to catch the symbol, and the risk of making a mistake is very high. At most, it could give the opponent a little shock during the sixth practice session or the pre-competition chorus.
Previously, during the short program, fans noticed that Yang Yiyan hadn't fully recovered, and now they're even more certain of it, because their star skater has always been someone who would never lower her standards if she could take on a difficult challenge.
Now, she has broken down the advanced triple jump into the second half of 3lz+2T and 3F+2lo, but she doesn't need to do high-difficulty jumps to make her rating and performance more exquisite.
Wearing a mask and hat, Li Shiyu sat in a relatively far back seat in the audience, propping her head up with her hand and silently watching the ice rink. Her eyes were slightly curved, indicating that she was in a good mood.
She didn't come to the competition with anyone, and after she lost her World Championship ticket, everyone deliberately avoided the topic in front of her. Their actions were certainly well-intentioned, but they inadvertently reminded Li Shiyu repeatedly that she had failed.
After returning from the selection competition, she thought about what Xia Yuezi had said: the rules would not remain unchanged, and perhaps one day, these rules would be updated, but she might not live to see that day.
Throughout her career, she has seen many skaters who consider figure skating their life's passion, and Li Shiyu honestly admits that she cannot do that.
She was born into a very wealthy and happy family. Figure skating is only a small part of her life. Perhaps she will stumble because of someone or something, get angry and cry, but she should look forward and find a way to solve it. Her life will not stay here forever.
Following this idea, after crying, Li Shiyu wanted to see the girl who had been chosen by the existing rules.
"Seriously... you have to admit it."
Seeing Yang Yiyan land her last jump, Li Shiyu leaned back in her chair, exhausted, and murmured to herself. There was no jealousy in her voice, only a faint sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or regret).
She saw the drive of this girl, a few years younger than her, on the ice rink—a drive to win, to seize everything. It reminded her of when she first started figure skating; she was just like her, charging forward without a care in the world, just like the beginning of any shonen manga protagonist.
As for now, the protagonist of the shonen manga has quietly changed, and she seems to have found a green shoot in her withered state of mind.
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