Chapter 77 Seventy is truly shameless
The two coaches led Yang Yiyan to the waiting area, while Li Tan, as the team leader, stood nearby.
The highest scorer so far is Park Young-rye. Wearing the South Korean team uniform, she smiled confidently, reminding many figure skating fans of her former self.
Xia Yuezi looked towards the ice rink. Alisa had already begun patrolling the ice. Meng Xin, sitting at the other end, asked, "Want some more water?"
"Drink." Yang Yiyan had just finished skating, and her throat was still a little dry.
The scores came out a bit slowly this time, and even some people in the audience started to get restless. The two coaches started analyzing Yang Yiyan's performance to pass the time, but they mostly praised her.
Xia Yuezi glanced at the judges' table, where a group of elderly white men sat with their pens already put down. She looked away, glancing at her own child who was still caught up in the excitement of the short program cleanup. After thinking for a moment, she decided to pour cold water on her enthusiasm.
"Xiaoyan, you'd better prepare yourself mentally. Judging from this duration, your P score... might be about the same as the finals."
Xia Yuezi changed her words, afraid of hurting the child too much. In fact, not to mention the finals, Yang Yiyan's P score in the three adult international competitions before the Olympics was almost the same as that of the youth group.
Yang Yiyan swallowed a mouthful of water, screwed the bottle cap back on, and handed it back to Meng Xin. Her expression didn't change much, but both coaches could see that her hands on her lap gradually tightened, and her expression became somewhat stiff.
"I've thought of that, but for a competition like the Olympics, they at least need to maintain a respectable image, otherwise they'll be criticized."
Xia Yuezi choked for a moment, her eyes shifting slightly, carrying a hint of pity, as if to say, "Child, you are still too young."
If a referee really wants to lower the score, they can do so in any situation. After all, a gold medal can be recorded in history and will be mentioned by future generations. As for the scandals and filth behind the gold medal, as long as it doesn't involve top-level athletes, at most they will be criticized for a while. Once their popularity declines, no one will mention it anymore.
Just like in a women's singles world championship in the last century, when the American player and the Italian player were competing for the gold medal, there was a comeback, but the judges were mostly American and Chinese.
The Italian player had just moved up a tier, and there was already a top-ranked player in the European group. She hadn't yet received support from most of the European judges, so the outcome was predictable.
An Italian athlete filed an appeal with the organizing committee, only to be told that "the judges' scores were normal and the appeal was rejected." The young Italian athlete was so angry that he burst into tears in the aisle and was even followed and filmed by a group of cameramen carrying cameras.
However, this incident occurred before figure skating became popular worldwide, and the two skaters had short and unremarkable careers, so even this scandal has gradually been forgotten.
Xia Yuezi felt most sorry for the fact that this contestant, who was of European or American nationality, was still bullied by the referee like this. Yang Yiyan, who was of Asian nationality, did not have the gold medals from A-level competitions that could offset some of the debuffs, unlike Meng Chuanli and the others.
Just then, the radio blared, and Yang Yiyan's score was displayed on the television screen in front of the waiting area.
With a technical score of 42.64, a program component score of 27.37, and a short program score of 70.01, he is currently in first place, followed by an individual best and a season best.
When Meng Xin first saw the total score, she was pleased, thinking to herself, "Why have these judges changed their ways today?" But when she saw the P score, she immediately took back her "good guy" card.
Xia Yuezi reacted even faster, quickly deducing from the technical score that the rating should be all four, and then calculating the remaining total GEE, her expression wasn't very pleasant.
For female singles players of Sung Eun-hee's caliber and Shirai Nanako's caliber, the short program's GOE usually adds seven to eight points, and in very rare cases, it can add up to nine points. Even for players like Yumekawa Ria, who are often suppressed by European and American judges, the GOE can still add more than six points.
Yang Yiyan performed without any major problems today. Her limbs and skating were not affected by her back injury, and she performed quite well. However, Goe only scored a little over five points, which was even worse than her previous performance.
The camera focused on the three people waiting in the waiting area. Li Tan pretended to cough, and Xia Yuezi quickly put on a fake smile and looked down at the little girl. She found that the little girl was smiling innocently and even making a heart shape with her hands towards the camera.
Xia Yuezi turned to the side and found that Li Tan was staring at her. Only then did she realize that the hint she had just heard was directed at her.
The Chinese team members were clustered in the stands. They had all finished their events and were now talking about the women's singles competition with ease.
Cao Jinhui clicked her tongue twice first: "Xiao Yan is one of the few female singles players who can jump 3A. Her P score is the same as that of the top youth group. I thought she would improve her score a little this time."
Regarding the program's content, Lin Ye has more authority to speak than anyone else: "Xiao Hui, if the women's singles youth group performs well, the top tier can approach 30, and 27 is the near top tier."
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately felt that Yang Yiyan's score looked even worse.
Feng Simai rested his chin on his hand and analyzed word by word: "If her program is any higher, how can the judges leave room for the next person? Lyubov has had a wild season. After getting a ticket to the All-Russian Championships, she fell off the podium at the European Championships. In addition, Polina is not a particularly consistent athlete. They can't possibly let an Asian athlete take another gold medal. Not to mention Xiao Yan, I'm afraid the three Asian athletes who perform after her will be suppressed in points."
After he finished speaking, he belatedly realized that others were surrounding him. Feng Simai immediately raised his hands and said, "This is not what I said. It was Coach Xia who said it. I was just relaying it."
Xia Yuezi was watching the game nearby when she suddenly sneezed, startling Meng Xin who was standing next to her.
"Have you caught a cold?"
Xia Yuezi sniffed, shook her head, and then looked at the table where the temporary rankings were displayed.
The Winter Olympics also has a special platform for provisional rankings. Unlike other competitions, the Winter Olympics retains the top three. Yang Yiyan was sitting in the middle, picked up her thermos and took a sip of water. She occasionally chatted with other athletes, and seemed unaffected by the situation.
Among the female singles athletes at the Winter Olympics, those who can jump the triple A can be counted on one hand, and Yang Yiyan's main competitors are still among them.
Shortly after, the women's singles short program rankings were officially released.
Yang Yiyan was gradually pushed down from first to fifth place. Ahead of her, besides Mengchuan Liya and Polina, who can jump 3A, there were also veterans Cheng Enxi and Claire.
Zhang Mengyi, another Chinese skater, finished ninth in the short program and successfully made it into the penultimate group. As for the other skaters, they all made various mistakes on the ice in Sochi.
Russian Ice Skating Union's top skater, Lyubov, fell during the short program, almost eliminating her from the podium; Shirai Nanako also made a major mistake on her triple A, finishing tenth in the short program, and it will be difficult for her to turn things around unless she uses a double triple A in the free skate.
However, neither the coaching staff nor Li Tan could smile at this moment, because they had all received calls from domestic leaders.
As Yang Yiyan's head coach, Xia Yuezi naturally received a call from the leadership. After seeing the short program results, the leaders almost considered Yang Yiyan as the second medal contender in figure skating.
At first, Xia Yuezi wanted to use some technical jargon to beat around the bush, but the leader seemed to have come prepared. Even Cheng Enxi and Claire didn't have 3A reserves, so he told Yang Yiyan to outscore them as much as possible in terms of technical score, and his attitude was unusually tough.
Xia Yuezi hung up the phone with a headache and saw Meng Xin lying on the bed in a "spread-eagle" position with a bitter gourd-like bump on her face. The phone screen next to her pillow was lit up, and she could clearly see the women's singles score table.
She frowned, her tone quite impatient: "Are those old men so desperate for promotions that they're trying to undercut us with their technical scores? We try to outdo them with our program content, but they can just turn around and use it to undercut us."
It's no wonder Meng Xin was angry. From the moment she received the score sheet, the Chinese coach's temper flared up. Every day when he went out, he acted as if "everyone owes them eight hundred yuan," except for Wang Can.
It's understandable that Yumikawa Ria and Polina scored 74 in their short program, considering their technical score is high. Their program component scores were 31 and 32 respectively, which is a fair score for their performance.
Even contestants like Sung Eun-hee and Claire, who don't have 3A reserves, can at least perform every move perfectly, and their performances have a unique emotional style. Plus, they've been in the industry for so many years, so they'd accept a 34% rating for the program content.
But what the Chinese coaches found most intolerable was the scores of Lyubov and Nina.
Lyubov clearly fell, yet she still received a 30 in program components. Nina, though seemingly clean, clearly had a wrong edge, but the judges let it go and gave her a 1.02 GOOE, allowing her to advance to the last free skate group in sixth place.
It's worth noting that Yang Yiyan painstakingly revised LZ for two seasons before finally getting it right, and its GOE is only 0.47.
What's even funnier is that after Lyubov fell, all the athletes who came up after her were given a few points by the Russian judges, whether openly or secretly.
Xia Yuezi opened the window to lower the temperature in the room, trying to calm her anger. Then she waved her hand and said, "Don't tell Xiaoyan about this. That girl is currently suspended from the internet and can't see the scoreboard. She thinks the referee is being lenient with her."
If you only look at the total score, this result is indeed a breakthrough, but if you compare it with others, you can draw the conclusion that this total score is used to shut others up.
Mentioning this, Meng T-xin looked pale: "Several children in her room were eating instant noodles together. I told Simai, and they should all know what to do."
Xia Yuezi sighed and rubbed her temples. Several stones pressed on her chest, making her feel suffocated. But she knew even more that at this moment, she and Meng Xin were the last people who could panic.
She kicked Meng Xin's bed leg: "Alright, stop lying there like a corpse, calm yourself down, we'll go discuss the free skate setup with Xiao Yan later."
Meng Xin sat up with a jolt, her annoyance lessening: "That's true. That child seems carefree, but she's quite thoughtful. We need to keep her calm and prevent her from overthinking things."
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