Chapter 51 Sneaking a bite while working as a coach, what's wrong with sneaking a couple of bites...t...
Feng Simai was seated between two coaches while waiting to be divided into teams. He was wiping sweat with a tissue in one hand and slowly rubbing his knee with the other.
Xia Yuezi glanced at him and asked, "Does your knee hurt from the impact?"
"It's a little numb, I'll just put an ice pack on it when I get back."
Feng Simai spoke casually, setting aside the used tissues and taking small sips from the thermos Meng Xin handed him.
Feng Simai's score appeared on the big screen.
With a technical score of 48.16, a performance score of 36.11, and a short program score of 84.27, he is currently ranked first.
This score would have placed them in the top eight at last year's World Championships.
Feng Simai was so happy he almost jumped up from his chair, but before he could even stand up, the two coaches slapped his back repeatedly with a rhythmic sound. The pain was so intense that before he could even raise his hand, he had to turn it around and slap it back.
His classmates always say that when girls hit people, it hurts quite a bit. Usually, the two coaches are careful when disciplining him. Even when they are extremely angry, they don't go all out. In addition, athletes have strong muscles, so the force of hitting him back also hits him quite hard.
But the coach clearly didn't hold back those two blows, and he almost cried.
"Did it hurt? I'm sorry, I'll have Xiao Li take a look at it later."
Feng Simai's lips twitched, unsure of what to say.
Xia Yuezi's eyes still held a hint of joy, and her voice still carried a hint of laughter, making the words she uttered seem insincere.
An English announcement came from the ice rink nearby. Xia Yuezi took her child and went to find a seat, while Meng Xin went to the team doctor to get an ice pack.
Fujiwara Yoshino warmed up by walking around the ice rink, and did a light 1-second jump on it.
An You was sitting in the first row of the stands. When he saw Feng Simai and the others walking over, he craned his neck and called out to him, then patted the empty seat next to him.
The ice dance and women's singles events both start tomorrow, so when Xia Yuezi looked up, she saw that the four people in that row were all domestic athletes, and the row behind them were the team staff.
As soon as Feng Simai sat down, An You grabbed his neck and pulled him close, his eyes glancing at the ice rink every now and then: "You're something else, kid. You're aiming for the top ten in your first World Championships."
"Don't you want good grades?" Feng Simai asked back.
"Me?" An You slumped in his chair, his eyes darting around before finally settling on his female companion beside him. He looked somewhat forlorn. "Do you know what my coach told me before we came? He just told us to go into the free skate."
Cheers erupted from the stands, drowning out An You's last words. Feng Simai didn't look at the ice, assuming that Fujiwara had probably missed the quadruple jump.
The International Skating Union stipulates that anyone who advances to the free skate will secure an Olympic spot.
This year's World Championships has 32 ice dance pairs, and only the top 20 will advance to the free dance. The short program requires at least 50 points, which is based on last year's World Championships scores. It's unclear whether that will be enough this year.
The scoring for ice dance differs from the other three disciplines. While a less-than-ideal performance in the other three disciplines can be improved by technical difficulty, ice dance only considers footwork choreography, purely judging the skater's expressiveness and technical maturity. Therefore, ice dance is the most seniority-based scoring of the four figure skating disciplines.
The top-ranked ice dance pair in China is not young anymore. The male partner was undergoing emergency surgery in the hospital due to injury. If they weren't really unable to compete, this only World Championship spot would not have fallen to An You and Qiao Wen, a pair who had just been promoted to the top tier.
In reality, the number of times they scored 50 points in the short program at the National Championships is very limited, even when the domestic judges were lenient.
Moreover, the match was broadcast live on CCTV. The two children were very nervous before they even left, but they didn't dare to show it in front of their coach.
Feng Simai felt a pang of sadness as she looked at An You's forced smile. She reached out and patted his shoulder without saying a word.
Fujiwara Yoshino's short program score reached 85, surpassing Feng Simai's.
Meng Xin placed an ice pack on Feng Simai's leg and squinted at the score on the big screen. She was nearsighted and had astigmatism, and this was the only way she could see the numbers on the screen without her glasses.
"Fujiwara's program content score has increased a bit, but I don't think his slide score has improved much compared to before."
Xia Yuezi sat in the back row, her face showing no surprise or doubt: "There aren't many skaters in the world who can use two different quadruple jumps in the main competition. Plus, Japan sent a batch of skaters to the International Skating Union this season, so his treatment with the judges should change."
She stood up to give Meng Xinteng a seat, and just then she saw Feng Simai's lips moving, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. She could only gently pat his shoulder to comfort him: "Don't think too much, just stay the way you are."
Meng Xin, sitting in the back, softly echoed, "Yes, there are no more than ten athletes who can jump four quads at this year's World Championships. As long as you and Xiao Ye can maintain the current setup, getting two spots is no problem at all. Don't put so much pressure on yourselves."
Feng Simai took a deep breath, suppressing his anxiety, and nodded.
Before the penultimate group of contestants took the stage, there was a period of time for a cold. During this time, Feng Simai went to get a drug test and also made a phone call to her family.
When they returned, Lin Ye had already finished his competition, and Andrei was slowly warming up on the ice rink.
He sat down, took the dried meat that Jiang Shuyu shared, put it in his mouth, and mumbled, "How are Ye-ge's grades?"
An You stared at him for a long time, trying to figure out what he had just said, but Qiao Wen was the first to react: "You did all the jumps, but the P score wasn't high. The final score was 83.26, which puts you one place behind me."
Feng Simai took a bite, looking quite puzzled: "He didn't get 4S in the short program?"
Xia Yuezi, sitting behind him, reached out and pinched his face when she heard this: "The most important task now is to get an Olympic spot, and Coach Song said that his 4S is not stable. I guess he is not planning to do this jump in the free skate. He will save it for the Winter Olympics."
During the chat, Andrei's short program also began.
Russia sent only twelve teams to this World Championships, meaning they had full quotas in all four events, demonstrating their strong talent pool and clear ambition.
In addition to Andrei and Dawer, Russia also sent Makar to the men's singles competition. This player does not have four weeks of training, and his highest difficulty level is currently 3A+3T, but his biggest characteristic is his stability.
He's so steady that even when Davell set off fireworks at the All-Russian Championships, he rarely did.
The International Skating Union (ISU) stipulates that if three athletes from the same country participate, the best results of the top two athletes will be used to allocate the quota, and the points calculation will follow the rules for two athletes participating.
In other words, the Russian Ice Hockey Association has sent one high-potential athlete and one high-floor athlete, so even if Andrei causes any trouble at the World Championships, Makar will be there to cover for him.
Andrei landed on a 4T in the short program, which was achieved by forcibly landing with the axis off-center. This feat was so impressive that it almost overturned Newton's three laws of motion.
Xia Yuezi looked down into the passageway. Sidorov was pulling him aside to say something, and two other Russian athletes were standing next to him. None of them looked relaxed.
The next contestants were all veterans, and their short programs were both steady and risky. For example, France's top diva, Antoni, unusually crashed on a combination jump, and ended up ranking close to 20th.
Xia Yuezi and Meng Xin mentally calculated the rankings, and only felt relieved after confirming that both children could squeeze into the top ten.
In the hotel, Xia Yuezi scrolled through the screen, looking at the newly updated schedule. Meng Xin returned with takeout food, set it on the table, and called out to her, "Food is essential for life. Eat first, then worry about other things."
Xia Yuezi put down her phone, looked up at the delicious-looking dishes on the table, paused for a moment, and looked at Meng Xin with a puzzled expression.
Meng Xin smiled slyly: "The Chinese restaurant that Coach Song recommended. He led a team to compete in Canada before. Don't worry, I didn't tell any of the kids."
Xia Yuezi slowly moved over to help set the table, her tone light and cheerful: "Oh dear, Feng Simai is alright, but if Xiaoyan were here, I really wouldn't dare to eat and drink well behind their backs. That girl is so hard to appease when she gets upset, and she has such a keen sense of smell."
Meng Xin snorted: "What's with the tantrum? It's not enough to coax them to eat when they're building muscle, and now we have to eat with them for the competition."
"I still remember." Xia Yuezi chuckled.
She knew that when she led the team to a competition, Meng Xin had found a well-known steakhouse nearby in advance, but she was kept away by several children and never had a chance to go eat there.
The two coaches felt very little guilt about secretly giving the athletes extra help, and this was the first time they had led the team out without eating bland food with the athletes.
Xia Yuezi took the disposable chopsticks, broke them apart, took a sip of soup, and got down to business: "If nothing unexpected happens, Daville will be in first place. Andrei's 4T has been marked. Sidorov will most likely not let him go on a quadruple free skate. He will try to maintain his current advantage and keep his third place."
"The short program in the US also performed well, with Albert securing second place. These two countries should have three spots."
Meng Xin picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks, seemingly lost in thought: "I don't care about anything else, but right now Anthony's ranking is a bit unpredictable."
France sent only him to the World Championships this year, and it can be said that his performance secured France's spot in next year's Winter Olympics.
Feng Simai and Lin Ye are currently ranked eighth and ninth respectively. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, their final rankings in the free skate will likely fluctuate slightly around these numbers.
Xia Yuezi began to recall Anthony's career, during which he performed double quadruple and double triple A in his free skate at his peak, but that setup was never clean.
Meng Xin added, "His highest score in the free skate was 174. If the European judges, represented by the French judges, were to give him a strong push, he could still break into the top ten..."
Before they could finish speaking, footsteps came from outside the corridor, accompanied by the sounds of several children laughing and playing. The two coaches felt a chill run down their spines and instinctively tried to hide the lunchboxes in front of them.
After they walked over, they couldn't help but laugh at each other's embarrassed appearance. They quickly gathered up the "evidence" in front of them and then went to discuss the next arrangements with Feng Simai.
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