Chapter 142 The pressure and anxiety that utilitarianism creates for oneself...
"What are you thinking about? You seem so engrossed."
Meng Xin glanced at the person next to her several times, and seeing that her gaze wasn't on the ice rink, she finally couldn't help but give her a push.
It's not that coaches can't be distracted on the ice, but Xia Yuezi rarely experiences this kind of situation, especially when Yang Yiyan is already on the ice preparing for the competition.
"It's okay, keep watching."
Xia Yuezi's eyes darted away for a moment, and her voice didn't sound as confident as before.
Meng Xin glanced at her again, still worried, before turning her gaze back to Yang Yiyan.
After leaving the backstage area, Xia Yuezi's heart was in turmoil.
Although there was not enough evidence to suggest that Yang Yiyan had guessed the pressure from within the country, Xia Yuezi still felt that asking for a hug was too unusual.
She even felt, somewhat neurotically, that some of Yang Yiyan's small movements during the sixth training session also concealed a hidden undercurrent of turmoil.
Overall, Yang Yiyan didn't do anything too outrageous, so Xia Yuezi wasn't sure if she was overthinking it. She was just too reliant on her coach because of the pressure of the upcoming competition.
As the music started, Xia Yuezi subconsciously looked up at the girl who had already begun her performance.
After Yang Yiyan moved all the movements to the second half, the entire program was essentially reworked. Some hand movements were modified, making the program more stylish and clean.
After completing the first half of the spin and the first 3A jump, the cheers from the audience seemed a bit too loud, temporarily drowning out the music. Xia Yuezi noticed that Yang Yiyan's spin was a little off-time, which might result in her exceeding the time limit.
However, this program has been practiced many times, and Yang Yiyan's control of the rhythm is still very precise. She made up for the time lost in the middle by increasing the speed.
"The Heroine" is not only about the joys and sorrows of the martial arts world, but also about daring to live as freely as you want in reality, and about being fearless and resilient in the face of adversity.
For everyone who follows figure skating, Yang Yiyan is a heroine who took the baton from her predecessors and led Chinese women's singles figure skating to a new level.
But to her, she is just an ordinary person, an ordinary person who has been overly praised by ice hockey fans.
She's not as amazing as everyone says, so in order to meet the expectations from all sides, Yang Yiyan has to work twice as hard and can't stop for even a moment.
Figure skating was her own choice, a "lover" she desperately wanted to get closer to, but sometimes she would wonder if she could live the life she wanted if she were just an ordinary person from beginning to end.
Therefore, the program "The Heroine" is not only Yang Yiyan's response to ice skating fans, but also her own expectation and vision after seeing the news that Yumikawa Ria and Polina announced their upcoming retirement.
Yang Yiyan landed perfectly on her last jump, 3LZ, and a faint smile appeared on her face, but after turning and gliding out, her expression returned to normal.
In the lower left window of the replay view, the two coaches did not hold back their applause at this moment, their teeth were fully exposed when they smiled. Meng Xin, who was closer to the camera, could even see the fine lines at the corners of her eyes.
The three sat on the sofa in the waiting area, with the two coaches each holding one arm around Yang Yiyan in the middle. They smiled at the photographer who came to take pictures, and only after the photographer left did they begin to review her performance.
Meng Xin squeezed Yang Yiyan's shoulder: "At that time, in order to control the time, your rotation speed was a bit too fast, and you may not have been able to do some of the difficult changes properly. The judges may not have been able to recognize it."
Xia Yuezi didn't say anything. She asked the team doctor for a band-aid, pulled Yang Yiyan's hand which was simply bandaged with paper, and stuck the band-aid on her middle finger.
She was in a rush during the spin and her skates accidentally cut her finger, but it wasn't a big deal. She gets minor scrapes almost every day during training.
This time, the scores didn't take long to arrive.
With a technical score of 47.97, a program content score of 35.74, and a short program score of 83.71, it is currently ranked first.
"It looks like the spin rating should be fine." Xia Yuezi looked at the technical score and nodded slightly to the side.
Meng Xin hugged Yang Yiyan with one arm, laughing even more happily than she had been by the barrier earlier.
Yang Yiyan breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the ice rink, where Mengchuan Liya was raising her hands to signal to the audience.
This score is definitely enough to get her into the top three; now she's just waiting to see the results of her two competitors.
After watching Yang Yiyan take the center position in the top three of the Olympic rankings, Xia Yuezi walked to the other side of the aisle, passing through the mixed zone where English with various national accents was mixed together.
Do you think Yang's arrangement is too utilitarian?
Upon hearing this, Xia Yuezi stopped and looked towards the mixed zone. The person she was interviewing was a famous Canadian choreographer, possibly being interviewed with Claire. The reporter who asked the question had his back to Xia Yuezi, and she could only make out that his hair was white, making it impossible to determine which country he was from.
She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, and suddenly felt a strong urge to hear the choreographer's answer.
"Utilitarian?" The Canadian choreographer repeated the word, then laughed casually. "In competitive sports, isn't it normal to pursue the maximization of technical points?"
"Moreover, this rule has been around for many years. I believe that more than one coach or player has considered this matter, but in the end, not many people have used it. This also shows that such a configuration is very difficult to implement. So I admire Yang and her coaching team for their courage in completing the technical difficulty while maintaining the original artistry."
Xia Yuezi's lips curved upwards, and she lowered her head slightly, making it impossible to see the expression in her eyes. Before leaving, she gave the reporter one last deep look.
It seems the smokescreen has worked; even journalists from some countries are starting to get worried.
How did the other players perform?
When Xia Yuezi returned to the ice rink, Mengchuan Liya and Polina's match had already ended, and the ice refreezing machine had started working on the ice.
Meng Xin gave her an "OK" sign: "Xiao Yan is temporarily in first place, Meng Chuan is second, Polina made a spin and is in third place, Xiao Rui is in 12th place, and Meng Yi is in 17th place."
Xia Yuezi glanced at the central screen. The top three scores were all above 80 points, but the difference in scores was not significant. The bottom five scores were all in the 70s. As long as there were no major surprises in the free skate, the top three list would not change.
We'll have to wait and see tomorrow.
Xia Yuezi didn't feel the pressure on her shoulders lessen at all. She glanced at Yang Yiyan, who was about to go on an interview with the other two contestants, and sighed softly.
………
The next morning, many figure skating fans turned on the live stream on time and saw the camera switch to the commentary room, where the legendary Chinese women's singles skater from the last century was sitting, commentating on the women's singles free skate event with another commentator.
Many ice skating fans were stunned when they saw her for the first time. They began to recall that they did not see her in the short program. Some people even looked up the list of commentators for the short program and found that her name was not there. The only mention was a CCTV interview before the start of the Winter Olympics.
However, inviting her to provide commentary is enough to show how much CCTV values this match.
"The women's singles free skate event at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is currently underway. The Belarusian skater is currently ranked first, while our skater Zhang Mengyi is ranked second with 169.23 points."
"The women's singles competition, which is about to begin, is the second to last group. Our young player Yan Rui will be the first to play in this group. Last season, Yan Rui ranked eighth in the World Championships and scored 196.88 points, making a great contribution to China's two Winter Olympic spots. This year, she ranked fourth in the China Cup and second in the National Championships."
After the sixth practice session, Xia Yuezi stood behind the barrier, raised her hand to gently adjust Yan Rui's hair ornaments, and then placed her hand on the back of Yan Rui's hand.
"Your performance in practice and music today was good. Keep it up! Once you're on the ice, clear your mind and just do your best."
Zhang Mengyi's focus in preparation is on the team competition. It was expected that she would not perform well in the individual competition. Winning the bronze medal in the team competition would be a success. Yang Yiyan, on the other hand, carries the task of winning the championship, so the pressure is arguably the heaviest among the women's singles players.
Yan Rui, who was participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time, had neither the pressure of the team competition nor the pressure of winning a medal. Everyone's expectation for her was that she could skate both programs without making any mistakes.
Yan Rui gripped the coach's hand, nervously swallowed, and his Adam's apple bobbed noticeably.
She pursed her lips and slowly glided onto the ice, pounding her thigh muscles with both hands. Before reaching the center of the ice rink, she did a full rotation in a lo-like starting position, then stepped on the ice and assumed a ready stance.
Judging from the naked eye, Yan Rui's body language is still not fully relaxed, but it is better than in the short program.
Last night, she lay in bed thinking for a long time, tossing and turning until Yang Yiyan in the same room heard her. To be precise, both of them had insomnia, so they sat up, turned on the bedside lamp, and talked until one o'clock in the morning.
Yang Yiyan's insomnia was easy to guess, but Yan Rui couldn't find a reason for it from any angle.
That night, Yan Rui touched the bracelet her senior sister had given her, remaining silent as she watched Yang Yiyan sit beside her bed, sharing some of her innermost thoughts with her.
Only at the very end did she bite her lip and tell her senior sister what she was thinking.
“I know I haven’t been competing for long and my results aren’t outstanding. Most of the fans will focus on you and ignore me. But for me, not having any expectations is a kind of pressure.”
It's a kind of pressure and anxiety that you create for yourself.
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