Chapter 104 Winter Elves
Nine days later, the women's short program of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics kicked off as the finale of figure skating.
This is Ophelia's second challenge to He Hui in the Olympics.
Figure skaters have to complete a series of preparations before the competition, from makeup and hair and coaster checks, to sufficient warm-up to get the body into shape, and final adaptation after arriving at the venue.
The sun rises very late in Pyeongchang in winter. It snowed heavily that night, turning the roads in the Athletes' Village white.
He Hui yawned, put on the hood of his down jacket, stepped on the soft and slippery snow, and boarded the early bus to the venue step by step.
She had just sat down in the front window seat when Kong Ziqiu also got on the bus.
"Good morning." He Hui greeted his former junior sister.
"Good morning." Kong Ziqiu sat down in the back row, also leaning against the window, looking out the dark window, putting on headphones to find his state.
Ophelia got into the car shortly afterwards, wrapped in a red and blue stars and stripes down jacket, her expression unrecognizable.
He Hui, who was sitting at the door, couldn't help but meet the other person's eyes.
In an instant, there was a flash of lightning and the air was filled with smoke.
Ophelia walked all the way to the corner of the last row of the bus and then sat down.
The still snowy night made everything seem even quieter and silent.
The calm was broken at the last minute before departure.
Tan Ling arrived late, with heavy steps, and sat down next to He Hui, panting.
"Huh, I caught up!" Tan Ling patted his chest. The heater in the car and the fact that he had just run made him take off his down jacket.
"Why is the competition scheduled at ten o'clock in the morning? Isn't it too early?" Tan Ling said and yawned.
"For the audience on the other side of the ocean." He Hui answered the question seriously, "Many winter sports audiences are in the United States and Europe. The broadcasting companies there have spent a lot of money to buy live broadcasts, so we have to take care of them as well."
"It's really hard for me, a person who is here for participation..." Tan Ling sighed deeply.
"Are you so unconfident in yourself?" He Hui teased with a smile.
Tan Ling yawned and closed his eyes to rest: "Do your best and leave the rest to fate."
"So open-minded?"
"Not only did I come to the Olympics, I also won a gold medal. What else do I have to regret?" Tan Ling's eyes were clear, and she seemed really satisfied with the current situation.
After listening to this, He Hui shook his head and patted Tan Ling on the shoulder: "It's a pity. You have to work hard to get on the podium in the women's singles event."
Tan Ling sat up in shock from his dying illness, opened his eyes and looked at He Hui: "Are you serious?"
He Hui blinked: "Believe in yourself."
Tan Ling said that she couldn't continue to make up for the sleep!
*
"CCTV, CCTV, good morning, dear audience friends. Now we are bringing you the live broadcast of the women's short program of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics figure skating event. I am the commentator Bai Ying."
After a slight pause, another voice familiar to the audience sounded.
"Hello everyone, I am Lv Nanfeng from the national figure skating team. Today I will be the one explaining together with Teacher Bai Ying."
After making his debut as a commentator in the team competition, Lu Nanfeng took up the job again in the men's singles competition two days ago, becoming more skilled each time and seemingly finding a new direction for development after retirement.
"Because He Hui won the World Championships last year, the Chinese team has historically won three places in the women's singles event this time." Bai Ying said, "They are He Hui, Tan Ling and Kong Ziqiu."
"There are 30 skaters in the women's singles short program, and the top 24 will advance to the free skating."
The first player to appear on the Chinese team was Kong Ziqiu from the third group.
Although Kong Ziqiu is one version behind in this era where everyone is doing quadruple jumps, he is already a very promising second-tier player because he was able to stabilize the advanced triple-triple jump after development.
Moreover, Kong Ziqiu's strength should not be underestimated as he was able to grab a spot in the Winter Olympics from the Chinese team which is now full of talented people.
Lu Nanfeng was very pleased with Kong Ziqiu's achievement in getting the chance to compete among the new generation of young players.
"We had three rounds in the trials. Kong Ziqiu played very steadily and controlled his mistakes very well." Lu Nanfeng even told a lot of behind-the-scenes stories, "But I am particularly susceptible to external influences and my fluctuations are relatively large. So I really admire my teammates who have a stable mentality."
After briefly introducing the song selections, Kong Ziqiu's performance on stage began.
"The first jump was 3F+3T, the take-off was good... the landing was good, let's see the second jump... it's done!"
"It seems that there is no problem with the number of weeks." Lu Nanfeng added.
Kong Ziqiu's other two jumps were placed in the second half with a bonus, so the music entered a more soothing adagio stage, and she also completed two different series of rotations on the ice rink.
"3Lz single jump completed, goe is relatively dry."
"2A also made a rippon gesture."
All three jumps were completed with high quality, and Kong Ziqiu's debut at the Winter Olympics was still a stable output.
Lu Nanfeng: "In fact, Kong Ziqiu could have raised his hand in the previous three weeks, but after the trouble with the development level, he now only keeps 2A."
Kong Ziqiu's weaknesses are still in her steps and skating. Maybe she didn't have a solid foundation when she was young. Even though she worked hard to make up for it after joining the national team, she still has a big gap with the top players who have mastered the basic skills since childhood.
"It would be difficult to rate the completion of this series of steps at level four." Lu Nanfeng felt sorry for his teammates.
After the last series of spins, Kong Ziqiu officially wrote the first line of the story for his Winter Olympics journey.
Bai Ying: "Kong Ziqiu's short program score is 65.77 points, ranking first among the 15 contestants."
This score is a very good answer for Kong Ziqiu, and he has great hope of making it into the last two groups in the free skating.
......
"What you are seeing now is the six-minute practice of the last group of contestants." Bai Ying said, "As a strong contender for the podium, you can feel the strong atmosphere as soon as they step on the stage."
Tan Ling originally came with the mentality of focusing on participation, but before going on stage, He Hui entrusted her with an important task.
"You have to believe that you can get on stage."
Tan Ling had just slid two meters on the field when she felt He Hui's words echoing in her ears.
She looked around and blinked at He Hui, Ophelia, Petrova, Sergeyeva and Egami Yuko who passed by her.
Everyone was conscientiously completing warm-ups and drills before the official competition, and Tan Ling could clearly feel the smoke-filled atmosphere.
"The first player to take the stage is Japanese player Yuko Egami, who will continue to challenge 3A in the Pyeongchang competition. In the previous team competition, her 3A was ruled to be a week."
Bai Ying’s commentary kicked off the prelude to the last set of battles.
Yuko Egami made her first jump ten seconds after the start, and it was a very determined jump.
Lu Nanfeng couldn't help but sigh: "Ah...what a pity."
As the audience sighed, Yuko Egami fell to the ice, and almost in the blink of an eye, she quickly got up.
Bai Ying saw the positive side: "But looking at the angle of this landing, the number of rotations can be verified."
The GOE of a fall jump will be unconditionally -3, so that a jump originally worth 8.5 points will instantly only have 5.5 points, but this is still somewhat better than the score of 2A.
Bai Ying: "The second jump was 3F+3T, GOE+1.1, which was recognized by the referee."
Lu Nanfeng: "In the last jump, Jiang Shangyuzi chose 3Lo, which was mainly due to her Lz wrong blade."
"Let's take a look at the short program score of Japanese player Yuko Egami... 69.14 points, currently ranked first."
After the scores came out, Yuko Egami shook her head in dissatisfaction. And the score given by the judges for the program content was only around eight points, the lowest among the last group of contestants.
"The next player to appear is our country's contestant Tan Ling."
Tan Ling took a deep breath and thought, her story with the Pyeongchang ice rink is not over yet.
To be honest, Tan Ling had been full of ambition since the beginning of the season. Like some Russian athletes, she chose to put all three jumps in the second half to narrow the insurmountable gap caused by insufficient difficulty.
Even though he already has an Olympic gold medal, He Hui still wants to try his best in individual events.
"The first jump at the beginning was 3Lz+3Lo, very beautiful!"
“3F also did a perfect job, and you can see that the referee gave a GOE of +1.6.”
When Tan Ling finished her last 2A, Lu Nanfeng kept clapping, applauding Tan Ling's persistence.
"I hope I can get a good score." Lu Nanfeng said as his emotions prevailed in his mind.
Bai Ying quickly brought good news to everyone: "Tan Ling's short program score is 79.35 points! Tan Ling has now risen to the first place."
"That's great!" Lu Nanfeng smiled almost to his ears.
The next person to take the stage was Lana Sergeyeva from the Russian Olympic delegation. She also put the three jumps in the second half. Because of the fatal reason of the wrong blade of F, she chose the combo jump of 3Lz+3T. In the singles, she used 3Lo, which was slightly less difficult than Tan Ling.
"Sergeyeva's short program score was 79.46 points, surpassing Tan Ling to take first place."
An advantage of just 0.11 points is enough to determine the final ranking.
Lu Nanfeng calmed himself down and looked at the order of appearance.
"He Hui, represent China!"
The host's announcement made this melancholy disappear and turned into new expectations.
The camera turned and He Hui, wearing a blue and white gradient coaster, stepped onto the 30x60-meter ice rink. She will start her second performance in Pyeongchang and her first appearance in the short program.
"The music for He Hui's short program comes from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. This is her second time performing The Four Seasons. This time she chose the piece "Winter" and the excerpts are from the first and second movements."
He Hui once again chose "Four Seasons", and chose the chapter of "Winter" which is completely different from the previous "Spring". At that time, she was a spring bird full of vitality, but now she will become a winter elf walking in the wind and snow.
"This season, He Hui, like other top athletes, chose a short program with three jumps in the second half."
The opening string music created a depressing feeling of a biting cold wind whistling past, and the swish of He Hui's ice skates sliding across the ice was more like the sound of the wind whistling past.
To the sound of an intense violin melody, He Hui started off by completing a series of jumps and turns, and then completed a set of steps to the sound of the violin that attempted to break through the depressing atmosphere.
“The grading conditions are very sufficient, and you can see that the GOE has scored more than one point.”
Amidst the notes of such fierce wind and snow, He Hui completed the first series of jumps at the starting time of the second half.
"tano 3Lz+3Lo! This is the quality of Gaopiaoyuan that He Hui has always been proud of. You can see that the real-time GOE has reached 1.8 points."
When the music reached the climax of the first movement, there was a slight pause. When the music started again, the rhythm suddenly became peaceful and melodious.
The snowstorm passed, and people hiding in the house looked out the window. At this moment, there was a peaceful and boundless white world. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds again, bringing with it the warm tone of winter.
"The anti-rhythmic triple A on the soft note is a very subtle expression."
"Then there was a series of foot-changing spins."
The fireplace in the house is crackling with sparks, bringing warmth to the surroundings, making people want to sit on the fabric sofa by the window and have a glass of warm mulled wine specially provided for winter.
In this mood, He Hui completed the final 3F single jump and made the final bow turn.
After the winter song ended, He Hui bowed to the audience from all directions.
She returned to Lin Xiaoman's side, breathing slightly, feeling inexplicably calm and at ease.
Lin Xiaoman said nothing, but put her arm around He Hui, waiting for the referee's final score.
The wait wasn't long.
Bai Ying read the results immediately, trying to keep her voice under control: "He Hui's short program score is - technical score 50.41 points, program content score 37.98 points, total score 88.39 points."
Lu Nanfeng had no intention of hiding it, her voice was as excited as if she was a general who had won millions.
“Congratulations to He Hui for breaking the Olympic record and the world record! He Hui has once again set a new personal best! This short program is a masterpiece worth watching over and over again!”
The next player to play after He Hui was Olya Petrova, who also had 3A. Her results were good and the referee liked her enough.
"The score of Petrova from the Russian Olympic delegation is 86.94 points, currently ranking second."
"The last player to play was Ophelia Park from the US team. Her configuration was the same as He Hui and Petrova."
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