Chapter 105 Winning the Gold Medal Again
The applause when Ophelia came on stage was the only one that could rival He Hui's.
After the short program began, Ophelia seemed particularly at ease.
Her three sets of jumps were also performed in the second half.
First, the 3Lz+3Lo jump combo, with its high quality and hand-raising bonus, received a GOE bonus of +2.1 from the judges. According to the rules of the PyeongChang cycle, this means that all of them scored +3, with only one judge giving a +2.
It started off smoothly, but soon the biggest challenge came.
Ophelia raised her foot and leaped forward.
Lu Nanfeng couldn't help holding his breath: "Let's see if Ophelia's 3A turnaround in the team competition can succeed this time."
Just like last time, there was no problem from taking off to the posture in the air.
Ophelia's whole face was stretched along with her body, until her mouth was pursed into a straight line, trying to find the delicate sense of balance when falling on the ice.
Swoosh——
The ice blade made smooth contact with the ice surface, and Ophelia's slide this time was perfect.
Done!
Ophelia couldn't help but wave her arms to the rhythm of the music, and then she performed a big "I" with a rather large amplitude.
Lu Nanfeng: "The last tano 3F was also successfully completed."
Bai Ying: "Ophelia Park's performance was quite perfect."
Lu Nanfeng secretly curled her lips. Based on the current real-time GOE scoring situation, she had a bad feeling in her heart.
The judges' improvement in Ophelia's program content score began last season and lasted for the entire Olympic season. Therefore, it should be no problem for her to get more than 9 points in Pyeongchang.
"Let's wait for Ophelia's score."
After he finished speaking, the live studio in China fell silent. Bai Ying and Lu Nanfeng were both quietly waiting for the results. It was so quiet that the microphone could only pick up the sound of slightly rapid breathing.
As time passed, the tension in the air intensified.
Lu Nanfeng swallowed unconsciously, alarm bells ringing in his head.
Finally, the score appeared on the big screen.
Bai Ying subconsciously read out the specific scores, but the more she read, the slower she read: "Technical score 50.95 points, program content score 37.48 points... total score... 88.43 points."
During every pause, Bai Ying was controlling her emotions.
She took a deep breath and revealed the cruel reality: "With a difference of 0.04 points, Ophelia took first place after the short program, ahead of our country's He Hui."
But Lu Nanfeng next to him was on the verge of losing control.
"Huh?" After a sigh full of incomprehension, Lu Nanfeng manually cut off the reception of his microphone to prevent the appearance of some clips that could not be broadcast in the live broadcast.
The live broadcast of this short program was hastily concluded and then escalated into a new battle on the Internet.
“Huh? Huh? Let me ask you, how did Ophelia win by just 0.04 points?! How did she do that?”
"Figure skating has finally developed into something I don't understand? One year to catch up, two years to surpass, American speed!"
"Wow, the strong appearance of the female goose in the mixed zone makes me cry even more..."
“Ah, why are you all so pessimistic? I think the girl was not strong but determined in the mixed zone. She is really super confident in her ability! Let’s wait and see in the free skate!”
There are people who support He Hui, and naturally there are also people who support Ophelia.
"I'm dying of laughter. He Hui's fans don't allow anyone stronger than her to exist, right? Our Ophelia's jumps are both difficult and expressive, right?"
"That's it... Can you please stop spreading rumors that our Aoife's skating is bad? Are you blind to the visible progress in the past two years? The referee also recognized it!"
While there was a heated argument online, the athletes were busy completing doping tests under the guidance of the staff.
The Olympic Games, as the most important event held every four years, is more stringent in every aspect. For the top six athletes, doping tests are a must.
After all, it was a part that he had performed every time since the beginning of the competition, so He Hui completed it with ease.
Of course, in this Olympic season, in addition to urine tests after official competitions, He Hui also encountered random drug tests during the off-season, and even more than once.
This is special care for perennial medal winners, and also a multi-line defense to ensure order in the stadium.
After a lot of trouble, He Hui and Tan Ling were finally able to return to the athletes' village.
The two chatted idly and the topic continued.
"Actually, I heard that some people are doing strange things in order to improve their grades." As soon as Tan Ling opened his mouth, it was a big news.
"Do you mean taking drugs legally?" He Hui was a little curious.
She had heard about the "legal drug use" thing. After all, although they are strong athletes, they all have heart disease and need to take medicine. This is not a secret in the circle. Many coaches and fitness trainers are most familiar with the annual updated list of banned substances and how to better use technology and hard work to prevent themselves from being left behind by the wheel of the times, rather than their own athletes.
Of course, this is not surprising to many people, and some athletes even take shortcuts by thinking that if it is discovered, it is a stimulant, and if it is not discovered, it is high-tech.
But He Hui didn't quite agree with this idea. Thinking of this, she curled her lips unconsciously.
"Not exactly." Tan Ling said mysteriously, "It seems that this has been discovered before. It's the old method of blood transfusion or red blood cell injection."
"It was found that many people in the Tour de France used this, right? It can improve endurance and explosive power, which is really tempting."
"Yeah, and there's also human growth hormone injections. Anyway, there's all sorts of things."
In short, the two chatted all the way about the history of the Olympics and anti-doping, and relived the story of the battle of wits and courage between scientists, athletes and anti-doping agencies.
*
There is a day of rest between the free skating and the short program, after which the 24 athletes will gather again at the Gangneung Ice Arena to compete for the last gold medal in figure skating.
The last two groups of the women's singles free skating in Pyeongchang were basically a big stage for showing off quadruple jumps, the kind that was dazzling.
Li Chumiao ranked twelfth after the short program, barely making it into the second-to-last group.
"Are you ready for 4T?" He Hui asked.
"Yeah, now that we've gone out, we have to see the real thing on the field, right?" Li Chumiao asked with a smile.
He Hui smiled and gave his blessing solemnly: "Come on."
"Yeah." Li Chumiao turned around and went on stage, leaving He Hui with a dark back.
At that moment, He Hui felt like she was back on the streets of Milan, Italy. The girl who had appeared on the scene on a skateboard and helped her get her phone back was now moving towards a bigger stage with unwavering determination.
It was dark at one end of the long and narrow contestant passage, and on the other side was a light source formed by countless ceiling lights.
He Hui cheered for his "lifesaver" again in his heart.
Li Chumiao's free skating continued with the "Murderous Symphony" from last season. The melody of the music was very infectious, and her handsome opening on the ice rink, where she adjusted her suit and touched the brim of her hat, triggered cheers from the audience.
What He Hui was most worried about were the first four weeks.
After all, after Li Chumiao accidentally became a 4T, he immediately went through a long period of difficult time that could not be replicated.
First he fell in the B-level competition, then he stood up in the stage competition but was judged to have survived. It was not until the most recent competition that he got a positive GOE score for the first time.
After skating almost across the entire long side of the ice rink, Li Chumiao suddenly touched the ice and jumped at the highest point of the skating speed.
The spinning ice skates bring out glittering ice flowers, the quick turns in the air that you would miss in the blink of an eye, and the deep marks left by the ice blades, together compose a successful jump.
Done!
He Hui was the first one to lead the applause backstage, not caring at all about the eyes of those around him.
Li Chumiao on the stage was also very excited about this success, which made this free skating music that focused on emotions burst with new sparks.
Li Chumiao completed the triple jumps one after another and made a great progress to the end, achieving the first perfect clean of the season.
When the music ended, Li Chumiao stood blankly in the middle of the ice rink, her heart beating like a drum and her eyes red.
She was so excited that she almost fell embarrassingly on the ice because her legs were weak as soon as she raised her feet to push off the ice.
After stumbling back to his senses, Li Chumiao attracted a wave of discussion and attention on the Internet.
In the end, Li Chumiao's score surpassed that of all the previous players and she took the lead.
He Hui gave Li Chumiao a long and warm hug and said "congratulations".
Also in the penultimate group was China's Kong Ziqiu, who ranked 11th after the short program, about one point higher than Li Chumiao.
However, Kong Ziqiu did not have a quadruple jump in the free skating, and she also fell during the consecutive jumps due to excessive nervousness. Her final score was not ideal, causing her ranking to decline instead of improve.
Kong Ziqiu looked a little depressed, but the score was as expected.
After all, in this difficult Pyeongchang cycle, some athletes who do not have quadruple jumps will aggressively put all seven jumps in the second half to increase their slim hope of winning.
Kong Ziqiu still followed the distribution of the first three and the last four to ensure quality. What she was really dissatisfied with herself was that she was not able to clean up under such circumstances.
In an atmosphere where everyone was fighting to the death, the last group, each with two four-week reps, made a brilliant appearance.
Among them, none of the four-week Tan Ling seemed out of place, but he had to work hard to arrange the six jumps in the second half with a 1.1x bonus to win subtle points.
The six-minute practice session ended.
"I can't roll anymore!" Tan Ling wanted to lie down on the floor backstage right then and there. "Really, if this continues, the show will be really unbalanced, right? Of course, there are definitely some people who are well-arranged, but for most people, the front is empty and the back is crowded, right?"
He Hui nodded, remembering the big changes made by the ISU after Pyeongchang in his previous life - only the last jump of the short program and the last three jumps of the free skating could get a 1.1 times bonus, which to a large extent calmed the gradually surging trend of stacking jumps.
"The ISU should introduce new rules to restrict this method of scoring," said He Hui.
"I hope it's as soon as possible, I'm really about to be swept away..."
Although she said she was being dragged down, Tan Ling seemed like a completely different person when the music started, and her eyes were filled with confidence.
Apart from the 3F single jump, there are no other jumps in the first half of Tan Ling.
But surprisingly, with the support of the choreography and Tan Ling's expressiveness, the program consisting only of spins and steps did not seem boring, but instead had a different kind of vitality.
The second half started with two series of stunning jumps, which made Bai Ying and Lu Nanfeng applaud continuously and boosted morale.
“3Lz+3Lo was completed beautifully!”
“2A+3T is no problem!”
Tan Ling's jumps are not only of high quality, but also perfectly matched with the music, making people feel as if they are brought into the unique world she created.
"tano 3Lz is done!"
"3F+2T+2Lo is very light, Tano's posture is very good, very harmonious."
Tan Ling was completely into the state, her movements on the field became smoother and smoother, and when it came to the fast-paced allegro part, the whole audience burst into thunderous applause, applauding Tan Ling's performance.
The final 3S and 2A were also presented in this way, pushing the atmosphere to its climax.
Tan Ling was immersed in her own world and ignored the applause that was so loud that it echoed throughout the ice rink. She just focused all her attention on the last series of foot-changing combined spins to finish the move.
Those unswerving dreams and the sweat of overcoming the difficulties of development have all turned into the most beautiful bloom at this moment.
It was not until the music stopped that Tan Ling, gasping for breath and looking at the star-studded audience seats, came out of her own world.
Suddenly, applause rang in her ears, and Tan Ling bowed deeply to the audience.
The Chinese commentary booth was instantly boiling with excitement.
Lu Nanfeng was the first to praise: "Thank you Tan Ling for bringing us a top performance of triple jump! This free skating is her best performance this season, very smooth and beautiful!"
Even among the clean programs, there are huge differences. For example, some programs just complete the technical moves and even feel a little nervous, while others release themselves and bloom brilliantly with dazzling light.
Tan Ling is the latter.
"Let's look forward to Tan Ling's score!" Bai Ying felt her heart pounding.
After seeing He Hui's unsurprising victory, Tan Ling's spirit of challenging despite being one level lower than his opponent makes people excited.
She is really looking forward to China creating another miracle!
"Technical score 78.23, program content score 74.95, total score 153.18! Congratulations to Tan Ling for setting a new personal best!"
Tan Ling suddenly covered her face during the kiss and cry, shocked by the surprising result.
"Congratulations!" He Hui gave Tan Ling a hug when she came towards him.
"Even if I can't get on the stage, I will be satisfied!" Tan Ling really let go of all the burdens.
"Don't underestimate yourself," He Hui corrected.
"The difficulty of their task is not on the same level as mine, okay?" Tan Ling smiled bitterly.
He Hui blinked, and suddenly made the metaphysical gesture that Tang Meng made during the team competition, and smiled slyly.
"Who knows?"
Tan Ling was instantly amused.
"The next one to play is Yuko Egami who has two 3A's." Bai Ying said after calming down her excitement.
Yuko Egami's expression looked extremely serious, her eyes were wide open, and she repeatedly adjusted the position of her ice skates while posing.
Such a tense state is very unfavorable to Yuko Egami's performance.
As expected, she fell again in 3A, and this time the fall was even a week-long fall with an ambiguous number of weeks.
Then, the Lz outer edge problem that she had never been able to suppress did not improve at all, and GOE got a negative number as expected.
The third and final jump in the first half, 3F+3T, stabilized the situation.
However, Yuko Egami's jump in the second half looked a bit stumbling and the GOE was very dry.
Lu Nanfeng glanced at the score and was very happy: "Congratulations to He Hui for maintaining the current first place!"
Tan Ling opened his eyes wide in disbelief and thought, could metaphysics really be so effective?
Of course, this joke was completely unacceptable when Sergeyeva made a series of shocking mistakes.
According to the choreography, Sergeyeva will challenge two 4T in the free skating to make up for her problem of not having 3A and F jump on the wrong edge.
But I don't know if Sergeyeva's condition was affected by her development. Her success rate has gradually declined since the beginning of this season. She was relatively stable in the Olympic short program, but she suddenly dropped the ball in the free skating.
The first 4T was empty and became 2T, and the second 4T was saved and fell, which directly destroyed all the difficulty advantages.
And this time Tan Ling successfully moved up one place again.
"Ahh, if Petrova also makes a mistake, I even think that our Tan Ling can meet He Hui on the podium!"
"I'm looking forward to it! (Doghead)"
"It feels like it will be a little difficult to surpass Petrova, who has both a quadruple and a triple-half and has been on a roll this season."
Petrova did not disappoint the expectations of the Russian people. She maintained a stable 4S at the beginning and got a good start for the free skating of more than four points.
"The second set of jumps was 3A+3T, which was done very beautifully."
Petrova's free skating went smoothly and her performance was excellent. In the first half, she added generous GOE to the two sets of jumps and two sets of rotations.
“Petrova placed the second 3A in the second half to try to get extra points, and the quality of the finish was very high.”
The following jumps were not difficult for Petrova and she completed them easily.
"I can only say that she is worthy of being the number one in Russia. Her stability and completion are really amazing!"
"Tan Ling feels like her dream of winning a medal has been shattered. Woohoo, hug me."
"From the real-time GOE, the referee opened fire on Petrova after discovering Sergeyeva's mistake~"
Finally, the most anticipated women's singles match of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is here!
The battle between the gods with five quads and six quads made the audience at the scene and online very excited.
"Ophelia was the first to perform. She is currently ranked first after the short program and is also very confident about the free skate."
The first place result after the short program put Ophelia in better shape on the ice rink. The opening 4Lz+3T was more than half a meter high, and it felt like there were springs under her feet, which made people exclaim in surprise.
After the explosive opening jump sequence, Ophelia smiled even more widely. She moved quickly on the ice rink and then performed a 4F jump, the height of which almost caught up with the amazing first jump.
"Compared to last season, Ophelia Park will complete one more jump in the second half, which means that she has already completed the jumps in the first half."
Ophelia's rotation was also graded well, with both her posture and number of circles meeting the requirements of level four.
“4T+2T is still very stable.”
"The 3F+1Lo+3S jump jump was also done well. You can see that the referee's real-time GOE is 1.4."
"Ophelia chooses to repeat 4Lz, and GOE can be increased to 1.9."
"The 4S was completed well, and the GOE continued to increase to 1.6 points."
Six jumps are over, leaving only the final 3A.
Lu Nanfeng’s commentary was quite interesting: “In the previous team competition free skating, Ophelia was a turnaround, I wonder how she will be today.”
"It's so funny, I feel like I added the frustration of the short program judges' scoring control to the free skate commentary, haha."
"Ophelia's short program already got 3A, but now it seems like she didn't get it~"
"Ophelia is really strong. She released a new difficulty level right after she announced it. It feels like she had no buffer time at all. She's really strong!"
Ophelia held her breath and suddenly jumped forward on the court.
Her jump perfectly replicated the successful jump in the short program. With a whoosh, she slid smoothly across the ice with her arms outstretched.
Bai Ying: "Ophelia's seven jumps are all completed and are now being put to rest."
As if a huge stone had been lifted from her heart, Ophelia's skating seemed much more cheerful, and she completed her spins amid rhythmic applause.
The music stopped and Ophelia Park cried excitedly with her face covered in her hands in the middle of the venue.
After watching a set of five quadruple moves of incredible difficulty and perfect execution in the free skating, the audience applauded generously, and dolls were thrown all over the corners.
Ophelia had tears on her face as she waved and thanked everyone.
"Ophelia Park's free skating BV was only seven points behind He Hui's. The completion was also remarkable. Let's take a look at the judges' final score."
Soon, Bai Ying's voice sounded again: "Technical score 112.51, program content score 75.82, total score 188.33 points, Ophelia surpassed Petrova and came in first place."
After seeing the scores, Lu Nanfeng couldn't wait to move on to the next stage: "Next, we welcome our Chinese contestant He Hui to the stage!"
“Ahhh! Girl, my girl is finally making her debut in an event at the Winter Olympics! Go for it, she’ll definitely win the championship!!”
"From Ophelia's score just now, I think He Hui will win the championship without any suspense! A quadruple jump score is really not so easy to make up! To be honest, He Hui's difficulty along the way is to give the judges no room to control the score in the short program! !"
He Hui glanced at Ophelia's score nonchalantly from the sidelines, and with a few powerful kicks, she came to the center of the field. She casually drew circles on the field, then moved her arms to make a jumping gesture with a relaxed smile on her face.
After all, this is not the first time for He Hui to come to the big stage of the Winter Olympics. Last time, her opponent was the veteran Tours, and this time her opponent is the newcomer Ophelia. But what remains unchanged is He Hui's unconditional trust in her program.
"Last season, He Hui used a front four back three arrangement, this season it was upgraded to front three back four, which helped BV improve by more than one point." When Lu Nanfeng talked about He Hui, he couldn't hide his pride.
The music "Guangling San" familiar to Chinese people was played for the second time on the ice rink in South Korea, giving goose bumps to the compatriots at the scene and in front of the screen.
He Hui's costume uses Chinese elements in its design and embroidery, and it looks like a rolling blue sea when it slides.
Bai Ying and Lu Nanfeng kept silent tacitly, not wanting to break the beautiful atmosphere.
The sound of the guqin was deep yet elegant, and combined with He Hui's unique 4Lo at the opening, it displayed a mysterious charm from the East.
Next was 4S, which was always a difficult task for He Hui, but he completed it with ease.
The last jump in the first half was a 4F, with a clear use of the edge that was completely different from the hook. In the third jump, he still maintained a very good speed and height, which impressed the audience.
The 4Lz+3T signature jump is the plus point that helps He Hui move from the first half to the second half.
And this jump sequence did not disappoint everyone. It seemed as if the movement was engraved in their DNA, making each performance exceptionally stunning.
There is an intense allegro section in Guangling San, which He Hui opened with a series of 3A+1Lo+3S with the same distinct rhythm.
Then there was the 4T+2T on the street with almost no gaps, and the joint rotation that perfectly expressed the emotions.
4Lz appeared at the end when the music returned to the distant, starting with a light note and landing on a slow beat. It happened that He Hui danced lightly and gracefully, creating a different kind of beauty.
With another round of steps and spins, He Hui's classical dance skills, accumulated year after year, came to the test at this moment. She also integrated the unique traditional beauty into the modern figure skating event and displayed it on the world stage.
When the song ended, He Hui stretched his body completely as the ending move.
Amid the applause, she folded her body completely as a thank you to the audience.
The little red fox landed softly on the ice, and there were cheers in Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese.
Even when He Hui walked to the sidelines, the continuous applause from a foreign country continued.
Lin Xiaoman didn't say anything, but smiled and hugged He Hui, then helped He Hui, who was exhausted from being too involved in the free skating, to the kiss and cry, which was a mixed feeling for a figure skater.
"Great job." said Lin Xiaoman.
"Of course." Although He Hui didn't have the strength to walk, her smile was still quite bright.
The commentary booth waited in silence for the referee's final score. He Hui was the last contestant to appear, and everything would soon be settled.
finally--
Amid the thunderous cheers from the audience, Bai Ying and Lu Nanfeng stood up at the same time!
"With a technical score of 129.65 and a program content score of 76.93, He Hui surpassed Ophelia with a total score of 206.58 points, breaking the world record and Olympic record and winning the gold medal in the women's singles event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics!" Bai Ying's voice became hoarse as she spoke.
Lu Nanfeng quickly added: "It's not easy! Six quadruple moves of astonishing difficulty, and a perfect performance without any mistakes. It's amazing!"
At this moment, He Hui, who was kissing and crying, had a confident expression on her face, and greeted the camera with a smile.
The expression on her face was somewhat similar to that of the little red fox in her hand, with a beautiful curved face, a charming smile, and a tsundere look.
Lin Xiaoman turned around and hugged He Hui for the third time, unwilling to let go for a long time.
"It seems you are the first person to win the women's singles championship in the Winter Olympics consecutively," said Lin Xiaoman.
"Then I will try to get the third one in Beijing." He Hui replied with a raised eyebrow.
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