Chapter 66 Chapter 66 On the verge of breaking out
On the seventh day of competition in Sochi, He Hui realized how powerful the short track speed skater with a jumping mind whom he met in the training meeting and on the bus was on the field.
The women's 500 meters is the first gold medal decided in short track speed skating.
Therefore, many teammates of the national team who have not had any competitions recently got together in groups of three or five and said they would come to cheer and witness the birth of the gold medal.
The women's figure skating and ice dancing events were scheduled for a later time, so He Hui was pulled over by Tang Meng to watch the competition.
As for Bian Jing, who originally loved to watch the fun, he had to stay in his room to rest and prepare because he had a competition the next day.
Bian Jing: "Humph, you guys can watch the first gold medal for me!"
He Hui glanced at Bian Jing's WeChat message full of resentment and smiled.
Tang Meng looked at the same news and curled her lips: "Ignore this three-year-old kid."
The atmosphere of short track speed skating and figure skating is completely different. The audience is obviously more lively and everyone is very excited.
As soon as He Hui and Tang Meng appeared in their seats watching the game, Chinese fans who came to watch the game posted their photos on the Internet.
"Is this He Hui? My god, her face is so small in real life, and she is so elegant."
"Wow, she looks so relaxed! Is that Tang Meng dancing with ice next to her? She's so cute!"
The first event on the field was the women's 500m short track speed skating semi-finals, with three Chinese athletes divided into two groups.
After hearing a gunshot, the four players on the field rushed out like the wind. The crisp sound of the ice skates hitting the ice made people's blood boil.
Only then did He Hui realize how outrageous and... trifling the figure skaters' racing had looked during the previous training camp.
She didn't even dare to blink as the team members quickly completed two laps of sliding, and the race was halfway through.
The field entered the final battle.
Feng Liying is far ahead, and the following three are fighting fiercely for a spot in the finals.
Tang Meng, who was standing next to him, was stunned. He held He Hui tightly in his hands and his whole body was tense. He only relaxed after all the contestants crossed the finish line.
"This is too intense..." Tang Meng sighed, "It seems that our project is particularly peace and love."
He Hui nodded.
The heart-pounding passion brought by the rapid sliding of the skates across the ice, the potential physical contact and the back-and-forth overtaking of the inside and outside lanes make your adrenaline rush.
The referees in the field were still busy checking the replays of the physical contact between several people. Once a player was found to have deliberately violated the rules, the result would be cancelled.
The other three contestants were looking at the screen worriedly, but Feng Liying, who was far ahead all the way, was the only one talking to her coach calmly.
"Wow, Feng Liying is so handsome too." Tang Meng blinked and looked at everything on the court.
After two rounds of semi-finals, Feng Liying and Bao Yutong of the Chinese team both entered the Group A finals, forming a group advantage to a certain extent.
But one of the opponents is from South Korea and the other is from the Netherlands, and their strength should not be underestimated.
He Hui, like all the Chinese audiences in the stands, was anxiously waiting.
After the gunshot, the contestants in the finals rushed out again with their skates interlaced. Feng Liying won a leading advantage just by starting, and swam flexibly to the front of everyone.
The lead continued to expand. After completing three laps, Feng Liying had already opened up a distance of almost three meters from the players behind her.
You know, this is a short 500-meter race with only four laps that tests explosive power. Being able to run such a long distance shows how exaggerated the strength is.
"Wow, so awesome! Gold medal!" Tang Meng immediately hugged He Hui beside her.
"The first gold medal for the Chinese team." He Hui murmured, "It's really impressive."
She suddenly thought of Feng Liying's words, "We all want to win the gold medal." It turned out that it was not just a polite remark, but a small goal that could be achieved.
I feel the burden on my shoulders is heavier, and I have to work harder to fulfill my promise.
*
On the thirteenth day of competition in Sochi, the women's singles short program finally officially began.
He Hui arrived at the competition venue early and felt complicated when looking at the empty seats and scattered contestants.
"It's finally here." She stood backstage, feeling her heart beating faster, and her palms, which had been clenched all the way, were already sweating.
"It's rare to see you so nervous." Lin Xiaoman joked.
"This is the Olympics." He Hui stretched his joints on the spot, "Weren't you nervous when you first participated?"
"I was nervous." Lin Xiaoman recalled her time, "but when I was actually on the ice, I didn't seem to be that nervous anymore."
"6.0 points is different from now. Maybe a three-week program followed by a two-week program is enough. At that time, all I could think about was that I had to perform well. And the skater before me skated so perfectly. The more I watched, the gloomier I felt. I almost couldn't breathe."
It was rare for Lin Xiaoman to reminisce about the past, and He Hui listened with great interest, and it seemed that his mood gradually calmed down.
"Let's try to narrow the gap in the short program." Lin Xiaoman patted He Hui on the shoulder and said, "You will go on stage before her. If you perform well, the pressure will naturally be on her."
He Hui nodded, put on her headphones and continued to complete each step of the warm-up.
This is a set of methods she summarized to make her mind more peaceful.
- Isolate yourself from the influence of the outside world, focus your attention completely on every little thing in front of you, constantly adjust your breathing and reaction, and improve your physical condition little by little.
Once He Hui enters this state, he can't hear anyone talking.
Lin Xiaoman sat quietly aside, tilted her head to admire He Hui's focused look, and curled the corners of her mouth quietly.
The contestants arrived at the venue one after another to prepare, and the backstage gradually became lively.
Once more people come, the few warm-up equipment and facilities backstage become a hot topic.
Li Chumiao saw He Hui running on the treadmill, so she tacitly turned on the one next to her.
But before Li Chumiao had run for two minutes, another blonde, blue-eyed white girl interrupted her with a smile.
"Sorry, I occupied this space first. I just put a towel here, but I had to go to the bathroom temporarily." Although the girl smiled, it was superficial and looked a little fake.
Li Chumiao felt that the other party was simply inexplicable. She didn't see any towels when she came over. Moreover, could an unsigned towel be used as a placeholder?
She pointed to the treadmill and replied, “There was nothing when I got here.”
Unexpectedly, the other party just raised an eyebrow and said: "I put it away, maybe I don't know who threw it away?"
Li Chumiao felt her blood pressure suddenly rise. Was this guy being sarcastic?
"There was no one here when I came, so there is no such thing as you taking possession of it first." Li Chumiao didn't want to get entangled with the rogue anymore and clearly rejected him.
But the girl seemed to have been hit in a sore spot and became furious.
"Why are you so rude?" the other person rolled his eyes.
Li Chumiao was speechless and decided to use magic to defeat magic: "If you think so, I can't help it."
Then, she put on headphones like He Hui, and the noisy sound was instantly blocked out.
Seeing that Li Chumiao was not an easy person to deal with, the man ran to He Hui, trying to get her support.
Unexpectedly, He Hui was completely immersed in her own world, and she didn't react until the other person stood right in front of her sight and waved.
"What's wrong?" He Hui lowered the treadmill speed to the lowest, took off his headphones, and looked blankly at Li Chumiao on the left and the white girl on the right.
"You..." The other party thought He Hui was pretending to be stupid, and became even angrier. He stomped his feet and turned away.
"What's wrong with her?" He Hui touched the back of his head in confusion and turned to ask Li Chumiao.
"It's okay, just a weird person." Li Chumiao signaled He Hui to continue warming up.
Although she experienced a minor incident before the race, after He Hui completed running, simple land jumping and footwork exercises, she had already broken out in a light sweat and felt refreshed.
Li Chumiao and the person she had just quarreled with were put in the same group as their enemies. The atmosphere was extremely tense during the sixth practice.
But Li Chumiao was very competitive. She came on stage even when one of her opponents made a mistake and fell, and performed three sets of jumps perfectly in sequence.
When the two met backstage after the competition, Li Chumiao raised her eyebrows at the other party proudly, making the other party angry again.
*
The last two groups of women's singles bring together the twelve strongest players currently in service.
Especially when the last six-minute exercise brought together He Hui, Tours-Maria, Anna-Victoria, Eriko Sanada, Constance Simona and Maud Miranda, the audience didn't even know where to look.
"Welcome to watch the six-minute practice session of the last set of women's singles figure skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics." CCTV usually skips the six-minute practice session to insert pay-per-second advertisements, but this time, it broadcast this part for the first time just for He Hui's shot.
On the ice rink, He Hui's eyes were calm and focused. He observed whether his take-off route was clear, and then completed 3A calmly.
"How proficient is the girl in 3A now? She can complete it with just a normal start~"
"I saw He Hui just finished the 3A jump and then Turles did it. It was so funny."
Moreover, Tours's jump happened to be performed not far in front of He Hui. The time and place were chosen very cleverly.
After seeing this, He Hui continued to confirm the take-off route calmly.
When she had a hard time with 3A, she watched Tours' videos countless times, trying to find the trick bit by bit. But now, the opponent is trying to use 3A as a trump card jump to gain a subtle advantage in psychological warfare.
Unfortunately, this trick doesn't work on He Hui.
Halfway through the six-minute practice, Miranda also attempted a 3A, but both feet landed on the ice and Cun Zhou was unable to run.
"You can see that the last group is made up of the only three active female singles players who can do a 3A jump," said Bai Ying.
The tense atmosphere on the field reached its peak in the silent confrontation.
In the previous team competition, He Hui had already adapted to the ice rink in advance, so at about five and a half minutes, he skated to the sidelines and chatted with Lin Xiaoman.
"Are you still nervous?" Lin Xiaoman asked.
“Once I’m on the ice, I’m not so nervous.”
The six-minute practice time was up. Except for Miranda, everyone left the court one after another and lined up to leave from the exit, looking at each other in silence.
"Miranda is the first to perform in the last group of the short program," Bai Ying introduced. "After three seasons, Miranda is challenging 3A again this year. Let's look forward to whether she can succeed."
Miranda completed five or six press steps on the court to maximize his speed.
Her right leg floated up, and her standby time was almost twice as long as He Hui's.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Miranda finally took off, completed a triple spin in the air, and landed on the ice skates. However, whether the last half spin can be recognized is debatable.
The final scores came out, and Miranda's 3A was indeed caught for the week.
She didn't look well.
The difference in the name of the short program is often within a few tenths of a point, and a week of loss of points is not good for Miranda's final ranking. Fortunately, her program content score is maintained well, and she is still very competitive.
Anna Victoria and Eriko Sanada took the stage next. As two players without 3A reserves, they relied on their ability to maximize the other three weeks.
After the three of them came on stage, Anna Victoria took the lead with 73.28 points, followed by Miranda with 73.01 points, and Eriko Sanada was third with 71.85 points.
"Soon, our player He Hui will be on the field."
The first round of the Winter Olympics showdown between He Hui and Tours is about to begin.
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