Exquisite makeup, exquisite competition clothes, although it was only a training, Sui Wenjing was also well prepared like a competition. As the leading figures in Figure Skating pair skating in China, the performances of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have attracted much attention. "Too stable!" "Too much together!" Reporters on the sidelines let out muffled exclamations from time to time. After more than an hour of training, almost all of the two people's technical movements were completed with high quality, whether it was the iconic Sakhov three-week jump, or the difficulty escalation of the lift, as well as single jumps and continuous jumps, all achieved a high success rate, and the pace was uniform like "copy" and "paste".
Like most competitors, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong's success has been accompanied by a journey of reconciliation with injuries. After missing the gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with only a difference of 0.43 points, Sui Wenjing, who was sad and tearful, said unconvincingly, "2022, you are all waiting!" However, he wanted to give it a go, but the two suffered injuries one after another, Sui Wenjing suffered a fatigue fracture in his right foot, and Han Cong also underwent hip surgery. The impact of injuries and COVID-19 has made their training and competition in the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle incomplete, but it has also brought the "onion barrel combination" to a higher level of understanding of music and expression.
There is no better understanding of them than the coach. Zhao Hongbo once said that Sui/Han likes to play their own skating stories in the show. In the Winter Olympic season, the duo revived the music "Golden Bridge on the River of Sorrows", which was used in the 2016/2017 season, and won the gold medals at the 2021 highly competitive figure skating Grand Prix in Canada and Italy. The song is gentle and elegant, solemn and classical, the original meaning is to express the feeling of parting, the two integrate their feelings after the injury into it, telling the story of their mutual support and joint efforts. Han Cong once had a romantic interpretation of this: "In 2017, we used this show, when Sui Wenjing had surgery, and I had to wait for her to return to the ice rink and give her support and strength like a bridge." And when I did the operation, Sui Wenjing became my bridge again. ”
Nowadays, they have placed the feeling of "home country and the world" in the program. "At this moment, there may be many people who are far away and can't see each other, and I hope that through our program, we can bring you the power of the 'bridge', so that everyone can feel the beauty of the sport of figure skating, but also feel the support we give to everyone." Just like the new 'more unity' added in the Olympic slogan, we hope that through our program, we can build a bridge between the audience and with everyone, and everyone has a strength in their hearts, more united, to fight difficulties together. Sui Wenjing said.
On the days when their partners suffered injuries, the two did not stop training. On the day of Sui Wenjing's injury, Han Cong borrowed a female companion to practice lifting; during Han Cong's recovery period from surgery, Sui Wenjing also used other male players to make temporary partners. In the absence of each other, they are all working alone, and when the two return to the field, they are reborn like nirvana.
Han Cong revealed that in last year's consecutive test matches and the two races of the Grand Prix, they did not use the most difficult moves, "Through this period of training, we have returned to the difficulty we want to use during the competition." We don't want to give the judges and the audience the impression that 'they can only skate the music of this feeling', we want to slide this music out of the feeling of upgrading, so that everyone can see a new us." We've successfully tested this show many times and have reached our intended goals. Sui Wenjing said that through more systematic training in the next time, it should be possible to achieve a better level.
Although there are no more "harsh words", Sui Wenjing's statement of "upgrading the dimension design, reducing the dimension to strike, and fighting for the country" has shown the confidence and determination of the increasingly mature combination for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Image source Chinese sports pictures Zhang Xin photo
![Fifteen years of holding hands, "onion barrel" dream of the golden bridge[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)