On February 10, the Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating men's singles free skating competition was held at the Capital Gymnasium, and finally the American Player Chen Wei won the gold medal, the Japanese players Youzhen Jianshan and Masamo Uno won the silver and bronze medals respectively, the Sochi Winter Olympics and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Figure Skating Men's Singles Champion, Japan's Famous Yu Yu yu string ranked 4th, and China's Jin Boyang ranked 9th.
During the match, Yusuke Yusuke tried to perform Axel's Four Jump (4A) as soon as he started, but fell down when he fell on the ice because he did not control his center of gravity. The competition came to an end, and Yu sheng's challenge to 4A at the tournament became one of the biggest hot spots outside the medal, although he himself ultimately missed the medal, but he still landed on weibo, Twitter and other social media hot search highs.
What exactly is the 4A that Yu Yu has in mind?
4A, full name Axel Four-Way Jump, requires players to complete a four-and-a-half-week turn in the air after jumping forward. Yusei yushin once explained the difficulty of the "historical level" of this action himself: "Just like a long jumper, jumping 6 meters and turning four and a half laps in the process. ”
Axel first appeared on the field in 1882, when it was only a week and a half. For more than a hundred years, weeks and a half, two and a half weeks, three and a half weeks – figure skaters continued to push the limits of this jump until 1978, when they managed to jump out of the three-and-a-half weeks (AAA). From one and a half weeks to three and a half weeks, athletes on the ice rink have spent nearly a hundred years, and each increase in the number of weeks is a major step forward in the field of figure skating.
Among the six jumping moves of figure skating, Axel Jump is the only one that takes off forward, and it is also the most difficult of all jumps. In the past journey of countless figure skaters to challenge the limit, the four-way jump has been considered the limit - usually, the figure skaters need about 0.7 seconds from the start to the ice, and the four-way jump requires them to complete a total of 1440 degrees of rotation in these 0.7 seconds, and when they land, they have to bear an impact equivalent to 7 times their own weight.
Compared with other four-week jumps, the difficulty of 4A is that in the actual jump, it needs to jump for half a week, that is, the player needs to complete a total of 1620 degrees of rotation in the same time. The godfather of Russian figure skating, Pushhenko, once said that in his lifetime, no one can complete the 4A because it exceeds the limits of human physical ability.
Although Yusei Yushin once said, "No one has ever succeeded in 4A, no one knows how to succeed, and sometimes I think that no one may be able to succeed." But four years ago, after successfully defending the men's singles title at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the goal of the first and youngest Winter Olympic men's singles defender in the past 66 years became to "successfully challenge the 4A". At the post-match press conference, he said: "All the motivation is only 4A, I have achieved what I can achieve, I have done what I can do, and the rest is only the goal I described as a child." ”
In media interviews over the past four years, he has repeatedly talked about why he challenged 4A: "With 4A, I can live so vigorously, (4A) is my last dream to gamble on life as a competitive figure skater" "I want to jump 4A because I want to satisfy myself, so that I can stand up and say, this is the best feather knot string, this is the ideal feather knot string" "4A is probably the limit wall of our figure skaters, I want to create that chapter beyond the limit." ”
Yu Yu's figure skating initiation teacher once commented on him, "The greatest talent is nothing but desperate efforts." "For the past 4 years, whether it is private training or open competition, Yu Yushin has been constantly trying the 4A. In December 2021, during the public practice before the all-Japan Figure Skating Championships, Yu Yu tried the 4A again and fell safely on the ice, but in the official competition, due to the lack of weeks, the 4A was still not completed. After the game, he said, "I will jump out of the real 4A at the Beijing Winter Olympics, not the level of 4A it is now, which is my ultimate goal." "Today, in the beijing Winter Olympics, Yusheng yuxian still regards the completion of the 4A as his mission." The arena is beautiful and the ice is good, I love it. Although (4A) is very difficult, it is what I want to achieve no matter what, so I will work on it. ”
Contrary to his wishes, in the Beijing Winter Olympics, his challenge to 4A failed again. In a post-match interview, Yusei said that it was an "Olympic Games that carried out the challenge and was full of his dignity" and that he had "played his best, without any reservations, and from the very beginning, he was fully horsepowered." As for the challenge to 4A in the future, he said, "Please give me some more time." I ''ve (now) done my best" "I feel like I can do more".
What is the significance of The Challenge of The Feather String to the 4A?
After the match, Hideo Sugita, the former international referee of figure skating, said, "If you want to, Yu Yu has the ability to complete the game without error, but he still chose to challenge (4A), which is really worthy of him." Shizuka Arakawa, the first Asian athlete to win a gold medal in figure skating and women's singles champion at the Turin Winter Olympics, commented: "I don't think there will be anyone who bets on the Olympic triple crown to fight for the 4A, and I think there will probably be no more people who want to challenge the 4A on the Olympic stage if the times don't change." I deeply felt that he showed everyone the style of an athlete. Former Japanese figure skater Mihime Ando also said that "only the Habu riders who challenge the 4A on such a big stage as the Winter Olympics can do it", "Although the number of weeks is not enough to fall, I am grateful to be able to witness this historical moment together." ”
Regardless of success or not, there is no doubt that Yusuke Habu himself and his challenge to 4A are of great significance to the figure skating project.
Chen Wei, the men's singles champion of figure skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics, said in an interview that Yusheng knotting is "a symbol of figure skating" and that "it is a great honor to be able to witness everything he does on ice," and that "he will continue to push the limit in the future." Runner-up Masama Uno said that "in the changing times, Yusei, who has always maintained the top level, is very strong", "He has been leading the Japanese men's figure skating and the world figure skating forward." Chinese figure skater Jin Boyang also said in an interview that "he challenged himself when he was 27 years old, to challenge 4A, to challenge four and a half weeks, which was admirable enough", "This is the Olympic spirit, he also inspired me, as long as I can, I will continue to skate." ”
The idol of Yusheng Yusheng, the Russian figure skating legend Proshenko, previously said on his personal social platform: "As an athlete who has participated in four Winter Olympic Games, I just want to say that Yusheng Yushin you are a great athlete, and your contribution to figure skating is priceless. ”
On a Yahoo News website in Japan, a man's single figure skater titled "Who is the most impressive male figure skater at the Beijing Winter Olympics?" Nearly 80,000 people (as of press time) voted, and about 75 percent of them chose "Feather Knot.".
Yusheng's unremitting challenge to 4A has also brought great touch and courage to foreign netizens, especially Japanese netizens, and many netizens expressed their admiration, admiration and gratitude for Yusheng's string: "Thank you for your performance", "Just because you dare to challenge the king", "The challenge is too handsome", "Great player", "The legend of life", "The weight of the gold medal", "One day 4A will definitely succeed", "Your figure skating has given me the courage to face difficulties"...
As Chen Lu, a two-time Bronze Medalist at the Winter Olympics and the first figure skater in China, said, "His courage is really very admirable, and he has been constantly trying to break through the limits of human beings and break through the ceiling of technical difficulty." ”
Japanese singer and original singer of "Spring, Come" Matsunaya Yumi lamented on social media, "The performance of the Habu contestants brought me to tears... This strong beauty that falls and will not collapse supports the Japanese people and supports mankind. For me, it's something more valuable than the players who win medals. ”
Producer: Nandu Big Data Research Institute
Data collection and analysis: Tang Jingyi Luo Yun
Design: Lin Yongxi
Source: Yahoo Shimbun, Twitter, Weibo, public media reports, etc