Beijing time on February 14 As the last note of "Kung Fu Piano Under the Great Wall" fell, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu, nicknamed "Motor Engine" by ice fans, also ended the second Winter Olympics tour. Free dance 111.01, plus rhythm dance results, the total score of 184.42 will finally lock the ranking in twelfth place! It greatly improved the best result of the 1992 Winter Ice Dance Olympics in Albertville, which was maintained by Han Bing/Yang Hui for 30 years.
Now that such progress has been made, the past of China's ice dance has once again emerged, and the future has gradually become clear.
Review: Motor/engine fault first
Since its first participation in the Winter Olympics in 1980, Chinese figure skating has appeared at lake Placid, when only two men's singles players Xu Zhaoxiao (coach Jin Boyang) and women's singles Bao Zhenhua were sent to compete. Four years later in Sarajevo, doubles and ice dance have also landed in the Olympic Games, but compared to the other three have had a good performance in the Winter Olympic Games, and even have medal strength, Chinese ice dance has always hovered on the edge of promotion:
1984: Xi Hongyan /Zhao Xiaolei – 19th place
1988: Liu Luyang /Zhao Xiaolei – 19th place
1992: Han Bing/Yang Hui – 18th place
1994: Did not qualify for the Olympics
1998: Did not qualify for the Olympics
2002: Zhang Weina/Cao Xianming – 22nd place
2006: Did not qualify for the Olympics
2010: Huang Xintong/Zheng Xun – 19th place
2014: Huang Xintong / Zheng Xun – 23rd place (not promoted to free dance)
2018: Wang Shiyue / Liu Xinyu – 22nd place (not promoted to free dance)
......
After four years of asceticism, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu lived up to expectations and finally ranked 12th out of all 23 pairs of players with a score of 184.42, and drew a successful end to their second Olympic trip with the result of greatly improving the results of China's ice dance Olympics.
From another point of view, from the perspective of the World Championships that better reflect the growth line of the players, they also started from the 19th place that debuted in the 14/15 season, and went through several seasons of twists and turns (19-22-16-18-15... 13) After that, raise the ranking to the 13th place at last year's World Championships! Admittedly, even in terms of achievements alone, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu must be the number one partner of China's ice dance since its inception.
Such achievements, in addition to Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu's own hard work, are closely related to the careful cultivation of the Montreal International Skating School, which is known as the "dumpling restaurant", for several years.
Progress: Set sail again from Montreal
Lauzon hugged Dibrey off the field
As the founder and core of the training camp, Marie-Frans Dubreuil/Patrice Lauzon not only participated in the 2002/06 Winter Olympics and won the silver medals of the 06 and 07 World Championships, but also the partners in the career and the husband and wife in life. The most regrettable moment of the two's careers was the unexpected fall of the Turin Winter Olympics when the choreography was finally lifted, resulting in the female partner being injured and having to quit the free dance - their prescribed dance ranked fourth with a narrow score difference of 0.21, and they were normally strong contenders for the bronze medal.
After winning the silver medal at the World Championships for the second time in 2007, the two chose to retire and opened a training camp like other figure skaters, specializing in ice dance teaching. And only four years later, this North American ice dance base, which was not large at the time, successfully ended Russia's strong dominance in ice dance for many years in the way that two pairs of disciples won the world championship and runner-up!
Since then, the training camp has become famous, and many ice dance partners who are facing state difficulties and cannot improve or have reached the pinnacle of perfection but still want to go further have thrown themselves into Montreal, and since then the training camp has been known as one of the "dumpling houses" with an absolutely overwhelming quality and number of students - that is, whether it is the Grand Prix, the World Championships, the European Championships/Continents or even the Olympic Games, there are always students from the Montreal Training Camp in the ice dance arena. In the equal division, Du borel/Lauzon and the rest of the coaches were never absent.
Champion Papadakis/Caesaron
In this Winter Olympics, the dumpling house is so brilliant that it is incomparable: in the top three, there are the French combination Papadakis/Xi Zelong who won the gold medal and the American combination Huber/Donohue who won the bronze medal; the top five should add Jock/Butters in the fourth place; there are three pairs in the top ten who are ranked 8/9/10; and in the top 20, 4 pairs including Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu must be added. Among the three pairs who failed to qualify for the free dance, The Japanese Komatsubara couple was also counted.
The dumpling house lineup is strong
In other words, the dumpling house can be said to occupy half of the ice dance of the Winter Olympics! So while waiting for the division, Dibreuil, Lauzon and several other coaches took turns to lock the coaching bench.
Specific to Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu, since switching to Montreal, Labor has helped correct the movements, so that Wang Shiyue, who has been limited by the height difference for many years, has always been unable to let go of his hands and feet, to enhance his body flexion rhythm to avoid the height difference becoming a choreography and technical obstacle; Dibreuil is responsible for choreography, so that each group of students chooses the music they like instead of the coach's recommendation, and finally presents different styles. After the first six months of challenges, the two appeared on the field in a refreshing state, which can be described as a great benefit.
Although due to the epidemic, foreign students cannot gather in Montreal for training as usual, and can only teach online through the Internet, which has affected the progress of the past year or so to a certain extent. However, Wang/Liu still implements the coach's technical and choreography ideas into the program: the rhythmic dance of Elvis Presley mixes, reflecting their characteristics of speed, vitality and energy; the free dance "Kung Fu Piano on the Great Wall" is magnificent and delicate, showing the Chinese style to the fullest.
Goal: Go ahead! Top 10 at the World Championships
After successfully creating the history of local ice dance in Asia, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu and even China's ice dance will next have the heavy responsibility of the top ten of the World Championships: in the case of a country with only one pair of pairs participating in the World Championships, only in the top ten, the next year the country can send two pairs of players to participate!
In today's free dance competition, in addition to Wang Shiyue / Liu Xinyu, the remaining 19 pairs of players are European and American faces, which also truly reflects the situation of Asia in the world ice dance pattern: the Shibuya brothers and sisters who won the bronze medal in Pyeongchang in 18 years are Japanese, but belong to the American system; this year's Japanese Komatsubara couple, the male partner is also an American transfer player, not to mention that they rank 22nd out of all 23 pairs of players, stopping rhythmic dance.
Therefore, if Chinese ice dance wants to break this pattern, it must do its best to break through the shackles of the top ten of the World Championships, only in this way can it form a team advantage in Italy in 26 years.
Since we want to form a "group", it means that there will not be only one pair of Chinese ice dances! Chen Hong/Sun Zhuoming, who is very different in style from the motor/engine, also entered the Montreal gate a few years ago. If Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu has successfully completed the tasks of the Beijing cycle, then the next step is to test the results of Chen Hong/Sun Zhuoming's training for several years.
From the interview after the team match, Wang Shiyue revealed that the two also had "a set of rhythmic dance and free dance" this season. In other words, it is not surprising that China will send the only pair of Chen Hong/Sun Zhuoming who meet the technical scoring criteria of the World Championships to participate in the World Championships in Montpollier, France, from March 21-27. It remains to be seen what kind of answers the pair can deliver on the world championship debut of China's active ice dance No. 2, which is finally going to walk in front of the stage.
(Tang Xuemi)