At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong passed the gold medal by a difference of 0.43 points. The day of the final was the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, and after the game, the two could not hide their tears, and Han Cong choked and said: "No complaints, no regrets, this is also the direction of the next effort." ”
This Olympic cycle, both have experienced injuries. After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Sui Wenjing suffered a fatigue fracture of her right foot, and Han Cong underwent hip surgery in April 2020.
Returning from injury, the two won the runner-up of the 2021 World Championships, and won the Winter Olympic Test, Figure Skating Grand Prix Canada and Italy in the new Winter Olympic season. In their words, "At the moment everything is moving in the best direction." ”
In 2022, Sui Wenjing Han Cong, who fought at the doorstep, carried the glory and also carried the pressure. Feeling the pressure on them was the 2006 pair skating Olympic runner-up Dan. In Zhang Dan's view, "Sui Wenjing and Han Cong's biggest opponents are only themselves." ”
Chinese figure skater Zhang Dan.
The opponent is fierce, just focus on yourself
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, everything is full of unknowns for figure skating.
Due to the epidemic, figure skating has cancelled many large-scale international events in the past two years, and everyone has to constantly polish their technology:
At the previous European Championships in Figure Skating, World Champion Misna/Galliamov scored 239.82 points on aggregate, all three of which set a new career-high; Tarasova/Morozov also set three individual bests, finishing runner-up at the European Championships for the third consecutive time, and former champions Pojkova/Kozorovsky won bronze medals.
The excellent performance of the opponent undoubtedly also put Sui Wenjing and Han Cong under great pressure, which Zhang Dan repeatedly mentioned in an interview with the surging news.
"In this kind of competition, when you have the opportunity to compete for the championship, you already have a lot of pressure. At the same time, the eyes of the whole country are on them, and foreign players will pay special attention, so the pressure is multiplied for them. ”
Sui Wenjing/Han Cong.
How to overcome this pressure, Zhang Dan emphasizes only one word - pay attention to yourself.
"Their current level is not to the point of winning the championship alone, in fact, it is similar to the level of Russia." In Zhang Dan's view, in the case of horizontal Bozhong, we must pay more attention to on-the-spot play, "In this state, the biggest opponent is himself, and only by overcoming the pressure in his heart can he face the game more calmly and play his best state." ”
'They have to let go of themselves, don't think too much about the results, pay more attention to the game process, and when you are focused enough, you will be more involved in the game."
In addition to Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, they also played with the Peng Cheng/Jin Yang combination. Compared with the 15 years of cooperation experience of the "onion barrel combination", Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, who only started to partner in 2016, are obviously the younger pair.
Zhang Dan believes that it is this kind of youthful vitality that helps them to make breakthroughs, "When they play, the state will be relatively relaxed, and it is easy to be more involved in the state of the game." And in the past two years, their technical improvement is very large, and it has become more and more stable. ”
Sui Wenjing/Han Cong participate in the team competition.
Looking forward to the onion barrel, the difficulty needs to be carefully considered
Before the start of the Winter Olympics, at the open day of the Chinese figure skating team's ice training media, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were full of confidence, indicating that the training during this period had a new breakthrough in difficulty, and revealed that the two Olympic games or the program and difficulty will be upgraded again, "I hope to let everyone see something new, so there have been many innovations in lifting." ”
In the training class, the "Onion Barrel Combination" practiced the difficult "Throwing and Jumping Around" action, which has always been the hand of the Chinese figure skating team, and the "Onion Barrel Combination" was tried in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Cycle, but it is currently not used by international players.
At the same time, the two have also posted on social media the difficult action of "three weeks of outside points and three weeks of continuous jumping".
When faced with whether the Winter Olympics will use these moves, Sui Wenjing smiled and buried a foreshadowing: "Then you will know, this can be a means of training, but who knows if it will be a surprise." ”
In Zhang Dan's view, the move of the two revealed two points of information, "one is that they are proving their strength, and capable athletes can improve their technical difficulty in this situation; the second also proves that the two of them are not plagued by injuries, which is also an incentive for themselves to try new difficulties more bravely." ”
Zhang Dan is also very much looking forward to the choice of difficulty of the "onion bucket combination". In her opinion, the Olympic games need to have a certain success rate to challenge difficult actions, "with my competition experience, at least more than 80% success rate, will try in the competition." 」 ”
Chinese figure skating team head coach Zhao Hongbo.
Zhao Hongbo can help players avoid detours
In fact, this Winter Olympics is not only a test for athletes, but also a test for the team of figure skating coaches.
In 2017, Zhao Hongbo took over the figure skating national team flag from his mentor Yao Bin, when he told the media: "There are still five years to go, and there are still many things to do." ”
The last Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was too tight for Zhao Hongbo, and the Beijing Winter Olympics was the time to test the results.
When it comes to the changes in the figure skating coaching team, on the one hand, the mentor Yao Bin, on the other hand, the brother Zhao Hongbo, Zhang Dan is very clear about the difference between the two.
Zhao Hongbo and the "Onion Barrel Combination".
"I think they're very different styles, our coach (Yao Bin) has been a coach since he was very young, he will study all aspects and constantly dig up information. Hongbo Ge has a very good athlete background, and he can integrate the athlete's own experience into it. ”
"He gives athletes more knowledge from the perspective of people who come over, which can help athletes take a lot of detours."
Zhang Dan described Zhao Hongbo's help to young athletes, and at the same time lamented his dedication to figure skating, "Since you have already won the Olympic championship, why do you have to do such hard coaching work?" I think he still has a simple love for figure skating, which is a continuation of his sports career. ”