▲ On February 18, the Figure Skating Pairs Short Program Competition of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China's Sui Wenjing (left) / Han Cong in the competition
Sui Wenjing / Han Cong, both perfect technology, but also because they have experienced the ups and downs of life together, in the interpretation and performance of music, the strength is mellow.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Yang Nan
Photo / Courtesy of Xinhua News Agency
Editor / Xu Mei Chen Yafeng
At 19:00 on February 19, the figure skating pair skating championships, one of the grand finale dramas of the Beijing Winter Olympics, began. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, who ranked first in the short program, made their last appearance and won the Olympic gold medal with a song "Golden Bridge", and the number of gold medals of the Chinese delegation increased to 9, temporarily rising to the third place in the gold medal list. The "Onion Bucket" combination achieved a figure skating Grand Slam achievement, tears spilled on the ice rink, and at the award ceremony, they put on gold medals to each other. Another Chinese duo, Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, also got their best result of the season with 214.84 points to rank fifth, far more than the performance of four years ago.
▲ China's Sui Wenjing (left) / Han Cong in the competition on February 19
According to the rules, figure skating competitions are held in groups. According to the level of the contestants' short program points, the players appear in reverse order, and the strongest players in the free skating competition are in the last group.
On the evening of the 19th, the strongest lineup consisted of three groups of Russian and Austrian players and Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, who showed the pinnacle of technology and art. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong are the only players to use the world's most difficult move of twisting around, in order to equalize or even surpass the technical score in the situation of being surrounded by Russian players. In fact, before Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the Vancouver Winter Olympics pair skating championship in 2010, the gold medal in pair skating was monopolized by Russian athletes for 46 years.
▲ On February 18, China's Sui Wenjing (second from right) / Han Cong (second from left) was in the waiting division
In the short show, the last group to appear first is Michelina/Gallamov. The Russian duo, whose average age is less than 22, beat Sui Wenjing and Han Cong at the World Championships a year ago to win the title and then dominate the Russian and European Championships. The first meeting between the two pairs this season, which came in the recent Winter Olympic figure skating team match, the short program of Sui Wenjing / Han Cong broke the world record with 82.83 points.
Compared to the previous groups, Michelina Galyamov performed impressively, without any mistakes, and won their personal best of the season. Sui Wenjing / Han Cong, who appeared later, looked resolute, and when the music of "Mission Impossible" sounded, the two did not move, and the emotions rose first, Sui Wenjing raised his eyes, and his eyes were sharp.
"High synchronicity" is not enough to describe the performance of the two of them. They are like one, even if there is occasional intervals in the arena, it is like there is a line leading two people, eye contact, expression changes and small movements are exquisitely crafted, but full of nature.
In the end, they raised their short program world record set two weeks ago by 1.58 points with 84.41 points, ranking first in the free skating competition.
▲ On February 18, China's Sui Wenjing (left) / Han Cong in the competition
Under the new figure skating scoring rules, the proportion of technical points is increasing, and the veterans are increasingly at a disadvantage in scoring, and the peak period is shortened: there are always young people with better jumping ability, and old players are constantly injured.
As the pair skating combination with the longest hand-holding time in the whole game, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong showed all the advantages of the veterans: their difficult moves were polished over the years, as stable as a textbook, twisting and lifting and jumping were called "high and far"; they were experienced, tacit, graceful gliding steps, and full of emotions. Only tacit understanding and experience can forge the smoothness and details of the work, and infect the whole audience with delicate expression.
You are my bridge
The final track is the new version of "The Golden Bridge on the River of Sorrows". In the middle of the ice, Sui Wenjing leaned his head against Han Cong, his hand also grabbed his shoulder, the music sounded, and the two of them held hands and slid away on the ice.
When the song says, "And pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water", Sui Wenjing/Han Cong made a beautiful three-week throw, falling on the ice and sliding away, and the two reached out to each other again and held each other tightly together. When the lyrics say, "I will lay me down", Han Cong held Sui Wenjing high and steadily made five sets of Lasotho lifts.
"Golden Bridge" is the most classic set of programs of Sui Wenjing/Han Cong. At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics four years ago, many ice fans had hoped that they would be able to come up with this moving set of works on the Olympic field. In this song about friendship, the lyrics read: "Friends are rare, like a bridge across bad waters, I will possess you... When the night strikes, I will comfort you, and when darkness comes, I will suffer on your behalf. ”
▲ On February 18, China's Sui Wenjing (front) / Han Cong in the competition
After winning the silver medal at the 2016 World Championships, Sui Wenjing underwent surgery for lateral collateral ligament reconstruction in her right ankle and reduction of tendons in her left ankle. "The ligaments were broken for many years and have been maintained by muscle strength. Including last year's and previous year's World Championships, the ligaments were actually broken, but they could also stick to the training competition. But in 2015, the Chinese cup suddenly appeared bone marrow edema, and the pain was unbearable. Sui Wenjing said.
After this critical operation, Sui Wenjing needed at least half a year to recover. The two played only twice in the 2016-2017 season. In the "Ice Festival" in 2016, Han Cong completed the "one-person double skating" - one person's throwing jump, one person's lifting, one person holding the air and then starting the double rotation. Han Cong's music choice is "In The Arms Of An Angel", and the big screen behind him plays Sui Wenjing's recovery video. Han Cong once talked about the experience of training alone, saying: "Sui Wenjing is like an angel, an angel has wings and flies on the ice rink. So when I was sliding, the feeling in my heart was that I wasn't alone, she was right next to me. Everything we do, it's two people together. ”
At the end of the song, Han Cong walked to the sidelines and pushed Sui Wenjing, who was in a wheelchair, out. After a week around the ice rink, Sui Wenjing couldn't help but cry, and Han Cong stopped his wheelchair and tightly held Sui Wenjing's hand. Throughout the summer, Han Cong was training alone, going to the hospital every weekend to visit Sui Wenjing, pushing her out for a walk and cheering her up. "It was still quite a painful time, but looking back now, I feel like I will come over as soon as I close my eyes." Han Cong said.
On 18 February 2017, they made a comeback at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships to win the championship. At the world championships that followed, they won their first world championship with "Golden Bridge".
Little is known that Sui Wenjing recovered from almost scratch after surgery: she couldn't even complete the most basic slide.
"Golden Bridge" is the story of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong. "Han Cong has been waiting for me to recover from injury, has been supporting me, silently waiting, and taking me out of difficult moments. This is the first time we have slipped our own story, this story can first touch ourselves, but also hope to move everyone. Sui Wenjing said.
▲ On February 4, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Team Competition pair skating short program competition, China's Sui Wenjing (right) / Han Cong in the competition
In April 2020, Han Cong underwent hip surgery, and the two returned a year later. On October 31, 2021, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong performed the new version of "Golden Bridge" for the first time at the Grand Prix Vancouver. At the end of the song, the two embraced tightly, with tears in their eyes.
"When she had surgery, I was like a bridge, and when she came back, now she became my bridge." Han Cong said.
It is obvious to all that the deductive ability of Sui Wenjing/Han Cong has been greatly improved after "Golden Bridge". Other works since then, such as "Hallelujah" at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, "No one like you" at the 2018 National Championships, and "Rain in Your Black Eyes" at the 2019 World Championships, are regarded as classics by ice fans with their emotional delicacy and tension.
The signature of Chinese pair skating is high technical difficulty, but it has been plagued by a lack of style and expression. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, who was praised by Tong Jian for bringing Chinese pair skating to new heights, have both acting talent and have experienced the ups and downs of life together, and are powerful in the interpretation and performance of music.
Fifteen years
In 2007, 12-year-old Sui Wenjing and 15-year-old Han Cong were designated as pair skating partners, and in the 15 years since, their holding hands have never been separated.
In the history of pair skating in the mainland, in addition to the previous generation of famous players Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo, Pang Qing/Tong Jian, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong are the pair with the longest hand in hand. In the past 15 years, for various reasons, China's double skating seedlings, dismantling, retiring, and changing partners are almost normal.
They were not favored for a while. Sui Wenjing's figure is not slender enough, and Han Cong's is not tall enough, which was once regarded as an outlier of figure skaters. Because her body is like a barrel, Sui Wenjing calls herself "Bucket Sister", and the combined name of the two people becomes "Onion Bucket".
▲ On January 31, Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese pair skaters Sui Wenjing (left) / Han Cong trained to prepare for the Winter Olympics
When they won the national championship in 2009, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong were regarded as "dark horses", and a year later, they won the World Youth Championships, still known as "born out of nowhere".
For a long time after being promoted to the senior category in 2010, neither of them was the number one player in the pair skating team: world champion Pang Qing/Tong Jian was still at the peak, and Zhang Dan (Peng Cheng)/Zhang Hao was experienced. Since the 2012-2013 season, Sui Wenjing has been plagued by injuries and has abandoned the game many times. At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong missed their first Olympic cycle due to insufficient points.
From Yao Bin to Zhao Hongbo, the Chinese figure skating team has its own heritage. In May 2013, Olympic champion Zhao Hongbo was appointed head coach of the new figure skating national team, coaching Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, and Zhao Hongbo told the media at the time that he wanted to continue to change the shortcomings of young Chinese figure skaters in their artistic expression and help them further improve their level.
In addition to studying under Zhao Hongbo, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong also began to receive external training from Canada. Change comes quickly. In 2014 and 2015, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong finished second at the World Championships for two consecutive years. Another year later, "Golden Bridge" was born.
The Beijing Winter Olympics is Sui Wenjing/Han Cong's second Winter Olympics. Although she won the silver medal in her first competition four years ago, which is unprecedented in the history of Chinese figure skating, sui Wenjing cried from the podium to the mixed picking area in the final that day, crying with full makeup. At the end of the interview, Sui Wenjing left a sentence for reporters: "2022, you are all waiting for Ha. ”
The two-person short program "Hallelujah" was significantly ahead of the second place, but due to Sui Wenjing's landing mistake in the free skate, he finally lost the crown with a point difference of 0.43 points. The day after the game, Sui Wenjing was diagnosed with stress fractures. Two weeks before the game, Sui Wenjing felt that her feet hurt so much that she once thought it was just periostitis, so she gritted her teeth and persevered until the end. "I feel like I can top it down," she said.
▲ On January 5, Zhao Hongbo (second from right), head coach of the Chinese figure skating team, trained Sui Wenjing (second from left) and Han Cong (first from left).
After returning from Pyeongchang, Sui Wenjing underwent surgery. In March 2019, after a year of silence, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong appeared at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan, and won the gold medal with a classic performance known as "Saitama Rain".
The performance of this song "Rain In You Black Eyes", Sui Wenjing is light like a butterfly, Han Cong is as affectionate as the sea, the jumping and spinning are all stuck in the rhythm, and the emotions are progressive. In this game video, the most rewarded bullet screen in the B station is: "Look at the cry". The NBC commentator in the United States said during the live broadcast: "Every time she (Sui Wenjing) fell on the ice on her right foot, it made people feel heart-wrenching and reminded me of the stress fractures she had suffered... Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have been together and have gone through ups and downs together. ”
After the end of this World Championship, Sui Wenjing sent a microblog, releasing four goals for his new season, one about improving the technical difficulty, and three related to Han Cong: continuing to maintain good relations and solidly implementing the good prospects of 1=1>2; reducing injuries and making progress together, fighting together with the idea of unity with the outside world, and fighting against all external destructive factors.
"Bucket Girl is my last dance partner, she slips I will slip, she does not slip I do not slip." 」 Han Cong said.
▲ On November 7, 2021, the 2021-2022 Figure Skating Grand Prix in Italy, the pair skating champion and Chinese duo Sui Wenjing (right) / Han Cong presented the gold medal after the award ceremony
On the Beijing Winter Olympics pairs skating short program, "Hallelujah" was reproduced, with an interpretation from the Japanese group Rirai Miura / Ryuichi Kihara. The 21-year-old Miura sees Sui Wenjing as an idol: Over the past three years, her social media avatars have changed again and again, but they have all been with Sui Wenjing; she cut a hairstyle like Sui Wenjing and performed Sui Wenjing's masterpiece. In 2019, Miura met Sui Wenjing for the first time at the Grand Prix Japan. In the slide of the performance, Miura Lilai talked to Sui Wenjing and cried as she spoke; at the dinner party, Sui Wenjing hugged Miura Lilai, and she cried again.
"Go ahead, girl, just go ahead, this is your moment." "Golden Bridge" sings.