Sui Wenjing/Han Cong: Turandot and the Tears of Pyeongchang

Live bar February 20 news From the debut of the youth group to the successful promotion of several seasons, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have been going smoothly, and it seems that as long as they "fight forward", they can get good results. But since the second half of the Sochi cycle, the two have really felt the pressure of the bottleneck period. Under the influence of Sui Wenjing's foot injury, the single jump of the Sui/Han combination has always been a weak link in the program, and it has always affected the technical score of the two. In terms of program content, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong hopes to get rid of the image of the youth group contestants and make the program truly accepted by international judges.

"You need to improve your expressiveness, since you are an adult player, you must show more atmospheric programs, and you can't go in a lively style like before." At the end of the 2013/14 season, Han Cong had set his goal for the next stage with Sui Wenjing. Fast forward to the first season of the Pyeongchang cycle, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong began working with Canadian choreographer David Wilson. Wilson designed two very different sets of programs for them, the short program was the 70s American retro rock hit "Proud Stray Cat", and the free skate was the somewhat difficult Tchaikovsky symphonic poem "Rimini's Francesca". In both sets, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are also learning how to convey more complex and three-dimensional emotions.

With these two sets of shows completely different from the previous styles, Sui Wenjing/ Han Cong were runners-up in the Grand Prix twice in the 2014/15 season, and again finalist and bronze medal. The 2015 World Championships were held in Shanghai, and Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, who ranked third after the short program, once again drew the last place in the free skating field. Under the pressure of home battles and last appearances, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong did not let the regrets of a year ago reappear. This time, they traded a free skate with zero turnovers for a silver medal at the World Championships.

After successfully completing the last move of the free skate, Sui Wenjing could no longer stop her tears, and Han Cong in the mixed picking area after the game also choked up. Young and famous and having been given high hopes, they finally reached the podium of the World Championships in the 8th year of holding hands. The silver medal at the World Championships seemed to have also allowed Sui Wenjing and Han Cong to open up the "Second Pulse of Ren Dou", and in the following 2015/16 season, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong regained the Throwsakhov around the jump and won their first Grand Prix and the third Four Continents Championship. The two of them' short program "Romance of Love" this season allowed them to break through the 80-point mark for the first time, and they also won the world championship single "small gold medal" for the first time.

In the first two seasons of the Pyeongchang cycle, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong gradually gained a foothold in the international arena with more mature and exquisite programs and stable performances one after another. At that time, the pair of "small doubles" dancing cowboys finally grew into the strength of Chinese pair skating. When all was well, the national team and Sui Wenjing made a difficult decision to let Sui Wenjing complete the foot surgery before the start of the 2016/17 season to better prepare for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

In May 2016, shortly after returning from the World Championships in Boston, Sui Wenjing lay down on the operating table to complete the reconstruction of the lateral collateral ligament of the left ankle and the reduction of the right tendon. Although Sui Wenjing has been "not afraid of anything" since she was a child, and solving the problem of injuries and illnesses can allow her to continue training and competition without worries, the moment she lies on the operating table, Sui Wenjing is still a little "confused". "The moment I hit the anesthesia, my mind went blank. What the foot will look like when it is put into the skates later is unknown. ”

But just nine months after the operation, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong once again stood on the field of the Four Continents Championship and won the championship with a song "Golden Bridge on the River of Sorrow", announcing their return. A month later, at the World Championships, in Helsinki, Finland, where Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo won the World Championship medal for the first time, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong took the highest podium and became China's third pair of pair skating world champions.

Entering the 2017/18 season with the title of World Champion, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong not only have more confidence and confidence, but also maintain a humble attitude. Like every previous season, they carefully selected the program selections for the Olympic season, and finally the short program finalized "Hallelujah", which was similar to "Golden Bridge", and the free skating chose the classic track "Turandot" in the figure skating world.

Turandot is also of great significance to Chinese pair skating, and it is the track that Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo chose to free skate when they won the World Championships for the first time in 2002. When Sui Wenjing and Han Cong had just started their skating careers, they were also impressed by Turandot. Now Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are working hand in hand on the road that Shin/Zhao has opened up for China's double skating, and Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have become their mentors, but the two chose Turandot not only to pay tribute to the Shen/Zhao combination.

While preparing for the new season, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong offered to present a magnificent program on the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and choreographer Laurie Nicole thought of Turandot. At first, Han Cong and Zhao Hongbo, who has become the coach of the Sui/Han combination, were suspicious of this song selection, after all, it is not easy to challenge the tracks that have become classics in the figure skating world, but Sui Wenjing firmly accepted the challenge of "Turandot", and she hopes to be able to skate her own classic program with Han Cong.

In August 2017, when the team tested skating before the start of the season, Han Cong hoped that their Turandot could "slide everyone up". In a figure skating competition, the standing ovation of the audience is the most special kind of praise that is different from scoring and medals. Six months later, at the Pyeongchang Gangneung Ice Stadium, Sui Wenjing/Han Cong's "Turandot" song ended, and it did make waves in the audience. But because of two small mistakes in the single jump, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong eventually missed the gold medal with a difference of 0.43 points.

The four-year twists and turns and small gaps in the Pyeongchang cycle made both Sui Wenjing and Han Cong red after the game. The distance of 0.43 minutes was regarded by Sui Wenjing as the driving force for progress. Seeing that the "legendary female partner" Safshenko, who has participated in the Winter Olympics five times, has finally realized his dream, Han Cong lamented that he "repaired is not enough." On the first trip to the Winter Olympics, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong left regrets. But for them, whose setbacks have long ceased to be unfamiliar, they quickly crossed the "hurdle" of Pyeongchang and continued to move forward.

(Sports Network)