▲ February 20, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics figure skating exhibition match, Yusheng knotted strings kissing the ice surface Photo / Visual China
"The Beijing Winter Olympics is the most supported game in my life so far." Yusei said.
On February 20, when the Olympic performance was over, he was about to walk out of the Capital Gymnasium when Yusheng suddenly ran back to the ice rink alone and kissed the ice. "Although there are bitter parts of the game, I still like this ice."
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
On February 20, during the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Yu Yusei posted a message through the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC), the first sentence of which said: "The Beijing Winter Olympics is the most supported competition in my life so far. ”
There is no doubt that Japanese figure skater Yusuke Yusuke is also the foreign athlete who has received the most attention in the winter event in China so far. Since arriving in Beijing on Feb. 6, he has been on the Weibo hot search list every day, making headlines several times; because there were so many applications for interviews from various countries, the Japanese Olympic Committee had to hold a special press conference for him, with simultaneous interpretations in eight languages; and long before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee received more than 20,000 letters and refueling cards sent to Yusheng.
▲ On February 20, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics figure skating performance skating, after the "ice pier" accidentally fell, Yusheng Knot (middle) and the players came forward to help
In October last year, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying forwarded on social media the "instructions" received by the Chinese Embassy in Japan and wrote: "I saw [Japanese people] speaking out: 'Cheer up on the spot, please ask the Chinese audience'." Leave it to us! After Yusheng finished the competition, Hua Chunying sent two consecutive posts in Japanese to cheer for the fourth-ranked Yusheng, saying: "Everyone was touched by his spirit. The love and enthusiasm of the Chinese audience, I believe that the Yusheng knot string players must have received it! ”
Because the efforts I put in have not been rewarded, I am happy to accept that I am now
On February 12, the Japan Olympic Organizing Committee announced that Yu Yu will hold a half-hour press conference in two days.
The news caused speculation from all sides, and the discussion about Yusei's injury, age, competitive status, and past achievements eventually boiled down into a question: Is he going to announce his retirement?
In the history of figure skating men's singles, in addition to Plushenko, other top players have participated in up to three Olympic Games, and the last one often ends with regrets, such as Chen Weiqun, Asada Jinyang and Kim Yeon-er. The opportunity left by this project to the veteran to realize his dream is really too rare.
▲ On February 10, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics figure skating men's single skating free skating competition, Yusheng knotted in the competition
Interestingly, after the Feather Knot Match, Pushchenko recorded a video to cheer him up and say, "Don't be discouraged, you are already a legend." I hope you can stick 4 more years and then participate in the Olympic Games, I have participated in 4 times, you can too. "Twenty years ago, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were the best winter Olympics in Yusheng's heart — Yagudin and Pushshenko were inseparable, and both left classic works. That year, Xiao Yusheng said to the camera: "I really want to be the first Japanese athlete to win the Olympic championship. ”
On the evening of February 14, the press conference began. Yusheng first thanked all parties involved in the event, then praised the champion Chen Wei, and finally expressed his love for the ice rink in Beijing.
To the focus of "whether we will participate in the next Winter Olympics", he replied: "I don't know where the next Winter Olympics will be held. However, in the future, I will also cherish my favorite figure skating as a feather string, and strive to achieve (my own) extreme. ”
Whether or not to retire remains inconclusive. Yusei said that he could not give a clear statement to the future because his thoughts were still confused.
▲On February 7, Yu Yu held pre-competition training at the Figure Skating Training Hall of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
In addition to the form of competition, figure skating also has a pure performance form, which is commonly referred to as professional "ice acting".
The tradition of figure skating competitions is to perform an "ice show" after the game, that is, to perform skating - four groups of players in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating and ice dance, gathered at the ice rink to present a set of their favorite programs, and do not need to be choreographed for the score. On February 20, the Beijing Winter Olympics held a performance skating, "Personally, I think it is not important in what field skating. It is rare to have such a high popularity, and I hope to continue to bring you more ornamental figure skating performances in a form that I am more acceptable to myself. Before the performance, Yu Sheng said.
▲ On February 20, the Figure Skating Performance of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was skated, and Yu sheng made an appearance
Habu's performance of the slide is "Spring Coming", which he composed for post-earthquake Japan. Eleven years ago, the magnitude 9.0 "3.11 East Japan Earthquake" was described as the worst disaster Japan has faced since the end of World War II. Habu's hometown of Sendai, not far from the epicenter, was badly affected and the ice rink was destroyed in the earthquake. Since then, he has participated in about sixty ice shows to raise donations for his hometown, where he can train. "I hope that when you watch this show, you can feel that spring has come in different senses." He said at the time.
This old work is particularly meaningful to The Feather Knot String. "When the melody of 'Spring Comes' sounded, I realized that I still liked figure skating, and once at the lowest mood, even when I was about to start hating ice, it was this kind of piano playing that saved me at this hopeless time."
▲ In 2011, the earthquake damaged the ice rink, and Yu Yu participated in about 60 ice shows, using ice shows as training
The foot injury did not heal, and in order to complete the performance, he took six times the prescribed dose of painkiller tablets. During the performance, he leaned over and slid against the ice, picked up a handful of broken ice and threw it into the air, then stretched his arms and slid freely, and then ended with a big word: Spring is coming.
Many years ago, when the teenage Yusei Yusuke was attracting attention with his infectious interpretation and unique East Asian style, Western journalists often asked him, do you want to be an artist or an athlete? A few years ago, he said he wanted to be an "artist," and later he said he eventually wanted to be an "artist."
At the end of the performance, Yu Sheng and Chinese player Jin Boyang separated the two ends of the ice rink, came to a symmetrical rotation, and then improvised to slide the half-time crab step dance together. They have been friends for many years, and the media has photographed many of them laughing together. Today, they have all reached a turning point in their competitive careers.
▲ On February 20, Yu Sheng (left) and Chinese player Jin Boyang performed in the slide Photo/Visual China
As in the past, Yu Yusuke did not leave immediately after the performance. He stayed at the edge of the ice rink, bowed to the crowd in thanks, and shouted "thank you." After an interview in the mixed interview area, a Chinese reporter said to him in Japanese, "Welcome back to Beijing."
Just as he was about to walk out of the Capital Gymnasium, Yusei suddenly ran back to the ice rink alone and kissed the ice. "Although there are bitter parts of the game, I still like this ice."
During the rehearsal the day before the slide, Yusei stayed alone after the break to make up the ice with the volunteers. He grabbed the broken ice from the bucket, sprinkled it on the pit where the ice surface was pressed out by the ice knife, and then compacted it with his hands.
As one of the most watched Winter Olympic athletes in the world, Japan's Yusei Yushin was surprised by the popularity of the overseas media in China. But isn't that the Olympic spirit, it's sports and art that connect us.
On the day of the loss of the game, Yu Yu said repeatedly: "There is no reward for hard work." Ten days later, before leaving Beijing, he seemed to be somewhat relieved, saying: "This Olympic Games has become a 'my treasure' time that I cannot forget." This was an experience that was very important for my future life, and made me think deeply about the meaning of my efforts and the value of the results. Because the efforts I put in have not been rewarded, I am happy to accept that I am now. ”
Reliving on the training ground, while recalling the past and sliding
On February 14, the fourth day after the game, Yu Sheng appeared at the training ice rink of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
On the day of the completion of the competition, the reporter photographed the ice pack he was holding, and the outside world learned that he sprained his foot during the practice the day before the competition. "If it's an ordinary game, you might be out of the game after training injuries," he later said. But at the Olympics, he chose to inject painkillers ten minutes before playing and finished the race with an unconscious right foot.
"The ankle has to rest for ten days, (so) it can't actually be slipped today." But I want to go skating anyway. He said, "I went skating today, and I was really in a very good mood, which made me think that I really still like my figure skating." ”
Since then, every day in Beijing, Yusheng has appeared on the ice rink – even though this does not meet his rehabilitation requirements. "Phantom of the Opera", "Paris Promenade", "Let Me Entertain You", "Notre Dame de Paris", "Romeo and Juliet", "Hope and Bequest", "Night of the Stars", "Chopin's First Narrative", etc., these works that accompanied him to the honor, he re-performed in those days in a simplified partial jump.
The first work That Yusei revisits is "With Heaven and Earth", which lost the Beijing Winter Olympics, which tells the life of Kenshin Uesugi, the daimyō of the Japanese Warring States: "I like to compete, I like to fight, I can't resist the excitement of fighting, but there are also times when I can't win, and I am very painful." I feel a place that echoes Uesugi Kenshin's values of 'fighting'. He once explained.
The last time he relived the training ice rink in Beijing was his winning work at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, "Qingming", which tells the story of the powerful Abe Haruaki expelling the monsters in the Heian period of Japan, the story of a victor, "Until now I can't forget the last time in Pyeongchang, the moment I can't forget in my life." I may not have seen the opportunity for you to go all out to skate the footwork, but it is good to be able to show you my all-out succession footwork. He said when he recreated "Qingming" in Beijing.
▲In November 2007, at the All Japan Junior Figure Skating Championships, Yu Yu's free skating "Firebird" ranked first
As the day went by, fewer and fewer players needed to practice on the ice rink, and gradually only Yu Yu was left. At the end of each song, the volunteers on the scene applauded him. Once, as he was leaving, the volunteers on the sidelines suddenly bent their arms toward him en masse, showing love. Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, and quickly smiled and returned a love. Occasionally, he slid to the sidelines and asked, "What do you want to see?" I will! ”
In the past two years, due to the epidemic, he has not been able to go to Canada to train, nor has he seen the coaching team he has worked with for nearly a decade, so he can only train alone at the Sendai Ice Rink every night. "I always felt that my efforts were in vain, that I was abandoned by the world and plunged into the abyss of darkness."
At the ice rink in Beijing, Yusheng finished reliving with memories. "I'm going to do everything that's been left behind in my figure skating life so far. Because it's now, I can do it. "Notre Dame de Paris" failed to jump out of the 4S in the show, and so did the 4T of Chopin's First Narrative Song (which was not completed in the competition). He said, "Something like that happened, something like this happened, and I slid along as I reminisced about the past." ”
"My heart has not changed from myself when I was 9 years old"
Competitive sports is a process in which athletes climb to the top of the mountain and athletes continue to descend the mountain. Yu Yu is perhaps the one who understands the meaning of "iteration" best among active athletes.
In 2014, Yu Yu participated in the Olympic Games for the first time. In the team competition, he witnessed the success of idol, legendary figure skater Pushshenko with his own set of "The Best of Plushenko"; in the men's singles competition, Yu sheng defeated the then world championship triple champion Chen Weiqun to win the championship. Chen Weiqun, who was good at footwork and jumping, continued to decline in the next four years, ending his competitive career with ninth place at the PyeongChang Olympics.
With the revision of the rules of figure skating, the proportion of jump scores has gradually increased in recent years, and young players have become more and more dominant – they have unencumbered bodies and more sophisticated jumping techniques. For more than a decade, the top technical difficulty of the men's singles has only grown from multiple three-week jumps to two four-week jumps. However, since entering the Pyeongchang cycle in 2014, the top men's singles has jumped from two to five, or even six, and the four-week jump type has also developed from two to five.
Yu yukari once had the highest jumping skills. In 2012, the 17-year-old Yusheng participated in the World Championships for the first time, bringing the most technically difficult free skating in the whole game, and was called "a superstar born" by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC. He then became the first player in history to complete the 4Lo jump (the rear outer ring jump) in an official competition.
In 2018, Yusei defended his title at the Pyeongchang Olympics. In that competition, American Chen Wei completed six four-week jumps in free skating for the first time. Four years later, Chen Wei's short program broke the Olympic record, free skating and the final overall result, all breaking the world record, and won the gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics as he wished.
Chen Wei has been criticized for paying too much attention to jumping, ignoring footwork, and lacking artistic sense. As the only athlete to connect the two different periods of competitive figure skating – the exquisite footwork and the precise jump – Yu Sheng is very clear, and Chen Wei represents the competitive direction of today's figure skating.
"Chen Wei has all the things that today's figure skating projects pursue. It's great to be able to jump for 4 weeks in a row with that level of accuracy, because I can't jump around in a row with that level of accuracy. Yusei said after the game, "I want to praise him more than anyone, and I want to say congratulations to him more than anyone." ”
▲ On February 10, the Figure Skating Men's Singles Free Skating Competition at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was contested by American Player Chen Wei
In Beijing, almost all figure skaters know that Yusheng knotted the strings to challenge themselves. "I'm also a fan of Yusei Yusuke." Chen Wei said in response to how he saw Yusheng being more popular than the champion.
"Yusei Yushin is no longer competing to compete with other players, he is more about showing himself and coming to achieve his goals, not for medals. Therefore, he still has the motivation to constantly improve and improve himself. Women's singles champion Serbakova said.
At the age of 9, Yusei completed the 1A jump, and at that time he thought that 4A seemed to be able to do it. "I've always had a 9-year-old self in my heart, and that kid has been asking me to challenge the 4A jump. In fact, my heart and my 9-year-old self have not changed, just grown up, so we completed this jump together. "Most importantly, when I was groping for 4A, I ended up technically going back to the Axel jump at that time (9 years old)." ”
▲In October 2004, the 9-year-old Yusei Yushin won the first group B of the All Japan Junior Figure Skating Championships
He cherishes his 9-year-old self. "Just to talk about spirit, I think I was the strongest and brightest at that time," he said, "and at that time I felt that I had practiced more than anyone else, and I could complete the exercise with the idea that 'I am better than anyone.'" This kind of thinking becomes the most important thing when participating in the Olympic Games. ”
At the end of the free skate in the Beijing men's singles final, he raised his hands up into the air and stayed for 6 seconds. "It's the same as the final action of Love from Russia, which I slid when I was 9 years old. I overlapped myself then with my present, and all kinds of feelings churned. ”
"I can't praise myself, but I hope someone can praise me."
For the first time in ten years, Yusei has gained nothing in a world competition. After stepping into an ice hole in the short program and jumping a 4S jump, Yu Yu fell to the ground when he challenged the 4A jump in the free skate.
After completing all the movements of his Beijing Winter Olympics, he thanked the four sides: his right hand was pressed to his chest, he bowed ninety degrees, and then slid to the side of the field in a beautiful arc. He stooped down to the ice and said, "Thank you so much, thank you for letting me jump here." Then, as in the past, his hands touched the ice. Later, Yusei Yushin said that what he thought at that time was: "Hard work is not rewarded." ”
Completing the 4A jump has been all of Yusei's motivation over the past four years. The 27-year-old is already the oldest player in single figure skating and needs to work harder to maintain his top competitive form.
Throughout the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, Yusheng knots are struggling with the 4A. This came from a dream he had when he was 9 years old. This action, which requires the contestant to jump in an arc of up to six meters in the air, rotate around for four and a half weeks, and stay in the air for one second, has not yet been completed and is considered impossible to complete.
"I've achieved what I can, and I've done what I can do." All the power left is 4A. He said.
▲ At the 2012 World Championships, Yu Yu tied the string free skating "Romeo and Juliet", trying to recover from a fall in the middle
After the game, reporters flocked to the scene, and it took Yusheng two hours to pass through the short mixed interview area. Shizuka Arakawa — who won Japan's first figure skating gold medal at the Turin Winter Olympics — was interviewed on Japanese television and saw her predecessors, and her suppressed emotions were suddenly hard to restrain. He quickly turned his back, wiped away the tears, and then turned to the camera with a smile and said, "Nice! Let's get started! ”
In the past four years, although Yusheng's achievements have gone up and down, he has always been able to stand on the podium. He knows very well that if it is for the sake of results, he should not choose the lowest cost-effective 4A jump - the difficulty is too high for anyone to complete, and it is only one point to complete.
"Of course, if you think, 'I want to get a brand,' such as using the previous (jumping combination), as long as you make a perfect performance, you may be able to get the brand." However, such words are not happy, there is no point in skating, in my heart. The mood of jumping 4A to complete this show is the strongest. He said.
Although he did not have strong expectations for the three consecutive Winter Olympics, the current 4A has not been successful, and the medals have not been collected, which is indeed a setback he has never had.
"I bet my life to train seriously before the Olympics, fight for my life to perform, and I didn't play out like this and failed to achieve my goal, and to be honest, I think this is useless." 」 He said, "Although I can't praise myself, I hope someone can praise me." ”
Effort does not necessarily pay off, and this is nothing new. But in Yusheng's body, effort often brings "miracles": Yusheng has asthma, but often wears a mask in daily and training to improve his cardiopulmonary skills; he practices jumping around day after day, such as completing 25 four-way jumps in more than forty minutes, each time completing a 1440° rotation in one second, and his ankles bear five times the impact of his body weight when he lands. In 2014, YuSheng became the youngest figure skating men's singles Olympic champion in 60 years; in 2018, he was injured before the game and parachuted into Pyeongchang after two months of ice, becoming the only men's singles champion in 70 years.
"Don't say what humans can't do, Yu sheng can do it." I'll take it seriously. He once laughed.
He was reluctant and remorseful, but he approved of his 4A jump at the Beijing Winter Olympics: although he was deducted points for falling, on the referee's scoring table, it was deducted on the base points of 4A, and he was not demoted to 3A because of insufficient weeks. "Even if that 4A is judged to be a week of survival, even if it falls, when I look back on it in the future, I will feel that the 4A of the Feather Knot String, with a thin shaft, a high jump, and a beautiful finish, is a 4A that I am proud of." He said.
▲ On February 20, Yu Yu was in the performance slip
Whatever Yusheng's choice for the future, after leaving Beijing, he will first begin to treat his ankles and relax his body. "Then, on the basis of various considerations, we will make the next decision." On the day after the final, the stations, shops and other places in sendai in their hometown hung banners: "Thank you for bringing us dreams and feelings, Habu knotted string contestants." ”
There, there is a "Sendai Rule" that is tacitly written: in order to protect Habu's private life as an ordinary person, even if people notice that he is Habu knotted, they must "ignore" him. Let Yu Yu tie the strings and have a daily routine that is not disturbed.