【Text/Observer Network Ju Feng】
There are two types of women's figure skating in the world today: Russia, and the other.
At the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the International Skating Federation (ISU) updated the women's figure skating rankings on February 17, and the top 26 scores were all created by Russian athletes in major competitions, opening up a desperate score difference with players from other countries.
2022 Figure Skating European Championships Women's Singles Free Skating: Russian athletes win the top three overall results Picture from IC Photo
Fans are obsessed with the absolute strength and beauty of Russian women's figure skaters, calling them "Russian Lolita".
Starting from the first generation of "genius girl" Lipnitskaya, one by one "Oro" stepped on the ice knife and quickly slid through the assembly line of career paths: 12 and 13 years old dominated the youth group, and when they reached the age of 15, they were promoted to the adult group and won various competitions and Olympic Games. But after two or three years of flowering, they quickly fell silent and retired early before the age of 20.
The "Oro" were basically born in the same training base - the "Crystal" figure skating club under the famous Moscow sports school "Sambo-70". Since 2013, the head coach has been Eteri Tutberidze. She wears instant noodle-like blonde curls, so she is called "Face Sister" by Chinese figure skating fans.
The top 26 of the ISU's latest women's singles overall rankings are all Russian players
In the 1990s, American players such as Kwan Yingshan dominated the ice rink. At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan rose. But since Sochi, the Women's Singles gold medal in figure skating for the Winter Olympics has never fallen from Russia's hands.
In just 8 years, the "Face Sister" group created a terrible "strength fault" in the world figure skating industry, and won back three Olympic champions, three World Championships, five European Championships and five World Youth Championships for Russia. She was also awarded the Medal of Honor by Putin in 2018.
But at the same time, too much glory and controversy surrounds the "Sambo-70" figure skating club.
Some people say that this is a "champion factory" and "the birthplace of talented girls". Some people also say that the "face sister" uses one cardamom girl after "discarding it after use". For a long time, the harsh training method of "Face Sister" has been targeted by the Western media. In those English narratives, the beautiful Russian girls seem to be able to endure the training of the devil every day, which is harmful to their health, and have no choice.
However, this is not the case. Vallieva, Trusova and other top players are not forced to help, but hope to join the coaching team of "Face Sister", pointing to the peak. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said, "In high-level sports competition, it is precisely because of such strict coaches that the athletes can achieve victory." ”
So where's the controversy?
The International Skating Federation believes that the lower and lower average age of figure skaters and the gradually shortening flowering period are a bad tendency. "Since they are not yet minors, why do they participate in the competition of the adult group?" According to foreign media reports, the International Skating Federation is likely to carry out a historic reform - raising the minimum age limit for figure skaters from 15 to 17 years old, and the relevant proposals have been included in the agenda of the 2022 International Skating Union Congress to be held in June this year.
Become a "genius girl"
Accompanied by the Bolero dance, Camilla Vallieva fell 4 times on the ice. Every time it falls, the audience's hearts twitch.
Beijing, February 17, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating women's singles free skating. Vallieva jumped and fell Figure from foreign media
"K treasure" Vallieva is the favorite to win the women's singles of figure skating at this Winter Olympics. Last year, she just rose to the adult category to dominate the World Youth Championships and began her own road of "slaughtering the list".
At the Russian Figure Skating National Championships at the end of 2021, Vallieva became the first athlete in the history of figure skating women's singles to break through 90 points in a short program, and even showed three kinds of four-way jumps in free skating, scoring a high score of 193.10 points, and finally won the championship with a total score of 283.48 points, once again breaking the world record held by herself.
Valieva's overall score was nearly 34.83 points higher than that of second-placed Trusova, creating the largest point difference in the history of the Russian Championships.
But after falling in the winter Olympic women's singles free slip, Valieva's defeat was already doomed. The impact of the drug ban on her state is an unavoidable topic.
In fact, Russia has been plagued by the "doping scandal" in recent years, and has partially or completely missed the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The last time Russia appeared at the Olympics as a complete country was at the 2014 Sochi Olympics on its home soil.
But figure skaters rarely have a history of doping. Before the Valieva storm, the athletes in the "Face Sister" group had never had bad test results. They have done more tests than most athletes because the winning athletes are tested more, not to mention they are from Russia, which has a bad resume in this area.
Vallieva is only 15 years old now. Some people will say that it is not a big deal to "start all over again" after 4 years. But 4 years later in Italy, will audiences still be able to see her? This question can be seen on the edge of the ice rink of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
During the women's singles free skating competition, many spectators noticed that the women's singles champions and runners-up zagitova and Medvedeva sat in the stands at the last Winter Olympics.
However, their identity is no longer a figure skater, but a reporter and a team commentator.
Beijing Winter Olympics Medvedeva watching the game in the stands Picture from IC Photo
Four years ago in Pyeongchang, Medvedeva lost to her 15-year-old sister Zagitova. Four years later, Medvedeva has retired and Zagitova has faded out of the ice.
Seeing her sisters, it was hard for Valieva not to imagine her fate after 4 years. In Moscow, a new group of highly talented teenage girls are practicing the Sambo-70 for more than a dozen hours a day. In The vast lands of Russia, more and younger girls are squeezing their heads to enter the cradle of countless champions and become the next Vallieva.
Vallieva herself was once one of the "genius girls" who wanted to join the coaching staff of the "Face Sister". Because for her, winning gold in the Olympics was a childhood dream.
She once said at a press conference, "I told my mother when I was about 3 years old that I wanted to be an Olympic champion. ”
Before the age of 3, Vallieva studied ballet, skating and gymnastics at the same time. Later, her family told her that she had to focus on one path. Little "K Bao" felt that gymnastics was too "painful" and ballet was too "boring", so he chose the ice rink.
At the age of 3, Valieva's family sent her to a club in her hometown of Kazan to practice with coach Ksenia Ivanova. At that time, she was already able to glide skillfully on the ice.
The enlightenment coach immediately saw the talent and energy in the child's body. "Her talent was 'visible to the naked eye' and she didn't have to run. And she practiced desperately during the day, in the afternoon, at night," Ivanova recalled.
At the age of 5, Vallieva was able to jump out of the posterior inner knot ring bi-week jump (2S) and the posterior outer knot ring bi-week jump (2Lo).
When Vallieva was 6 years old, her level had already far surpassed that of the girls around her. So her mother took her to Moscow. Her family was not wealthy. The mother is an accountant who works hard every day dancing on the ice for her daughter.
Even at the Moskovic Skating School, Valieva quickly stood out.
Coach Igor Lutikov recalled that she was only 8 years old, but she was so special. "Not only is she ahead of the curve in sports, she's talking like an adult." "Get up at 6:45 a.m., go to the ice rink alone, and practice for 5 or 6 hours."
In the spring of 2018, at the age of 11, Vallieva moved to the skating club of the prestigious Sambo-70, hoping to reach the pinnacle under the tutelage of Eteri Tutberidze.
"It was my mom's idea. We thought, if Aitley takes me, if I don't, it's time to stop figure skating or think about what to do later," Vallieva recalled.
Picasso's famous painting "The Girl Standing on the Ball" and Vallieva's program of the same name are from the International Figure Skating Network
Founded in 1970, "Sambo 70" is the highest level of sports school in Russia. Sambo is one of the Russian freehand fighting techniques, which later developed into the sport of fighting.
In 2003, the school established a skating club together with the Khrustalny ice rink in Moscow. Since 2008, Tuti Lisa, who has coaching experience in the United States, has been at the club. In the same year, because of the excellent results of the athletes she brought out, the club became the first school in Moscow to be awarded the Olympic figure skating preparatory qualification. Since 2013, women's figure skating has officially entered the era of Tu special Lize and "Oro".
"The Age of Jumping Around"
"Right now, you need to be able to jump around to get to the Olympics," said Cheung Chau Mirai, the third place in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics figure skating team, "It's crazy for me, but that's the reality." ”
In Pyeongchang, Cheung Chau became the first American women's figure skater to jump out of Axel's three-week jump (3A). This was the top technology for women at the time.
But starting from Pyeongchang, the world figure skating women's singles pattern has undergone a sudden change.
Completing a four-legged jump requires the athlete to make 4 full spins in the air in 1 second and then land on one foot. The base score for the four-week jump is about twice that of the same three-week jump.
Higher, faster, stronger, four-week jump versus three-week jump from The New York Times
In 2002, Japan's Mihime Ando jumped four weeks in an international competition for the first time. In the next few years, no female players have been successfully reproduced in international competitions.
However, since the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, 12 female figure skaters in the world have jumped out of international competitions for 4 weeks, of which 9 are Russian athletes and 7 are trained by the "Face Sister" coaching team.
The latest generation of "three dolls" of "Sister Face"—Vallieva, Trusova, and Shcherbakova—can all make more than one kind of four-week in a free skate.
The beginning of the "four sides" era of women's figure skating was Trusova. In 2018, at the age of 13, she jumped around a back outer spot ice and a back outer ring around the World Youth Championships. In this Olympic Games, Trusova surprised the audience with 5 four-week jumps in the final free skating.
The New York Times described, "When Trusova performs on the field, you can almost hear the rumbling of the scoreboarding machine." ”
Coach Liu Meixian, a Chinese-American women's figure skater, said that the huge amount of training for Russian athletes is the key to mastering this highest difficult jump.
In addition to hard practice, there is another important factor - Jim Richards, a professor of biomechanics and exercise science at the University of Delaware, said that Russian female athletes have the perfect body shape for jumping around.
"They're skinny. The thinner they are, the faster they spin," Richards said, "of course, they have to be athletes. But I'm not sure if it's healthy to force them to practice jumping around. ”
According to Richards' research, to complete the ideal four weeks, it takes 0.63 to 0.64 seconds to stay empty and reach a jump height of about 51 centimeters. If you can't jump that high, you have to speed up the spin to make up for it – right here, it's likely to result in injury.
"Thousands of years of human evolution tell you, OK, I really don't want to turn so fast," Richards said.
Two-time national champion Liu Meixian became the first American female athlete to jump four weeks at the age of 14. Learning to dance around, she says, is "terrifying" and that "you have to be mentally strong enough to do it recklessly." ”
Even more terrifying than practicing around is growing tall. This is also the biggest challenge that Liu Meixian has encountered in the past two years. As the center of gravity moves up, rotation becomes increasingly difficult. Since March 2020, she has given up the four-way jump, so she has lost the possibility of matching the Russian players.
Men's singles Olympic champion Nathan Chen said they were too good at jumping around and didn't want to compete with them. "It's so good, I think they can beat all of us (male players) one day."
Glory and rapid decay
In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Tusitrezer the Medal of Honor in recognition of her contributions to the Russian figure skating movement.
Putin awarded the Honorable Sister
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, if Vallieva played smoothly in the women's singles free skate, Tuti Lize instinctively won 5 gold medals. In any project, this is an unimaginable achievement for coaches.
But from Sochi onwards, "Sister Face" and her rigorous training style have been put in the spotlight.
However, the "face sister" acted low-key and refused most interviews from major media. The outside world can only learn from a small number of public statements and athletes who have trained in sambo-70.
"For me, girls are better," Lisa said in a 2018 interview. That year, her legion swept the World Youth Championships. Trusova, then 15, broke the world record in two four weeks.
"Sister Face" bluntly said that girls should practice around when they are young, when they are still lighter and more flexible.
Girls who have not yet arrived in puberty have a perfect "strength-to-weight ratio" to complete the spin. Once you enter puberty, the proportions change, and there will be a decline in performance in the game, as well as injuries.
Figure skaters' brutal training programs often inhibit their physical development.
Some media said that the players of the "Face Sister" coaching team trained for up to 10 to 12 hours a day. Before the competition, they also have to go on a strict diet to control their body.
The training environment is also extremely stressful. The media broke the news that the contestants in the "Face Sister" group had been punished for squatting in the garbage can, because "the garbage should stay in the garbage can". If the 14-year-old players can't finish training, they will be "beaten back" to the 10-year-old group and practice with them.
The Washington Post and other media criticized that Tu special Lize regarded the players in the group as "disposable" and "perishable products", and medals are often at the expense of the health of athletes.
Figure skating fans say that the players in the "Face Sister" coaching staff have an "Eteri expiration date", which is about 17 years old. At this age, her athletes are often "discarded" due to injuries and declining performance.
Daria Usacheva, another 15-year-old talented girl in the "Face Sisters" army, was seriously injured while warming up at the figure skating Grand Prix japan last November. She returned to Moscow in a wheelchair, quit the following races, and missed Beijing in advance.
Jane Mora, chair of the International Skating Union's (ISU) medical committee, said Usacheva's injuries were caused by the accumulation of stress on specific parts of her body after repeating an action too many times.
Moran said Usacheva's injuries are very common among adolescent skaters, when their growth boards are still open. "The training of adolescents must be adjusted at this stage of development."
However, the main stage of the "Face Sister" group's crazy medals is this period of development.
Former Russian figure skater Anastasia Tarakanova (nicknamed "Crooked") once impressed viewers with her "one-handed knife". She entered the training of the "Face Sister" coaching team in 2018 and 19.
Taraka Nova, who transformed into a coach because of drug fat, is pictured from foreign media
But now, Tarakanova, who is the same age as Trusova and Serbakova, has retired as a transformation coach. In an article in The Guardian, she recalled that she had been unable to control her development anyway, so she accepted a drug recommendation to "interfere with hormones, stop menstruation and chest development, and maintain a young, lean body." ”
Sochi Winter Olympic champion and the first generation of talented girls of the "Face Sister" legion, Lipnitskaya (nickname: "soft card") also can't escape the fate of saying goodbye to the ice rink early.
The girl in red, who had perfectly performed Schindler's List in Sochi, was deeply troubled by weight gain.
She said desperately in 2016, "I run and diet, but it's useless, even adding a small spoonful of honey to the tea can grow 1 kilogram, I really don't understand what's going on."
Only 1 year later, the 19-year-old "soft card" announced his retirement and was subsequently hospitalized for anorexia treatment.
Lipnitskaya Infographic
The Road to ChampionsEmpathetic figure skating enthusiasts often have a sense of entanglement when they enjoy the "Oro" performance – they are intoxicated by the suffocating beauty of the performance, and at the same time lament the experience behind the young players.
It is also a feeling of breaking through the limits of the human body, a feeling that the audience did not have when they saw Bolt run into 9.58 seconds. What's the problem?
For many years, Tuti Lize's training methods and the "Sambo-70" club have been the targets of many Western media. However, instead of being forced to train, Valieva and other players chased after the champions and chose this path themselves.
Since it is "Oro" who has embarked on a thorny road for dreams and glory, why is it still controversial?
The International Skating Federation (ISU) believes that the constant downward movement of athletes and the ever-shortening flowering period are a bad tendency. "Since they are not yet minors, why do they participate in the competition of the adult group?"
According to NBC, the ISU is likely to carry out a historic reform - raising the minimum age limit for figure skaters from 15 to 17 years old, and the proposal has been included in the agenda of the 2022 ISU Congress in June this year. If successfully passed, the new rules will be officially implemented in the 2023-24 season.
IOC Executive Director Christopher Dolby also said: "Valieva is only 15 years old and we need to look at this very carefully and carefully. ”
On February 18, IOC President Bach used the word "chilling" to describe how he felt when he saw the coach question Vallieva after the fall, and said he felt "disturbed" when he saw the 15-year-old Waliyeva fall under the pressure of a doping storm.
On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said that although Bach did not like the severity of our coaches, "everyone knows that in high-level sports competition, it is precisely because of such strict coaches that the athletes can win." ”
Peskov said: "We have seen that the Russian athletes have won, so let us be proud of the winners and congratulate the medal winners." Vallieva is fourth, but at a high level of competition, the strongest one wins. ”
Wiping away her tears in Beijing, Valieva did not participate in the final performance slip and returned to China early. But in Moscow, she was warmly welcomed by fans as soon as she stepped off the plane. The Russian Figure Skating Association held a ceremony to celebrate the medalists, and Valieva showed a smile that had not been seen for a long time. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said Vallieva was a "hero of the country."