Many top athletes, after having a basic understanding of their own and their opponents’ abilities, could roughly estimate whether they could win a medal, and what color that medal would be.

And these estimates were usually quite accurate, unless the opponent suddenly collapsed and did something unexpected, making it hard for things to go wrong.

Here, I want to mention the countless warm-hearted moments provided by Jin Zixuan and Alex at the qualifiers. These two, one mastering the 4t and 4s quadruple jumps, the other even training the 4lz, still couldn’t outdo the young Arthur Cohen.

Compared to Zhang Jue, who had always been very strong, these two were not up to par.

When Min Shan finished her performance, she knew she would make it to the podium, but her score wouldn’t be as high as Keiko or Katerina’s. She would probably win a bronze medal, and sure enough, she did.

This result matched Zhang Jue’s expectations. The ISU always favored athletes with top-notch stability and comprehensive skills—great technique, performance, skating, and spins. If they had the backing of a strong nationality, that would be even better.

Keiko, aside from being Asian, met all the qualities the ISU liked in athletes, while Katerina’s skating and performance weren’t as strong as Keiko’s. Her 3s suffered because of her focus on training the 4s, and with Keiko outperforming her, it was understandable. But if Katerina could land a quadruple jump, the situation might have been different.

Zhang Junbao looked at the girls climbing the podium and whispered: “A quadruple jump in women’s singles?”

Since the Sochi cycle, men’s singles had entered the era of quadruple jumps, and Zhang Junbao had predicted that women’s singles would eventually follow suit. But the current most promising athlete for this, Keiko, had old injuries and was getting older. He thought it would be during the Beijing-Zhangjiakou cycle before women’s singles would feature the quadruple jump.

To his surprise, the Russian women’s singles had cultivated a Katerina through research on Zhang Jue’s rotational jump technique. Based on the rule that younger women’s singles had more potential, it seemed that other young Russian women would follow the same path.

Zhang Jue: The enemy of my junior sister is actually myself.

After the women’s singles competition ended, Zhang Junbao, Shen Liu, and Coach Lu held an online meeting with key national coaches like Sun Zhihui and Jiang Chaosheng, discussing the possibility of quadruple jumps in women’s singles.

Zhang Junbao, Shen Liu, and Coach Lu agreed that since women’s singles had entered the triple jump era in the 1980s, it had been 35 years. From the first female athlete with a 3a to now, there were only a handful of active female athletes who could consistently land the 3a. So, they thought the era of quadruple jumps in women’s singles wouldn’t come anytime soon.

No one expected that Zhang Jue’s rotational jump technique would speed up this era’s arrival. From his encounters with Russian athletes, it was clear that their jumps were high and strong, but they struggled with the 3a. Many Russian athletes first landed the quadruple, followed by the 3a, which lacked quality.

By the way, some Russian women’s singles struggled with the 2a quality due to issues with their push-off technique, where they didn’t know where to place their left hand during the spin, destabilizing their body axis.

Currently, they had two solutions for this: one was using a purely leg-powered 3a, or raising the hand during the jump.

Sun Qian: “So, Zhang Jue judged that for Russian women’s singles, landing a quadruple might be easier than landing a 3a?”

Shen Liu: “That’s what he said.”

Zhang Junbao was a pioneer in improving Chinese jumping techniques, and though he had started with performance, he was a master at jumps. The higher-ups trusted his expertise, and they were seriously considering this matter.

Everyone understood the nationality advantage Russian athletes had, and though Vasily forbade his juniors from using incomplete jumps for scores, that didn’t mean everyone had such integrity.

Everyone still remembered last year when a European male athlete landed a 3.25 rotation quadruple, with a half-turn body twist before takeoff. Though he landed safely on both feet, it was a low-quality 3.25 rotation, but the judges still didn’t downgrade it to a triple jump. They even awarded a +1 GOE, showing that nationality sometimes meant there was little anyone could do about it.

If one day, a female athlete with a nationality advantage used such a jump to gain quadruple jump scores, China’s women’s singles would have to follow suit and train quadruple jumps, ensuring they could at least compete.

Sun Qian was silent for a moment and asked: “Junbao, do any of the girls under your guidance have the potential for quadruples?”

When Sun Zhihui asked this, he assumed the name Zhang Junbao would give would be Meng Xiaolei, who excelled in power. However, she had issues with her performance, skating, and spinning. Previously, they had believed Qin Meng had the highest potential in the next generation of women’s singles, but now, they had to adjust their thoughts for the potential arrival of quadruple jumps in women’s singles.

As for Min Shan, Sun Qian hadn’t considered her. Women’s singles typically peaked in skill around 14 or 15, and afterward, the technical skills usually dropped due to physical development. Min Shan was already 16, so her potential was likely maxed out.

But Zhang Junbao and Shen Liu exchanged glances and said in unison: “Min Shan’s 4s is 110 degrees short of a full rotation, and her landing is unstable.”

Note: Katerina’s 4s is 120 degrees short of a full rotation. Ignoring the landing issue, Min Shan’s data was actually better than hers.

Sun Zhihui paused, lowered his head, and typed a question mark.

“You’ve already started teaching the girls quadruple jumps without me knowing? Truly, Zhang’s disciples can accomplish anything.”

Uncle and Coach Lu quickly shook their hands, denying the claim. They hadn’t done it, it wasn’t their doing.

Min Shan’s progress with the 4s was entirely due to her senior brother’s hard work.

Zhang Jue sneezed, wiped his nose with a tissue from Min Shan’s black cat Luna tissue box, and Min Shan tiptoed to hang her medal around her senior brother’s neck. She then held up her phone to take a selfie with the two, casually saying: “Senior, do you need a scarf? Tomorrow is men’s singles free skating. You should stay warm and not catch a cold before the competition.”

Zhang Jue rubbed his nose: “But I’m wearing plenty!”

Keiko, having won the gold medal, happily pulled Katerina over: “Shan-chan, come take a photo with us! Oh right, Tama-chan, stand behind us, and Hayato, take the picture! Remember to squat when taking the photo, so our legs look longer.”

Zhang Jue responded and stood behind the three girls, acting as a 1.8m (?) human backdrop. The three girls stood in front of him, looking like children, while Hayato crouched, holding the camera.

“Okay, smile.”

The girls all flashed cute smiles.

Some ice fans commented that the picture of the happy group made them unsure whom to envy at that moment.

Afterwards, Keiko secretly asked Zhang Jue: “Tama-chan, do you think I should start training for the quadruple jump?”

Zhang Jue gave her a side glance: “Do you think that in five competitions, a program with only one quadruple would score higher with the judges, or one with two 3as?”

Of course, the two 3as would score higher. The base value for a 4s is 10.5, while the base value for a 3a is 8.5—just 2 points lower than the quadruple. If executed well, the GOE could make the 3a score similar to a low-quality quadruple.

This was Zhang Jue’s approach—his 3a scores were always about the same as a quadruple.

Keiko looked enlightened. As the current leader of women’s singles, she naturally had her own thoughts about the future of the sport.

The Pyeongchang cycle still had one and a half seasons to go, and until then, there would likely be very few female athletes who could consistently land a quadruple. Keiko didn’t look down on the women’s singles, but given their current state, unless they started training quadruples before puberty, achieving stable, high-quality quadruples would be too difficult.

Before the new champion, who could land a quadruple with stability and good performance, emerged, her current skills would still suffice.

Zhang Jue had enlightened her.

Keiko patted her chest: ‘Now that you’ve said that, I feel better. I can now skate through the last two seasons with the most stable mindset.’

Zhang Jue paused: ‘Are you only going to compete in this cycle?’

Keiko gave him a side-eye, looking helpless: ‘There’s nothing I can do. The career of a female skater is very short. I’m only one year younger than you. Since starting in the youth category, injuries have never stopped, so I can’t guarantee I’ll still have the strength to compete after this cycle.’

‘But my juniors are pretty disappointing. The most talented one won’t even join the youth category until next year. After I fulfill my biggest dream, I’ll probably have to hang on for a few more years to wait for them.’

Keiko’s ‘biggest dream’ referred to winning an Olympic gold medal, which was also Zhang Jue’s goal.

He looked at the girl’s back and then turned to look at his naïve junior sister who was laughing with the coaching staff, silently sighing.

What can I say, top athletes tend to have high intelligence, and many of them are far-sighted, planning their entire careers from the start, considering the worst possibilities, preparing responses and psychological readiness, and then giving their all to climb up. So, no matter what happens, they remain calm and stable in their mindset.

Zhang Jue was like that. Keiko was like that, but his careless junior sister obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Shan Shan, look at you, still smiling after winning the bronze medal. When Pyeongchang comes, how are you going to compete with Keiko, who’s preparing to fight for gold?

Ah, Coach Lu has started training his junior sister and giving her some cold water.

Zhang Jue: She deserves it. Girls like her who always show off need a good scolding.

On the third day of the competition, there were three finals: the ice dance free program, the pairs free skate, and the men’s free skate, with the men’s competition held last.

Anyone with a brain knew that this was because the men’s final was what the ice fans most wanted to see, so the organizers kept everyone on edge.

When Zhang Jue looked at the competition schedule, he saw that his performance was set for 9 p.m. That was his usual bedtime!

To avoid getting sleepy, he had to bring his sleeping bag to the venue again, but before sleeping, he responsibly warned the Sai siblings.

‘When I wake up, you must let me see the junior ice dance gold medal!’

Sai siblings: Shivering in fear.”

 

 

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