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Since discovering that Zhang Sushang also liked skating, Wu Yeming often invited him to play on the ice together, which he happily welcomed.
Even though speed and figure skating were different sports, having someone to train with these days was rare.
Wu Yeming had no intention of training, he only wanted to skate; however, he had no way of refusing Zhang Sushang when he dragged him to do squats, push-ups, and go jogging.
When the weather eventually turned warmer and the ice thinned, thus making it unsuitable to train on, Wu Yeming was finally relieved of this burden.
It was also at this time that the Olympic Committee officially recognised the International Winter Sports Week held at Chamonix, France in 1924 as the first Olympic Winter Games.
Winter sports had long been included in the Olympics, but due to weather requirements, they had always taken place in April, while the summer sports were held during August. Therefore, the two events would have been split sooner or later to save costs.
In this era, all the countries applying to host the Olympic Games did so for both the summer and winter games, holding the latter in April and the former in August. It wasn’t until 1994 that this arrangement changed so that the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics were held in sequence with an interval of two years.
For example, Ivan A’s elder brother, Misha Platov won a silver medal at the 1924 Olympic Games. He was the first to do this at a Winter Olympics, which made it quite a historic achievement.
Next came Worlds.1World Figure Skating Championships Misha Platov travelled to Berlin for the competition, where he won bronze. Afterwards, someone brought a video of the competition back to St. Petersburg, for theatres to play. Ivan A’s family owned a hotel, and so this time they draped a white cloth in an open space and specially invited people to screen the video.
This was still the era of silent films — the first sound film The Jazz Singer wouldn’t be released until October of the next year — so to allow the audience to understand that figure skating must be paired with music, the hotel hired a band to play next to the screen.
As Ivan A’s classmates, Zhang Sushang, Danil, and Jiang Jinghu made a trip together. They sat in a corner and listened to the band play everything from Mozart to Beethoven.
Their playing was okay. Danil closed his eyes and tapped out the rhythm on the table.
Misha took a seat next to them. “Chyushka, have you been skating recently?” he asked.
Zhang Sushang had been lounging with a cup in hand, but seeing the protagonist approach, he sat up properly. “The lake’s ice is too thin, it’s been too dangerous to keep skating.”
“Really? But indeed, there are a lot of requirements for snow sports venues,” Misha said regretfully.
Although indoor artificial ice rinks existed, they were expensive and unpopular. Misha, as a national-level athlete, could make use of them regularly, but ordinary people couldn’t.
Danil also understood some things about skating. “Congratulations on winning the bronze medal at Worlds, Mr Platov.”
“I could only win the bronze,” Misha said, smiling bitterly.
It was obvious that he was unhappy. Danil hesitated, unsure of what to say; meanwhile, Zhang Sushang glanced at the screen where the champion’s skate was currently playing and commented, “You did your best, it’s just that your opponents were too strong. The first and second places are better than you by quite a bit, it’s already pretty good to get a bronze.”
Misha: “…”
Everyone’s expressions turned complex, yet Zhang Sushang still felt that he only spoke the truth.
The second place this year, Gillis, was amazing. He was known as the best skater in compulsory figures, the first athlete to successfully land a 2F2Two rotations + flip jump, which is a jump that takes off from the back inside edge and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot jump in competition, and the person who created the flying sit spin. He was a true boss in the annals of figure skating history.
The first time this person competed in the Olympics in 1920 his skates broke so he had to buy a pair of second-hand skates to make do, yet still went on to win the gold medal, then won gold again at the 1924 Winter Olympics.
In addition, he also achieved great results as a coach. His best student was the only three-time Olympic champion in women’s singles figure skating — Sonja Henie.
However it wasn’t Gillis who won gold at Worlds, but his old rival Willy Böckl from Austria. Although Böckl’s compulsory figures weren’t as good as Gillis’ and he missed out on an Olympic gold medal due to this, he was also famous in figure skating history.
Willy Böckl held the record of four wins at Worlds.
Russia, which experienced a tumultuous transformation less than a decade ago, was still developing in many aspects including sports, so Misha winning the bronze medal was enough to make figure skating fans very proud.
Though to Zhang Sushang, none of his attributes had reached the level required to win a championship and he was only a competitor for the podium due to his overall good quality and stable performance.
At this time, Misha’s program began to play; he had skated to The Nutcracker. “Your performance was better than theirs. Tchaikovsky’s music is the great legacy he left to Russia, I think your rendition of The Nutcracker shows better artistry than Gillis or Willy,” Zhang Sushang commented. Then he suggested, “If you want to go further, you can consider learning ballet, and adding ballet elements into your programs.”
When Danil heard this, he couldn’t help but cough. “Chyushka, figure skating is figure skating, ballet is ballet, they’re different things entirely. How can they be mixed up?”
“Why can’t they be mixed up?” Zhang Sushang wondered out loud. “Figure skating isn’t only a competitive sport, it’s also a performance. Adding more artistic elements can only improve the viewing experience and elevate the program’s quality.”
“You don’t understand, you’re a Chinese and haven’t seen any sports matches, you don’t know how serious these competitions are.”
Zhang Sushang was stunned. “The seriousness of sports competitions isn’t used in this way, right? And, if you want to discriminate against me due to my nationality, we can’t be friends anymore. This is my bottom line!”
Zhang Sushang’s face turned cold by the latter half. It was the first time Danil had seen such an expression from him, he suddenly felt an inexplicable fear and immediately apologised. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. You’re exceptional but I just think that since your original environment is like that, there are many things you haven’t been exposed to…”
This caused Zhang Sushang to become even more depressed. As a child of the modern age, everyone treated him very well whether he was watching or participating in competitions abroad, and good friends would also ask him to bring some local specialties from China. Thus, although he intellectually knew that his motherland had once been weak and suffered quite a bit of bullying, today was the first time he experienced it.
People didn’t intentionally despise them, but it was even more hurtful than if they did.
Misha fell into deep thought after hearing Zhang Sushang’s words. He did like Tchaikovsky’s music, otherwise, he wouldn’t have used it for his program — if he added ballet elements, that might also be a way…
He wanted to train a bit more before the ice completely melted. With this thought, Misha stood and left the hotel. There was a lake near his home which he used to skate on since he was a child whenever it froze.
No athlete in the world didn’t want to win. As long there was a chance to beat Gillis and Willy, Misha would never give up.
“I’ll cover your drinks today, feel free,” Misha said, and then he simply up and left.
He couldn’t wait to try out what Zhang Sushang mentioned. Picking up his ice skates, he hurried to the lake.
As a native of St. Petersburg from a prosperous family, he would watch ballet at the Kirov Theatre every year, and had once even seen Nijinsky’s performance!
For male ballet dancers, which movements did they use?
Spins were a given. Apart from spins, there were also great leaps — Nijinsky had the legendary ability to stay in the air. Once, when someone asked him about the secrets of his dance, he replied with a classic line.
“You just need to jump, then stay up there for a while. It’s not hard.”
Maybe it wasn’t that hard for the god of dance. However when Misha tried jumping on the ice with the third ballet position, that is, raising both arms above his head, he was keenly aware that his bodily aesthetics were completely inferior to Nijinsky.
He had no foundation in ballet, and the only dance he knew was the ballroom dance he learned in university.
“Still doesn’t work,” he sighed in disappointment.
Maybe he could sign up for dance classes after the ice melted and he could no longer skate on the lake, but he was already 24, was it any use to learn a new dance style now?
Right at this moment, someone shouted to him, “Be careful!”
Misha looked over in confusion, then felt himself stepping on air.
Zhang Sushang lay flat on the ice and rushed over like a penguin gliding on ice. Where Misha had once been was now only a hole. Laying next to it and stretching his hand inside, Zhang Sushang soon felt a piece of clothing, which he gripped tight as he pulled it up.
Misha’s eyes had been open when he fell. He watched the sky get farther and farther away from him before a hand grabbed onto his collar and he began to rise.
It wasn’t until he was dragged to the shore that Misha came back to his senses, coughed out mouthfuls of water, and panted in fear.
Zhang Sushang, who sat heavily next to him, put on Alexei’s offered coat. He also felt a little scared of what just happened. “Brother, if my flatmate hadn’t told me there was frozen lake here and asked me to see if we could use it to skate, then happened to see you fall in, you would’ve been in big trouble today.”
“Chyushka, this ice isn’t safe, it seems you can’t train here,” Alexei said slowly as he crouched next to them.
Zhang Sushang didn’t care, at worst he would do training on land. He knelt next to Misha and patted him on the back. “Are you okay?”
Misha looked down. After a while, he asked lightly, “Hey, if I don’t learn ballet, will I never be able to beat Gillis and Willy?”
“If you want to improve, all you have to do is to strengthen your skills or enrich your artistry, it has nothing to do with learning ballet or not,” Zhang Sushang replied frankly.
His dancing skills were so good, but didn’t he have to admit defeat when faced with competitors who could do quad jumps?
“But I’ve had broken bones before. I can’t surpass Willy in jumps, and my figures aren’t as good as Gillis’,” Misha said bitterly.
Zhang Sushang, who once also suffered a broken leg but still dared to aim for quads: “…Supplement more calcium and do more land training, brother, you can do it.”
After sending back this athlete who never won a gold medal and was clearly under great psychological pressure, Zhang Sushang went home with Alexei dripping wet and shivering from the cold night wind.
Alexei thoughtfully walked in front to help block the wind. “I never knew that athletes had to bear so much pressure in order to win,” he sighed deeply.
Zhang Sushang sneezed, then looked up to the star-filled sky. “It’s because he wants to bring glory to his motherland,” he said.
For a newly born nation, a championship didn’t only represent personal glory, it also brought confidence to their compatriots.
And didn’t they also need such a medal for a motherland that was suffering?
Thinking back to what Danil said that day, Zhang Sushang thought that maybe, no one in this era thought that China had anyone who could participate in international sports, and no one there understood sports.
He let out a long sigh.
Perhaps he should increase his training intensity again.
This idea emerged vaguely, but he didn’t expect that Misha would knock on his door the next day and say, very seriously, “Please tell me what the land training you mentioned last night is for.”
Author:
The Gillis mentioned in the text is a super awesome boss. Gillis Grafström is the only men’s singles figure skater who has ever won 3 consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals: 1920, 1924, and 1928. His student Sonja Henie also won 3 consecutive Winter Olympic golds in 1928, 1932, and 1936.
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- 1World Figure Skating Championships
- 2Two rotations + flip jump, which is a jump that takes off from the back inside edge and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot
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