Chinese Skating News, Pt. 3: A long & winding road to Beijing 2022

[ostile17]

Go Han Yan, grab that Olympic spot!!!

 

[raruki]

The schedule of the competitions is indeed very intense, but I have to say this is probably the fairest selection criteria of the Olympic team I have ever seen in ages, and they even invite foreign judges to judge all of the internal competitions. Normally, the selection process was pretty rigged because the officials in China were always blindly obsessed with the athletes with 'so-called experience', and athletes coming from a big province or training under the big name's coaches always had tremendous advantages in the selection process in the past.

For example, the Chinese sports authority chose Hao Zhang/ Peng Cheng over Sui/Han in Sochi Olympics. Even though Sui/Han has already shown consistency during the Olympics season and won several medals in some important competitions, Sui/Han was disqualified because they were trained by Bo Luan, former partner of Bin Yao and also Bin Yao's rival in coaching, and Hao Zhang was one of Bin Yao's favorite students.

If the Chinese authority still kept that old and rigged practices, normally Boyang Jin would be automatically qualified to be in the Olympics team no matter how inconsistent he is in this Olympic cycle. But he has to attend all of the internal competitions, so Kudos to the Chinese authority, at least they try to be fair as much as possible.

 

[skatingguy]

Go Han Yan, grab that Olympic spots!!!

Spot - the Chinese men only have one entry.

 

[ostile17]

Spot - the Chinese men only have one entry.

Thanks, it was a typo (obviously) that I corrected.
I doubt he would be able to grab two spots even if they were available.

 

[Marco]

If China envisions their athletes to have to compete at the team events and individual events back to back / wants to test their conditioning due to their lack of competitions this season, this intense competition schedule makes sense. These skaters will compete against each other head to head 5 times to win the sole spot for man and woman. I don't know if this means just these 5 competitions will be taken into account or that scores from this and last season will also somewhat count?!

 

[Japanfan]

Thanks, it was a typo (obviously) that I corrected.
I doubt he would be able to grab two spots even if they were available.

I doubt Han Yan would get the spot even if he looking to be a better candidate that Boyang. Boyang is clearly the favorite.

 

[Gris]

I don't know if this means just these 5 competitions will be taken into account or that scores from this and last season will also somewhat count?!

From the wording of the announcement, the selection will be made based on the best 4 results of the 5 competitions only.

（一）北京冬奥运会花样滑冰奥运选拔赛项目共设3站5场积分赛，根据3站5场中4场较好成绩相加之和进行排名，如有平分以技术分排名在先者排名。

（二）按照积分排名，择优参加北京冬奥会。

Rough translation:

(1) There are 3 events and 5 competitions in total for the figure skating Olympic Trials with the ranking being based on the sum of the best 4 results of the 5 competitions. In the case of a tie, TES will be the tie-breaker.
(2) Select the entries for Beijing Winter Olympics according to the ranking.

I very much agree with @raruki 's post above. Although the schedule is indeed a lot, I'm pleasantly surprised by the efforts to make the selection process fair and square. I hope we can at least see the videos...

 

[Marco]

This also means if the non-favorite comes out on top after the best 4 results are counted, s/he will indeed get to go to the Olympics. Obviously PCS and judging manipulation is another issue but say if Boyang bombs at 2 events whereas Han steadily skates at all 4, then Han gets to go.

 

[raruki]

According to a protocol sheet posted by an insider in Tieba (the Chinese version of Reddit), Sui/Han have brought back the quad twist in a closed-door test skate recently

贴吧404

tieba.baidu.com

 

[raruki]

Today is the first day of the first internal competition for selecting the Olympic delegates.
But according to perfom_live’s Instagram account (He is working for CFSA), Han Yan is not showing on the posters in the venue
I hope that he will compete today and the posters just ignore his presence, but I have a bad feeling that he might withdraw

Watch this story by Arnaud Muccini on Instagram before it disappears.

www.instagram.com

 

[raruki]

The schedule of the competitions is indeed very intense, but I have to say this is probably the fairest selection criteria of the Olympic team I have ever seen in ages

I will take back my words if Han Yan withdraws from the competition without a reasonable explanation.

 

[Gris]

Today is the first day of the first internal competition for selecting the Olympic delegates.
But according to perfom_live’s Instagram account (He is working for CFSA), Han Yan is not showing on the posters in the venue
I hope that he will compete today and the posters just ignore his presence, but I have a bad feeling that he might withdraw

Watch this story by Arnaud Muccini on Instagram before it disappears.

www.instagram.com

The same insider (as in your post #1209) just said in their Tieba thread that Han Yan will not skate in the Olympic Trials. Well I guess I spoke too soon about the "fair and square selection process"...

 

[Marco]

Darn it.

Then again he can afford to miss one out of 5 right?

 

[Jeschke]

Well, at least we lived in happy delusion for a about a week

 

[Gris]

From the same insider about today's Trials:

Boyang: 4Lz3T (poor landing, GOE -3), 4T fall, 3A
Shan: leads after SP but no more details available
Hongyi: 3Lz3T, 1F, 2A

 

[On My Own]

From the same insider about today's Trials:

Boyang: 4Lz3T (poor landing, GOE -3), 4T fall, 3A
Shan: leads after SP but no more details available
Hongyi: 3Lz3T, 1F, 2A

Are there protocols/videos anywhere?

Nothing about Chen Yudong either?

Surprised that Lin Shan did the best, but OTOH the national team lost a lot of time due to quarantine, I guess, so probably why Zhu Yi didn't do too well?

 

[Gris]

Are there protocols/videos anywhere?

Sina Visitor System

This 7-second super blurry video is the only thing we've got so far, I'm afraid. I think I saw Yudong landing a jump.

At this point I do wonder if CFSA is trying to hide something by not publishing any results/videos. I hope they can prove me wrong fast.

 

[On My Own]

Sina Visitor System

This 7-second super blurry video is the only thing we've got so far, I'm afraid. I think I saw Yudong landing a jump.

Oh I saw that. I didn't see any other videos, though, so I wondered. Yeah, it looks like Yudong. This kid jumps big, too.

 

[raruki]

results of the first internal competition.

MENS

1, Boyang Jin 240.69 SP/97.75 FS/142.94
2, Yudong Chen 223.62 SP/77.41 FS/146.21
HAN YAN was abscent due to his personal issue.

LADIES

1, Shan Lin 189.11 SP/61.84 FS/127.27
2, Hongyi Chen 182.46 SP/60.25 FS/122.21
3, Yi Zhu 173.36 SP/59.53 FS/113.83

 

[On My Own]

Good for Lin Shan! I think all the three girls are decent performers, going off memory. I wish the CSA would invest in them more, but I think they're going to go all in on An Xiangyi.

Jin apparently fell twice, and probably popped or just did pretty badly on the rest of the jumps. Chen Yudong also fell once, but still beat him by a big margin on TES. (ETA: guessing based off their deductions https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4715473322641560)

 

[BittyBug]

I am just here to say that I hate the Chinese Fed with the fire of a thousand suns for what they have done to Han Yan.

 

[Jeschke]

I am just here to say that I hate the Chinese Fed with the fire of a thousand suns for what they have done to Han Yan.

Love the metaphor.

But on a fair note, if he finished just one spot higher at worlds...

 

[Karen-W]

Love the metaphor.

But on a fair note, if he finished just one spot higher at worlds...

Or if Jin had finished a few spots higher. It was a combined effort to lose the 2nd spot.

 

[BittyBug]

I understand that, but to not even allow him to try for the sole spot?

 

[clairecloutier]

I don't know how anyone can get behind the actions of the Chinese fed at this point.

As always, there is likely insider info of which we're unaware, which could have bearing on the situation.

Still, the questionable management of talents like Han Yan, Xiaoyu Yu, Zijun Li, and (earlier) Lu Chen, not to mention many pairs skaters, pretty much speaks for itself.

 

[Gris]

Sina Visitor System

A clip of the first Olympic Trial. Seems Boyang added a 4S to his FS jump layout.

ETA: The video seems to be geoblocked...

 

[Jeschke]

I understand that, but to not even allow him to try for the sole spot?

Do we have actual 'confirmation' on that?
Don't get me wrong I am all pro Han Yan, but in the end it could have still been his decision not trying (knowing lack of support by CHN fed for example).

 

[BittyBug]

You’re right @Jeschke, we don’t know for sure why he didn’t show up.

 

[Marco]

You’re right @Jeschke, we don’t know for sure why he didn’t show up.

There is a fair chance that he didn't show up because of "forces higher up"; but for everyone to automatically jump to that conclusion makes me sad.

 

[On My Own]

Sina Visitor System

A clip of the first Olympic Trial. Seems Boyang added a 4S to his FS jump layout.

ETA: The video seems to be geoblocked...

Is this a weixin/wechat link? I think I've not been able to access those this season (they had those for Italian GP and Asian Open, IIRC).