Chinese figure skating update

Chinese nationals just concluded today. There are a bunch of interviews, articles from Chinese media on skaters & coaches. I will try to translate a couple of them.

First a summary article.

http://sports.sohu.com/20061228/n247324757.shtml
Head coach Bin Yao comments on Nationals.

… The competition just ended. Pang & Tong won the pairs gold medals, this is their second appearance this season. Since Pang has not fully recovered and they just changed boots, Pang & Tong lowered the technical difficulty of sbs jumps. They still won by a convincing margin. Pang & Tong were using this competition as a warm up for ‘Asian Winter Games’.

Chenjiang Li had a good performance tonight. Despite popping a 3lz, he completed all of his jumps clean including a 4toe+3toe. It’s hard to imagine he was still suffering from asthma and had to inhale medicine a few minutes before competition. Li jumped from third place in the short to first in the free skate and won the competition. Ming Xu won the silver and Jialiang Wu was in third place with two 3A.

Ladies’ gold medal was won by Yan Liu. Her conditioning is not so good this season, as reflected by her poor showing at GP events. Her coach believes it’s due to lack of preparation after Olys season. But after more practice and more familiar with the new program, he believes Liu will advance further in international rankings. Binshu Xu won the silver medal and the bronze went to Dan Fan.

Xingtong Huang and Xu Zheng won the title of ice dance.

The head coach Bin Yao commented that men’s overall level has been raised to a new high as the gap among top skaters is no longer big. Both Chenjiang Li and Zhixue Yang have successfully executed quad jumps. Most skaters can do 3A with no problem. Compared to men, ladies’ condition is not quite satisfactory. Although Yan Liu won the title, she made several mistakes in her free skate, so did Binshu Xu. They have yet to show their best. Bin Yao suspected it might have something to do with their busy competition schedule this season.

Interview with Bin Yao

Another Interview with Bin Yao

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Another interview with Bin Yao on three pairs’ conditioning. I will skip the part on Shen & Zhao and Pang & Tong since there’s not much news there.

Q: Zhang & Zhang made several unnecessary mistakes at GPF, what’s the reason?
Y: You probably don’t know the situation since there’s no live broadcast. Dan was sent straight to the hospital after the free skate. The initial diagnosis was ‘exhaustion’, Dan felt she’s out of breath. After one injection, she stayed overnight at the hospital. After we returned from Russia, she had a thorough exam. Fortunately she’s found major problem other than bradyarrhythmia (slow heart beats).

Q: Will Dan Zhang’s health have an impact on their preparation for ‘The Asian Winter Games’?
Y: Of course. She’s now getting some treatment and is slowly adjusting. They also changed their skates a couple of days ago. Hao Zhang’s boots almost wore out. This Asian Winter Games, only Shen & Zhao and Pang & Tong will compete. Zhang & Zhang will only compete at ‘The University Winter Games’ next month.

Q: Really?
Y: Based on the rules(of ‘The Asian Winter Games’), if three medals go to the same country, the bronze medal will be relinquished to the fourth place finisher. So we are considering not having all three pairs to compete. The final roster will also take into account of their condition (health) and the federation officials’ opinion, but it’s almost certain they will not participate. We’ll have a meeting to make a final decision tomorrow. Li/Xu will compete in their absence.

A brief interview with Xue Shen

A brief interview with Xue Shen at Nationals

Shen & Zhao did not compete at Nationals since they are still in adjustment period. However, they did come as spectators to cheer on their teammates.

“After returning from Russia, we reviewed the tapes several times. We found our head and legs were lack of unison in our exhibition program. Besides that, there’s sill some problem with our sbs spins (in our competition programs). We are now working on it.” said Xue.

“Although the difficulty level of our sbs pins has been raised gradually from CoC to GPF, it’s still not quite consistent. If we can achieve the highest difficulty by doing just two elements, but we practice three elements, we will feel more comfortable in competition. We are now attempting this.” (referring to their spins, I don’t quite get it, maybe lost in conversation).

Shen & Zhao’s next task is ‘The Asian Winter Games’. “We are starting to practice 3toe+3toe SEQ again. It was this element that caused Hongbo Zhao to tear his Achilles’ tendon during practice last year. If it(3toe+3toe SEQ) becomes more consistent in practice, we’ll consider to replace the current 3toe+2toe with it.” Xue explained.

Will Hongbo have any psychological barrier to do this element? “We only practice it when he’s in absolutely excellent condition” Xue laughed.
“We have always tried our best in every competition no matter whether its a big one or small one. We want to break our personal best record of 206 points at the Asian Winter Games.”

Thanks for the translations. What type of injury did Pang have? I was wondering why I had not seen them this season. I hope that Zhang recovers from her illness fully.

If I recall correctly, Pang had a kidney infection. Having had kidney infections, I assure you that was enough to keep her from skating for awhile. Pang and Tong were originally scheduled to compete at Skate America and had to withdraw.

Thanks for the translation! I do hope Zhang will be ok!

Cover up?

Gee, a kidney infection in Pang and a potassium deficiency in Zhang. You'all don't notice that these are also problems related to eating disorders? Am I the only one who smells something fishy? Or am I just over reacting, what with wishing the best for these marvelous athletes?
Linny

Linny, I don't know if you are overreacting or not. But from my experience as a kidney patient, vitamins and electrolytes can be messed up from other things besides eating disorders.

I was shocked to hear the diagnosis of osteoporosis from my doctor. I figured my risk factors were low. I am 55 and not the teeny, tiny boned thin woman (think Sally Field) that is constantly being told she is at risk. While my internist was diagnosing osteoporosis and prescribing Fosamax, my kidney doctor was expressing concern over iron stores and vitamin D. And potassium is a concern of many people with high blood pressure. Potassium levels are watched closely in people with heart and kidney problems because it is directly associated with some kinds of heart attacks.

Eating disorders are notorious for unbalanced elctrolytes and vitamins and minerals. But so is a simply awful diet of junk food or inability to absorb or use those dietary building blocks ingested.

I never know what to think when I hear about illnesses (besides the tourista type food illness) that could be a result of malnutrition. I know I just felt bad for Pang having an infection that I was all too familiar with. My last one involved a week in the hospital and 3 months of antibiotics. I could never imagine being back on the ice and training as soon as she did.