Grace under fire

Struggling, yet quite encouraging — China's fresh-faced figure skating team has revved up its rebuild from its Beijing 2022 pinnacle by earning full Olympic qualification for Milano-Cortina 2026, where it will be counting on its young bloods to deliver.

With only one ticket to Milan earned in men's singles at the worlds in March, Team China entered the home Olympic qualifiers over the weekend on tenterhooks, not sure whether its young roster would deliver in what seemed close to being a "do-or-die" situation, with an Olympic appearance in the remaining three disciplines — women's singles, pairs and ice dance — all on the line.

Six sessions and plenty of "oohs" and "aahs" later, the celebrated program's full Olympic representation is guaranteed, after the host's young skaters held their nerve and landed the three coveted qualification spots at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium.

Teen skater Zhang Ruiyang's tearful reaction following her better-than-expected women's singles free skate on Saturday said it all.

"The moment she got off the ice, she burst into tears, asking: 'Did I just mess it up?' She was worried that her falls would cost her the qualification berth," Zhang's coach Fu Caishu recalled, noting that her 17-year-old charge's performance actually exceeded her expectations.

"She's so young and still inexperienced at the senior level. To carry such huge pressure and earn the quota place for our country by skating the level she did today, it's really hard for her.

"I felt for her, and totally understood her emotions the moment the score came out. With such high stakes, it's a big challenge for a skater of her current level to face. I am proud that she handled it so well."

Virtually unknown to the world before the ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier, Zhang, who only began skating at the senior level this year, made her name by outperforming higher-profile compatriots Zhu Yi, the host's sole women's singles skater at Beijing 2022, and An Xiangyi, the 2023 junior worlds standout, at last month's domestic trials for the qualifier event.

Zhang's strong competitive urge, work ethic and strength conditioning, which according to her coach go beyond those of her peers, have helped the reigning Asian Open senior champion emerge as a legitimate hope to break the long-standing stranglehold on women's singles of Russian, Japanese and North American heavyweights.

Zhang's smooth short program on Friday earned her 62.78 points, a vastly improved personal best that put her fourth in the 25-woman field, before she stepped up her difficulty in Saturday's free skate. Despite two errors in her first two jumps, she accumulated a total score of 179.76 points to finish just above the qualification cut at fifth place.

"It's such an honor to win this spot for China on such a big stage, and to do so at home," Zhang said. "I'm very excited."

"I learned a lot from skating alongside so many top athletes. I still need to improve the overall flow of my programs, though, as well the difficulty of the elements in the future."

Russia's rising star Adeliia Petrosian, Georgia's 2023 European champion Anastasiia Gubanova and Belgium's 2022 world championships runner-up Loena Hendrickx finished, respectively, in the top three spots in Beijing.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, another young girl, Zhang Jiaxuan, partnering with Huang Yihang, helped the country secure a qualification berth in pairs, proving China's strength in the discipline remains, even after the long hiatus of reigning Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong following Beijing 2022.

Cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd of home fans at the former Winter Olympics venue, the Chinese pair scored a field-high 124.84 points from the free-skate performance, building on a 66.68-point short program, to top the 11-team field with a winning total of 191.52 points.

Zhang and Huang, the fifth-placed pair at the junior worlds in February, took pride from their first major showing at the elite level, which had significant ramifications for the discipline in China.

"I am really excited and emotional at the moment, having put so much effort into our training and overcoming so many challenges," said Zhang Jiaxuan, also 17, who first paired with Huang at the junior level after Beijing 2022.

"We didn't quite deliver a perfect performance today. We had some tiny little errors here and there," she said after the free skate on Saturday. "We handled the pressure well, though, for our first competition at this level."

Huang shrugged off the hype comparing them to some of the country's pairs skating greats, insisting that they are only focused on improving their routines in the buildup to Milan.

"Should we manage to represent our country in Milan, we will further improve our routines to make them more competitive," Huang said.

Although helping China secure one national entry into the pairs discipline, Zhang and Huang still have to skate at the domestic Olympic trials to vie for the sole representation in Milan against other pairs, including Sui and Han, who have recently announced their comeback to the ISU Grand Prix circuit.

In ice dancing, Chinese veteran duo Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu booked their place at next year's Milan showpiece by scoring a total 168.83 points to finish fourth. The qualifier marked their return to the international stage after a long layoff, plagued by injuries, since finishing 12th at Beijing 2022 — China's best Olympic result in ice dance.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn