Wenjing Sui & Cong Han

pyri_mids said:

Here is a Chinese interview with S/H: http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn/ch/se/txt/2015-05/06/content_686368.htm

I don't think its been translated yet, but I'd love to see what it says!

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She is 20 years old; he is 23 years old. In her eyes, his stubborness/determination/dedication can be "foolish", but he is still a considerate big brother to her. In his eyes, her willingness to bear hardships shows how bold her heart is, yet she is intelligent.

Together they are a figure skating pair of China. Her name is Sui Wenjing; his name is Han Cong.

As athletes, training and competition have become part of their lives. They say that they are used to the sweat, even the pain and injuries, from training and competing; they feel that there is nothing much to it. However, they are not the same as their “seniors” in the sport; as a duo from the 90’s generation, they have their own views regarding the relationship between their sport and their career.

Dreams, in fact, also have individuality.

Wenjing says that the reason she engaged in figure skating is to realize her childhood dreams. When she first started, she trained in the singles division. Then, the coaches selected athletes and paired her up with Han Cong. “Although we went through a lot of stuff, both of us are still together until now.”

Because he is older, Han Cong is used to calling Sui Wenjing “Xiao Sui” (meaning Little Sui). “I’m 23 years old this year, that’s three years older than Xiao Sui. I can’t be considered as young anymore. Figure skating is more like a task to me than it is a career.”

Han Cong feels like his younger self was a little “stupid”. He didn’t know what “dreams/goals” were, but his parents and coach would unnoticeably instil into him what it means to have dreams. “My coach would ask me why I am skating and what am I skating for? Am I trying to provide my family with better living conditions? And when I’m older, do I want to able to tell my children that their father once did all these vigorous, amazing things?”
The skating duo thinks that they are vastly different from the “senior” generation. “We still started from scratch in this team-based sport. Life in a team-based sport is simple and it can be dull. What we can see/learn from our seniors has more or less affected us as well. There are skaters who are even younger than me, and when I retire from this sport, I want to leave a good impression on them and be a good role model,” said Han Cong. “Their dreams will be clearer to them, and the goals they strive to achieve will be more defined.”

As Han Cong belongs to the new generation, his personality is striking, he likes to take selfies, he spends much time on Weibo, and he likes to browse the pictures that his friends post on WeChat.

“Coming Chinese New Year we have plans for training, so we’re not going back to our hometowns. Being away from home and missing our family – this is how it always is during the holidays. I would call my mother, and she would send me photos of me when I was little. I’d share these photos on Weibo to let skating fans see what I looked like as a little girl,” said Wenjing.

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Portraying One Another and Themselves

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong paired up in 2007. Their coach is Luan Bo who has made a name for herself in the skating world. That year, Wenjing was 12, and Han Cong was 15. Since then eight years have passed, the two remained together through thick and thin, and went on and off the ice rink regularly. Due to this, they have developed a strong understanding for each other.

In Han Cong’s eyes, the fact that Wenjing can endure hardships proves she’s brave and intelligent. “She always take the initiative to practice more, she trains nearly the same amount as male athletes. When girls start practicing difficult elements like throw jumps, most of the time they will be slightly afraid, but not Wenjing who was so relaxed and free that you couldn’t see any evidence of fear on her. We secretly call her Liu Hulan (notable female spy during Chinese civil war). She’s very sharp. When doing a difficult element like the throw quad, it’s not enough if you’re only brave because then you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it, and there would be no elegance to the element. Even the smallest details need to be handled smartly in order to execute the element well. In pairs skating that requires the cooperation of the movements between two people, I feel like Wenjing is smarter/sharper than other girls.”

During the conversation, Han Cong also showed off his “senior experiences”. “Wenjing has many strong points, but I’m not one to be always praising her. This is because she is still quite young and has less experience in society so I’m scared that she will be too proud. I tell her when she’s doing something wrong in the technical aspects, and which parts she can improve further. There are also times when I make careless mistakes and she would remind me too.”

In Wenjing’s eyes, despite Han Cong’s complex personality, the calmness and steadiness never changed. “When we were first paired up, I was 40cm shorter than him so I had to “look up” to him every day. If I don’t execute a move correctly, he would glare at me with squinted eyes. Although I was young, I was rather godly (I didn’t understand what this sentence meant so let’s just roll with the direct translation here, sorry). One time, I felt extra sad after being lectured by him so I burst into tears, and since then he became much gentle. After so many years together, he transformed from a figure of authority to an older brother who wanted to improve alongside me. Even though there can be conflict in the relationship between a brother and a sister, we always resolve ours very quickly.

In a battle of wits and wisdom with Han Cong, Wenjing has figured out her own strategy to it: “Han Cong is rather stubborn and it’s not easy for him to change his opinions. So I would go and complain to our coach in secret. Our coach would lecture him and only then would he accept. (She laughs.) Han Cong is not good at talking, especially when it comes to saying praises. He's is able to give criticism, though he can barely give any words of inspiration, but his encouragement to me shows in his actions.”

The experienced and sensible Han Cong is accustomed to view his shortcomings hypercritically. Before every practice session, he would stand alone in a corner to have some peace and quiet so he could run through all the technical elements in his mind once. He said that he has weaker coordination. “My lower secondary teacher told me, Han Cong, you are a silly bird, and silly little birds need to fly first.” Even when everyone was doing the same question, Han Cong would take longer than the rest to find the answer. The same thing happens on the ice rink: others can learn a move really fast whereas Han Cong needs to practice many times before he can grasp the same moves. “I’m persistent. When I set my mind on something, I must go and try it. There is a possibility that I will fail if I only tried an element once, but when I try an element twenty times there’s bound to be a few times where I’m successful at completing it. If we don’t try anything, how will we know the results?”

Wenjing, on the other hand, maintained her consistent conducts. “My biggest flaw is that I’m careless and not attentive to details. However, my flaw can sometimes be an advantage to me. I have a good and bold character so I’m always very open/lively during practice sessions or competitions. I won’t have too much burden and I could get along with anyone.”

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Blooming After Facing Many Adversities

In 2012, Sui/Han won their first Four Continents Championship. At that time they have already advanced into the senior group, and they did junior and senior events simultaneously. However, a mishap happened when they were at the first peak of their careers.

Wenjing recalls: “Every time we were at practice my legs started to feel quite painful. I still continued skating with clenched teeth. Maybe it’s because I did too much difficult moves when I was younger, my bones frequently receive severe impact, and I was at the age of puberty that caused my serious case of Epiphysitis. The pain soon became so unbearable I could no longer train. After I went for a checkup at the hospital, we found out that our problems didn’t end there. We discovered that I had broke four ligaments a while ago and I wasn’t aware of it until the checkup.

The need for recovery caused their career to come to a pause for half a year.

Han Cong says since they cannot participate in any competitions, they focus on working hard in training. “We became really understanding of one another. We achieved some good results so we wish to go further together and not give up on each other. We cannot go onto the ice rink, instead I would encourage Wenjing to practice something else outside the rink to ensure that any functions of her body does not regress.”

Han Cong carried Wenjing on his back to the training center every day, and when they were done he would carry her back to the dorms.

Half a year later, the unyielding duo decided to return to the competitive scene. Before competition, Wenjing made a mark on her two feet. “Wenjing thinks that she can do it. She insisted on fighting through it once. Our final results turned out very bad; we only managed to place 12th. Wenjing finished the competition crying, her tears filled with all her pain and sadness. While she was in her recovery phase, she was barely able to go on ice. She only laced up her skating boots three weeks before competition to practice some easier moves so she can adjust to them. What's more, all the jumps were bypassed/simplified during those practices.” Han Cong is still saddened at the memory of what they had to go through those days.

After that defeat, Sui/Han experienced again a rather long period of adjustment, slowly slipping back into their good condition. In 2014, the national figure skating team reformed, and they were transferred from Harbin to Beijing for training.

On the 26th of March 2015, Sui/Han received their personal bests in the free skate and overall score, and with a total of 214.12 points, they won the silver medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai. It is their first medal in a world championship.

Wenjing can’t help but have a sour feeling in her nose when she recalls the atmosphere/scene at the world championships. It was the first time a world championship was held in China, and she was glad that they were able to do their best in front of their home country. “This means we are finally able to walk out of the trough that was caused by my injury and perform to our best. I was going through so much emotions that my tears started falling before we even finished skating.”

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Challenging the Two Quads

Before each season, Sui/Han and their team will go through a complicated preparation process. First, they will choreograph a program. The required elements are added in next, and then intricate/difficult lifts are designed to put into the program as well. The music and costume designs are decided when choreographing their routine.

The ISU has different requirements in a program for each season; hence, Sui/Han plans their routine based on them. The elements for short program and the free skate are usually done in roughly a month. After that, they go through a systematic training plan, and make adjustments to the program details accordingly when faced with problems during training. “Every time after a competition we will make a very thorough summary. We go back to square one and start anew,” says Han Cong.

Wenjing says that their weakness is both of them do not possess a tall stature. They try to make up for this by upgrading our technical content, improving our skating speed and make sure our lifts are more difficult than others. “Even though we are not tall, but it still looks balanced when we stand together, one is neither taller nor shorter than the other.”

In order to aim high onto the podium, Sui/Han are prepared to challenge the “double quads”. “Double quads” stand for the two most difficult elements in pairs skating: quad twist and quad throw. Being able to complete these two elements can give them a considerable edge in competition.

“The difficulty of those elements is really high. One needs to maintain their control, strength, sense of direction, and ensure they fully rotate. They use up much physical energy and it tests a pair’s understanding of the element,” says Han Cong. So far there are no other pairs in the world that have accomplished both the quads in competition, and they aspire be the first pair to do so.

Their current coach Zhao Hongbo has participated in many competitions and performed many programs that remained classics. Experiences are valuable assets to them. “Coach Zhao will advise us on what to emphasize during a program and how it should be expressed, and we will slowly explore it ourselves. He also shares with us his experiences and lessons learned during each important event, and it helped us from taking anymore detours,” says Han Cong.

Wen Jing also says, “Coach Zhao tells us, we need to have a strong heart/will. The foundation of a good heart/will is to concentrate during practice. When we can give ourselves the full attention, any external factors cannot affect us.”
Han Cong stresses on the importance of focus. “We must put our 100% into the technical elements and must not be distracted. In a year, we persevered with coach’s teachings and have noticeably improved.”

“Coach Zhao also passed onto us a trick of his that is to always hug each other before going onto the ice during competition. And it has to be a very tight hug so we can give energy/drive to one another,” says Wenjing.

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khlaw said:

I think she actually refers to Han Cong (or his eyes lol) - she said "If I don’t execute a move correctly, he would glare at me with *little* squinted eyes." and followed by this sentence "though his eyes are small but they are lively/penetrating." So CUTE. I love her.

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Go Further, Fly Higher

Although Wenjing and Han Cong share the same dream, they had different experiences going into the sport.
As a kindergartener, Han Cong’s teacher told him to try roller skating for a few days. After practicing it for a while, he and his friends took off their roller skates, bought themselves ice skates and started their journey on the ice. “We didn’t actually know much about ice skating at that time. We stumble-crawled a lot on the ice but still thought it was fun.”

A long time passed, Han Cong felt strongly about not continuing as he felt tired. Later he used his injured foot as an excuse to “escape from this sea of bitterness”. After his foot recovered, his first coaches came to his school to select newbies and asked him whether he wanted to return to practicing skating or not. “I was very reluctant to go back after having finally been able to stop. Back then my movements on ice were very ugly, my steps were too; plus I was short. Many people asked me if I can even make it into pairs skating with my qualities, surely not. I didn’t want to believe them. The more people tell me that I can’t do something, the more I want to prove to them that I can. That’s why I went back on to the ice. And my coach Luan Bo was there to guide me patiently.”

Han Cong always remembered what his lower secondary teacher told him – how he/she called him a fledgling (see page 2; forgot to mention that the statement about him being silly bird is actually a metaphor). He took the initiative to practice even more and learning more difficult moves. “Every time I successfully land a jump is a reward for me. Then I got a partner and I could do throw jumps and subsequently, twist lifts. I instantly felt like I got caught in a state of madness (the good kind obviously) and couldn’t let go of figure skating anymore.”

Sui Wenjing, on the other hand, purely “set herself into the net of figure skating”. In 2003, she saw Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue competing on TV and thought that it was a beautiful sight to behold. It inspired her to take up figure skating. She didn’t know the basics of ice skating and never even wore ice skates before. “But I was just so mesmerized. I was eight years old then, which is generally late age to be starting figure skating. Most kids started training professionally since they’re four or five.”

Wenjing had always excelled in her studies so her mother wanted her to develop in the direction of cultural studies and was unenthusiastic about letting her specialize in sports. Seeing how obsessed Wenjing was about skating, she tried to come up with ways to prevent her from pursuing the sport. “My house was very far away from the ice rink, taking the bus would take around an hour to reach. One time my mother didn’t allow me to go for practice because my homework wasn’t finished, but I was determined to go. In a fit of pique she told me that I can choose to go but I have to walk there myself. I didn’t have any money on me so I really did walk to the ice rink. My teammates were off th ice and done with training when I arrived. I remember how cold that particular day was, and I was crying as I walked back, snot and tears freezing my face. My mother was completely conquered by my determination. As a result, she told me: ‘You just keep on skating. I don’t care anymore’. At the present, she is very supportive of me and cheers me on at all times.”

To go even further and fly even higher in the world of figure skating - this is the goal that never gave up on Sui/Han. They admitted that their ultimate goal is the climb onto the top of the skating world and the road to do so will not be smooth. However, they still hold onto their belief: after a competition (regardless of results), go back to square one, start anew and slowly and diligently work their way towards their goal.

When they’re not training, they will take the chance to discover new things off the ice. Han Cong wants to learn a thing or two about marketing. Wenjing is also expanding her knowledge on a particular skill and wishes to surprise skating fans with it. “Perhaps we’re not so similar to the older generation of athletes. We love to communicate even more and find joy in seeing wonderful things in other people’s lives,” says Wenjing.

Figure skating is not only a sport/exercise, as it can also enhance one’s artistry. It is a sport that is very close to the people. They hope that figure skating will become more popular in China. Han Cong says: “So far, it’s mostly the northerners who join this sport. Many ice rinks were built in the south in recent years but their pace of development is still slightly lagging behind, which is lacking when compared to other sports such as ping pong, badminton and other conventional sports. I hope more and more people fall in love with figure skating, and hope even more little kids will join our team so winter sports can become widespread.”

Until today, the four ligaments that Wenjing broke have yet to join back. If she is to go for surgery, it will take a long time for her to recover and there will be a possibility that she has to bid farewell to the ice rink for good. “For the sake of my dreams and goals, I think I can keep holding on. Actually all athletes are the same, we all want to climb to the top of the podium.”

Pairs skating usually produce couples off-ice, but Sui/Han don’t intend to inherit this “glorious tradition”. Han Cong says: “We know each other too well. We’re more like siblings. Besides, I haven’t reach that age where I think about these things. I give my everything to skating and have no time to socialize. A person’s concentration has its limits. In order to completely focus on one thing, it is inevitable for us to let go of other things”

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Sunny Little said:

Aaand here's the last page! It was a long one to translate but my favourite. Page 5:

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