For painters, the tools for expressing emotions are brushes and canvases, for musicians, it is the notes on paper and the instruments in their hands, and for figure skating, we always call figure skaters artists on ice, call this sport art, and naturally their tools for expressing inner emotions are skates and ice knives under their feet, the cold ice surface and their small bodies from the lens.
If there is any figure skater who really loves figure skating, treats figure skating with a clear heart, and uses figure skating as a tool to depict the inner world, then Genia Medvedeva must be the most representative. Every season, she always orchestrated far more performances than any other contestant, and as long as you listened, you could always hear the voice from within her.
In the 2017/18 Olympic season, after experiencing serious injuries and representing Russian athletes at the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, to complain about two unforgettable past events, in the European Championship performance slide in which she returned to the ice rink that year, she chose a Russian song "Cuckoo", a simple black robe and black pants, simple and unadorned, just to use the most elegant and least fancy way to shout to the world her determination and consciousness.
For most of the domestic audience, the deeper impression of this song comes from the Russian singer Polina Gagarina's performance in the "I Am a Singer" program in China, and perhaps many people will find their original film through this film soundtrack, "Sevastopol", which records the deeds of soviet female sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko during the Great Patriotic War, which is also the most familiar and favorite version for the majority of Russian post-00s or post-95s.
In the context of the time, this is a song of pre-war mobilization, a battle song of standing up strongly in the face of the injustice of the world and fighting for the mother of the motherland: "Who will go down the lonely footsteps, the brave and the brave throw their heads on the battlefield, few people can be clearly remembered, sober-minded, clench their fists, and be ready to go." So in this show, I saw her firm eyes and clenched fists that are rare in the performance slip, she was seriously injured, her body was heavy, and she was not in good shape, but she was ready, waiting for the moment to go to the battlefield, even if she still carried a piercing pain.
That year's Winter Olympics, Russian athletes were lonely, without the company of the national flag and national emblem, but there were always brave and brave people carrying the tricolor flag in their hearts, not seeking to be remembered by anyone, only willing to fight for the faith in their hearts, and 18-year-old Genia was also a member of this lonely army, with a sense of national honor that must be buried deep in the heart, with the deepest consciousness to meet the baptism of the storm and the destruction of gossip. She wants to fight, to fate, to the wounded, to the filth of international politics. She never retreated, but stood at the forefront of the line, illuminating the whole of Russia like an exploding supernova.
Figure skating is so wonderful, figure skating goddess is so fair, in the main occasions, Genia in the European Championships, the Performance Skating of the Winter Olympics and the celebration ice after the Winter Olympics skated the show three times, and only at the European Championships, she did not make a mistake. This in itself is an instinctive reaction of the soul, when the smoke of the great war falls, the Messianic victims eventually change from warriors to martyrs, naturally, that kind of steadfastness to be ready has long been burned out in the game, there is nothing left, and it is only a luxury to slide out of the show in its entirety again.
A few months later, when the dust settled on the results of the Winter Olympics and Genia left for Canada, I talked to a post-80s Russian friend about the song, and he recommended to me the original song of the song, the version of rock star Victor Choi on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a non-mainstream singer who was loved by young people in that era, but was regarded as a thorn in the side of the authorities and died before public release, I ignored the advice of my friends because of lack of experience, lack of knowledge and appreciation of rock and roll. It wasn't until many years later, when I had more or less experienced some realistic beatings, and when I went back and enjoyed the music, accompanied by his dry smoke voice and the lazy tone that was much slower than the version of Gagarina, suddenly, I understood a lot more. Perhaps at that time, Genia's interpretation not only had the heroism of Gagarina's heroic narrative of fighting for the country and seeing death as a homecoming, but also with a little Victor's uninhibited and yearning for freedom.
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So I thought, what if Genia slipped not gagarina's version, but Victor's version? Since it is impossible to achieve in reality, let's try it through video editing. Perhaps at that time, at the beginning of the New Year of 2018, which was roasted by the flames, she had made her own decision to stay in the city and wander the countryside, to make a quiet stone and shine like a star, to be like Victor, to turn herself into gunpowder, to burn for the sake of free will, to deviate from the scriptures, to expose her resolute head and shoulders under the whip of the world's gossip, and after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, she did just that.
However, it is really sad to think of, we have failed our youth in vain, we are the traitors of youth every moment, and youth has deceived us;
Many of our good wishes, and many of our fresh dreams, vanished like fallen leaves in autumn. --- Pushkin's Yevgeny Onegin
In the end, Genia is loved and loved, not because of a perfect personality or a never-wrong choice, she is like a cuckoo, not always right, but free, alive and constantly fighting. Whether the choice was right or wrong, whether it was famous or slandered, she was always able to embody her inner thoughts in the way of a figure skater, and only such a figure skater could show the audience the beauty of life, and this intertwining of hearts between performers and viewers is the most distinctive part of the sport of figure skating.