Yuzuru Hanyu and other figure skating talk part 28

The last thread (part 27)

Alina's interview with Masaru on the famous Russian night show, Vecherniy Urgant. Such a classy young lady from the way she carries herself to her replies but ofc the Medbots on Twitter will only talk about the part where she mentioned checking her weight 3 times a day in the running up to Olympics or big competitions and trying not to fluctuate even 100g so as not to impact her jumps. Funny how those same fangirls were silent when Yuzu said weighting himself is the first thing he does every morning or when Med was advertising diet shakes which make you shit a lot.

R601 from the previous thread, I think Nathan will go back to Yale, seeing as he won everything this season. To me he looked stronger training mostly independently honestly. He strikes me as highly self-motivated and self-directed.

R2 Alina is gorgeous. She should just model or something since she's pretty much won everything already.

she looks like a humster , with a ton of make up she is gorgeous? lol

WTT scores combined

Chen 301.44

Zhou 299.01 SB

Uno 282.24

Rizzo 260.53 SB

Tanaka 258.84 SB

Messing 257.79

Nguyen 251.97 SB

Lazukin 249.33 SB

Aymoz 239.05

Samarin 230.37

Grassl 228.36

Siao Fa 204.67

___

Tuktamysheva 234.43 SB

Tennell 225.64 SB

Sakamoto 223.65 SB

Kihira 222.34

Samodurova 207.45

Bell 206.06

Piredda 180.55 SB

Meité 173.67

Daleman 171.81

Lecavelier 170.24

Rodeghiero 155.09

Chartrand 147.27

_________

James/Cipres 226.00 SB

Zabjako/Enbert 217.12

Della Monica/Guarise 200.62

Moore Towers/Marinaro 200.22

Cain/LeDuc 192.15

Miura/Ichihashi 137.91

___

Papadakis/Cizeron 223.13 SB

Sinitsina/Katsalapov 215.20 SB

Hubbell/Donohue 209.97

Weaver/Poje 203.78

Guignard/Fabbri 202.54 SB

Komatsbura/Koleto 160.24 SB

I think in an odd kind of way, screwing up at the Olympics took a lot of pressure off of him - sort of set him free.

I do see an improvement on his jump landings - not every time, but sometimes, he bends his damned knee, at least a bit. I don't see what the judges see with the PCS, but I guess he's at least trying, with the jerky angular parts, of his short program especially. Maybe Benoit is the guy for him?

I have to say I feel a little bit about Yuzuru the way you do about Alina, R4. I guess I'm just so damned curious as to what Yuzuru is doing after skating - and I'm so worried about his ankle. Is he really gonna bring back the 4Lz and train a quad he's never done - well, two of them, the 4F and 4A? After he's conquered the world anyhow? Oy. OTOH, I don't really think I'll follow the men very closely without him. Well, maybe to see if Shoma and Kolyada can have a good year - and the women are really REALLY heating up, with Trusova, Shcherbakoba, Rika, Tursy, even Tuk. Should the ones w/o quads and 3As just stay home?

R2 I love her dog. Hope she can bring it to Japan ice shows. Many would feel jealous of her dog.

Is that a girl dog? And they said she/he was dressed up as Don Quixote??

R7 I hope that Yuzu had time to cool down and realized that trying to bring back the 4lz or go for the 4f is not the answer as USfed and ISU are set on crowning their new king and don't even give a shit about which jump he is jumping anymore as could be seen at WTT. Bringing this video back for those who still believe Nathan improved or deserves his scores to some extent. We are comparing a 19 years old Yuzu with a 19 years old Nathan and as someone on Twitter said it's like looking at Chanel and Walmart.

R9 Masaru is a girl and she was dressed in the replica of Alina's red costume from last season

Awww. I dread seeing her knocked off the podiums by the heavy-arsenals coming along - almost as much as I dread seeing Yuzuru cheated while trying his heart out.

So the ISU changed the rules to de-emphasize artless jumping beans - yeah right.

R12 Obviously we have long known that's a farce and they don't give a shit about the actual sport. They're going to prop who they want to prop, regardless of whatever stupid rule changes they make.

R14 So why was Nathan throwing up, food poisoning or someone got him pregnant

Yuzu did give him a big hug after Worlds - while ignoring Vincent who first approached him and touched his arm.

I didn’t follow skating or Skating Twitter during the last quad. The times that Javi won Worlds, were fanyus salty and stabby? Or were they ok because Yuzu and Javi were friends and trained together, and because Spanish fed had no power like USFSA does?

Yuzu and Nate seem kind and respectful to each other, but to fanyus, it doesn’t matter. Fanyu culture at this point seems to be like Christian denominations and believers that act the opposite of what Jesus was described as.

R16 Depends. Fanyus are so split and have their own circles. Japanese fans, Chinese fans, and other international fans don't always see eye to eye as well as among themselves.

I thought the outraged story was that despite Spanish Fed having no power, as the only European to be close to a medal and with TCC PR, Javi was still kind of favored. Still a better skater than Chen.

Spanish Fed had Bulge Judge working hard for them

R15 Damn Yuzuru getting everyone pregnant. Where can I find this footage of him ignoring Zhou?

I got a baby

is there a picture PC with Yuzuru?? We know he just loves them. I bet he would like to take a picture with them. Especially with Cizeron ;)

R14 So I dared to venture into the Nathan section in GS to find out the cause but nothing concrete came up...the general consensus was fatigue combined with a bad cold. Apparently, some Japanese fans were the ones who reported him throwing up. I couldn't read much further because the conversation lapsed into Nathan having "gentle landings" and "textbook perfect" quads, along with the requisite cooing over him needing to rest his poor body (not unlike fanyus, admittedly, and it's true, Nathan has been going none stop since Worlds). Anyway, reading all that made ME nearly want to vom, so I Bye, Felicia-ed out of there.

My vote therefore goes to pregnancy as the cause of his upset stomach.

R16 Yeah sure it's the evil fanyus the problem and not the ridiculous overscoring of some skaters. People have the right to be pissed at his shit show without being accused of being biased. A lot of Yuzu fans are also mad for the Japanese ladies getting robbed and many were also pissed at World 2017 despite Yuzu winning because of the overscoring of other skaters. Is it too much to ask to have some fairness in what is supposed to be a sport. And sorry but if Nathan had some integrity he would acknowledge his overscoring, not describe himself with a goat emoji or tell people to go watch ice dance if they want artistry. If you can watch R10 and not see anything wrong I suspect you are blind, delusional or are getting some sweet $ from the USfed. But yes let's call fanyus evil names.

I read that Cizeron doesn't like Hanyu... There was once a speculation that it is because he is quite a narcissistic guy with a penchant for self-adoration and he doesn't like fab Yuzu 'stealing the spotlight' in a way... Like a silent battle of egos of two guys who dislike each other because there are some features in them which are very much alike...Like being the center of attention and a flair of 'fabulousness'. I don't insisit this theory is 100% but also I don't remember ever seeing a single pic of Yuzuru with Cizeron. Too bad ;( I would like to see Cizeron lifting Yuzu (even solely from aesthetic reasons).

As for Boston, yes people were mad but more at Orser for not managing the situation well and being dismissive of Yuzu and many fans wanted Yuzu to leave TCC. It was a low point for him for sure but the good thing is that afterwards he slowly opened more towards the coaching team and Brian also started to make an effort to try and understand him more, although the one that Yuzu credited to have helped him a lot mentally at the time is Tracy. Some fans were also annoyed with Miki at the time for meddling in favour of Javi. I always found it interesting that Yuzu and Javi's relationship started improving once Javi broke up with Miki. With how sidelined Yuzu seems to be with most of Team Japan, it wouldn't surprise me if she was also adding fuel to the fire by telling Javi bullshit about him. That's ofc just my very own and useless conjecture and we will likely never know.

R25 I never heard that rumor, quite the contrary actually. Iirc I read somewhere that Guilllaume admires him a lot. Who knows. I think Yuzu keeping people at arm's length most of the time outside of galas or ice shows probably makes it difficult for people to understand him.

R25 you are pathetic. Everyone hates hayu, yeah sure, that king of figure skating. Get a life

r25 Sounds fabricated. Either by you or by whoever wrote it. I mean, one of the few (the only?) time time Yuzu was noticed to watch others practice from behind the boards was a Papadakis/Cizeron runthrough, so sure he must dislike him. And Cizeron has always been complimentary towards Yuzu, so sure, he must dislike him.

And fanyus were nowhere near as furious with Fernandez winning over Yuzu. Even now, they wouldn't be furious, merely disappointed, if Yuzu had lost to a proper score. It's not the losing that drives the anger, it's the scoring.

I'm being odd and creepy again.

R30 Nah. Think you just brought things back on track, even. Anymore where that came from?

R30 Nothing odd, just impeccable taste.

Very interesting interview from last year, with Kiyozuka, the pianist who collaborated with Yuzu for faoi last year on Haru yo koi exhibition. He talks about Yuzuru's innate musicality and how he improvised full choreography on a song that Oda had requesting during practise. I could totally see Yuzu as a choreographer in the future.

[quote] From Figure Skate Magazine- at the interview before small medal ceremony, Yuzu said that the blade cover was matching Haru yo koi

What a fancy little twink.

R30 I have a hot take. There's no way Yuzuru wears those tight leggings just because. He knows how he looks and enjoys people ogling his ass, the exhibitionist.

San 95.87 FS

total 144.80

R31 I will continue on this arduous task of sifting through Hanyu photos to fulfill your request.

In the meantime, this interview from last year's media day/post-choreographing Otonal and Origin gives insight into Yuzu's creative process and just how meticulous he is. Now, I don't know how the rest of the skaters go about crafting their programs but I doubt they do things like record their own breath to start off Semei, for example.

R24. Thank you! I am so turned off on Nathan because of his ridiculous scores. And I'm sorry but he was calling himself a GOAT with Michelle Kwan. This isn't even sport anymore and I feel for Yuzu the next season. No matter what he does the judges won't care. I wonder how much isu got paid by the U.S. fed?

R37 less then japan and especially russia

Basar Oktar takes the lead with 175.29

R39 #king #goat #ifoktarwithoktar

R34 Is it really that hot a take? Here I thought it was a forgone conclusion.

R36: Thanks in advance! Will eagerly anticipate.

R37 Can't deny it'd be fun to see him try, though. I mean, he must still be seeing some kind of worth in it. Or maybe he just doesn't know what else to do with himself besides compete. Yet. Either way, if it translates to more ass pics in the future, I ain't gonna complain.

Zandron wins Skate Victoria with 207 points. Basar is 5th. Podium wasn't far (179)

Judge#5 still hates San.

well, judge#5 just hates all of them. He probably thought " I don't even get paid to sitting here looking at these skaters who should have been told skating is not their cup of tea"

So, now that it's the off season, what are your predictions for the 2019-2020 season? Let's hear them.

R43 I predict the Turkish Fed will continue to shove Basar Oktar down our throats. I'm sooo sick of the politicking rn. #justiceforsan.

R43 Nathan goes to Yale!

R34 Hanyu has been wearing those Marina Ice pants since he was pretty young. I think he just wears them because he's OCD and when he finds something he likes, he gets 40 of them - like the UA shirts. I'm sure he knows people look at his ass though given the thirst posts all over the internet (maybe the Japanese side of his fandom is more mature about that stuff; or maybe not given all the photographs that come from JPN outlets).

R43 Nathan will appear at the first GP assignment rocking stress acne and a black t-shirt, will do some jumps, and take the medal with his 'happy to be here' face.

Yuzuru and I will welcome our first born and this thread will explode in celebration.

R48 Well, almost looking forward to that rather than more ankle related heart-attacks.

R43 I will come home from the farmers' market to find my husband, Fernandez and a well-hung Canadian dwarf on our marital bed, reenacting their moments of Olympic glory. I gasp and drop my woven market tote. I set aside my pride and ask to join, but Eric puts a finger to my lips and says, "sorry, bronze medalists only." I comfort myself by eating the bruised fresh fruits and produce off the floor, through tears.

R48 Aren't you going on a honeymoon to South Korea with your Bulgarian bf, Med? At least that's what Twitter and insta told me.

R50 I would pay good money for a video of such a scene.

300jpy??? Medbots will volunteer to write anything between Hanyu and Med for free.

Picture her potential bitch face while she was saying this and thinking about the Shibutanis..

Madison Hubbell (USA), 2019 World Team Trophy Champions team: This is my first experience, so I have not lived another format. I unfortunately was not able to participate in the team event at the last Olympics. The feeling I have is that while it should be mandatory to have a different skater for each segment. At the Olympics they should allow two entries for all of the events, because I think there are many teams with an abundant amount of talented skaters. I know that my federation would have loved to put two more skaters on that team and give them the chance to come home with a medal. That is something I would like them to consider for Beijing.

Shibs are bitchies..she is right , what your problem R53??

R52 Girlschannel, seems there's a post touching on something similar too. It seems so stupid, who would ever think of recruiting like this?

[quote] Damn Yuzuru getting everyone pregnant. Where can I find this footage of him ignoring Zhou?

R19, in the last thread, someone posted an hour-long documentary, and it had some scenes from Worlds. The Sino-Japanese-American intrigue involving Yuzu rebuffing Vincent and bear-hugging Nathan with a beaming smile is during the part of the documentary that showed them waiting to go out to get their medals on the podium, right after the skates at Worlds. I'll try to find the link and come back with it (may take a while - we're really chugging along with these threads! I think it's the PCS conroversy/outrage).

R19 it was easier to find than I thought. At minute 2.30 Vincent touches Yuzuru's arm but Yuzu turns toward Nathan instead and hugs him at minute 2.30

* oops Yuzu hugs Nathan at 2.32

R57 Thank you for finding the video again. Love it, glad to see Zhou isn't allowed in the clique. You need to work hard for it, Vincent!!!

Maybe it's just me projecting my dislike of Zhou but he seems to be trying extra hard these days to get close to the crowd favorites. STicking near Cha to constantly ruffle his hair, inserting himself into Shoma and Keiji's cantilever runthroughs, constnatly hanging around said guys... yah I'm petty.

R2 I agree with you, when Alina says anything body or diet related the internet explodes into "Eteri Is an Abusive Witch" outcry but Yuzu says he weighs himself first thing every morning and there's deafening silence. If anyone were to bring it it would be met with "ETeri is abusive tho".

What is this talk of Hamada being creepy to Uno "again" from the last thread? Or was it Hashimoto? Is she hitting on a younger generation now?

What's Todd Eldredge up to these days? I remember reading a few threads back that he's closeted, or was groomed, or whatever. Is this true?

Keegan Messing's 4A attempt out of harness.

R61 call me crazy fanyu but if he does it before Yuzuru I'm gonna be piSSED

R59 Maybe Hanyu doesn't find anything particularly admirable about Zhou's skating, so he kind of brushes him off lol. With the other guys that he's more friendly with, he has expressed some kind of appreciation for their abilities, like Boyang with his jumps. Then again, Yuzu seems pretty nice to most people. So maybe he just simply doesn't like Vincent.

R61 It's really weird that he seems to have less height on this 4A attempt than on his 3A. I assume that more height is needed to get it fully rotated though which wasn't the case here.

I think Yuzuru was overwhelmed with emotion about losing and about Nathan. He mentioned watching him at US Nationals and being so impressed, and wanting to beat him so badly. He's like THE rival. Vincent isn't even an after-thought at this point, not worth bothering to dislike (unless there's something I don't know - like a diss a la Pchiddy or an intentional snub a la Dai at Pyeongchang). I doubt Yuzuru and Vincent have had much to do with each other.

Maybe impressed is the wrong word - shocked at his scores?

Didn't Yuzuru question why Nathan's GOE was so high on his quad lutz when his own quad toe wasn't that high? I forgot the details but remember him holding the protocol in his hand and talking about it or something.

All this must be difficult to handle for him ;( Out of nowhere this guy starts getting stratospheric GOEs and PCS.

R62 Unless Keegan lands it in a competition and with a good GOE, it doesn't count, at least according to Hanyu.

R66 because goe for lutz is higher .IS that hard to understand? For instance +4 for lutz is worth much more then +4 for toe loop

Yuzu was tired and overwhelmed at Worlds and as usual had to reply to 100 media requests right after , so it's understandable he was not very collected and mentioning bullshit no one buys like there was a gap in their abilities (fun fact their BV difference was 4 or 5 points, so much for Nathan being miles ahead in the tech part and that's mostly because the 4l is greatly underevaluated and should get more points than the 4f). As for no hug for Vincent, it's not that deep. He usually only hugs people he has known for a while. It has little to do with how impressed he is with them. He has been competing and sharing podiums with Nathan since 2016, it's a no brained he is more comfortable around him than around Vince.

R69 Oh come on, just humour me and imagine that Hanyu has read some of Vincent's terrible IG poetry and just is plain offended by him. No, I know...it's definitely a familiarity thing, nothing more.

R66 Yes, that was the interview right after Worlds and he was talking about having to balance his style of skating with what the judges are now looking for next season. I'm pretty sure he's well aware of the bullshittery that's going on, he's been in the game long enough and someone mentioned he even knows exactly which judges don't like him. I don't think he really believes that Nathan is realistically that far ahead in his abilities, just that the scores have suddenly become so nonsensical. The shenanigans are pretty obvious.

Keegan seems to have a remarkable ability to pop back up after falling. Sometimes he like bounces off his butt right up to a standing position. It's the damnedest thing.

I guess it's partly that he's so short and also really muscly/padded. Or maybe he's just trained himself to fall well and recover fast.

I don't like his style, but isn't Nathan the most consistent of the major quadsters? That gives the judges a different mindset when it comes to him, especially with all the splatting going on. Yuzuru isn't a splatter but he popped his 4S in the short at Worlds and then screwed up the landing of the 4S in the long. If they're biased and ready to move on from Yuzu as the king, that consistency sort of backs them up I guess, at least in their minds. Now why they've decided to let Vincent's URs go, well I don't know. Maybe he's improved - Jackie Wong seemed to think he had, to some degree (though not as much as the judges think.)

Shoma is falling constantly - Kolyada has become a joke - Boyang fell from the sky with a thud after Pyeongchang - I mean, who do they have other than Nathan and Yuzuru? Vincent I guess. I have the feeling they know - or think they do - that Yuzuru won't be around much longer, so there's this collective plan of anointing a new savior for men's skating - the pedestrian but ever-so-consistent Nathan, who can land 4, 5, even 6 quads in a free skate - and nobody else can do so many quad varieties without pops, step-outs, splats. Nathan even brought his 4S back.

Well, maybe I'm off base and it's 100% politics.

r71 Falls should be rated on a scale from Messing to Pogo.

r65 Is that the interview snub where it remains unclear who snubbed whom?

[quote] Is that the interview snub where it remains unclear who snubbed whom?

I thought there was only one version of events: Dai was told to interview Yuzuru at Pyeongchang - he refused so his network had to find somebody else to do it. Is there another version?

[R71] It's because his legs are so short compared to his body. It reminds me of the way a little person child can rise from a sitting position on the floor with legs splayed to a standing position without bending their legs or using their arms.

[quote] Falls should be rated on a scale from Messing to Pogo.

I've never seen Pogo but I've heard she had some horrendous crashes. Maybe they should give out GOE on falls. Keegan would have +5 every time!

[quote] It's because his legs are so short compared to his body. It reminds me of the way a little person child can rise from a sitting position on the floor with legs splayed to a standing position without bending their legs or using their arms.

Oh you're right! I never thought about that. I have thought he looked odd somehow, but chalked it up to those stupid sweater vests - and his small stature.

R76 a compilation of Pogosplat's career highlights

r74 I recall a Takahashi uber blog of some sort which claimed it was the other way round, that Hanyu refused to be interviewed by Takahashi. It didn't look like a particularly reliable source, but I remember finding it amusing how both sides, Hanyu and Takahashi ubers, cited the very same arguments and arrivied at opposite conclusions.

[R79] You know, I would rather that be the truth because it hurts my feelings that Dai isn't nice to Yuzuru (if it's true, like I've heard.) I have too much empathy/sympathy or whatever for Yuzuru. Like Phan said, he's just too lovable. You'd think I'd feel more compassion for all those who wanted what Yuzuru actually got! Gold medals - two of them - world titles - two of them - four in a row GPF etc etc. But it's HIM I feel crushed for.

So friggin' weird. I guess I can even understand the antis a little bit because of his horde of ubers, the Pooh phenom, he just wins and wins and they never move on. I guess it's just charisma. Even Raf spoke about it, in almost supernatural terms. And he doesn't seem like a fanboy type, but there it was. And the Ambesi guy lol.

Eh, I'm pretty sure those "Dai is so MEAN to Yuzu" rumors are blown waaaay out of proportion. Not every skater has to be best buddies just because they see each other a lot and it's ok to just treat each other with distant respect if you're just not the type to get alone as personal friends. A lot of this overreaction from fans seems to mostly stem from projection where they want their favs to be best buddies. Like fanfiction, but platonic.

R41 I'll leave this for now.

r78 My whole body fucking hurts after watching this. Pogo had some of the best jumps, the worst splats, some of the sluttiest costumes, the greatest drama, and the best looks. She was everything figure skating is all about. Such a shame she had to retire.

R80. I feel the same as you do in regards to Hanyu. I think I feel the way I do because of Hanyu's story. Tsunami survivor. Competing despite having asthma. The hurt he obviously went through from media and antis. I wish one day someone makes a movie on this incredible man.

R83 Fuck yes, like Johnny said those falls are outrageous. But like you said that's figure skating.

R84 You must have missed this stunning docudrama reenacting the period before the Pyeongchang Olympics, starring some guy who has hair vaguely like Hanyu's as Hanyu, and the first middle aged white actor they could find in Japan as Orser. When I find a link to it I'll post it.

R78 I'm gonna miss Pogosplat. She sounds a little unhappy post-retirement/marriage though.

R80 Dai is a petty little bitch, but I don't blame him. I'm sure it was hard to have Hanyu come along and eclipse him so quickly. Hanyu was also pretty brash and ambitious, so that must have been hard to take. Dai's skating was fab and even the crappy Beatles medley program is something I watch every so often nowadays. What offends me about Nathan's scoring is it says someone like him is on par with someone like Dai or any of the more "artistic" skaters we've seen in the past. Not every quadster is going to be a complete skater, and it's fucked up that NA media/fans/paid judges are trying to gaslight us into thinking they are.

Anyway, speaking of our favorite Eli, I always thought this moment between Chen and Hanyu was interesting. It made me feel empathy for both of them.

Dropping off a weekend tribute.

R86 Can't wait for the cringe

R57 I will win Hanyu over with my sensual poetry. You just wait!

Someone said in the last thread that Hashimoto was creepy with Uno at last year's WTT. What happened?

R43 This thread will be unable to decide what it worships more - my ass or my poetry. #Iam18 #legalineveryjurisdiction

R60 Todd Eldredge is a skating coach and married (to a woman) with a couple of kids. He seems like a pretty normal and well adjusted guy and denies any sort of abuse or grooming from Richard Callahan towards him. Back when he had the ridiculous, high profile wedding in pink to his first wife I thought he might be a closeted gay man, but these days I suspect he's a dorky straight guy who made a poor choice in his first wife. He's quite low profile these days and wouldn't have any need to have a fake marriage.

R86 Oh my fucking lord, I think I have seen photos of from this shitshow before. The actor wears recreations of Hanyu's costumes, too, if I remember correctly (I've since tried to wipe it from my memory so apologies if I got that wrong). I don't know if I actually want to watch this.

R80 R87 I don't know, isn't the intentional snub or 'petty little bitch' narrative at odds with Dai's 'pep talks' before PC, his standing ovation after Yuzu's free, his emotional reaction at the result of the japanese men and his congratulatory instagram story? Yuzu also casually mentioned during his interview with FujiTv after his victory that he talked to Daisuke earlier. Taking into account what JDC said about certain factions' politics I'd bet that there was either a disagreement between USM and Yuzu's representatives that prevented them from appearing together in any form of media outlet including pictures on sns or even an agreement to handle it that way to steer clear of further fan drama. (Which apparently didn't work seeing how fans on both sides came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories precisely because of the seeming lack of interactions.) I hope they get to compete together next season just to see if and how they interact.

This 23 minute interview of Dai, posted ten days ago, sounds interesting:

Tetsuko's Room interview. Hopefully some kind fan will do an English translation. Dai talks about everything: his parents, his retirement, his NY adventure, his television career, his comeback and his need to give back to the skating community, etc.

But it's in Japanese and I don't want to impose - but if there are any Japanese-speaking Dai fans, maybe they'd give us the high points? If I could report/time-stamp it, I would!

I don't want to dislike Dai - on the contrary! It's just hard to not feel protective of Hanyu, with all that's happened.

Kihira has dropped Wilson! Bourne and Dickson next season!

Dave and I are thrilled!

Thanks, JDC!

Wonder if Vincent will keep working with Hamada? It seemed to work wonders for him - with the judges anyway.

R95 Sorry, you'll just have to accept that some people have good reason to think that Dai is a petty, disingenuous little bitch and I'm not going to rehash the evidence, because it is the least interesting thing about Dai. I honestly don't give a shit about how and whether Dai/Hanyu interact with each other, unless they band together to show those tedious quadsters who the true queens of figure skating really are.

R96 Dai looks so good with normal hair and a little more weight.

R97 I'm so glad to hear this. I hope Dai dumps DW too.

R100 I agree. Everything's working for him there, from the hair to the clothes. For once not looking like a hobo in need of a shower.

R99 re: Dai

R93 thanks for this, now I know from Todd's twitter that the Knerims are doing a GoFundMe campaign for their spring/summer training expenses. Ugh.

R91 I wanna know too!

R96 He's a sensitive boy but he's also a determined athlete with a strong support system. I don't think he needs us to feel protective of him. He's not some fragile little doll.

If I could help it, I would, R102. I don't like worrying about him, lord knows. But all these damned ankle injuries... I'm also worried about Kolyada, Shoma, Eunsoo, Zags... I mean it's just what I do. I probably worry about Hanyu less than those four - and a few others who have struggled on with little to show for it. This is a rough sport to be in, imo.

People don't always choose to feel how they feel - it just happens. Maybe it's not anybody else's business how a person feels?

This thread is moving too fast.

R52 Whoever is behind the listing didn’t even write Hanyu and Murakami’s first names correctly. They asked for two blog articles about whether or not the two are dating or get along. They also wanted the articles to talk about Murakami getting fat.

The listing came from Hyogo prefecture and two took up the job offer: a creepy illustrator (who also writes in a very creepy way) under the profile name “niraduka,” and a German-Japanese translator called “Bismarck.”

It doesn’t say who posted the listing or when it was added, but it most likely came after Murakami retired since it’s talking about her weight. Most articles about Murakami’s weight gain started appearing from the summer of 2018, while rumors of Hanyu and Murakami ended years ago. From the content and timing, the listing seems to be more about Murakami than Hanyu, and probably related to her TV career.

The rest of the Lancers listings on Hanyu seem neutral to positive, but there’s a weird one that calls for an article on Hanyu’s Phinten and Uno’s Colantotte necklaces without providing much direction or detail.

There are more controversial listings on Mao. One asked for a “2chan-like” article on how twitter thinks Mao is “an embarrassment to the country” for her “shameful” 16th in the SP at Sochi. Another asks for an article about her relationship with her “boyfriend” Romain Toniolo. (They never dated.)

By the way, there are also hundreds of listings asking people to write about Rivaland’s diarrhea drinks on both CrowdWorks and Lancers.

R72 Hanyu was the cleaner skater in the first half of the season. Chen had falls and URs at every competition until Nationals, including falls during both programs at the GPF, but judges were still rewarding him with 9.0-9.75 in PCS (though thankfully not at JO where he fell four times). I don’t think the sudden overlooking of Zhou’s URs during the second half of the season is a coincidence.

Lancers listing:

I'm so excited for Rika. Sad for Mai. I hope Kaori gets Bourne or a choreographer who understands her strengths in skating.

I still think Dai has charisma, projection, and artistry above many skaters today. I don't necessarily like him, but his petty and diva stories actually make him more inrtresting since he seems so down on himself and that's just depressing

[quote] Hanyu was the cleaner skater in the first half of the season. Chen had falls and URs at every competition until Nationals, including falls during both programs at the GPF, but judges were still rewarding him with 9.0-9.75 in PCS

Yes, this. Thank you, JDC. This whole notion of Nathan's strength being his consistency never really sat well with me because all I remember was him struggling to perform cleanly (and as you pointed out, he still was generously helped in the PCS department during that time). How quickly the media has essentially rewritten the past after US Nationals and how easily people are persuaded to believe that somehow his "consistency" should justify his massive scores.

R103 Gentle friend, please do not worry. I don't know if you're an ass or frontal admirer, but this has a little bit of both. Take a deep breath, I hope this at least helps you relax,

Thank you R107. Very nice :) Love the wink.

That's a 'look but don't touch' wink

R104 Cleaner in SP. In FS Chen was much cleaner ( partly because of watered down layout, still 3 quads tho) . Overall, I don't think we can say Hanyu was cleaner.

R106 It's interesting how history is rewritten indeed. Yuzu had the best first part of the season he ever had since he became seniors, even winning his first GP which he had never done before and every one was praising him to the moon. But sure Nathan has more consistency.

About Dai at Pyeongchang, the video of him standing up and cheering was after Shoma's free as far as I remember. I don't know why fans insist in this fantasy that he cares about Yuzuru when there is very little proof of it and much more of him being a jealous and petty bitch. It's actually much more realistic than believing all skaters get along in some miracle fantasy world.

I will be sad to say goodbye Otonal costume. He looked like a beautiful snow queen in it.

*to Otonal costume

R111 it's true that he was crying after Shoma but Shoma was the last one to skate and it meant two medals for Japan. Maybe he was overcome with emotion at the idea that Japan got two medals / did so well ? I find that more realistic than either that he loves OR hates Yuzu.

R114 There are emotions between love and hate, you know such as feeling jealous, insecure, inadequate, envious etc. It's much more realistic than believing he was moved to tears by Yuzu but somehow ended up not mentioning him once on his instagram although he had literally posted about every other Japanese skater there. But sure, it's just evil jsf and fuji tv forcing his hand and he is a poor, helpless maiden unable to resist their evil forces.

A very nice little compilation for all of you 🍑 connoisseurs.

R114 In his interview for the Olympic channel he freely admitted to feeling a mixture of happiness about what Yuzu and Shoma achieved for the japanese men and a pang of regret that he didn't earn more than a bronze himself. (The same interview in which he called Yuzu 'king'.) That's good enough for me to earn him points for honesty. I don't need them to be best buddies or deeply care for each other to think of them both as decent guys.

[quote] It's much more realistic than believing he was moved to tears by Yuzu but somehow ended up not mentioning him once on his instagram although he had literally posted about every other Japanese skater there.

With literally every other skater you mean Shoma, Kana, Miu and Ryuichi? He didn't mention or post pictures with Keiji, Satoko, Kaori and Chris. What he did post were two ig stories before the men's short and during the victory ceremony. In the third one he can be seen joining the standing o after Yuzu's short. (I misremembered earlier thinking the picture was taken after the free.)

Pic 3 should be the headline...

So what happened between Shoma and Hashimoto? Whoever brought this up, don't leave us hanging!

R117 was in response to R115

R102, I hope Todd isn't super Christian like the Knierems to be supporting their training fund. Ugh. At least he doesn't seem homophobic from his Twitter history.

Team Japan ex at Gala

I was hoping for Shoma to drop Kihira in the last pose of the tango

[quote] Pic 3 should be the headline...

OMG! Is that Vincent making a white nationalist hand gesture?

Thank you R117 for more details about Dai and Pyeongchang. I feel better about it now. He was standing after Yuzu's short - and I think the woman beside him, also a reporter?, stayed seated.

And were those Instagrams posted on Dai's account where he did congratulate Yuzu/Shoma/Javi - and also tell him Keiji and Shoma to "Fight!"?

Yuzuru's hands are really tiny even compared to Shoma's.

Lol, Med was again picking up fights with angry fans.

Yuzu hugging/touching his 2 Javis with his octopus arms (from 2012). Minor Javi looked kinda cute at that time.

R126 Some comments below those posts amused me. Someone said only dumb shippers would ship Med with a more feminine man ( referring to Kris) than Med herself lol lol lol.

R116, thanks, I wanna squeeze that smol delish muscly butt

R124 Yes, they were posted on his official d1sk_t instagram account (ig stories disappear after 24 hours by default hence they're not there anymore). I did not screenshot them myself (that was https://twitter.com/rinrin_bell_po/status/965132653815934982), but I've seen both of them on there with my very own eyes (as well as his ig story for Kana & Chris after they achieved their season's best at the SD).

I think all of the sitting persons in the front row are FujiTV reporters. (Don't quote me on this!) The only ones I can name are ex judo champ, Tadahiro Nomura (orange jacket) and Yurika Mita to his right. Nobu is being his exuberant self in the upper right corner.

Kihira deserves better. Should have paired Kihira (or even Uno) with Keiji. Uno makes every hetero pairing ugly.

I liked Shoma and Rika skating together. He looked so animated, happy and bouncy. I think he's changing - coming out of his shell. (haven't noticed that Keiji is, though, but he's got a quiet charm)

R116 🍑🍑🍑

Stop the Press

Virtanen has announced his programs for next season!

SP: Andrea Bocelli - Ven a Mi

LP: Robin Williams medley

Choreos: Adam Solya

R112 He needs to skate to "Let It Go" from Frozen in that costume.

Ok, what I found....be prepared...

Summer 2007

Finnish Test Skate

R131 I'm with you there, I wish group choreos didn't have these compulsory hetero pairing numbers all the time. Not everyone looks good doing them and Uno is an example.

R136 LOL. The first few seconds of that program were actually uncharacteristically graceful. I thought it would go somewhere, too bad. Funny when the person filming loses track of him and just films the cameraman.

Everyone wants a piece of Tanaka, it seems.

[R134] What would a Robin Williams medly be?

R140 I imagine something like this

I love how mad US stans are about that Caravan/Parisian Walkways side by side video comparison. There is literally nothing they can argue about so they resort to calling fanyus names. Maybe next time they should think twice before defending senseless overscoring if they don't want to be fucking told.

R142 Hilarious how quickly they pull out the "Anti-American!!" card, as if Americans should somehow be exempted from heated FS discourse. It's fine when Russian, Japanese, Korean, even FINNISH (sorry Valtter) skaters (many of whom are young teenagers) are pilloried and criticized, but as soon as you touch an American it becomes UNFAIR. I say all of this as an American - we are very hypocritical, thin-skinned and lacking in self-awareness.

The even more embarrassing comparison is between Caravan and Etude, when Hanyu was 16.

R143 Exactly, imagine being the biggest bully in the world and making big bucks thanks to that but then trying to play the victim card because some people called you out for your shit.

One of my favourite fs accounts on Twitter who drives US stans crazy. She also does rescoring of skates. She rescored Nathan's programs at World and Nationals and got his scores down 70/100 points. She is ruthless but knows the rulebook better than most judges.

R141 why does this remind me of S. Moir high on booze at the Olympic hockey games

It's Eric's favourite Spaniard birthday today. He is turning 28. As a birthday surprise someone needs to break into his room at night and shave his stache because it's really having a life of its own by now and not doing him any favour look wise.

R146 I love your idea of a birthday gift.

R145 Actually, you dub "nanu nanu munchkins" over whatever Scott was screaming pretty easily.

R146 Please, his entire busted face does him no favors looks-wise.

R146 I have trouble getting my head around the fact that Javier is only turning 28. 'Stache or not he's always looked seven or eight years older than he really is.

R150 He looked really sexy a few years ago. He is still a handsome man but he lost a bit too much weight and the excessive facial hair isn't helping.

Javi seemed to age a lot between Worlds in 2017 and PC. Did Miki put a hex on him after they broke up? (Javi’s still handsome, unfortunate facial hair aside. The goatee is fine, but I agree the upper lip part is disturbing.)

He looks like a dad. Maybe his girlfriend is in fact pregnant.

R151 Yes, one of the best pictures of Javi. That was definitely a huge shallow appeal of TCC - you had two beautiful men who always looked like they were a closed door away from fucking each other.

R152 Dejected by his Worlds result and his personal life (he treated Miki's kid like his own daughter so that couldn't have been easy), and then stressed over the Olympics. I remember Hanyu saying something like, Javi got very serious and stopped talking as much and was focusing so hard in training that Hanyu could tell how determined he was.

Miki Ando's pussy is tenacious. Javi knows.

R142 Okay, but where are the US stans getting hot and bothered about that sbs comparison? I'm just seeing fanyus feel validated, but all their rescoring and vids and stuff are always so lowkey and people are so afraid to share it on the bigger boards because of the screaming "you're a hater" backlash and mods like to pretend bias is not happening.

R157 It's all over twitter. There is, for example, this nugget.

R158 The butthurt is strong in that one. Questioning Nathan's PR and scores is simply BEYOND THE PALE. What heathens!!!

R142 And this is all fucking rich given the shit that has been hurled at Hanyu by NA fans and media over the course of his career. And we're not even getting into the horrible things the Japanese media and antis have said about him. Please, Nathan's been so coddled compared to what Hanyu and other top skaters have had to go through. If he wants to be on top then he can learn to handle the heat.

R158 Maybe if the US media stopped lying about Nathan having balletic grace and going to Yale full-time, then fanyus would stop using that against him. These butthurt Nathan/Team USA patriots have no one to blame but their own sports journalists and Scott Hamilton for creating a caricature of Nathan for people to mock.

Thanks, Nathan and Vincent!! Because of you guys, I was able to trot right into my own stall at the 150 club without anyone noticing or complaining. Neigh!! #sorrymaoasada

The scoring seemed to be inflated at WTT. Look at all those season's bests. It's more like a cheezy made for tv event, like those pro competitions that had thrir heyday in the mid 1990s.

A lot of fs fans seem to be incredibly thin skinned tbh. Say anything about NAte's being overscored or Bradie not having enough artistry and there's a slew of "stop being mean, she didn't do anything wrong, this hate is out of control". Funny how they turn around and yell at people to grow thicker skin though when they're accused of being lowkey racist or bullies .

155, i had the impression that Javier was the one who dumped Miki. He soon had photos of himself with the Spanish ballerina while Miki unfollowed him on instagram. Not that I know them personally or care that much, but it doesn't seem like he'd be all in a funk when he was the one initiating the break up. He sure does look over 30 for sure. Is dadbod happening soon too?

R165 This is what Javi posted after getting together with his Spanish gf. It was the good old days when he still got into it with the crazies on IG. Someone accused him of cheating on Miki. He responded: "Maybe the girl I was with didn’t make me happy... that means I have to stay with her forever because is a girl? Come on... haha."

Is Miki still whoring it up like in the good ol' days? It would be a sad loss for figure skating if she weren't. Her magical vagina was always more interesting than her skating.

God, he still engages the fans in the insta comments tho

R165 Yes, Fernandez cheated and dumped Ando, although Ando pretended they were still together on IG for a while.

R162 I saw those URs in the replay, Tennell. Remember the FS at 4CC? I can’t wait until we meet again. -Amano

R114 There’s a long history between Hanyu, Takahashi, and Takahashi’s fans, and Takahashi has referred to himself as petty and jealous multiple times. His complaining about Hanyu receiving cheers and applause during 2012 worlds is what got the antis rolling. It’s been covered in the earlier threads, maybe single digit Hanyu threads. We had a Takahashi uber from GS (who also defended the GS mods and irritating Canadians like CSG) appear for a while. As for the Fuji interview, it could’ve been mutual or Fuji protecting itself given the reaction when Arakawa asked Takahashi about Hanyu on NTV before.

R110 That’s true if you ignore JO and GPF, but Chen didn’t have a single SP or FS where something wasn’t called. Even in his cleanest FS performance at Skate America, he nearly fell over on his quad lutz and both quad combo landings were shaky. Hanyu also held the WC in the FS, in addition to the SP and combined total, so I would still consider Hanyu the stronger and cleaner competitor overall for that part of the season.

I wad the one who brought up Hashimoto creeping on Uno. There was an article after 4CC on how she’s been touchy feely with him lately. At the banquet of the previous WTT, Hashimoto held a ceremony for individual total combined scores even though she didn’t do it in 2015 and scores aren’t combined for the event. Uno was first, Chen was second, and Hanyu was third. She put a laurel crown on Uno and gave him a big box, then Chen a smaller box, and Hanyu a little paper bag. The “prizes” were likely supposed to be from sponsors, but looked last minute, and there were no medals. Both were removed, but the JSF site also listed the combined individual totals, which they didn’t do in 2015, and had a photo from the men’s ceremony. It looked very much like it was done for Uno’s sake.

R169 Thanks. That is so cringey. I guess she moved on from Dai to Baby Dai. Ugh.

R169 OH MY GOOOOD!! Why did you withhold this picture from us??? The paper bag is going to last me through the off-season. It's even better than Kolyada's penis!!!

So Javi has girlfriend after girlfriend, and sometimes two at a time. And yet, DL says he is secretly gay or bi. LOL.

R169 That picture is too much

R172, girlfriends come and go, but Eric is forever

R172 I have no dog in this race but it's perfectly common for bi or bicurious people to have het partners.

R169 Reading about the laurel crown and different sized boxes (and the little paper bag) is one thing. Seeing it in actual picture form is a whole other experience.

Javi wants to name our baby Eric Jr. and calls me "the surrogate," which he says is English for "angel." Should I be concerned?

TSL 4/14 WTT – Part 1 – ICE DANCE: Madison Hubble admitted they only did 2 runthrus to get ready. 6 Re politics: The Russians are making a push and part of the way you do that is talk up your team and compare and contrast. 7 H/D are like big hulking gladiators compared to the Russians. J: If they emphasize that, they can get back to #2 slot. Maybe they’re trying too hard this season. J prefers their skating quality to the Russians’ 13 Politically the Russians are pushing their team closer to the French. D says it’s hard for US fed to push a team like H/D who are so inconsistent. H/D’s “issue” at 4CC allowed the Russians to win Worlds. One missed lift at 4CC cost H/D $20,000ish, and they don’t have an independently wealthy family like the Shibutanis. D: Hubbell is a Bette Midler type: in your face. 18 J thinks she shd do a Wonder Woman character. 21 Russian team is boring. D thinks the Japanese team looked really improved and Tim Koleto was “skating up” to his partner. They looked credible and his flow has really improved, maybe due to being on same team as Shoma and Rika. They’re hindered because he has to stay in Japan a lot for citizenship or work-visa issues. They got married? (which eases things) 27 P/C have revolutionized skating w/their free: they’re the face of the new era, across disciplines, influencing Aymoz, Aljona, etc.

TSL 4/14 WTT – Part 2 - 30 PCS scores are getting ridiculous with this whole system. D: We’ve got fans saying “God, can you believe Nathan got this?! – and Patrick Chan’s PCS... ugh ugh ugh – Girl, get a hobby! OK?” J People should realize that everyone was getting inflated scores here, at this one last hurrah. 31 J thought Kaori and Shoma were surprised Rika’s score was so low. D Why were the Japanese team so subdued with the others were putting on jazz hands for the Japanese audience? D is glad Tracy had her skaters tone it down – Jason Brown’s humping last year was like Richard Simmons on New Year’s on QVC. 33 Weaver/Poje: D: There’s some unofficial rule that Skate Canada made them choose between getting funding or doing the Canada ice tour or else they wdn’t get int’l comps. He thinks their time has come & gone. PAIRS 36 More talk of Morgan being harsh w/Vanessa. D: But he’s French! J: The vibe felt very uneasy and I felt bad for Vanessa. 38 D: “Someone told us they don’t ever give way to other skaters on practice ice. [so no wonder the collisons?]” 41 D: Vanessa needs the pantsuit to hide her flaws/bent leg, etc. 47 The mess that was Jeremy Abbott at the Olys team event (‘14) “He went from top of the world to like Surya attempting a quint.” 49 Italian couple’s costumes suck (they used to be roller skaters)

TSL 4/14 WTT – Part 3 - 52 MEN. D: Vincent had the skate of his life and he’s playing the political game too – letting us know that he’s working with Mie Hamada. D thinks his running edge is improving but he saw Mie frown when he hooked yet another landing. J: “Again, PCS scores way too high! But it doesn’t really matter because those numbers won’t carry thru.” D: “And Shoma gave it to him on a silver platter again – Sho was having the skate of his life and then [went for crazy combo.] Do you think he hates himself deep down? Is there something going on? Does he need to sit on the couch w/a good therapist?...” 55 He’s used to skating by sheer force & now he’s fighting his own worst instincts. J talked about Meite’s Shoma crush (on her IG) and D: “as we all do!” and he picked up his Itsuki/Shoma book and pressed it to his heart: “Shoma frustrates me because I love him! (like Alexa)” J: “He had a swagger in that program but was wincing by the end. There’s something masochistic in his approach to jumps.” They want Shoma w/Benoit choreo. D: “He clearly needs a coach change. It’s not working... He needs Mama Tarasova to cook for him [build up his ego]. He’s a better skater than Vincent but not a better competitor.” 58: J: “You don’t have to hate Nathan because you love Hanyu.” D: “A lot of ppl on Twitter disagree w/you.” J: “In this perf, I loved the ends of his spins where he added the hops – it reminded me of Mao in her final season.” Such interesting choreo, esp short. J loved seeing Shae’s details in Nathan’s prog. They don’t like his long as much, D: Why the ugly gray vest? Why is he insisting on the Evan Lysacek “masculine” look? J “I was just happy to see him dance a little bit”. 1.01 D: Why is Hersh acting like Nathan’s guidance counselor? 1.02 D: Nathan was sleep-walking in this comp (no surprise due to packed schedule)

TSL 4/14 WTT – Part 4 - 1.03 LADIES. J: “Dave I loved it! I needed a feel-good story.” His heart burst w/joy for Tuk. D: They shd have sent Tuk to Worlds and Mishin shd tell Sofia to bag it, considering the girls coming up. J wishes she’d done more before jump. 1.07 D: That’s Mishin. Plushenko in ‘02 SLC did literally nothing before his jumps. But crowd saved Tuk: a lot of times when scores get inflated, you’re in front of a packed crowd w/ppl wearing multi-colored pants/hats/wigs etc. This allows the scores to just fly up. No one is rational – this is a fake event. But “Tuk was out for blood – out for the respect for a woman scorned.” 1.12 Great that Rika nailed her short in spite of ugly taped boots, but exhaustion caught up with her in long (“Hamada is a drill sergeant”) D: “Did you read the quotes from Danny G?! He said Shcherbakoba was lucky because she eats just to get full; she’s not as obsessed as the other girls.” (more about abuse in Eteri camp) D is cautiously worried about Rika’s inconsistency but in this, Hanyu didn’t go, and at no point was Japan in danger of winning. The “other boy was skating whose name we forget [Keiji]” 1.15: Bradie skated really well, beating Kaori in free; what a pity she didn’t change jump layout sooner. “Look how quickly the judges boosted Tursy’s PCS and now pretend she’s amazing just bec she has a quad”. She won’t but they wish Bradie would move on from Benoit, though he is working out for Kaori. 1.19 They admire how Mariah has handled “things” but J: To be honest, I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting to see what she does next. D: She’s just a place-holder unless others falter. 1.22 Danny G says he’s not going to be using warhorses for Zag next year. D wonders if she’s even gonna compete.

[quote] 58: J: “You don’t have to hate Nathan because you love Hanyu.”

They would love that, wouldn't they. For fanyus to stop having taste and go from a maseratti to a volvo. Sorry not going to happen for most of us. And no argument against the ridiculous inflation as usual.

WTT scores count - they count for records and they count for assignments. Everyone said Nathan's/Vincent's Nat's scores didn't matter because they wouldn't carry over, but surprise! they did!

All of a sudden now after two comps in which he was gifted PCS and tech calls (vs. Uno getting gifted PCS and tech calls) and Vincent is a better competitor than Uno? TSL is full of shit as usual.

Some psycho US stan is now compiling a google doc of all the mean things people say about the USA and Nathan on twitter. LOL.

Lol I had to lolsob at the part about Shoma's jumps being masochistic. There is truth in that. Weird how he seems to have terrible self esteem and was terrified and crying from scary mom all the time but Itsuki talks about how loved and safe he is all the time. Maybe he does need a therapist. And Zhou isn't a better competitor; he's just American.

When Shoma crying and looking terrified, it meaning he is happy and wanting more. Trust me, I know.

R182 they are being highly manipulative, stating as a fact "Those who hate chenflation are 1. Hate Chen himself (ugly haters); 2. Do so because they are salty Hanyu fans (cannot accept the results); 3. No other options exist". But it's a pure lie.

[quote] 49 Italian couple’s costumes suck (they used to be roller skaters)

Only him. Nicole Della Monica has been in figure skating forever. She is one of the few left from Vancouver 2010 Olympics

R168 LOL Is this Ando pretending they were still together on IG? How do you know Fernandez cheated on her?

R187 Matteo in roller blades.

R168 So Javi cheated on Ando, went on social media to tell the world she didn't make him happy and that's why he cheated on/dumped her, and then a year later revealed on tv she was a slut and fucking their coach and he has nothing to do with her now. I know it's Miki we're talking about here, so nobody gives a shit, karma etc, but damn, Fernandez sounds like a jerk.

R182 Volvo? Hmmm. I dunno. A friend drove me around in an XC before (dunno which exactly) and I found it a very smooth ride. Excellent suspension and absorber system. Thinking back on it, Chen's skating doesn't remind me of that experience.

Not that I've been in one before but the way his skating looks reminds me more of an American muscle car. Lots of power and attitude, not a whole lot of finesse. I quite like these cars though, especially the classics. I also quite like Chen's style as well, when he does modern numbers, so I guess it sorta makes sense.

[R190]I love Javi, but he never struck me as intelligent, and therefore has had a history of saying questionable things in interviews and the ‘gram. How he managed to have a consistent and sometimes messy love life while winning things is quite impressive.

At least he now has the smarts to not get romantically involved with ladyskaters anymore. (I’m still holding out hope for Yuzu - it would be less messy than if Javi got with Eric.)

R190, when did Javi say Miki was a slut on tv?

Examples of idiot things Fernandez said

run up of Sochi

"The Games are about sport and not politics. I have my opinions and I don't get involved in what others think, but I think whether we like it or not, we have to respect the laws of the countries we visit. It's not such a big dilemma. It's better that homosexuals lie low a bit during the Games and then afterwards they can get on with their lives."

He then claimed he was misinterpreted. He said that to El Mundo, so he couldn't blame English skills.

R188 It’s been a while, but there were photos of him vacationing with at least one other woman on IG while they were still together. Before the breakup was public, Ando kept posting photos of herself with Fernandez and her daughter that turned out to be old. She’d already admitted they’d broken up by the time she posted those Spain photos.

R190 No, Ando and Morozov’s relationship wasn’t a secret and they briefly lived together in Russia until she left him at the altar. He was the first person everyone suspected to be the father of her girl when she announced she'd given birth in 2013. He told the Japanese media he wasn’t, but he’d once gotten Ando pregnant.

Fernandez said in an interview last year that Morozov treated him very poorly (abusive I think) because Ando wanted to be with him when they were rinkmates and that’s why he left New Jersey and moved to TCC. I don't think he's said anything derogatory about Ando. I think he was not so kind on IG because she was acting like a stalker after their breakup.

Ando and Morozov K&C:

A sad day for figure skating.

R196 Farewell, Majorov...it has been a long ride...now we have to endure your brother for a decade?

Apparently some truly mad US stan did a Google drive list of all 'anti americanistic' posts and accounts. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

I must thank US stans for providing never ending entertainment.

what glory lol

Don't like the scoring? You're a hater of my favorite skater. Angry at the propaganda of the American media? You're anti-USA. My favorite skater still has things to work on? You're blind because my skater is perfect.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

R200 Thats about yuzuru ubers?

sorry i meant R201

Mai Mihara's FP will be choreographed by Lori Nich...

Shit, sorry, fell asleep just writing that.

[R199] Thanks. Very entertaining. I want more.

Perfect.

I have one too

[quote] I’m still holding out hope for Yuzu - it would be less messy than if Javi got with Eric.

You'll have to hold out longer because it seems Eric is here to stay.

R208 Wow. Shit, that's more romantic than any picture Javi has ever taken with his girlfriend.

R208 How long until Luis snaps.

R195 Javi say didn't anything explicitly derogatory about Miki, but I thought it was unhelpful for him to pile on her messy slut image by revealing she was involved with both him and Morozov, with some possible overlap and all the drama that caused him to leave. We knew about MIki/Morozov and of course about Javi/Miki, but I didn't realize there was overlap and that it led to Javi leaving. In his book, Javi talked about how Morozov was abusive to him from day 1, just very humiliating stuff and that he was miserable and having panic attacks. Miki might have been the final straw, but I don't think that was the only time or the only reason Morozov was mean to him.

It also seemed odd and unnecessary that he mentioned he no longer has anything to do with Morozov or Miki, as if she had also done something wrong. Like you said, she probably stalked him and her supporters have been all over his IG asking about her (even recently) so he wanted to make it clear that they're done. And again, Miki in other contexts sounds like a total vindictive bitch, so I ain't complaining on her behalf, but it just seemed jerkish for Javi to go out of his way to pull her back into that whole mess.

It's ok, Eric can keep his Spanish boytoy 2.0, Yuzu has more fun with Stephane anyway.

R210 Surprised Luis hasn't snapped already. It's almost like Eric/Javi are taunting him. Maybe it's some kind of inside joke amongst them and nbd. Eric is also the one that posted the IG story of Hanyu from the back with a caption along the lines of "Yuzu showing us his best side."

Tarakanova is no longer training with the Plushenko. Sounds messy too, he said she was too emotional.

Someone on twitter translated what Plush said: "Basically she’s irrational/over emotional and when he wanted her to train a triple axel she kept popping and crying (he describes it as having a tantrum). Then he calls her a bad example for younger students and says he spoke with her parents/told them she should move coach."

Plush wants a robot factory too

A narcissist like Plushenko shouldn't be coaching anyone.

Anyone see the new IFS cover? Apparently if USFS can't have a great white hope they're going to try to make one?

On top of that, I'm pretty sure this is the ugliest picture of Nathan I've ever seen. I'm one that normally thinks he's a nice looking kid but he looks "special" on this cover

R218 I'm the one who thinks he's homely and IMO that cover isn't bad at all. It's actually rather flattering compared to how he normally looks

r219 certainly makes sense that people who think he's good looking would dislike it and people who think he's homely would prefer it since the picture is so drastically photo shopped.

Can't remember if this shot has been posted here before.

Notre dame is on fire, who cares about yuzuru!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R218 That's a really bad picture. I never understopd why some sports journalists/photographers seem to have a thing for pictures of athletes looking as ugly as possible. As if it's the only way they can show how effort looks like on paper. This is pure laziness. I hate all those mid jump pictures for the same reason.

IFS always have ugly edit for their covers but this one tops it all. Tho, that’s not too far from how Nate usually looks to me. I’d agree they can find a more flattering picture of him though.

r223 I don't think they changed the features that much but the coloring on his skin and eyes are a lot different. Weirdly enough though, it looks like they only photo shopped one ear - his left ear looks more pinned back than irl but his right ear sticks out as much as normal, but perhaps that's an optical illusion caused by a bad angle? Curious what the original looks like.

His hair looks good.

They should have put Hanyu's beautiful ass on the cover -- perky and perfect 👌 cause it doesn't need to be photoshopped at all and the issue would be sold out. The line : "on top of the world" can remain.

They should have photoshoped everything out except his hair and eyebrows

R220 I think he's homely AND that picture is a bad one lol. And that picture of Hanyu... boy stop hunching! You'd think he has a weak upper back or something the way he slumps when he's not thinking about it.

R228 I give him a pass. He looks like he's in the middle of getting up after falling or something because his right ass cheek and a little of his back are covered in ice, so it's not like his posture has to be perfect to do that. As long as the ass looks good, I couldn't care less about the hunching.

He totally hunches, he has bad posture off the ice and sometimes on the ice. But I'm with R229.

r228 lol, you're right, but the hunching didn't even register in my brain until you mentioned it. i just liked how the design of the under armour + the angle of the body makes his waist look extra small and his ass look extra round in that photo.

R218 The cover designer must be a hardcore fanyu.

R232 Not true! I tried my best but there is only so much you can do with camera angles and photoshop.

The season just ended and the Russians are already bringing the drama?

Someone pointed out last thread the ISU article on WTT had a nice photo of Zhou for the top and decent photos of other skaters except for Chen, whose photo was taken mid-jump ugly-face.

Gallagher (@sportsjapan) interviewed Tuk and Hamada (about Zhou) for his podcast. (He’s also interviewed Zhou, although I’m not sure if that’s been uploaded.)

Chen has been added to Prince Ice World Sapporo (June 22-23). Honda sisters, Plushenko & son, Arakawa, Oda, Takeshi Honda, and Kanako Murakami will also perform at that location. Chen will be doing Dreams on Ice (June 28-30) the next week.

Medvedeva told Nike she had an injured hip during worlds and skated on painkillers. She has to limit practice and won’t be able to jump for some time. She said she was a strict vegan before worlds, no dairy or meat, but she’s eating fish again for her injury, but still no dairy. Also, some words about the family dynamic at TCC. She has Ice Fantasia this weekend then SOI Canada.

Nike interview:

[quote]OMG! Is that Vincent making a white nationalist hand gesture?

Wtf, what is the matter with him? Even if it was somehow not what it looks like, because of the IG format you don't even see their faces in the pic, so it looks even more blatant. Doesn't he have anyone around to monitor what he posts? Well, clearly not, if @artworkofthemind. is still around. Someone also needs to tell him that he isn't the right demographic for that symbol anyway...

Thanks for giving me another reason to loathe this little shit!

R235 If you click on the picture, Nam Nguyen is tagged, so I think he's the one making the hand gesture. And since he's Canadian, maybe it's just the OK sign? LOL. Or is it a Canadian thing too? I have no idea.

Given Zhou's track record, is not hard to believe he would do the gesture.

R237 Okay, I was ready to give that little cunt the benefit of the doubt, but check this out. The linked picture is Nam, wearing the same blazer (it's got the distinctive buttons) and an Apple watch, same as the person on the right in Vincent's picture (the one not making the nationalist sign). So it appears that Vincent is not only and asshole, but also a coward - he makes his little statement, cuts off the heads so it's unclear who's doing it and then tags Nam as the person making the gesture.

Far be it from me to defend Vincent Zhou but that's actually The Circle Game. I don't know anything about it as white nationalism but I'm guessing that's where they co-opted the gesture from. Hanyu even did it while posing with Shinzo Abe at his People's Honor Award ceremony, which probably makes him the ultimate champ of the game. Being from Japan I'm guessing he doesn't know about any more sinister meanings.

R239 That sign is a notorious symbol used by US alt right groups, whose views Zhou has previously parroted. If he were just playing a harmless game, why hide his face? Why pretend Nam is the one making the gesture? He certainly knows the history of his own controversial comments, so he is perfectly aware of how people would take it.

What controversial comments? As far as I recall, over a yr ago, Zhou "liked" a statement someone else made about XX being female and XY being male. Given how most DL-ers are anti-trans, resent being lumped in with trans and think trans people are mentally ill, 16 or 17 yr old Vincent Zhou liking that comment isn't offensive to me. And as for weird salutes, Nam is fond of doing those stupid dabbing moves that you could confuse with an offensive salute. He looks silly doing that (wasn't that only an in thing for a hot minute about 5 years ago?) but he's not doing a white power tribute.

See?? I CAN do ballet, you whores.

R241 Vincent has: joked about the 3/5s compromise (go slavery!); liked transphobic, anti-gun control tweets; admired Ben Shapiro, the alt-right hack asshole; accepted Trump's invite to the White House while other skaters had the good sense to decline. Sounds like a little alt-right chicken shit to me.

R242 he even looks stiff in that photo.

R241 Guys, let me explain: I "like" tweets that I don't agree with and that are antithetical to my moral/world view ALL the time. Does the word "like" even have a fixed meaning in this topsy turvy world we live in? Like/love/hate, white/red/yellow. We and all the words that define and divide us will be lost in time, like tears in the rain, that droppeth like God's mercy upon the barren, wanting place beneath. Peace and love to you, gentle DL friends. Let us not quarrel about the little things in life.

Prove you've stoped behaving like a stupid kid playing with silly views! I might like you then.

R246 I can read this room and I know the perfect thing to settle our little misunderstanding: a pic of my succulent nipples for your viewing pleasure. #thxforyoursupportDLfans

R247 I see your offensive nipple shot and raise you three photos of my ass.

Why would men of Asian descent like Zhou and Nam be white nationalists? Serious question.

Tarakanova has responded to Plush! tl;dr: "I'm so sad that Plush said these things, but honestly, I had to leave because I didn't get enough ice time, the rink was too small and my coaches sucked! Did I say the rink was small? Like teeny tiny. A micro-rink, as it were. Not at all fancy, like Plush had promised. Sad."

Zhou is very proud of his Chinese background. The circle game makes more sense even considering his conservative views. It looks like it was intended for Nguyen or whoever took the photo. Hanyu will be back in three days.

R250 Now I feel really embarrassed for Plushenko. She's good. But who is the "other coach" who was getting her injured?

Sofia Akatieva, 11 years old, 3A+3T 4T 4T+3T (@Etery19971217 on twitter has a comparison between Akatieva’s and Hanyu’s 3A+3T):

R249 Not just Asians, there are Black and Latino men who are sometimes a part of these groups. There's even a term for it - "multi-racial white supremacy." Many groups, like the Proud Boys share common interests in guns, militarism, and anti-immigrant and sexist beliefs. The non-violent groups mostly bond over their racism and sexism. Alt-righters also regularly make exceptions for Asians, using them both to provide cover for their racism (see, we like Asians so we can't possibly be racists) and as a weapon against other, supposedly lesser-performing races. Another weird thing is a lot of alt-white leaders have some sort of fetish for Asian women. There was even a NYT article about it a year or so ago.

We should've just checked the comments. He was playing the circle game with Jacob Simon and Nguyen.

R252 That's a little different than what Zhou was doing/circle game.

R253 Yes, it does seem like he was just playing the circle game, from the comments. Circle game and the alt-right gesture are the same though - it's just the OK sign.

R254 Hand up - OK/alt-right Hand down - circle game

R255 That's not necessarily true - yes, the sign works best when done hands up to signify WP, but there are variations. Plenty of white nationalists have done it hand down, especially when they want to conceal what they're doing - see Stephen Miller, maybe Zina Bash, and members of the Alabama police force that were suspended last year for doing the sign exactly the way Vincent did it, hand down, below their waists.

Some quality stretching.

R257 This is psychological warfare. My boy cow needs more practice time because I...errrr...HE is obviously distracted by this. So I request men stay on ice longer so that I can make sure Hany...I mean...my boy cow is in good shape.

R257 ok that's the best one for now

I stand with my Quebec brothers. I hope they keep fighting the good fight.

R260 Holy shit, she's one of those fraus. Isn't Montreal mostly French speaking anyway?

R261 Yes, it is, like the rest of Quebec. How is she Canadian and doesn't know that. I suppose she isn't shocked that if you ask something in French in Toronto, the person is going to ask you to repeat in English. Canada has 2 official languages whether she likes or not.

Exhibit 1000th of 'The Waist', from faoi 2017 I think. Ignore the girl moulding her boobs to its shape. It's really incredible how tiny that waist is.

R260 lol what an entitled bitch.

R263 quien fuera senos para amoldarse a su forma.

R265 We get it Javier, nothing can replace your hand.

I know it's old but things like this really disgust me. How is that not considered bullying and when is someone finally going to do something about that crazy bitch. I really wish Yuzu did not love his country so much/didn't have such a status/high profile there, so that he could consider switching countries.

R267 the paper bag represents the entirety of the 2018-19 season.

R267. Bullying and disrespectful. Maybe Hanyu's love is more for sendai? I don't know how he puts up with this disrespect. Maybe he figures once he retires he doesn't have to put up with it. I seriously can see him living anywhere but Japan. He would of course need to go to Japan for anything business related.

R269 He should move to Madrid to be with - I mean, be close to - Habi. If this happens, I’d die if his Spanish ends up better than his English.

R269 Actually my point isn't that he should hate his country. I mean even with the shit from jsf, the media and antis, he has received a lot of support from there and Sendai and Tohoku is very dear to him but just that I wish that he could be in a position like Bruno Massot who despite being French and loving his country, at some point said fuck it, I had enough. Obviously their positions are not comparable and it's just my wishful thinking. I know some people will reply that he has plenty of leeway nowadays when it comes to jsf but this came at a hard price and every time he uses that leeway (he only does when he is seriously injured or sick) he gets more shit from them. I have never seen any fed treat their star athlete like this.

R270 I would be happy if he stays for a few years as a coach/choreographer at TCC once he retires. He has been there for almost 7 years now so it's clearly his 2nd home at this point. Mr Fernandez ditched him for beard number 10/Eric, why should he have to run after him across the world.

R261 We could already tell she was one of those from her "I want to speak to the manager" haircut. This tweet was inevitable.

R272 That's right. Yuzuvier is dead and is probably staying that way.

R274 Agreed but Javi himself has been milking it in Japanese media recently for some reason (upcoming show promo?). Although tbh he doesn't have to do much, just saying things like 'Yuzu loves to win more than anything', 'we were comrades' etc. and fans take it as some love declaration. I'm all for acknowledging that these 2 had some kind of spark and were overly touchy with each other for many years but it's done and over now and Yuzu/minor Javi has more chance of happening than Yuzuvier.

Translation of Yuzu's message to the retiring emperor and empress. Some parts are very relevant to the discussion about wishing him to compete for another country. Obviously never gonna happen. At the same time I sometimes don't get why he says such grandiose things such as (paraphrasing) 'through meeting with the emperor/empress he made up his mind to dedicate his life to Sendai.' Like, you cannot tell me that his wish to continue skating after Pyeongchang has anything to do with wanting to help his hometown. If anything retiring in glory and coming back to Japan to raise awareness/do activities to help with reconstruction/the ice rink there would have been much clearer steps towards that. Like I hope I don't sound like an anti because I really believe he has a right to be selfish and think about himself but if he is going to announce to the whole country that he wants to live as the saint protector of Sendai, why keep competing when he has nothing to prove and could make big bucks through ice shows and endorsements and be more helpful. He should be sincere like at the beginning of this season when he admitted that he would be skating for himself because he loves it. That's more than fine.

R276 To add onto my useless 'rant' before retiring for the night, I have a feeling that sometimes he overburdens himself for no reason with the risk of disappointing others/himself if he doesn't exactly follow up on it. I know he draws motivation from pressure but he isn't a robot/manga character and if it keeps piling up, at some point he is gonna snap.

Good evening all

Never get between a frau and the mug of pumpkin latte she is supposed to be cradling!!!

Why is everyone so surprised Meagan can be a bully and have a bitchy attitude. This is her norm. Her response to Eunsoo-belle incident? Hello??

Damage control. In the hashtag of his latest tweet, Itsuki indicated his brother had Jibuni (famous duck stew from Ishikawa) and “actually eats the local specialties, you know.” @jumokuno0108

Wilson is dropped again. Sakamoto is going with Bourne for her SP. No word on her FS yet, but probably Richaud?

At another SkyCourt event, Takahashi said he threw up ten times before the FS at nationals.

There was an article today about Hanyu’s friendship with singer Fumiya Sashida. (link below)

In an interview with VincentZhouJPFan (@VincentZhou1025), Zhou cited Hanyu’s R&J 1 at Worlds as one of the performances that’s inspired him the most.

r256 Thank you, I didn’t know about that. Now I’m going to be looking closely at anyone who makes that sign. When you hold your hand horizontally, it actually refers to money in Japan.

r271 It’s outrageous, but feds (American and Soviet/Russian especially) have been treating their skaters poorly forever, forcing coaching/program/costume changes, pressuring skaters to surgically alter their appearances or hide their sexuality or masculinity/femininity, ignoring abuse, threatening to withhold support if skaters don’t comply, taking large chunks of their earnings, encouraging eating disorders and other unhealthy behavior, and more.

R272 Yes, Fernandez was actually in Japan to plan and promote a new figure skating/flamenco show, then do SOI. The Hanyu stuff was secondary and partly promo, too.

R276 The flowery and grandiose language is honorific speech you’re expected to use in this kind of occasion, especially with someone like the emperor. Same with the content. The other messages were probably along similar lines. Not that Hanyu wasn’t being sincere, but I wouldn’t take too much from it.

R281 I'm so glad you brought up Sashida. He and Hanyu go way back - I read something years ago about their emailing or talking for like 8 hours straight? There's also some footage after Sochi where Hanyu's just so happy to see Sashida. Now, that Sashida is a nice looking man if he could just get rid of that fucking hair. Please tell us more about these two if you know anything!

Hamada seems pleased as punch about Vincent - guess she's happy he edged out Uno at Worlds and WTT?:

“His main coach, Tammy Gambill, asked me to teach him,” Hamada stated, when asked how the partnership began. “I have been teaching him (Vincent) for almost two years.”

I wondered if the language barrier was an obstacle for the two.

“The technical terms are almost the same, so it’s easy to communicate about skating,” Hamada noted.

I wanted to know what she felt Zhou must do to get to the next level.

“He has to work more on his edges and basic skating skills,” Hamada commented. “He is going to be a champion if he gets the passion and good edges, because he already has very good quality jumps.”

* Trying again on the link.

“He has to work more on his edges and basic skating skills,"

Fucking finally someone's sayi--

"...because he already has very good quality jumps.”

--womp, womp.

Quebec speaks a funny sounding French that even French people have trouble understanding (they even need subtitles whenever they watch TV shows from Quebec).

R285 I guess he has nice triples lol

[quote] Wilson is dropped again. Sakamoto is going with Bourne for her SP. No word on her FS yet, but probably Richaud? At another SkyCourt event, Takahashi said he threw up ten times before the FS at nationals. There was an article today about Hanyu’s friendship with singer Fumiya Sashida. (link below)

Thanks for hanging in there with us, JDC! Interesting that Rika and Kaori are leaving DW. Yay!! - Wonder if Dai was sick or his nerves caused the vomiting? He sure is a gut-spiller! Not that that's a bad thing - just doesn't seem very stereotypically Japanese. Oh and I looked up Sashida and found lots of duo pix of him and Yuzu - but all of them quite a few years back. Wonder if they're still close? 8 yrs is a pretty big age gap, though not insurmountable. Cute couple.

R281 Didn't Sashida tell a story a few years back about how he got wasted once and drunk dialed Hanyu? Or maybe just left him messages on LINE?

R288 Unfortunately, because of his fame, I don't think anyone who's truly close to Hanyu (or want to remain close) says anything revealing about him these days.

Isn't it compulsory for Canadians to learn French in school? I always knew Meagan was a cunt - she's friends with Dave Lease, nuff said! - but it takes a lot of nerve to complain about not getting service in English in a Francophone city. And hasn't she lived there like, a long time? Learn some fucking French then!

So I take it none of you judgy whores are planning to buy my book?

Breaking news: Med is using Muse for her SP. Discuss.

R293 I think there might be a reason she was never allowed to pick out her own program or music.

No, very few English speaking Canadians know French. Canadians pretend that they are a bilingual nation, but the English speakers are truly ignorant when it comes to French.

Kaori and Mai has the same coach. I'm sad that someone didn't make the decision to drop Wilson for her as well.

Med needs the dramatic programs and edits to fill in for her artistry. Whatever she chooses, in the end it'll be too much for her or will be dropped for the same old.

And she's even married to a French Canadian! I'm not saying she needs to be fluent or anything, god knows I'm bad with languages. But that she feels so entitled to get service in English in a majority French-speaking city, where she's not even a tourist but a resident for years...cringe. I lived in a non-anglophone country for years and never once did I feel like I was entitled to get service in English, let alone bitch about it on social media.

DW must be having a shitfit, now that he's been reduced to choreographing for the B listers. When he was on TSL years ago, he was already a little jealous of Bourne. Now she has ALL of his clients. LOL.

TSL 3/22 – Recap of Worlds Pairs – Part 1 – Guest Meagan Duhamel – Answering D: M: “I don’t miss competing at all… I don’t feel like dealing with that kind of stress and nerves anymore.” About new ISU rules esp GOEs, “I don’t believe it’s being used 100% properly yet… some jumps with a hand down still received +2’s”. She defends Mariah in slash-gate... 10 Subject change to Eric beating Misha Ge as ISU athlete rep for pairs/singles which she thinks shd be separate. She hates devaluing of quad throws/twists due to new GOE rules and also hates the limit on PCS if you make a mistake. 13 Loved that Sui landed triple sal & thinks they may add their quad twist back that they did for years. 18 She loves S/H’s 100% commitment. M thinks it’s funny that Sui says in press confs “I hate this music!” yet she’s a great actress & looks like she loves it while skating. M “Both of them are very funny ppl – and apparently Sui was speaking Japanese in the press conf “as a joke” 20 D asks about Aljona subtitled documentary which M hasn’t seen but read quotes. D: “Did you know that she and Robin were not best friends when they were skating?” M: “Uh, yes… When she changed to Bruno, her personality totally changed and she became chatty & friendly” 22: D: Tarasova & Morozov – D was happy to see Elton John back. M: When T/M finished, they thought they’d won (until they saw score). When they’re on, nobody in the world has elements like T/M. J: “Though that ending from a musical standpoint is utterly inexcusable” (in their Rachmaninoff). They need to work on interpretation – her face is too serious. They like the stats (speed/distance). J thought P/J deserved bronze over Z/E. M thought P/J had best short in the world; were underscored.

TSL 3/22 – Recap of Worlds Pairs – Part 2 - 32: Vanessa & Morgan. When Meagan/Eric won everything, they became scared to lose. M: It’s harder to just keep trying to repeat a high level, rather than trying to go up a level. Maybe they wanted to win too much instead of just enjoying the moment like they used to. 40 Death spiral technique. 42 Why wasn’t Bruno there? M: The CAN fed only pays for 1 coach, while other countries pay for 2, even 3. 44 KMT was upset that she did great and Mike didn’t – Meagan thinks he gets too excited. 46 Cain/LeDuc. D didn’t think her 3Lo was around. 50 North Korean pair didn’t have money to train in Canada, like last year. 53 M wishes new system rewarded harder elements. 55 She doesn’t expect Stolbova back (bec of high quality of competition in Russia) 56 She’s excited about Luba and Charlie skating together. Her jump inconsistency won’t matter as much bec they’ll have explosive twists: you need a +4 on your twists w/new system or forget it. Charlie is so strong & Luba brings good technique; they’ll have explosive elements. 1.04 D asked about it & M thought Tursy’s quad was around - never even questioned it, but quite a few Urs not called. They like Shin Amano’s strictness; want him at every comp. D was annoyed; Mariah Bell’s last jump was definitely under. Med’s 2A at the end one of few Urs called. M’s moment was S/H’s sbs 3S. She loved Boicova/Kozlovskii and thinks they have a great future. Or do I just love Tamara? J’s moment was S/H’s choreo sequence in their long. D: S/H throw sal. 1.09 J/M: Sui & Han remind me that everything in the world is going to be ok. END

R281 JDC, did you mean to link to a different article about Sashida? This seems to be an old one from when Hanyu won Olys last year.

R293 This music + best artist Misha Ge's choreo + open mouth, flailing arms = perfect artistry.

R291, while Quebec is French speaking, Montreal is considered a fully bilingual city with two first languages. My fully bilingual partner lived in Montreal for two years and had many friends who did just fine only speaking English. The bigger challenge is getting a job if you don't speak French, but English is fine for a full time student or tourist.

Now, if you go somewhere like Quebec City you'll need to know French.

[quote]English is fine for a full time student or tourist.

What if you're just a ragey dwarf who wants some goddamn service??!!

Am I the only one being sceptical about Med new SP and her early announcement?

Takahashi is keeping Pale Green Ghosts for his FP.

R305 What are you skeptical about?

Yomiuri reports Hanyu had started doing some serious strength training, particularly for his upper body, which has made it easier for him to hold his axis in the air.

Cathy Reed updated her blog with photos of other skaters including Hanyu. At the end, she wrote how she was disappointed her brother couldn’t perform at Worlds, even though he’s still a talented and capable competitive ice dancer, wink wink.

r288 Takahashi said he usually throws up three times (!) before his performances, but he’s never thrown up that much before. The interview with Sashida was right after Pyeongchang and it sounded like they were still messaging each other. After Sochi, Hanyu gave him advice on training (such as how to run with a mask on) and what supplements to take since Sashida also suffers from asthma and had trouble singing when he moved around a lot during concerts.

r293 Any chance Bourne is the choreographer for this one? She’s doing Ice Fantasia right now with Med.

R301 No, sorry. I thought it was new, but it’s just being retweeted because people want Fukui TV to release video of Hanyu’s Notre-Dame de Paris performance at FaOI Fukui (because of the fire), where he also performed Hana ni nare with Sashida. Sashida did recently update his Line blog with the lyrics from his new song “Happy End,” and we can pretend the “let’s be together forever” was about him and Hanyu.

R305, she probably just wants to 'claim' it before any close competitors choose it too. Not that it's likely she'll make worlds again (barring injury / meltdown from the 3As), so it probably doesn't matter, lol.

Hm. I like Muse, they've got dramatic down the pat and, unlike Orange Sky, I think it could fit Med.

Love Ambesi's interview - "Nathan Chen can't just get one point less than Hanyu..."

* I screwed up that quote. Here it is (with some more of that section):

“If the TES can reach 130, it is not right for PCS to reach only 100. An athlete like Hanyu, who, in my opinion, is the top in all PCS right now, should be able to get 130 as well... An absolute act like Hanyu goes beyond the score and we can admire him and now he surely is very motivated, but Nathan Chen can’t get just 1 point less than Hanyu. Perhaps the second part of Origin is not the most complex of all his past programs, but compared to Chen we are on two different worlds...”

Jesus, 2 threads about how Hanyu's better than Chen.

There's nothing I could care less about than Med's programs for next year or Med in general. She and the rest of the Russian senior girls will be history next year. Time for next gen to be overscored!

Anything actually think Med using Muse is a coincidence?

This is Roman Sadovsky skating to Exogenesis. Beautiful skating and beautiful face. He gave me a strong young Johnny Weir vibe.

R314 that's a reach! *strokes chin*

Also Kostornaya's new Ex is Supermassive Black Hole (announced long before) lol

Rika's Lutz is perfect and Med's is still terrible.

R307 while you strengthen your core, please take care of your ass too, Yuzuru! consider it a gift to your fans ;)

R319 As far as I can tell, his ass has the ability to remain in peak form regardless of the condition of the rest of his body. It really is the gift that keeps on giving.

I just found a photo from Todd Eldredge's wedding. The second one to the current wife, not the wedding in pink woman he divorced.

R314, Muse is one of the most overused music in figure skating.

Med said she will never do the Biellmann again. Wish Hanyu would drop his once and for all.

Why, does Med have a back problem?

I wish Duhamel would stfu on social media.

r323 I don't mind Hanyu's Biellman. It's kinda a trademark of his, if his back doesn't suffer, he should keep it.

R324 She didn't say why she has to stop doing it, but she has had back issues in the past.

R326 I think his back does suffer from it - he doesn't really do it anymore unless he's otherwise in good condition. It's one of his least pleasing trademark moves, imo, so if it's going to hurt him long term, he should drop it. And it seems to catch up to everyone long term. Denise B had back problems and other injuries because of it.

R323 I hope he never listens to sourpusses like you and keeps it. It's a pretty move. I don't give a shit that some z rated skater who retired could hold it a bit higher. It's good, he is the only quad skater to do it and he obviously loves it. He looked super happy doing the Biellmann spiral at World gala this year and look at the difference in flexibility between him and the other guys. The only reason he dropped it from the free is because of injury and stamina issue due to the shortening to 4min. I love the Biellmann because it makes 'manly skating' fans uncomfortable so even if it was the ugliest move in the world, I wish he would keep it to rub it in their faces.

Not sure if it was posted already but apparently Yuzu read that interview some Twitter girl did with Joseph Phan from a few days ago and thanked him for saying nice things about him. It's both cute and a little sad because it confirms that he lurks and probably sees not only what fans post about him but also all the shit from antis and negative comments.

“Hello, this is Shoma. The season has ended and it was truly a year in which I found a lot of things I need to work on. I was blessed with great teammates for World Team Trophy and was able to have a sincerely fun skate to the very end, so I’m so grateful to Team Japan.

“Going into next season, I want to especially train my jumps. The news only seemed to talk about me going for the quint but….I want to prioritize focusing on the 4F, 3A4T, 4Lo, and the 4Lz first.

“I can’t say this season was a good season, but I think I can say it was a good one depending on how I go into next season so I will keep challenging things with all I’ve got next season. Thank you for your continued support.

“P.S. I will be careful not to drink alcohol!”

Just passing by, don't mind me.

What is this about Shoma and alcohol? Did he get drunk and get groped by Hashimoto or something?

r329 Then he probably knows the internet likes his ass.

r332 Well, that would put just anybody off alcohol.

Based on nothing but a few internet videos and Sashida's new song lyrics, I can say with complete confidence that he and Hanyu are totally fucking. Sorry JDC, you can't break all the stories.

I'm curious about Shoma and alcohol, too. JDC what are the deets

R331 hello...

I remember an interview or something where Shoma said he liked to drink Cassis (liqueur?) at home alone - because he didn't like to go out.

R337 Yes, it was from a fan meet and greet. Someone on twitter translated it (linked).

Some alcohol related tidbits:

"he wonders how much it'll take to get drunk and what would happen."

"Q: how was your first taste of sake?/Shoma: "I drink more sake than everyone thinks but my favorite is cassis orange. even when I'm home alone, I'll drink it."

"I drink more sake than everyone thinks" well well well

Why do you guys treat Yuzu like he's some fragile Japanese flower? He's a grown man, for God's sake.

He looks like a fragile Japanese flower to me, actually.... What do you guys think, should we listen to the angry anon?

I think he's fragile sometimes. Strong at other times. Words can hurt deeply and we do know it hurt him in the past. R341. I agree he looks like a fragile Japanese flower there.

R340 I dedicate this photo to you, gentle reader. May it make you less angry and annoyed.

Hanyu was in a web article about Japanese athletes who speak English well. The example used was that awkward CCTV interview at 2015 Worlds where the Chinese reporter kept trying to get him to say something about loving Beijing. The author (“a mom of three who lived in LA for four years and recently returned to university”) praised him for sounding confident and getting his feelings across. I think she just chose the most famous Japanese athletes who train overseas and didn’t bother listening to their English, because she also described Eiji Kawashima’s English as natural and fluent, but in the example she provided, he’s only speaking French. https://www. eigofamily. com/archives/3226#i-7

R388 [quote]“P.S. I will be careful not to drink alcohol!”

What he actually said was, “I will be careful not to get drunk.” (I think the translator wasn’t familiar with the expression “sake ni nomareru,” to get drunk/swallowed up by alcohol.)

R335 Uno is probably referring to him and Tanaka red-faced and in their suits looking like drunk salarymen in the banquet photo accompanying the message. (No wonder Uno seemed more smiley than usual.)

I volunteer to redesign Shoma's website. The layout and header are terrible.

R340 Maybe because he is one.

To each their own, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I consider someone who can turn into this at the drop of a hat fragile and/or delicate *shudder*

He can be so different. In the blink of an eye. It is jaw-dropping and scary at times. This is what makes him so intriguing, it is hard to figure him out. He is a mystery (and he likes it that way according to one certain 'training buddy' of his). The 'dichotomy of Hanyu' needs to take its place next to 'hanyuism' phenomenon.

R347 Just because he can turn intense while performing doesn't mean he doesn't have a part of weakness. He himself mentioned that he is weak and easily affected and hurt by what other people say which is why he prefers to isolate himself not to be distracted. And just like you posted this picture, there are others like R343 which show his softer/sensitive side. People are more complex than strong =/=weak any way.

I would not call Hanyu "weak" but rather "vulnerable." And I think that it's this vulnerability that makes so many of us so protective of him.

R349 It's not just about the intensity. That is a look of someone with every intention to conquer. I dunno the guy personally but, in my books, fragile flowers don't fight against odds and the discouraging, sometimes downright vitriolic, words/actions of others and come out the other side with exactly what they say they're out to win. It's quite astounding how he manages to remain not smug about it. At least not in public.

Anybody with feelings will get hurt at some point, some perhaps more easily and more often than others but to me, it isn't how easily a person gets hurt that determines their frailty, but how they come back from it. Guy's sensitive, maybe, but he's also got a stubbornness that refuses to back down. So no, I don't consider him delicate. Personally, I am not someone whose feelings get hurt easily, but I still find him waaaay stronger than I am.

Anyway, like I said, to each their own. This is just how I personally perceive him, and it's what made me become a supporter cos my gut can't stand wilting delicate things and it's telling me that he's far from one. I swear, it wasn't just his ass alone (which I don't need my gut to tell me is fantastic). I didn't even allow myself to start appreciating that in earnest until he turned 24.

Speaking of which, I need to get back on track so here's a pic I think shows the steeliest core to ever steel...from the back.

Check out this acc. She has best avatar ever.

This

R352 I read "acc" wrongly at first. Then I realized I didn't.

Like any skilled performer, he appears however he chooses at any given time.

I just realized Miki Ando is not a part of the FAOI cast, even though they announced the other Japanese ladies skaters. Who does a girl have to fuck and blackmail these days to get into FAOI? Apparently, not the president of the event company.

R351 Beautiful pic. His ass never disappoints. Hanyu is definitely not passive or weak...he gets the job done and is relentless to a fault in achieving his goals. By the same token (as many have already mentioned), he has a childlike expressiveness and vulnerability that seems at odds with that steely nerve and its the juxtaposition of those two sides that makes him intriguing.

R356 Is her magic vag is not so magical anymore?

All that Miki Ando vag slut jokes aside....in light of safe sport and cougjlin accusations...has it ever been discussed that she was only 18 (I think) when she started training with morozov who is 12 years older?

Hanyu should only practice the quad axel for next year. If he can do it in competition....one and done! Icing on his GOAT of a career.

r358 I think it was. I believe it was mentioned that Morozov wasn't even the first handsy coach Ando had.

r359 It'd be a nice cherry on the top of his career, but he seems like a person who'd like to take a new shiny toy like that for a longer spin.

R358 Yes, Ando was 18 when she started training with Morozov and she was 21 when their relationship was discovered. Morozov's history of student/coach relationships is definitely sketchy and it's clear he became involved with his most recent wife (are they now separated/divorced?) when she was underaged. But Ando was of legal age to make her own poor decisions, so I don't think it's similar to the Coughin case.

R360 I think she was coached by Takahiko Kozuka's mom or dad early in her career. Don't know anything about the mom, but dad has definitely been in legal trouble for his handsiness. I think Dirt Czar talks about it in the first Hanyu thread.

Ando was of age but Morozov is definitely a creep and it's time someone dumps the cops on him.

Bids for 2021 4 Continents: Sydney, Beijing, Taipei City

Bids for 2022 4 Continents: Taipei City

Bids for 2022 Euros: Sofia, Ostrava, Tallin, Helsinki or Espo, Sheffield

Bids for 2022 Junior Worlds: Tashkent

Bids for 2022 4 Continents: Taipei City

Bids for 2022 Worlds: Minsk, Sofia, Montpellier, Budapest, Torino, Bratislava

R361, even if Ando was legal, it's still shady for a coach to be involved with his student. In most universities professors/ TAs can't get involved with students (at least not ones in their department who they teach), even though everyone is legal. He should've handed off her coaching to someone else if he wanted to fuck her.

R364 I was responding to the previous poster who compared her situation to Coughlin's. I wasn't arguing that the situation wasn't shady, just not comparable to Coughlin (other than the power dynamics etc, but that shit is too subtle for cops, unfortunately). Even in the university context, most of the bans you're talking about were implemented recently, in the metoo era. In Ando/Morozov's day, no one gave a shit, in skating or anywhere else.

Let's take a moment to remember just how much the figure skating world cares about sexual abuse. They could barely muster the outrage for sexual molestation of a minor, much less "shadiness" or "power imbalances" between a creepy coach and his adult student. This is Karel Fajfr, who's still coaching by the way.

"In 1995, a top-level German coach was convicted of sexually molesting a 17-year-old female student eleven times during the previous year. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a three-year coaching ban. The victim was a pairs skater who claimed that the coach fondled and kissed her, and propositioned her during their stay at a foreign training camp. The coach was also, at the same trial, convicted of beating a female student, who was ten at the time of the incidents. Also fined by the court were the director of the coach's home rink and a German skating federation official, for having knowledge of the coach's behavior but not stopping him.

Other skaters who were students of the coach claimed not to have experienced or seen any abuse from him, and one top French coach defended him, believing that other coaches who lined up against him were motivated by jealousy, although he said "I never saw anything wrong with [this coach's] attitude...I don't know if [the accusations] were right or wrong. I have no idea."

Source: Talking Figure Skating, by Beverly Smith, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1997.

[quote] a German skating federation official, for having knowledge of the coach's behavior but not stopping him.

who was an ISU judge. I think she claimed "I didn't hear anything from my office"

Karel Fajfr used to coach fat pig Brezinova

that's him at 2019 Junior German Nationals...the old one with red glasses

In a previous thread, someone posted a very damning report about parents knowingly handing their kids over to these abusive coaches for medals and glory. Anyone remember this?

R367 It was I, and honest, I could not even see the rink from my office.

Fafjr also had a fondness for fat farm animals, so Brezina and Brezinova must have felt right at home when they switched to Raf.

That article about Fajfr makes me want to throw up. He is vile. Why the fuck would anyone let him coach their child after that? It's not like he's even some super coach who gets great results. Shit, I'd trust Morozov over him in a heartbeat.

Plush had nice words for Kolyada:

Our ladies are unbelievable, but men’s skating is in a complete different situation. Why?

– (long pause, sighs) I just want to say that the boys … We have young guys, yes, but it takes time. Boys train differently, they feel sorry for themselves. I had guys in the group, they left, thank God. I went into the gym and saw them looking in the mirror looking at something on their faces. Narcissism. And you need to work hard. There is Alexei Nikolaevich Mishin, who works in St. Petersburg. Go go to him, he will take you with pleasure.

Who are you talking about? – About Kolyada. Well, it doesn’t work for you, there is no result. Look around, think. Maybe Alexei Mishin will give you a certain message.

Plush shouldn't be so hard on Kolyada. It's obviously his big cock that is throwing him off axis.

Huh? What's Plushy talking about? What are the meanings of his words? That the boys are too narcissistic?

Goddamn, I guess I never realized how much of an asshole Plush is. And him talking about narcissim? lmao

Seriously, who cares what Plushy thinks about anything? He runs a private school for celeb kids and no legitimate athlete sticks around for more than a few months. He's a complete douchebag. They asked him about Sasha not being allowed to skate an MJ program in Europe or Asia due to the scandal and he basically said nothing was ever proven (what kind of fucking proof do you want???), people went after MJ because he is rich and famous. Yeah, nobody rich and famous has ever been guilty of anything. And Sasha will still skate to MJ in Russia. Pathetic.

Welp, although I'm no fan of Kovtun, Plush took away a boy's dream (and only chance) of going to the Olympics so he could get a 4th round with 6.0 programs and a team gold from being overscored. What do ya expect?

R377 ...So he probably thinks he's the last best thing in Russian male figure skating to have happened. With how he's pushing his son too, the guy's got little sympathy.

I give him props for keeping his head and staying on his feet as a competitor, but he's swallowed too much of his own hype.

I don't think he was talking about Kovtun because he admits he wasn't around much for him - but who says "I had guys in the group, they left, thank God" about your former students?

It's a miracle he was nice to Yuzuru - probably only because Yuzu made it known he looked at Plushy as his idol.

And re-reading this part of the interview, I realized how much of it is bragging on himself:

[quote] Max is a very talented guy, he was very motivated first. It just happened so that I had a lot of shows, and he needed me to sit with him all the time. However, I am always open, Max and I jumped triple axel. It was interesting, of course, when the coach jumps together with the athlete, such a motivation for him. I have my own approach and my own vision of many things, not by chance I became a long-liver in a big sport. I share secrets, but not all yet.

Here is Plush barking at a little girl - translation from Goldenskate:

[quote]translation: Plushenko (army-style angry sermon): "There will be easier! I need quads, I need 3.5 (Axels), I need to win! You do understand, eh?!" Sofia Titova (9 y.o.): *frightened nod* Plushenko: "and you can do it"

Maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked, but taken together with everything else he's said and done lately, he seems extra prickish nowadays. Maybe he's finally had to accept that he ruined his health and will never be an athlete again.

R371 I thought the case of Patricia J was particularly sad. Fajfr sexually harassed and physically and verbally abused her for years. Sounds like her father handed her over to Fajfr when she was 10 and left her to fend for herself. That article doesn't even go into detail about all the horrific things to he did to her, but I thought this little bit was particularly grotesque (the last sentence): "Many witnesses told the police that Fajfr had been 'very mean' with this girl. But others should not have done much better. Beatings, kicks, blows, and again and again the roar, until the children trembled, the shouting and finishing, fear and fear again, day in, day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, a martyrdom. Finally, the reward for Patricia J. was that, together with Thorsten Weigle, she finished fourth at the German Championships."

R381 I'm no fan of Plush, but that didn't sound like "barking" to me, maybe it did to the 9 year old though.

Zagitova, Med, and Tuk will be doing all locations for FaOI. I think there was a compromise.

Eric Radford was right - what a view!

R379 I brought up Kovtun as a point to Plush's ego and not caring for the development of other Russian male skaters. Plush self preens too much.

R383 So many singles ladies. Why even fight about Faoi? Maybe that's why Ando was kicked out. Is Kihira also do some stops this year? I'd rather watch her than any of the current top Russian ladies.

Korean ice shows sure are something else when it comes to costumes. Though these days this would probably be a regular Cha casual outfit since he appears to have bought into (or has been encouraged to buy into) the kpop/hypebeast aesthetic.

R386 Med is beating them in costume ugliness. I don't know who told her this link trashbag was nice but they must be her enemy.

The skaters don't pick their own costumes for these shows. Haven't you ever seen the tacky shit they have to wear for SOI in the US or Art on Ice?

Yuzuru would have rocked this pinky outfit, he is more curvy than Med.

Cha kind of faded away as the season progressed, by the end of it I didn't even remembered him, which is regretable given how he started. I hope to see more of him next season. But no more memeable programs, please.

R387 As R388 pointed out, they don't get much choice. Did you forget Yuzu was once forced to wear this?

R391 Forced? I sewed it myself.

[R388] But isn't Med's costume from her EX? She would have put that together by herself., no? Seems everyone else, except maybe , the star, used existing costumes. for their solos.

R393 is the pink outfit for her new Ariana Grande program? DL fave Misha Get choreographed it!

Med's problem is her chicken legs.

R394 as if pink latex weren't enough

R395 The problem is her uterus.

We're all trashbag antis now, after posting this picture and drooling over the visible dance belt about 20x on this thread?

R398 you see no difference?

R399 I just wanted an excuse to post the picture again.

R400 no complaints.

R400 No excuse necessary. Just post it whenever.

[quote] Med's problem is her chicken legs.

Exactly. I feel bad that they're the only thing I fixate on when she's dancing.

And the bare midriff look does her no favors either (though they admirably did try to camouflage the lack of calves - or maybe not so admirably, with the baby pink)

* skating - not dancing.

R390 Cha seemed to compete almost non-stop throughout Jan/Feb...apparently he had to do some smaller competitions in Korea (to fulfill university portfolio requirements) alongside Korean Nationals, 4cc, and then Worlds. Combined with ongoing boot and ankle problems throughout the season, I'm not surprised he kind of faded near the end.

Serious question: what is the difference in the demographic that makes tumblr so full of "Mariah is the REAL victim and the bullying allegations are lies" while I see none of that here?

And I agree that Yuzu can seem like a double sided coin to some but I wouldn't call him a mystery, more that some western audiences are just confused by the way he presents himself. I think as the baby of the family with an older sister in an Asian family dynamic, he was allowed to stay childlike and headstrong, and that stubbornness carries into his strength in skating and that childlike demeanor translates as emotional vulnerability. He's just more in tune with his emotions than what some western male audiences might expect.

R406 I don't know anything about the Tumblr crowd, but the people I see defending Mariah on social media and places like FSU are North Americans, particularly Americans who think Team USA can do no wrong. There's always been a certain resentment/aggression/disdain against Asians in skating, so they pounced when it became clear that ATS fucked up by overplaying the collision (initial reports said Mariah stabbed/slashed Eunsoo) and the Korean netizens played right into everyone's stereotypes by going crazy on Mariah's instagram. It was also an opportunity to show that NA fans and skaters are civilized, level-headed and don't immediately think the worst of other people. When have NA ever missed an opportunity to show their superiority? I could also be paranoid - I am American and I feel like we see everything through the lens of race/national origin.

The DL demographic on the Hanyu threads is a little more international, I think. It's certainly different from the demographic of the other threads on DL (including the other skating thread). This is why you have people popping in every so often to ask why the thread is active when most of America is sleeping, why posters sound ESL or dismiss the thread as full of Asian fetishists (because that's the only reason why anyone would care about skaters outside of Team USA). Again, it's just my personal opinion and I fully own up to my own bias and paranoia because of everything that's happening in the US right now.

R391 He did not look forced and rocked that outfit fabulously.

R406 People who view everything through cultural prism are as annoyingly narrow-minded as Americans who can only understand very manichean things like manly vs feminine dichotomy. Being a younger child doesn't necessarily make you childlike and in any case being childlike and showing signs of vulnerability are completely different things. The whole 'you don't get it because it's just an Asian thing' is first dismissive of the people you are interacting with and who might be familiar with said culture, and also it's another aspect of orientalism, tellling people not to bother trying to understand other human beings/to look for clues or common feelings because they come from such a different cultural background. In my experience, people are not that different that things like feelings or emotions cannot be felt from one culture to another. Otherwise Yuzu wouldn't appeal to such a wide range of people across the world.

New picture of Yuzu from World banquet emerging. Poor guy. The whole thing was basically a big photo session for him, with one skater after the other coming up to him for a picture. He probably did not have time to sit down for more than 5min.

Sports Graphic Number is coming out with an Olympics special that includes an interview with Chiddy about Hanyu's Olympic wins. Fingers crossed for some good ol' fashion Canadian passive aggressive cuntiness. Fernandez is also supposed to say something but I doubt he'll bring the goods - just the same "we're great rivals" bs, I'm sure.

Yeah when is he gonna say that they used to blow each other in the locker rooms? We're waiting Fernandez!!!

R409 it's the World banquet...the whole point is taking picture with everybody. Well, apart for those who actually dance at the banquet There are skaters who even spend time taking pics with Majorov or Schott!

R403 yeah it's utterly distracting. And it makes her look kind of junior-ish, and unsteady on her feet (I get the same impression from Tursynbaeva).

Hanyu drought ends today.

The monument ceremony is expected to begin at around 10:15AM Japan time (April 20). If the youtube stream fails, there’s an official niconico douga backup: https://live. nicovideo .jp/gate/lv319596689

Youtube livestream:

R413 Only junior-ish thing about me is little Yuzuru in my uterus. Sorry to disappoint, jelly DL fan. Hope you come to baby shower, all our fans are invited.

I actually dance at banquets instead of taking pics with unknown people who are supposed to be skaters

R413 Elizabet does have a waist. Med doesn't.

But Elizabet doesn't have boobs lol

R414. Thank you!

R418 Medviedeva neither. maybe little bigger ...

R414 Good God. I can't believe I let Hanyu pull me into watching shit like a fucking monument unveiling but yes, I've had my YouTube reminder set for a few days now. Predictions on what he will be wearing underneath an ill-fitting suit? I say rhinestone encrusted dance belt.

R420 nah Med does have good boobage. They even kind of sag a bit. I always say she needs better breast support.

Takahashi's put on some weight. He looks younger with some fat in his face, even if he's giving me grimy Johnny Depp vibes.

R422 LOL show me , post some pictures

R22 she is flat

R423 He looks like a well-adjusted person now.

R426 I'll always mistrust that because I know there's still a bleach streaked emo mullet there in his soul, waiting to come out.

R415 That is truly horrible. Is she supposed to be a Russian hooker in that pink outfit? What song is she skating to?

R428 She's skating to Ariana Grande “7 rings" according to Misha Ge.

Is the Russian whorelet routine a new thing or have her exhibitions always been like this (I don't follow her). Here she is telling us what she's all about.

I was hoping Med was skating to "How Much Is that Doggie in the Window"

I really have tried, but most of the time, I just can't stand Med. Like the plain girl who thinks she's gorgeous? Funny thing, Med does have a very pretty face - but the rest of her is misshapen and that's just, well, unfortunate for a figure skater. At least Tursy is proportioned evenly, though she's not nearly as pretty. And other than her teeth, Zag is the prettiest thing out there (imo)

God I feel like such a misogynist but how can you not judge skaters by their looks - but not just the women -- god knows, if Yuzuru looked like Takahiko Kazuka, there wouldn't be all those Poohs on the ice.

And about the Mariah topic upthread, I'm an American and I'm so disgusted with her that I'm thinking about giving up figure skating. This is appalling and nobody gives a rat's ass. The Korean blitzkriegers have disappointed me. Anyway, let's see who I haven't insulted yet... I can tell the Yuzu-Pyeongchang high is wearing off and this sport is just as galling as it ever was.

evgenia has no tits. She uses too much push up ,thats all

Tuk is the prettiest of all the Russian girls, imo. She looks good with and without make up and there's something sensual about her that's really appealing. And I agree, being pretty is a bonus in figure skating.

R432 Please, I am prettiest of all Russian skaters.

I detest her skating and wish she would find another career, but Stanislava is better looking than Liza or Alina to me.

Without make up, Med doesn't look too good. She has a big nose and her eyes bags are terrible.

I agree that Zagitova looks good other than her teeth. I wonder why she doesn't do something with her teeth, like getting braces ? Yuna Kim, Korean and Japanese girls definitely looked prettier after they had their teeth done.

R342 Tuk was gorgeous when she was 14-15. But after puberty, she looked like a 30 year- old woman.

R433 I'm sure he thinks that.

Team Sotskova! But Russian rhythmic gymnastics seems to get the lookers, maybe because they have to "entertain" Putin.

Medvedeva is working with her old choreographer (Averbukh) again. Unclear if it's for a show or competitive program.

R385 The Russian FaOI skaters, including the ensemble cast, are almost always represented by Ari Zakarian (who was adamant about Coughlin’s innocence). Also, foreign skaters who do The Ice don’t appear in FaOI anymore, so Makabe must’ve changed his mind and pulled some serious strings to get Zagitova on his show. (He was at the Rostelecom GP.) Some think Tuk is Ge’s replacement and Arakawa replaced Ando. Kihira is doing all shows except for June 14th when she has to attend the JOC ceremony. The cast announced so far is really unbalanced. Vasilijevs is the only mens skater who isn’t retired, while all of the women are still competitive except for two (Suzuki and Arakawa). The ice dancers are all retired. Are Volosozhar/Trankov officially retired?

Toshi won't be singing any X-Japan songs, so his presence is kind of moot, though the idea of Toshi/X-Japan fans at FaOI is hilarious. Think KISS or Megadeth fans showing up at SOI Canada. I wonder if Toshi is still in that cult.

R410 In his latest Japanese interview, Fernandez made it very clear that he and Hanyu are not friends (off the ice) and have nothing to do with each other, which we already knew, but better than gushing about their nonexistent friendship for promo. I think Hanyu appreciated Phan’s comments about him because Phan was honest about their interactions and the atmosphere at TCC. I don't recall Hanyu talking to other skaters about interviews often, if at all.

R421 It might get interesting if the press asks him about the latest JCast article (which Oda retweeted yesterday) with the statement from the JSF on the CrowdWorks listing. Hanyu does throw shade, speak out against the media, and disagree with Hashimoto in public on occasion.

And while we’re waiting, I'd like to share an old clip of Hashimoto managing to create an awkward moment for Mao, Takahashi, and the prime minister of Japan:

What did Phan say about Hanyu and the atmosphere at TCC?

R438 It's from an interview done by a blogger (sorry, don't know who she is exactly). She edited it due to some privacy thing with TCC but you'll get the gist of it. We discussed it earlier in this thread if you want more info/opinions on it.

R435 Funny, those undereye bags were right on trend in Korea and Japan a couple of years ago.....Maybe still are. They were considered cute and youthful. Snaggleteeth, too.

Anyway, to me Med's like the Gigi Hadid and Zag is the Bella. Zag has a more classic look, Med has a more current look.

R437 Isn't this also the ceremony where Hashi tried to get Mao to hug Abe, Mao was like "uh, no" and Abe had to settle for hugging Hanyu instead? Too bad about Japan X. I was still holding out hope for Tamura to show up in his Rocket Dive costume.

R439 Thanks! I did see that earlier but it must have not registered with me. These threads move so fast that it's hard to keep up.

R440 lol you got things wrong. Koreans did have a trend called "smiling eyes" (애교살) where they try to create puffy under their eyes by make-up, using little sticky strips of tape or even having surgery. It was fat bags ( like when you cry too much and lower eyelids get a bit swollen). And it is different from droopy undereyes Med has.

The ceremony is live now, but no sound until 10:15.

R441 Yes, but Abe also "hugged" Mao:

So I hear he's in Dior? LOL

Ugh sorry for Mao

Mayor of Sendai and City Council member with Hanyu. City Council Norio Saito is pretty funny. He has four cats.

He looks great. Beautiful hair and a shirt that fits his neck. Wish I knew what he was saying but he certainly seems relaxed and happy.

Mostly just thanking everyone for their support during speech and q&a, words of encouragement for skaters in Sendai. Hopes there will be a Sendai skater who will want their own monument someday. He sounded very businesslike today except at the end when talking about young Sendai skaters.

The face on the monument looks just a little strange.

Oh! And I missed part of it but he pointed out there are two of him next to Arakawa. Would love to see her face.

R449 Thanks for the brief translation! (I hope they also correct the spelling of "Olympic" on the actual monument)

LOL Thanks for translating. Did the councilman talk about his 4 cats in the speech?

I understood nothing, but he looked totally fuckable in the pink tie.

R452 No, I got it from his city council profile where he's holding two daikon. :

R454 hahha He lists his wife, 3 kids, 1 mother and 4 cats.

R453 Yes, that pink tie was wonderful. Yuzuru Hanyu really is a beautiful man.

R451 That wasn't the actual monument? Ah, the poor person who got it wrong.

R453 And that was the most important thing of note, otherwise I would have no good reason to sit through a monument reveal.

R457 I was under the impression this was just the reveal of the design but I could very well be wrong!

Why did the artist give him a soul patch?

Press conference now. Not sure if there's a stream. Maybe something on Miyagi/Sendai TV, but I have to go.

The monument is going in on the 29th, so maybe they can make changes somehow.

R443 That's what I was talking about. Med has had those fat deposits under her eyes since she was a kid. They looked cute. Now that she's getting older her undereyes are creasing. I don't doubt that it still looks cute to some people.

R445 The Dior was from some promo photos from a Sendai guidebook, that just came out. The bomber jacket and pants.

I thought you guys were being fangurls but I just checked the pictures and yup, he cleaned up very well, the suit actually fits this time.

They fixed the spelling mistake but now there's a crease. The OCD in Hanyu is VERY DIsTuRBED by this!!

I'm distubed by it

Embarrassed after being asked to pose?

And he's back saying his dream is to land a 4A in an official comp (what happened to 4F and 4Lz? oy... I wonder if Shoma's quint talk got him back in pioneering mode?)

I think I see a run in Johnny's pantyhose!

R463 I bet that does trigger his OCD. Did you notice how quickly he moved to scoop up that red cloth after they pulled it down?

R466 are you going to wear heels with that, Jhonny?

Of course.

Well, if you ask me, girl got a lovely chest. And this red is ever so much better than the pink. Oh, and her makeup is sublime.

See, I'm tryin' so hard to be a Med-fan. Help me out Zhenya!

Honestly, I do think her behavior at TCC has been respectable - what I know of it, anyway. (I don't follow her on social media so I can't speak for that)

Gabby D posted pictures and an account of her injuries after the practice collision: two cracked ribs, a concussion and a bruised knee. Poor girl, it didn't seem that serious.

R471 ouch, but is it possible to skate with a concussion?

R472 Yah ,,, and it [drool] wernt a big deal. I totaly gud now.

R471 that's crazy. I thought she was ok.

Those bruises look odd

R470 lovely chest? what you mean by that? Is that lovel chest for you? She has small tits , picture was made above her , thats why you think she has bigger tits. thats a trick. And the dress has bra in itn also. Whats your point here to prove that she has tits and lovely cheat? What is your problem/

Those bruises are photoshopped, every single one is in the same color

476 Now you hate Med too, daitroll?

Oh I just noticed the cane

LOL The fact that Zags unfollowed Med on IG made the news in Russia

R479 Zags has a show today. I think it's another pr move from Med.

r471 Whoa, cracked ribs?

R481 It was just a convenient excuse to have them removed altogether, just as she had always dreamed on photoshop.

*Popcorn tea latte*

r483 Instagram drama trumps Yale.

Who is "Etoile"?

r485 "leading ballet dancer"

R475 She may have applied a filter to make the bruises darker. Her eyebrows look photoshoped too.

R462 this suit is better than some others, but still ill fitting. I don't think any off the rack suit would fit Hanyu - his waist is too small, his thighs too thick and dat ass is going to pitch a tent and deform any suit pant you try to shove it into.

R486 Sorry, I'm slow with the code names - Nate is involved in all this drama?

r488 I think it's about which media, Russian or American, can spin stuff better.

Oh dear, those bruises look too similar. And wouldn't cracked ribs need to be taped up - some kind of corset thing? And yeah, the eyebrows are fake.

It's a bad sign - her continuing to edit herself into something she's not. And that thing by the door looks like a Christmas tree though I guess ppl cd decorate with red balls.

If she's exaggerated her injuries - WHY?

R489 Ah, thank you. But it's this tweet that confused me. Are there two "etoiles"? It seems one was involving in whole following/unfollowing business. This is so silly, but here I am, I guess.

Here's another tweet on the drama with some pointed "liking" from Med! So I'm still confused about who Etoile is! LOL

r491 I'm not that fluent in Twitter.

r492 It's the refernce to the US media hype about Nathan's ballet background.

R492 Nathan Chen. He followed Zagitova back.

Let the hunger games begin, ladies.

Quad battle at an Eteri show today?: Tursy 4S; Shcherbakova 4Lz; Trusova 4T, 4T-3T-lo-3S-lo-3S-lo-3S; Sofya Akatyaeva 3A; and a boy, Danlil Samsonov 4Lz.

I still think Med should have tried to switch teams to Armenia (if Russia would let her)

R494 Thank you. I thought it was more than just a reference to US PR. Hopefully, we get more SNS drama from Nate to spice things up.

R495 Jesus, that looks crazy.

The lazy famewhore dog clearly lost the quad battle

R497 SLUT!

R497 I am the Etoile, see my noble red tutu? Go ask Trusova's rat for quads.

R497 I have no intention of competing in singles anyway. I'd like to try ice dance.

R497 Raf was right.

If Vincent Zhou can redefine what it means to rotate a jump, our noble Masaru can redefine what it means to jump!! #goldformasaruin2022

R502 She is too fat. She can't jump at all.

R503 They are all fat AF. Cows and pigs. And elephants. Why is it called figure skating, it is fatty skating.

R502 Have I redefined the rotation of a jump, or has the rotation of the jump, in fact, redefined me? I will explore this (and more) through not only my skating but also my poetry, as one medium is not enough to fully realize the potential locked within. Please join me on IG, my dear DL fans, as I embark on this most exciting artistic journey.

R437 Volosozhar/Trankov never made an official announcement, but they've made it clear in interviews that they've retired from competition.

The In The Loop team has a new podcast and transcript up today that looks quite interesting. Skimming through the transcript I found this:

"in the men's field, you have the scores Yuzuru Hanyu received for his NHK and GPF performances of Chopin and Seimei. Since those skates, scores in the men’s field have been on a rapid incline to match those original high scores, sort of like the judges are trying to catch the rest of the field up to those original high marks to make the field, in their eyes, more level. At some point, that didn't necessarily correlate with the actual quality of performances that were being put out on the ice."

I noticed this also after he did those skates in 2015.

"It's interesting that the opposite of what's happening in ice dance is happening in the men's. In ice dance, judges are just propping up Papadakis and Cizeron whereas in men's, they're like Yuzuru Hanyu must be beaten. We need to catch up all the other men."

R507 They are Fanyus but maybe I am too, so: duh.

I don't agree with their assessment of P/C though. If anything the other teams are being propped up to make it look like a competition. P/C need to be careful - they need to stop doing the same shit or people will get bored and move on to the Russians.

I can't believe the drama has already begun and FaOI hasn't even started yet. R506 Thank you.

Why is CBC Olympics pretending Hanyu and P/C are Canadian?

Weir's brother is not what I imagined at all.

R509 Are you talking about this with Yuzu front and centre? Maybe because no one would be interested in watching their wrap up otherwise. I didn't watch it, but I kind of forwarded through it a bit and it seemed they talked about Shoma a lot as well as P/C.

Well, it's just that Yuzuru wrecks the curve.

R509 Johnny may not be the black sheep of the family.

Alysa Liu is at TCC, probably getting her programs choreographed.

That 7 rings ex of Medvedeva is damn boring. For god sake lose the hydroblade too ....

r495 Doesn't Russia give some sort of stipend for winning Olympic medals? My guess is that she can't switch countries or she'll lose that steady source of income.

R460 probably old news by now but found a video :D

I enjoyed listening to Stephane Lambiel talking about an upcoming show ("Hyoen") in July he's doing with Daisuke Takahashi. Such a sweet little voice. (link)

And Dai talking about working on the same show with Stephane: "I always wanted to beat him when I was skating back then. I saw him creating things the way only he could, and thought, 'I need to be more like him.' So he was also someone I really looked up to. ..In this role he isn't my rival, and that makes it easy for me because I'm just expressing my actual feelings about him. I'm really, really looking forward to it."

R477 NOW I hate medviedeva? And whom I hate before, remind me? Because you better know then me

That makes sense, R515. I hadn't thought about it. Someone upthread here [I think] said they doubt she'll ever make it to Worlds again, but if she keeps that stipend no matter what (unless she repatriates to officially skate for Armenia), then obviously she's doing the right thing. And she also seems to love Russia, so I'd assume she'll go back home at some point. Maybe she'll surprise me. I'm actually excited to see how things shake out on the ladies' side - will the Japanese hang on or will the Russian newbies knock a few of them out of skating as well? (assuming Med and maybe even Zag will be history)

R517 Lambiel and Takahashi totally fucked.

Could be a hot hot summer for Dai and Steph - wonder if he'll leave his boytoy back in Switzerland?

R517 thank you! he is so soft

Alena Leonova has married her 23-year-old boytoy, Anton Shulepov.

R521 Please, Lambiel and Takahashi fucking would be like Lambiel and Weir fucking - the two of them ass to ass wondering why nothing is happening.

Fair point. Now the question is who are the tops in Figure Skating?

R525 Caroline Zhang

Dominatrix Hanyu (still 'power bottoming the hell out of his chosen victim' variant seems more probable in his case). P.S. I like where this discussion is heading!

R525 ¡Eric Radford es increible!

R527 Hanyu is a top, fight me.

Javi Raya might top, someone ask him on tinder

I thought he was on Grindr.

he certainly was on Grindr during Finlandia Trophy. Same for Boe.

But maybe he is also on Tinder

R529 This gif tells me he is bottom material.

A brief video of 3 Russian girls doing 3 quads, and a triple axel (done by 10 year old Sofya Akatyeva)

R529 agree. He has dominant vibe.

That's what Dai says, Appearances to the contrary, Yuzu is a "carnivore" why he, Dai, is just a sweet little grass-eater (despite looking like a gangsta).

* WHILE he, Dai, is....

Speaking of our meek little grass-eater, among his current appearances promoting his show “Hyoen” (with Lambiel) is "Shabekuri 007" with Kanako (broadcast on March 25th): "Fun shenanigans like Kana and Dai re-enacting drunken advances (I hope I got that right?), singing the Ghostbusters title theme, and Dai-chan showing off his mad skills at household chores such as folding clothes, Marie Kondo style. Also for more confirmation of his sweet, considerate nature, we found out that he always carries wet wipes, stain remover, extra phone chargers and surgical masks (in case other people forgot to bring their own), does the laundry for his friends, cleans up after them and makes sure guests feel at home at his place by providing beverages in the bathroom (for this purpose he installed a fridge in the bathroom)."

Above details thanks to a kind poster at GS, whose links were geo-blocked or something.

R536 Yuzu is a lion and Daisuke is a goat, right?

R538 What a perfect housewife. Must be swarmed by men.

[quote]for this purpose he installed a fridge in the bathroom

This is disgusting. This is more abhorrent than phone throwing. I am now an anti.

LOL don't open up the lions' den R539. We all know who the "king" is, Dai most of all!

Speaking of... Dai always carries wet wipes and stain remover? Hmm. Mustn't share the images that have popped up in my mind, especially considering the Lambiel video and reading about Dai declaring his "actual feelings" about Steph, which are not rivalrous at all oh no...

Not a goat, a boy cow. Get that fridge out of your loo, fatty, or you'll never land that 4F you've been yammering on about...

R539 Hah! Nice try

Has anyone heard anything about Javi's flamenco show in Japan? Is it something he wants to do in the future and is just feeling around for interest or does he actually have something lined up with dates etc.? Given the surfeit of ice shows in Japan (with some not selling out) and the fact that Javi isn't the biggest star there, it's surprising he's jumping into this market.

Hmmm...interesting. And at Yale of all places.

R546 I wouldn't be surprised if that's Jay Emerson. He's big on sports stats and has written for many years now about the flaws in the scoring system, especially in close competitions. Don't have time to look it up now, but I'd be curious if he's done any analysis for recent comps.

R547 Good call. It was indeed Jay Emerson.

R516 Thank you.

r545 The show is supposed to take place sometime this year and it’s a dinner show with Spanish food and wine. Najarro is choreographing it. If successful, they plan to take it to other countries next year. I think they’re targeting Spanish culture lovers more than figure skating fans. It sounds very ambitious given the lack of time.

R549 Thanks! I guess people who called Javi's programs "dinner theatre on ice" were't totally off-base. That sounds like an odd sell - if I truly wanted to experience Spanish culture and flamenco dancing, I don't think I'd want to see it from a figure skater. Malaguena was my favorite Javi program, but he was skating with flamenco accents. The real flamenco dancers are hard core!

Marin Honda is doing La La Land as one of her new programs for next season. Choreo by y Lori Nichol

Don't know how much credence this should be given, but it's interesting, not only the Hanyu situation but also considering all three Japanese ladies missed the podium:

Iron Klaus @Iron_Klaus 1h1 hour ago

I think the Japanese fans are trying to establish a link of responsibility between all the negative things that happened at #Worlds2019 and #JSF. Important because in Japan there is this culture of having to #resign to take responsibility for something that did not go well.

[quote] Important because in Japan there is this culture of having to #resign to take responsibility for something that did not go well.

we wait for the resignations of Orser, Hamada. Yamada, Higuchi, Nakano, etc.

LOL. I think I jumped the gun (reading tweets in reverse order). She may have been talking about the logistics of Saitama Worlds compared to the Sendai parade?

I really need to quit jumping to conclusions about things I know next to nothing about. (slipping out the back door...)

[quote]Marin Honda is doing La La Land as one of her new programs for next season. Choreo by y Lori Nichol

I haven't seen a single new or interesting new program announcement yet. Zzzzzz...

R554 I don't think you're reading it wrong. IK has been translating/making these comments since Worlds. But that's the thing with IK, she sometimes just translates random shit from random people on twitter, and if you don't pay attention, it's easy to think she's quoting some reliable source. If Hashimoto didn't resign for shoving her tongue down Dai's throat, I don't see anyone in JSF is resigning for a few facilities issues at Worlds.

I’m still waiting to see if Yuzu will do Fantasy on Ice. I’m optimistic he’ll do all the shows. It just won’t be the same without him.

FaoI will be in Sendai 5/31 - 6/02.

According to PH, Sat and Sun are sold out already. There's still some A and B tickets left for Friday (as of Saturday?) Hotels were booking up in December.

R557 I would much rather for him to skip it this year (apart from Sendai) so that he can focus on resting that ankle. And tbh shows and competitions held in Japan depress me because of the stupid ban over fan taken pictures and videos which mean you only get to see the version of the performances the broadcaster wants you to see and usually only airing days or weeks after the actual show (in the case of ice shows). And Japanese fans make it worse by doing their tweet reports with stupid drawings which are supposed to give you an idea of what happened but are completely useless.

R559 What a grouch! I have no artistic ability so I think those fan drawings are impressive and often hilarious.

If you want to read more about physical abuse of skaters read Lucinda Ruh's book. The Japanese coaches she trained with were experts and they taught her parents how to abuse her, too. That book turned me off figure skating for a while.

So, Tutberidze's team had a show called "champions on ice". Here's the thing.

Alina did Don Quixote. Her top barely fits her now.

R561 could you give us more details

R563 I'm not R561 but there are some details here

R564, Thank you. "And [the coaches] used to bring this boy, he was about 12, 13, into this café, and the mother would watch, and they’d beat him for the longest time while we were training. And they’d beat him and beat him and he’d be screaming" that's fucking barbaric. And her mom was crazy too.

That's terrible. What's the point of abusing your kid over skating?? Those parents sound so screwed up. Why did Lucinda go to Japan to train anyway? Back then there weren't that many great Japanese skaters and you'd think she could have gone to a top coach in Europe or Russia to train.

Wow. I had no idea that spins could screw up your body like that. Now I'm scared of spinning lol.

R559 For you, Scrooge McDuck, in case you missed The Great Monument Unveiling.

R568 gosh that's adorable! say what you want but I love it lol

Glad the artist appreciates his butt too

R570 The artist appreciates the butts of all his jumps. I don't know Japanese, but from what I can gather, Hanyu is often portrayed as the cool, long-suffering parent to a bunch of unruly "jump" children.

Okay, one more with some jump ass. The account is hilarious.

Love butt picking out of the water lmao

Made new thread.

I messed up on the thread numbers. The last one is part 30. I just made part 29 right now. Sorry about that. Here is the link for part 29:

R575 Thank you.

Are thoose underwear lines or oart of the costume

Probably a girdle. As Tatiana Tarasova said, he's too fat! But at least he doesn't skate like a girl, like Kolyada.

Sometimes I wonder how some of those costumes don't slide down. They're just stretchy pants, right?

r579 Are you wondering whether you can will it to happen with your eyes? Here, try on this.

I am trying so hard my eyeballs hurt but nothing happens ;((( The world is cruel.

R562, I find it all the more impressive that Zagitova was able to come back and win the world title if she grew that much.

PPOS in calendar form is even more delectable

Kovtun announced his retirement mostly due to injuries. He also mentions how he is scared for Yuzu getting injured while trying to jump the quad axel. I like how he could care less about Nathan and for him Yuzu was the most memorable at WC this year. Was it Kovtun who said homophobic stuff a while back or another Russian skater?

R584 Kovtun and Chan probably weren't as pleased before and after Sochi, and seeing the growth, Yuzu really knows how to win people over.

I won't miss Kovtun at all, but I did appreciate the shade toward Nathan, lol.

Throwback to Yuzu saying a few words in Russian to Kovtun during World 2017. It's funny how similar Yuzu and Johnny are in some way. Their skating expression, love for fabulous costumes, cute things and Russian men.

On that note (love for questionable Russian men), Yuzu sweetie, I love you dearly but you have terrible taste in men.

I get antsy about filling up a thread... So here's a translation of part of Kovtun's interview, though I know it's been mentioned upthread:

- World Cup you watched? - Yes of course.

- And what was the strongest impression? - Yuzuru Hanyu. I didn’t care that he lost to Chen. Nathan, of course, is incredibly cool, but in the aggregate, he did not impress me so much. And at the same time it was a little sad to understand that Hanyu, in fact, has nowhere to grow. If he tries to complicate the programs, the risk of injury and the risk of mistakes will be too great.

- How, by the way, do you feel about the fact that one of the singles is about to start jumping the quad axel? - Sometimes I think that it was not so long ago considered unrealistic to do all four jumps except for an axel in one program, but did Chen do this? If guys start jumping axel, it's almost the same thing as a five-toe loops or a salchow. And that means these jumps are just around the corner. On the other hand, our sport should not become a gladiatorial battle, where the defeated is killed to the death. After all, be that as it may, the organizers of any competition will prefer to see Hanyu riding, and not how he is killed about the quad Axel.

Didn't Javi say something similar -- something like, 'yes of course Yuzuru will probably continue, even if he destroys himself..."

I've always had a soft spot for Max, and I don't know why since his skating is close to unwatchable. He just strikes me as simple and uncomplicated, and his interviews are always surprisingly good value.

To the person who sent Kolyada Rite of Spring as a music suggestion - he is unimpressed by your puerile dick jokes and wants you to try again.

I am the person who sent The Rite of Spring. I am heartbroken about Misha not considering my suggestion! And now he want us to choreograph for him? Outrageous!!!

On a brighter note....

R594 unconsciously slutty Yuzuru is my favorite Yuzuru.

For DL fans who upset on my behalf - I am in FAOI! I will be Hany--something's replacement. Thank you magic vagina!! I owe you for everything!!!

The current FAOI lineup is sad. Who would pay to see this without Hanyu?

R597 People will surely pay to see me. I will make an appearance in the shows.

Jason Brown is in China, training with Brian, Tracy, and about ten Chinese skaters. I didn't see Boyang among them though, but I've been assuming that Brian and Tracy go to Beijing - and Boyang stays and trains in his hometown Harbin. I'm not sure why I thought that though.

Anyway, don't see him here but I think he's currently in an ice show with Nathan and Shoma? (or has been recently) Hell, I don't even know - that doesn't make sense - Nathan should be at Yale.

Let's close this thread

4ever

Finished?