Yuzuru Hanyu and other figure skating talk part 35

Thanks JDC

Bad posture is one of this nemesis

I have a really bad posture, he won't find me beautiful... le sigh. This is a joke btw.

Yuzu: I find women with beautiful posture beautiful regardless of their body types.

VS.

Dai: I find women's legs beautiful, especially the pair belong to an minor

Thanks for the comprehensive recap, JDC. Two details are new to me: his father making him wear tight shoes and that his mother hit him with a manga magazine. Lol

Him living with Utako (or having to live in grimy hotel rooms and wash clothes by hand when they went abroad) to reduce costs has been covered a lot as has what they focussed on in this show. About 95% are consistent with former accounts. I roll my eyes whenever people insist he must be super self-confident – deducting from his on-ice presence – when it's well known that he struggled with insecurities since childhood. His obsession with luxury brand pouches and bags seems quite specific. It reminds me a bit of Yuzu's faible for expensive earphones. I'd rather spend my money on high quality earphones than on pouches though. To each their own I guess.

Apart from that I always found him pretty relatable. Too bad his deliberately controversial remarks on Merengue made him look like a fool. Perhaps he thought he'd boost interest in his new DVD this way, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has the opposite effect.

R4 LMAO! This is why I love the DL.

Happy monday everyone

R569 Tutberidze was done with Lipnitskaya way before she was diagnosed with anorexia, and btw Eteri is on record saying that to be competitive, Lipnitskaya is not allowed to eat even a little bit, so anorexia seems like a logical consequence of her coaching methods.

After Friend/Badaoui picked Priscilla for RD, Kerry/Dodds choose Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The crappy Aussie teams are at least into transvestites.

Why are the two gay Japanese skaters commenting on women's bodies at all?

Fan service?

And here's Uncle Shoma with another itty bitty Russian. Kawaii !!

Oops put the link in the wrong place.

because Japan is very homophobic country

I don't know. Would they be so inviting to Johnny Weir if that were really true?

I think women as well as men are enchanted by how pretty Hanyu is, and they want to fantasize. There was an American reporter at Pyeongchang who had a middle-aged Japanese woman tell her that she didn't think of Hanyu as a son but as a lover. I mean that's sort of what celebrity is all about - well, some of it. Maybe a lot of it. Are they really that interested in 4Lo technique?

Would the Pooh hauliers be following Vincent Zhou or Keegan Messing across the globe?

I imagine it's a pretty important phenomenon to the survival of figure skating, looking at the gender imbalance in the audience of shows/comps.

It's silly but harmless. Well, maybe except for the girl in the white coat. That gets a little scary.

Thanks, JDC. It's nice to get some context for Dai's insecurities. It's honestly so strange to hear of skating families making so many sacrifices for their kids (going deep into debt, mortgaging their homes, going bankrupt etc.)

R4 I've had my fun here with Dai and he's a petty little bitch, but he's obviously going through some serious shit. Hanyu is on top of the world and seems like a great kid, but he has a long life ahead of him (including a post-skating life, which is difficult for most athletes) and will make mistakes, so it's not a fair comparison. Sometimes I think it's this kind of gloating that makes some people wish Hanyu ill just so his uber fans could shut the fuck up with their sanctimony.

R10 Do you read the rest of DL? Gay men are obsessed with women's bodies.

R14 So thats why they force them to talk about women, because their fans are mostly women. Do you know any asian star who is gay?

Who are the non-Asian stars who are gay - that make their living by being heart-throbs (or at least a large part of their fame)?

Ricky Martin - but he was in the closet forever. Hell, even Elton John tried to pass - married a woman.

Maybe George Michael was out? I mean, it doesn't work. Not if the audience you're aiming for is female and you're trafficking (so to speak) on your looks.

LOL IK posted this: "When #SotaYamamoto was still a junior skater, he was putting gel into his hair for #Poeta in the dressing room and having a hard time doing it. #YuzuruHanyu walked by and said: If you land your jumps, nobody will care about how your hair looks."

R17 please, there are more open gay actors in usa or europe then in asia.. you know any gay actor in korea?

Sorry to dodge the question R19. I don't know any Asian actors whatsoever so I can't speak to that lol. But I know that a lot of American and European actors are in the closet. If it's no big deal, why would any of them be?

R20 I know they are in the closet as well, but asian are all in the closet. And when you are a normal guy it is harder too

All due respect to Yuzu, God knows, but I think it does matter what you look like, in addition to landing your jumps. It's why he's such a sensation, to the extent that he is. (I do get the impression he likes to tease people though.) Does anybody really think that Yuzu doesn't realize that his tight practice clothes don't matter to anybody?

Sheesh I garbled my English - hello, Yuzu, I'm just like you!! Anyway, I meant to say that I think Yuzu realizes his tight clothes have made an impact.

R10 To be fair to Hanyu, he said people with good posture are beautiful. The wording he used in Japanese was gender neutral.

R23 Here's the thing though. I don't think he's wearing them for impact or to tease. He's been wearing them since his late junior to early senior days because they're what allows him to move best. Even earlier, in fact. He just didn't grow into them until he turned senior. The impact is just a byproduct of his body developing into what it is today.

R10 r24 also to be fair to Hanyu, he was asked what he found most beautiful about women. Takahashi was also led towards his answer, IIRC, and unlike Hanyu, the answer he gave was unfortunately unfortunate.

Con't from r25 , in reply to r10 So, if we're sticking to the assumption that these two are gay, then the question should be why is Japan asking two gay dudes what they like about women? And I think we all know the answer to that.

R18 Weird comment coming from the guy that spends hours styling his hair before competitions or for ice shows. There are several examples of this. And in general he is extremely meticulous about his appearance (costumes, hairstyle, posture, best angle etc.) when competing so really what was he smoking.

R27 what are the examples of Hanyu fussing over his hair? I saw some footage of Hanyu hairspraying in the dark, but that's like the opposite of what you're saying.

R25 He definitely knows how he looks in those tight pants. Would he really stuff his gloves in the back of his pants to focus everyone's attention on his butt and waist otherwise.

R28 There is a picture or series of with him, Lambiel, etc during an ice show years ago and Yuzu was busy styling his hair. Also he has a different hairstyle for almost all his programs which shows it's something he pays attention to, so it's a bit hypocritical of him to say that. Although since it's IK translating it's probably an old/out of context sentence so who knows what he really meant.

r30 I've seen those pictures. How do pictures showing him styling his hair with the rest of the cast show that he spends "hours" on his hair?

2026 Winter Olympics to be held in Milan

Nice way for "Kostern" to finish her career. A couple of 2+1 combos should be enough for 110 PCS

I think we can agree Hanyu doesn't care about his appearance nearly as much as Takahashi does. Given that interview, the dude seems obsessed with it. And it makes sense because Takahashi has done everything to his face and hair across the years, while Hanyu has had the same hairstyle forever, only shorter or longer. Takahashi is a proper metrosexual.

good for PC, thank god it will not be canada

R31 The fact that he actually styles his hair before any performance (who cares if he spends 10min or 50) but then tells someone else they shouldn't is once again a bit hypocritical. You need quite a bit of gel and time to achieve an hairstyle like his lgc's for instance. And there is even a case where he went to wash his hair between his programs (don't remember when and where) so clearly the state of his hair matters to him, at least when performing.

R30 r35 Hanyu was clearly teasing Sota. He's not telling him not to style his hair, he's telling him to land his jumps first. Christ, your running with "but I saw him comb his hair once, what a hypocrite!!" is missing the point.

R39 Not saying he doesn't know. What I'm saying that it wasn't his original intention. But since he's got it now anyway, he's definitely flaunting it.

Didn't he say sometime during the Sekkisui event thing that he spends 10 minutes tops on it, after saying he doesn't even bother drying it? And sure he fixes it every once in a while to make sure he doesn't look like the doofus on ice he usually is off ice so he has a certain amount of vanity when it comes to how he appears on ice, sure, but that's hardly the kind of high vanity some of you seem intent on making him out to possess. He'd have better hair in off-ice interviews, for one, and he wouldn't be caught dead in many of the clothes he's been stuck in.

...clothes he's been stuck in over the years*

R36 I completely agree with this assessment. Land your jumps first. There'll be time for minor details once you do. But maaaan, it's tough being famous. Every little thing you say gets out under a microscope, even the most innocuous shit.

...gets put* under a microscope.

...the most innocuous shot you've said years ago*.

Fuck this in going to bed.

I really really hate my phone

R40 lmao. Sweet dreams!

R38 I totally agree. It's so lame how people just run with innocuous things he says or does. It's more projection than anything.

R41 LOL. We've all been there. I'm sure that's how "Kostern" was born.

Can't name a source off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt, but from what I remember, that hair styling comment between Sota and Yuzuru was from back in 2015-2016. And it wasn't unprompted, it was specifically because Sota was fussing over it, worried and spending a long time redoing it to get it just right. Yuzuru is particular about a lot of things, but I'd wager he was being honest saying he thinks it's more important to land jumps than getting your hair perfect. I'm just saying even though it's clear he isn't ignorant or clueless about hairstyles, I doubt he stresses over it, so don't see how it's hypocritical as far as sentiment goes. More importantly, who cares? We must really be bored this off season.

It sounds like a very typical things a guy would say to another guy, when teasing him. Especially an older one to a younger one. I think we're making way too much over an innocuous jokey teasy thing, that guys the world over and known to do to each other. Sheesh. Even women do it and they're way more sensitive about feelings and stuff - but that comment is really a nothing burger.

R45 we are kinda psycho, but don't blame the thread for this one. Only one person is making a deal out of it.

Thanks R46. I think it's the "anonymous" posting - it can feel like many when it's just one. And I can't believe how many stupid typos I made in R45. No one should listen to an illiterate like me anyway.

No wonder our thread 'might' have a reputation for being a little OCD over this guy's every utterance and article of clothing, etc. I'm sure he probably doesn't come here and read this stuff -- but if it were me, I don't think I could resist reading what people were saying about me, even if I had to use Google translate. Can you imagine knowing people were on the 35th thread of 600 posts each with your name in the title?

Oh I know what got me off on that. Yesterday I was going to start a new thread and wanted to make sure there wasn't one already so I used the Datalounge search function for Yuzuru Hanyu and got these responses (the first one still has me chuckling):

RE: Let's be DataLounge Members! I live for Yuzuru Hanyu. (04/11/2019)

RE: What are the 7 Deadly Sins of Datalounge? Not appreciating the greatest figure skater of all time is Yuzuru Hanyu and we are forever blessed to live in the same time period as he. (04/29/2019)

RE: What are the strangest fetishes or obsessions you’ve seen on DL? Yuzuru Hanyu and every known eyelash flutter and handshake he has shared with any human who has put on a pair of ice skates. (04/29/2019)

RE: I found a Pooh in my backyard OP, are you Yuzuru Hanyu? (05/18/2019)

RE: They're famous on Datalounge, but you have no idea who they are--nor do you really care to know yuzuru hanyu (06/10/2019)

R48 that's a pretty good summary.

IK clarifying mistranslation of Yuzuru’s comments regarding the score/judge thing: “FYI: #YuzuruHanyu (never) criticizes the judges on principle. So if you see a translation where he is doing this, you know it's wrong. The most he's ever said that even came close to criticism was something like: Sometimes I see a judge who I know doesn't like me and I think to myself - not that judge again. <---But he of course didn't say who this was. He didn't even give a hint. Other than this, when asked about new scoring systems he's pretty much said consistently that: It's our job to change what we do when they change the rules.“

R15 staring facts is called gloating, sure, dai uber. Just pointing out the difference in emotional intelligence of a 24 yr old & a 33 yr old.

Also what dai said was pretty much sexual harassment of a minor. This is not acceptable regardless of his emotional/psychological state. Don't make excuse for such behaviour.

R51 Where did I make excuses for Dai's behavior? I was only pointing out that you can criticize Dai without talking about how perfect Hanyu is. I like Hanyu and when he makes mistakes (and everyone does), I want people to give him space and understanding and not celebrate because his fans are self-righteous cunts.

Also, I don't think you have any idea what "sexual harassment" means if you think vulgar remarks made once on a TV show constitutes "sexual harassment." You sound like you have the life perspective of a teenage frau-in-waiting.

R51 lol do you even know what a "Dai uber" sounds like? No Dai uber is going to call him a "petty little cunt."

sexual harassment..lol gays are so sensitive

R52 considering dai never apologised for this behaviour he clearly doesn't see there is anything wrong it. Have you actually watched the show? He wasn't put on the spot. There were props, including a board with images of a few pair of legs. So dai knew the question beforehand, he had time to think about his answers, told the network his answers and they prepared for the show accordingly.

Also, sexual harassment is basically anything sexual in nature that makes another person uncomfortable, this doesn't limit to unwelcome physical contact. Assuming you are an adult, I'm extremely concerned that you don't understand this.

Ten was in Yuna’s agency, so could we finally see Yuna and Mao together in a show?

At the Sekkisei event, Hanyu said he doesn’t wear makeup and only spends 5-10 minutes on his hair at most (and doesn’t bother drying it) for competition because the performance is more important, so even though he was teasing Yamamoto, his comment was in line with what he believes and practices.

About Takahashi on Haran, he was on the show to promote Hyoen. I added the announcement about his DVD since it was recently made. The purpose of the pouches and wallet on Haran was to show how he likes luxury brands, keeps things organized, and is prepared for everything because he worries a lot.

R5 It was very strange that they never once mentioned Utako or his other coaches or trainers (except indirectly at the very beginning of the show with the comment about female coaches being severe) despite covering his entire life, including all of his Olympic appearances. Maybe they wanted to emphasize he was all alone because they kept going back to the idea that he had no friends from when he was little through university. But I do remember him saying in past interviews or writings that he had friends at Kandai after his first year.

R25 In Hanyu’s case, the reporter didn’t ask him what type of woman he likes or what he’s attracted to, but what he finds most beautiful in women, and it was asked because that was the third most popular question people on the street the particular news show surveyed wanted to know. Takahashi’s case is very different. In the past, the media itself constantly implied he was gay, and the frequency and way he’s been asked about women this year makes it seem like his team is pushing the media to make him appear straight. On Merenge, he’s the one who brought up imagining himself as the romantic interest of his favorite actress and took it even further going on and on about Zagitova’s butt and thighs, not to mention creeping on the other guest. Almost everyone knows he’s gay, so he’s only fooling some of his ubers, maybe the ones who might buy his apartments or tickets to his shows.

R55 Why bother with the tedious straw men argument when I didn't defend anything Dai said on that show?

Of course sexual harassment includes non-physical contact. But do you understand that the phrase "sexual harassment" isn't just a substitute for "offensive shit people say that might make another person uncomfortable"? The term for that is just "being an ass." To rise to the level of "sexual harassment," suggestive comments or jokes usually have to be so frequent or severe in nature that they create some kind of hostile or offensive environment. If you really want to get technical, "sexual harassment" is normally reserved for the employment context. If you think this describes Dai's comments, made once on a TV show, without Zags present, then you are a snowflake who is not ready for the real world.

R57 this is the type of attitude that gets people into trouble. Good luck in real life.

Regardless of Daisuke's sexuality, this was extremely tactless and in bad taste. If his management team thinks something like this would make him appear more straight they clearly need to be fired.

R57 and THAT says someone who talks about hanyu ass.lol look all at yourself.. the way you talk about his ass is sexual harrasment as well

R60 Lol please present evidence that I have spoken about his ass. Stop throwing tantrums.

R61 some here posts here gross and disgusting things about his ass but YOU DONT MIND. so? you dont bother??

R58 Poor reading comprehension and the inability to see nuance might get you into trouble as well. You should go back to pontificating on twitter.

R57 I agree with this. Takahashi's comments were inappropriate but without an established pattern of abuse, it is hard to call it sexual harassment.

R61 huh? Why you don't bother sexual harrasment HERE? do you think thats because you all dont say it in public means it does not count?

R64 sexual harrasement doesn't require established pattern.

Oh dear, are there crazy fraus out there calling what Dai did "sexual harassment"? This is actually a thing? He's an idiot and a creepster, yes (especially how he behaved towards the nudie model lady on the show with him). Sexual harasser, no.

R66 doesn't require an established pattern when you're talking about rape or other kinds of physical assault. It does when you're talking about jokes or comments. And it has to result in some kind of adverse employment action. Otherwise, there would be a whole lotta sexual harassment towards Hanyu on this thread. Hope he doesn't sue us!!

R67 But if he sues us, we'll get to see his ass in person!

You fuckers have been sexually harassing Hanyu for 35 threads and now you throw a fit about Dai?

I seem to be in agreement with r67 and r68

Lol, r55 is the same poster who posts shit after shit about Med and then bitterly complains that some people assume that the Med hate letter was sent by a Hanyu fan. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. And will twist anything a "Hanyu enemy" does or says into something vile, it seems. Today it's Dai's turn.

We're still circling back to the talk about legs despite newly learning about Dai's sobfest growing up story. Clearly Dai's PR is not working on DLers.

R72 it working a little bit on me tbh. I find him more relatable and his past actions make kind of sense now

It's*

It would be sexual harassment if the target of the harassment knew the comments. My guess is zags heard the leg comment from Dai from social media. Is hanyu watching us watching his ass....hmmmmmm...I don’t know how that make me feel

We're protected by his Enemy Number One: English.

My naive DLer he has translators

Come here, my very important translator whom I only take to press conferences and very important events related to figure skating and whom I don't bother otherwise, I require your assistance with this shady western internet forum that appears to have my name in one of its threads.

I fucking hate nathan chen

Im allowed to say this because we’re not that far apart in age so no one come up here telling me that im bullying a child or whatever; and also because id hate him just as equally if i knew him in person. Imagine stanning a dude with a personality of a brown sugar pop tart. Fugly landings fugly costumes fugly voice like just an absolute blemish on the sport. Sorry i just had to say it please go back to talking about yuzu’s ass and sexual harrassment

Who wants to take this

Express yourself R80

Nathan’s an nice enough kid. Blame the us fed and Isu for artificially building him up. Granted he’s not speaking up for getting Isu candies but who ever does. History will show who is in the running for GOAT and Nathan has a long way to go.

R75 Numerous Russian media outlets picked up the story within hours so no need for twitter to play any role.

R83 well said

[quote] Come here, my very important translator whom I only take to press conferences and very important events related to figure skating and whom I don't bother otherwise, I require your assistance with this shady western internet forum that appears to have my name in one of its threads.

I studied Spanish and French in school and uni - just a couple years of each - but I can read it ok (using only 'some' Google translate or online dictionaries). If I was asked the questions Yuzu is asked, there's no way I could answer anywhere near as well as he does, yet I can read it and even write it, with the resources to help me out just a little bit.

I'm not saying he'd care about this site at all -- but I don't think he'd have trouble figuring out what we were saying (and the links to the ass shots speak for themselves.)

Anyhow, it is what it is. People gonna talk when you're as big a name as he is. He must surely know about Planet Hanyu, but I would think even he might get bored with all sugar and no spice or gossip etc. Well, it doesn't matter, but just sayin' If it was me, I'd read this thing all the time, especially if I never went out much.

Funny how some ppl don't allow others to have different opinions. If they dare to they are labelled as "not the sharpest tool in the shed". These people sure think very much of their own intelligence.

[quote] Nathan’s an nice enough kid. Blame the us fed and Isu for artificially building him up. Granted he’s not speaking up for getting Isu candies but who ever does. History will show who is in the running for GOAT and Nathan has a long way to go.

I think Dave's an ass too, but one reason I like to listen to him is that he can be funny. When Yuzu withdrew from GPF and Worlds last year, he said watching men's was gonna be like watching the Supremes' Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson - with no Diana Ross in site.

I think there's definitely bias - but when you think about it, men's skating is up shit creek without Yuzuru - skating is dying in America - the women flat out suck, especially since Ashley retired, not that she was great but she had at least some personality (without having to slash other girl's legs to get attention). So it's not too surprising that they're orgasming over Nathan's quads - and now Vincent, of all people.

I mean, even Tursy made a giant leap in everybody's estimation when she landed that quad, when before she was an absolute nobody.

If your dislike nathan for his artificial GOE candies, you have to be vomitting and having diarrhea like an Ebola infection patient over the fact that Zhou got the scores he got. It’s nathan inflation x 100.

R89 don't worry, this thread has enough bile to hate them both.

It will be interesting to see who usaf will support more next season, Nathan or Vincent.

R89 I did get food poisoning that dreadful day. Pretty sure it was Vincent's bronze.

BREAKING NEWS!! HANYU HAS RESTARTED HIS BEAUTY BLOG AND HE IS HAPPY FOR FAN SUPPORT!! How many threads will it take for us to discuss this very important development!!

Shit, so busy shouting that I forgot the link.

Why does Vincent now have a Japanese sponsor? This is an instance where I would totally support a little jingoism and racism.

R94 YEEEESSSSS!!! The return of Hanyu string!!!! I learned so much from that blog post alone! Thank you beauty blogging gods for answering my prayers.

R95 UGH. Japan, what happened to that good old-fashioned Japanese cuntery that got most of Asia super pissed off at you? This is not the time to get all inclusivey!!

I actually quite like vincent but im 1000% sure its got nothing to do with his skating and more because he’s at least interesting (and im a born contrarian so the more ppl hate him the more i secretly root for him) idk why but nathan just doesnt do it for me, maybe its because he does have a lot of potential and could be really charismatic and maybe i feel uber protective over hanyu so that projects itself into a massive hate boner for nate. But i like vince cuz hes dumb and if he comes out on top then all us stans will be forced to look like absolute CLOWNS or will be forced to just shut the fuck up for a few years so i accept his inevitable reign with open arms

And also i dont see that HUGE a difference between vince and nate like sure maybe nate has nicer flow but theyre both ugly fucking clowns on the ice so of course im gonna root for the mildly republican, transphobic guy because thats what this sport deserves after treating hanyu and other deserving skaters the way it has

This gif is hypnotic.

Haha...guess I'll hop better on this better-than-nothing-but-absolute-radio-silence train. So excited to find out about what insane level of inaneness Hanyu can reach this go-around.

R98 and r99 This is gold

R100 This is platinum

...the 1st "better" should have been there.

absolute*-radio-silence

Shouldn't*. Duck what is wrong with me.

...I generally don't hate my life. This is one instance that I do.

R104 Face it, you have fat sausage fingers and your right thumb alone covers the entire keyboard so you better not blame me again, you horrid cunt.

R105 Now you know how I feel when I train cows in my rink.

Worried about this beautiful boy.

Hope those Russian girls take good care of him. (and maybe pick up some skating skills)

R98 I ghost wrote this shit. This was how I felt between Hilary and Trump, and then the clown really did become president so. Some things are only funny if it's not happening at home or hypothetical. The Zhou propaganda would be as vomit inducing as Chen's if he ever tops the field.

r107 Aww, he looks so cute.

Didya all hear what new level of cuntery (love the word!) Skate Canada reached? Told a few people who had bought gold tickets during the presale that they need their seats for a tour. They can move upwards (no compensation for the difference in sections) or get a refund.

I also saw a seat map for GPF - the whole judges side, all of it, unavailable so probably reserved for VIP packages (€1000 - 1600) and the cheapest tickets (balcony? upper bowl?) go for €230 - and the venue isn't big. so without the judges side not that many seats available for people who actually have to pay bills.

Ticket prices for worlds in Montreal are outrageous. I was considering going (I love Montreal) but probably will wait for Finland instead since I live in Europe.

I too believe Vincent is charismatic. I think he should have his own DL thread.

Hamada and Gambill are now officially Zhou's main coaches. Zhou will be training in the US and Japan, but attending Brown University. In other news, everyone hates Kinoshita Group.

r112 I know that they're one of the FS main sponsors, but I actually don't know what they do. Whnt does everybody hate them?

Oh, they sponsored Zhou? lol. yeah, I wonder why.

R113 I'm just guessing about why everyone hates the Kinoshita Group but maybe it's because there are Japanese athletes who need to resort to crowd funding, don't have proper rinks to skate in or enough practice time, whose families need to take on second jobs etc. and KG goes and throws money at some duh-faced little bitch who is already being fed candies by judges, paid for by USFSA.

R115 great answer

R111, thank you for redefining your definition of charismatic to include me. If you start a thread honoring yours truly, I'll be sure to stun you with my best journal entries and poetry!

I bloody hope all these URs will be called now

R112 So are we gonna get another bullshit 'he goes to Brown full-time AND skates competitively' campaign from the US media and Fed? Because I am about up to here with all that full-time Yale fuckery from Nathan already. I can't take anymore.

I'd rather they go on about Nathan's school than they way they used to parade around Michael Weiss' choreographer wife and kids.

Lol Brown University is the Vincent Zhou of the ivy leagues no one gives a shit abt brown

Little PyeongChang throwback

Okay but what is his major? If he's studying for something in like medical school just leave out the Brown and throw that in and there, boom huge PR: hardworking smart medical student who is a top skater as well.

R123 Brown doesn't have majors. Freshmen are all undeclared and they are encouraged to "find their own path," be "architects of their own education" (I don't remember the exact phrasing but it is something flakey like that). In their sophomore or junior years, they take on one or two "concentrations" but there are no distribution requirements (there are some requirements, but they are not a big deal), you can choose to take all your classes pass/fail, they have only ABC grades and no DFs. You can WD the last day of class. This is what I can remember from visiting some time ago, but from what I hear, it is still the same. It's much more flexible than Yale, for sure. That's why Zhou thinks he can train in two different countries and go to college.

R124 Honestly, Hanyu is doing his study remotely and from the few clips I saw he seems serious about it and the subject, doesn't matter how high-end a school it is or the program he's taking. His dedication to it as well as skating is cool. If Zhou thinks he can do it and also get a good education, it's all on him. Even if you go to Yale, unless you're actually studying and doing good it's all PR that will sound stupid in a few years.

At Brown, our students have the freedom to choose their academic journeys.

At most universities, students must complete a set of core courses. At Brown, our students develop a personalized course of study — they have greater freedom to study what they choose and the flexibility to discover what they love.

Brown offers more than 80 concentrations, what some colleges call majors. You'll sample courses in a wide range of subjects before immersing yourself in one of these focused areas.

YOu have to give chen and zhou some credit for going to college. It's not Japan. Unless they want to go the RIppon or Wier route of whoring for attentionand get paid, they have to hvae a profession to a make a living. Not so for Yuzuru. He's probably set for life with shows and sponsors.

R127 Oh yeah, of course it's good and admirable they're going to college. And I think we're joking here when we talk about Brown's flakey open curriculum. It's a fantastic college with top notch profs and students. However, there's a reason Brown has the reputation it does and is known as the dream school for celebutard spawn. Hopefully Zhou thrives in college (well, he literally can't fail - I don't think Brown records failing grades; when you take a class p/f, only a "pass" will go on your transcript), even if - who am I kidding here, especially if - it deprives the figure skating world of his charismatic, redefined 3.5 revolution quads.

R121 nah, Cornell's hotel school is the Vincent Zhou of the Ivies.

Surprisingly, even though the hotel school is a bit of a joke, it’s a difficult college to get into.

R130 yeah, for sure. And you actually have a well-paying job at the end of your undergrad education.

This is a fun game - what school is the Vincent Zhou of American universities. A school with a underserved reputation, that is bought by money or influence. That tries to sell its weaknesses as merely forward thinking or pioneering. I cast my vote for USC buying its sudden rise in standings, turning a bunch of dumb dumb entitled rich kids into a "network of influential alumni," gentrifying Watts at bargain basement prices.

I'm not much of a judge - but Conrad Orzel's sisters 3Lz-3T looks great to me!

She's at TCC. Can any of you eagle eye observers tell if that's Yuzuru standing with Conrad on the side?

Although... I thought Yuzuru was in Japan and Conrad was walking on the Wall of China in the past couple of days. Though who knows when this 6-second video is from?

"What does two-time Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu do in his free time? It seems like he spends it playing Fire Emblem! In a recent interview with Hanyu, he reveals that he's currently waiting to get his hands on the upcoming Fire Emblem: Three Houses. He's also got a soft spot for another sport, as he's planning on picking up Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball for Switch as well."

Zhou is doing one semester at Brown then putting it on hold until after the Olympics. Also, for those who care, Gabby Daleman officially confirmed she's at Granite with Barkell.

Vincent has an old face

"Hello everyone. It is Hanyu string. The other day, I participated in the event of snow skin semen."

I'd like to hear more about this semen event, beauty blogger Hanyu.

R137 LMAO, you weren't kidding.

I remember reading somewhere that semen was good for the skin. Lots of protein in it or something? But surely that's not what they're talking about ?!?! It's in Japanese so I can't tell.

But I guesss... why not?

The kanji 「精」(sei) on its own means sprite (spirit) or energy. But coupled with 「子」(shi), it becomes sperm. Leave it to google translate to pick up the most interesting definition that only means what it does when put together with another kanji, rather than the meaning of the kanji on its own.

What's the point of doing one semester in 2019 and then stop until second half of 2022?

I am not American, so maybe that is why I don't get it

huh...

R141, my guess is he wants to get a taste of the college experience before taking a leave of absence for the Olympics and coming back later as a non-traditional student. As others have said, Brown is more flexible than Yale, so they'll probably let him do whatever.

What does it take to be a non-traditional student? An Olympic medal?

Anyone can be a non-traditional student, R144. Non-traditional students are older than typical college student age and are more likely to have a job, children, other responsibilities, etc.

Anyone's got account on GS? Someone started an obviously troll thread "can Hanyu be the the GOAT if he doesn't have 4CC gold". 2 pages of lol, then 4everchan with her "he doesn't move me" and then fanyus getting into it and listing why Hanyu's the GOAT. So if you have a GS account, go and rhapsodize about how he moves you.

Yeah, it's that time of year on the skating forums. There's also a topic on GS asking if Zag is the GOAT. lol.

I always cry over Zhou skating, is this considered "moving" too? In that case he might be the GOAT.

R145 Oh. So Hanyu's definitely one then. He checks everything, except for the children (which I'm gonna go ahead and assume he doesn't have yet) part. He even checks the older part, too.

R146 Nah. That place is one of those places that I prefer to watch from afar without being a part of. Precisely because of threads like these and the posts within them. The Chan ubers and the ones of other skaters remain as biased as ever while stubbornly insisting they aren't and the Hanyu ubers keep getting baited into serious defensive spiels that's just embarrassing at this point instead of simply refusing to take it seriously. This whole GOAT topic is simple to me:

Is Hanyu the GOAT?

People who admire Hanyu and his skating - "Hanyu is the GOAT", or "The GOAT concept is impossible to measure and therefore isn't valid so I can't consider Hanyu or any other athletes, for the matter, GOAT. I do concede that he is one of the greats in history";

Casual observers and people who aren't big fans but can appreciate or accept Hanyu and his skating objectively - "He is one of the greats in history";

People who like other skaters and are too butthurt/defensive to let themselves enjoy or simply accept the Hanyu phenomenon, or people who simply dislike the guy and his skating and cannot view things from an objective angle: "No."

BTW, I get the feeling that Zhou will probably think people who hate him are simply not being objective instead of thinking that he objectively isn't as good as he thinks he is. Chen gives me the vibes that he agrees with most of what people say about his skating but can't really do much due to the pressure to deliver. This and the fact he isn't a chronic URer and doesn't complain when he is marked as UR when he does UR, is why I don't despise Chen despite everything and wish him the best of luck while Zhou I'm hoping won't get too far, even though he is exactly the kind of "star" and "champion" the ISU and the USFed deserve (though to the rest of the world, the guy is simply an unwelcome and insufferable imposition).

R148 RoFL!

GS needs to up its game. It's been forever since its been mentioned on DL.

I wish I could remember the exact wording of Dai's response to the secret of being a great skater. It's something along the lines of, "You have to look absolutely fabulous."

Dai had it - maybe he'd have become the superhero were it not for Hanyu coming along when he did. Hanyu has it, in spades - even Rafael sounds like a fangirl when he talks about his appearance/personality. Arguably, Chen could qualify (especially if Hanyu retires) - he has a certain taciturn gentle aw-shucks tough-guyism, along with the reputation for being brilliant - god I don't know how to explain it - maybe I should go with Dai's one-word description of Chen: "Handsome."

Zhou? Just no 'it' factor whatsoever.

But then, there was Patrick Chan, so maybe I'm putting way too much credence into a passing remark by Dai, which might have been a joke. Has there been a charisma-free superstar?

Chen is a nice guy, but he's not charismatic.

Maybe Dai was just trolling Yuzu when his one word for Chen was handsome lol. Still, Dai got a lot of points from me when he called Yuzu "king". After what I'd read here (and had seen from Dai ubers elsewhere), I would have expected Dai to call Yuzu "overrated"

Continuing on (sorry) -- I'm still pissed that Dai said that he was working on quads and studying Nathan Chen's technique. WTF? Chen's quads are ugly. I think he's slightly improved this season - but the season before, the stalking and the rigid, jarring landings - I mean, who in their right mind would study that over Hanyu's? who's got near perfect technique. (Kolyada is another one, on the rare occasion when he lands one, it's majestic.)

I mean, the Japanese are famous for their beautiful deep knee landings - and Dai says he's studying the stiff-kneed Chen approach? I think the alcohol has damaged way too many brain cells. (or it's shade)

The funny thing is that I've seen newer fans claim the deep knee and textbook landings of Hanyu's are ugly, looks painful, and scary.

The world of figure skating is changing. With how commentators like Weir orgasm over Chen's quads and retired senior skaters giving their seal of approval, I wouldn't be surprised if people who don't know much are made to believe his quads are the perfect ones.

R142 that suit is not so bad...

When Hanyu lifts you instead getting lifted.

R157 I was startled by that sudden dismemberment

R155 You talking about that poster over on Tumblr? They claim they skate and that a lot of schools in NA teach that kind of landing, which is strange given a lot of NA commentators who were ex-high-flying skaters themselves call Hanyu's textbook. And a lot of NA skaters have a lot less stiff landing than Chen's (with their free leg not looking as though it's trying to kick something invisible that's high up in the air behind them so I'm not sure what that person was talking about when they claimed they like straight bearing and posture...which Hanyu does have in spades when he lands). But given that I don't skate myself and I didn't want to sound like a lifelong Hanyu defender (cos seriously, this guy needs no defending. His skating and corresponding achievements and the fact that more or less anyone who knows him in this whole wide world orgasms over him and his skating speak for themselves) hating on others who aren't Hanyu, I just moved on.

Chen's jumps, to my eyes, just aren't good-looking most of the time, even compared to other skaters who aren't Hanyu. But he rotates them more often than not. And he doesn't whine about being judged wrongly when he gets dinged. Chen vs Hanyu I can still stomach, and he did help relight the fire for competition within Hanyu (who's a big time jump-otaku so I guess he could at least focus on that), but Zhou working himself into that dynamic without the goods to match even Chen much less Hanyu yet obnoxiously claiming that he does* just rubs me the wrong way.

*He didn't explicitly say it but he didn't have to. The fact that he and his coach whined very publicly about his URs not being URs and it's so unfair that they're judged as such (while hypocritically overlooking the fact that they themselves are being unfair to those who don't UR) and the irony of even ISU not being deluded enough to think they can keep covering for him and resorted to plainly reward all URs instead is how I came to this conclusion. They should call that new rule, the Zhou rule, to be honest. Sad thing is, before that incident, I was actually quite excited about Zhou. But after, I just lost all respect for him.

R154 I think for Takahashi, it's a matter of pride. I'm sure he knows Hanyu's the one he should be studying but judging from what's been revealed of his character and personality, he probably can't bring himself to. The guy is insecure as all get out yet has a good amount of ego. That's not a good combo for a competitor trying to reach the top, but sadly a lot of athletes have. Hanyu has neither which, combined with other things that either fortuitously or serendipitously lined up for him and his incredible ability to turn even huge strokes of bad luck into even bigger advantages, is why he is where he is today. Takahashi's always felt inferior and afraid of Hanyu and he's openly admitted to being jealous of the guy so having been so soundly overtaken by Hanyu, who has everything he's ever wanted up to and including physical attributes and his lack of need to maintain them and still get paid in huge sums to briefly promote a well-known and exclusive cosmetic product where Takahashi has to slave to maintain his looks and spend lots of money cosmetics item, looking at the guy for hours on end in order to study his technique would probably trigger his complex in a very bad way, and give rise to very ugly and complicated feelings.

And since there isn't anyone else landing a butt ton of fully rotated quads and is up there challenging Hanyu (even if it's only by the design of others with vested interest), he has no choice but to go with Chen. Better Chen than Zhou, tbh. Plus, maybe Takahashi can make Chen's quads look better, if he ever lands any (which given his history with jumps and how they are his weakest point when it comes to skating, and the fact that he has a knee probably wonkier than Hanyu's problem ankle, is highly dubious.)

Also about the GS deal, I sometimes do wish I had an account there (and risk getting banned shortly thereafter) because it's maddening to see all those golden opportunities to troll right back being wasted. But I didn't want to stray from my silly principle of never being part of that cesspool of a forum*, even for a few gratifying minutes of trolling. Plus, I've never been all that gifted a troll. You have no idea how much I look up to the ones here, though some, like a certain one whose given moniker starts with D, I feel try a wee bit too hard. I still like them much better than the more obnoxious posters in GS who take themselves waaaay too seriously, though.

*I know it's pretty ironic given that I post here somewhat frequently now but the lesser amount of hypocrisy and high amount of amusement plus freedom provided here makes it worth the while. People are free to spill vitriol here in as unabashed and honest a way as they like, which I find refreshing and entertaining, and while it hurts when it gets unfairly directed at me, I still come back. Because compared to the veiled insults on GS that I find obnoxious and irritating, this place is a veritable heaven. The freedom sorta gives birth to posters who don't take themselves seriously, thus there are a lot less serious dramatic blowups or tense discussions here than places like GS, and to a smaller extent PH (which has drawn out and tense discussions instead of blowups cos people there are not obnoxious, especially he mods. It's also very much not the cesspool GS is but I avoid posting there because the atmosphere just gets kinda..............unnatural at times).

R159 Tumblr and I've seen Youtube comments as well. Now I know those aren't the posh places to go for figure skating talk (but really, is GS any better?) but it is those places and twitter where new people discover figure skating (no thanks to ISU) so it's always fun to see how opinions are created.

I wonder where Eteri's school learn their "quads". Ghislain and Plushenko shows Hanyu's jumps and quads (and 3A) to female skaters and maybe even some male skaters. But some maybe just refuse to learn from the best technician of the era because of pride.

R160 I have an account that I don't use often. I just really had to say something one day that no one reasonable seemed to be stating. Currently I don't even have the effort to write something there though.

Also took a look at Alina's GOAT thread and someone really thinks Alina doesn't have bad posture because commentators don't point it out, and that she has great skating skills. The delusion.

Eteri has developed her own jumping technique, designed to ensure consistency by pre-rotation. She cheats and gets away with it.

R157 Haha! That's clever. The comment I mean. The advertisement itself is, like r158 has noticed, disconcerting.

[quote]up to and including physical attributes and his lack of need to maintain them and still get paid in huge sums to briefly promote a well-known and exclusive cosmetic product where Takahashi has to slave to maintain his looks and spend lots of money cosmetics item,

r159 Lol. Has he ever said anything along these lines or is this just projection? I mean, has Takahashi ever expressed the desire to look like a waifish straight-out-of-anime pretty boy instead of his rugged sharply-featured self? Because if the two of them went trolling for dick, I'd wager Takahashi would get more.

Off topic but look at this amazing design for 202O Olys

R164 No he didn't explicitly state it but if jDC's summary of that hour long exposé of him that recently aired is to be believed, he mentioned wearing stuff or generally doing things to make his neck longer, and his body less stout-looking, and he also said he uses a lot of cosmetics product because he tans easily and given his already general dark complexion, I'm wondering why he even bothers. I also happen to think that his dark complexion looks good on him and he actually has the kind of deep set handsome features Yuzuru "my features are so shallow sobsob" Hanyu can only wish he has. His body is also practically lanky when you compare it to the stunted hobbit look Uno has. Don't see Uno caring much about it and still, he's a top skater. But complexes are very rarely logical and hard to beat. Hanyu's and Uno are both lucky they don't have any dilapidating ones and what Hanyu does have (I dunno if Uno has any but Hanyu clearly does) only serves to make him better as an athlete and a performer. Anyway, that's how I put two and two together. Given that physical things Takahashi strives hard to achieve and Hanyu naturally possesses and he doesn't even have to do any kind of maintenance for it (which he also very possibly takes for granted) so I don't think I'm reaching very far when I speculated what I did.

I also wouldn't be so sure about who would get more if they both went trolling for dick. Takahashi surely wouldn't be in want of a partner who'd take him home for the night but you are clearly underestimating Hanyu's waifish charms, especially if he does that thing he does in programs like LGC and Masquerade. If his face and body lines don't do the job, then his contours and hind would. And as discussed earlier, the guy is clearly aware if his assets and knows how to flaunt them to the best effect, if he wants to. In fact, with his ability to seemingly effortlessly switch back and forth between masculine and feminine, Hanyu I can see both being taken home and taking someone home. Takahashi I can only picture bottoming despite his masculine appearance, and with his myriad insecurities and apparent low self-esteem, seem prone to trying too hard even if he doesn't need to. Again, this is just the impression I get of the two of them. I'm not stating this as fact.

Sorry. By calling Hanyu masculine I actually meant dominant and by feminine, I meant soft. In case there are some semantic nazis lurking around.

Despite how feminine and waifish Hanyu looks, his confidence and want to dominate is appealing. That plus he can be playful and mischievous. It exudes off of him like an aura. If it's bedtime, I'd pick him over Dai any day.

Dai is good looking but likely a clingy lay. Hanyu would ghost you the day after and pretend it never happened.

R165 Holy shit that's impressively clever!

To be clear, that's not the final design or anything, just a graphic designer playing around. Hope they use it.

R169 Why you talk about me like that? I'm a good boi! Even ToshI thinks so!

R171 Damn, that's not confirmed? I'm almost devastated, it's *so* good! And it's completely in line with the modern design of the mascots. Man, if the one they finally go with isn't at least very nice, they'd have majorly dropped the ball by not going with this one.

Yeah I was about to start throwing congrats and compliments to whomever was involved for actually a good design, but now I'm bummed out.

Has Brian lost some weight?

R170 r173 r174 sorry about that guys. So busy geeking out over the design I forgot to word it more carefully.

In other news, I guess Nathan wanted NHK but they went with Hanyu instead. (Yes, slow news day.)

Interesting. He is Worlds Champion and according to whomever, they get a voice of GPS, but organizers and feds probably have the last word. If Hanyu was up, no way would they pick Chen over the real golden boy.

And now that Shoma is Russian and expected at Rostelecom by his new madame Eteri, doing NHK would mean back-to-back gps, a long way apart.

And Shoma is no Yuzuru, especially since he didn't even podium at Worlds - and it may be Yuzuru's last season.

If Vincent didn't make that nationalist ok sign so often, I'd feel sorry for his China/Russian back-to-backs, especially after Meagan said the skaters hate both of those, but I feel ok saying Ha Ha.

From Kolyada's dedicated GP thread (it's funny that he's sick of Rostelecom - another thing either Meagan or Dave said is that Russian skaters are the ones under the most pressure at their 'home' comps - so maybe Zags said please please no - and that's why Med's there - and again, ha ha that she's up against the quadsterette Trusova):

"Actually, when we met, we [somebody and Kolyada] also talked about the upcoming GP assignments - it was about a week before they came out - and Misha said he hopes he doesn't get Cup of Russia again. He feels it difficult to compete at the home Grand Prix - and he's gotten it every time, hasn't he? He said he'd like to go to Canada, because he hasn't been there and he likes Japan. So he should be happy with what he got. Yes, the trip to Canada especially is far, but again, there is enough time between these two assignments."

R178 Hate to defend that overscored little bitch, but I think we figured out Vincent was not doing the nationalist ok sign - it was some internet game and was made clear in the comments section.

Team Eteri is welcoming Uno very warmly, at least on IG.

It is one of the things that have never been said clearly: if which one between host picks or seeded skaters assignments come first. That would suggest host picks are first. So NHK picked Hanyu and Yamamoto. Therfore, Chen couldn't be satisfied in his preference for NHK

Is it just my imagination or has DL been more restrictive about posting lately? Wouldn't even know where to go if I didn't have this place to vent to. I've been visiting GS and FSU less and less, and I've never even posted in those places.

[quote] Hate to defend that overscored little bitch, but I think we figured out Vincent was not doing the nationalist ok sign - it was some internet game and was made clear in the comments section.

Thanks for that !! I was wondering how the hell an Asian-American could be a white supremacist. That makes me feel better about him (I guess). But I still think he makes Nathan seem sexy as hell, by comparison.

[quote] Is it just my imagination or has DL been more restrictive about posting lately? Wouldn't even know where to go if I didn't have this place to vent to. I've been visiting GS and FSU less and less, and I've never even posted in those places.

Do you mean the time they let people post? I ante'd up the $1.50 a month. This really is the only decent message board for skating. Or anything really, for me. I try Reddit over and over, and come away overwhelmed and confused, every time, lol. I miss Twop. Digital Spy is good but it's British - come to think of it, I've never checked to see if they have skating. Their politics forums are pretty good.

r183 The fuckers raised it to $2.

R153 R154 Machida has been orgasming all over Chen's skating too, especially over his "artistry". It's a mystery how much skaters of his caliber are gushing over someone like Chen. Regarding his jumps, I think Dai may have gotten infected by Hamada, who advised him to study Chen's technique. He said he likes Yuzu's spins the best though and complimented his transitions (according to IK's translation of an interview from just before the PC Olympics):

(The interviewer remarked that Uno is good at spins) Dai: "But I love Hanyu's spins the most. The flow of his legs is beautiful. Even a simple camel spin or sit spin is beautiful." Q: "Hanyu is also good at transitions, isn't he?" Dai: "He makes it look easy, but it's very difficult. I think it's amazing."

And taken from the same interview:

Q: "So please comment on each skater, starting with Yuzuru Hanyu." Dai: "Regretfully he was injured, but he is the person who pushed up the level of men's figure skating as he grew as a skater. When the younger skaters put pressure on him, he was able to take this in and grow more. Among all the skaters, he is perhaps the one who wants to be No. 1 the most. He's also suffered from injuries as a result of putting pressure on himself on a daily basis. He has probably had conflicting feelings, but he has become stronger mentally and there is more depth to his artistry. This season, you can see that he doesn't lose any speed even in the second half of the program. He has raised the bar in terms of his own perfection. I think he can win without the 4 Lutz, but I think that he wants to put it in his program because he can do it. He is also very good at drawing the audience into his world. This is something you have or don't have (you can't learn to do it). I think this is his forte."

R159 Dai's spins are his weakest element by far. He himself keeps pointing out how much he sucks at them. He has decent technique on most of his triples, excluding the Lutz. His 4T when he actually rotates and lands it, which didn't happen too frequently after 2008, is of acceptable quality too. The ones he landed during the pre-FS warm-up this past Nationals were surprisingly well executed. Of course nowhere near Yuzu level, but really good by his own standard. It's a shame he couldn't replicate that when it counted.

While he's insecure and has little self-esteem, I don't see a huge ego. If you look at how frequently he belittles himself and admits that other skaters are better than him at specific aspects and how he is the one, who probably asks younger skaters for advice more than they ask him, it doesn't fit that narrative. There also doesn't seem to be any sense of hirarchy between the other skaters and him at the Kandai rink despite the substantial gap in age and competitive accomplishments. Everyone from his kohais to Hamada refers to him by his pet name. (Even younger skaters, who don't train with him.)

R166 I think his dark complexion is one of the few things about his appearance he's content with (his eyes being the only body part he has specifically mentioned to like about himself as far as I can remember), because in summer he usually goes out to tan on purpose. At the moment he's trying to avoid that, because he wants to do justice to the character he's going to play in Hyoen in a month (Hikaru Genji).

R151 "A must-have quality for figure skaters is, I think, gorgeousness."

The quote is taken from a CNN feature that was published before the Sochi Olympics, though people pointed out that part was incorrectly translated. (There's a video embedded in the article. Maybe someone here can verify/correct the quote. If the video doesn't play within the page, it's up on youtube as well.) He talked about some of the stuff that was covered here too.

R182 I have been blocked all day just until now. Smh.

Thanks for the article R186! And the other Dai facts. Is his pet name "Dai chan" or does he have a nickname that's known outside his friend-group?

I think I read that some of his peers sort of look after him, what with his drinking and all. Akiko maybe? Nobu? Shizuka? Sounds like he needs more looking after than Shoma, who I'm not really sure needs it at all, but he's just so cute, nobody can keep their hands off him. Wonder if the Russian girls are babying him - or looking up to him? I still can't get over him going to Sambo. But better that than Raf's place, where he'd be in Chen's shadow.

R185 I've seen Chen appreciators push him as unique among the rest of the field in his modern dance style of choreography/programs in figure skating. I guess the ballet spiel has been shelved until it's needed again.

Perhaps I had it backwards when I said ego/pride, and it's really the opposite and his insecurities that are preventing him from using Hanyu's jump technique as reference. But that's simply conjecture on my part and there could be other possibilities, like the fact that Hanyu's technique, for all its perfection and textbook-ness, seems inimitable. People have said they study it but no one has actually pulled off his kind of jumping and the way it blends so well with the choreo. People have asked him to give tips and the guy was never able to word it in a way people can get and I get that it's hard to because Hanyu himself probably does it based on feeling and rhythm and it's hard to put what the body understand innately into words. It's.either you get it or you don't. And even if you do, being able to actually translate it into practice is another thing and finally pulling it off in competition is a whole other ball game. Maybe Takahashi found it hopeless to try and decided to go for the guy whose quality maybe isn't the best but is seemingly enough to satisfy without having to cheat unlike two certain someones.

(It's nice to read all the things he said andI actually knew the guy always has good and fair things to say about Hanyu generally. He's never had a shitty sort of personality despite making questionable choices sometimes. I just don't think his feelings when it comes to Hanyu are simple, but he can differentiate between that and being objective, unlike certain people on GS.)

r177 Somebody on PH commented that the ratings last year must have hurt them. I had wondered why JSF was so insistent on getting Yuzu whenever they could when they had Shoma as their national champion. The arena would be full, Yuzu or no Yuzu. But a very large portion of JSF funds comes from broadcasting rights and the tv ratings dropped significantly when they just had Shoma last year. The TV network may have been breathing down their neck, no more experiments..

I'm a little surprised Chen asked for NHK, knowing Yuzuru would be blocked from it were he to be given what he asked. I mean, I sort of get it, if it fits in his Yale schedule, but for him to think it would be ok... I don't know how I feel about that. Miffed, I guess. Surprised at his hubris.

R192 NHK is November recess for Nathan.

I actually like Chen's EXes and show performances a lot. The guy has style and flow that is utterly unique but I feel it's more jazzy and free style than ballet, which is why I enjoy his performances and interpretation of his more modern choices out of competition. I'm saying this as a matter personal preference of course. People don't have to agree with me.

Anyway, knowing that he has this, but can't incorporate it into competition because his capacity doesn't allow him to do both that *and* land his jumps is a bit of a sore point for me. Because if he can, even if his jumps weren't good-looking and he still telegraphs them, he'd have at least been much closer to justifying the points he's been getting. But I guess just knowing that he has it is enough for the judges to give him scores that say he actually displayed them in competition when in actuality he didn't even try. That seems to be the way they're judging him anyway.

R192 I don't see his wanting NHK as hubris. He just picked it cos it works for him. Knowing full well he may not get it. And it's worth a shot seeing as he didn't get to go there last season and Hanyu may not have picked it for himself given his experience in 2017.

Unless he's complaining loudly about not getting it despite his status as reigning world champion, I don't think calling hubris is fair assessment. Guy is overscored and overhyped AF, which I do admit makes it harder to enjoy him as a skater, but at the very least he's not Zhou. Let us be clear on that.

Speaking of complaining and Zhou, a combination that's turned out to be a better match than Zhou and skating, I'm surprised the guy hadn't been more vocal about his back-to-back assignments. Maybe even he knows it's not a good idea to challenge the choices made by those higher up on the Worlds podium than he is and host picks...

r192 Nah. It's not hubris, college is important. He probably didn't actually expect to get it, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

But it makes me wonder. Yuzu seemed really pleased last year with Helsinki and Rostelecom. If Yuzu were first seed and didn't pick NHK - would JSF veto his decision and drag him there anyway? Or would Yuzu not dare to not pick NHK?

Hanyu hasn't skated at NHK for 2 seasons now because of the injury and being unseeded. Chen had no chance, honestly.

Well there's no Helsinki this year and he didn't have a good experience in CoR last year, although maybe his WR in his SP buffered it somewhat and made it less of an ordeal than the last CoC and NHK he attended were...but he did have great memories of NHK prior to 2017 and made consistent appearances there up until that point. SC and NHK were like his default choices for a while there and seeing as he likes performing to a home crowd at home, maybe he feels that two consecutive years of absence is enough? And it's really just one year if you think about it because technically, he did show up in 2017. He just ultimately couldn't skate. And the fact that he wasn't seeded last year means he could still have attended and I highly doubt NHK wouldn't have picked him. So I'm guessing he wanted Helsinki and CoR specifically last year due to reasons that's probably pretty obvious.

Also, he so likes using the power he has to help people out so maybe he thought could help give waning TV ratings a boost? It's a very him thing to do so it's plausible coming from him.

Don't really know much about daisuke so can't comment about his ego or lack of. But being humble is considered important in Japanese culture, so I doubt many Japanese would brag about themselves.

r198 Tbh I don't think Yuzu has any consideration whatsoever for tv ratings when it comes to picking his competitions. He probably only thinks what will make him more likely to win.

But actually my musings were more about the hypothetical situation: if Yuzu wanted to skip NHK for whatever reason, would JSF let him?

R198 I believe isu used yuzu & alina as bargaining chips to get Helsinki to host that gp event at the last minute. Helsinki needed some sort of guarantee to ensure people would come & they would make some money. Plus Jsf wouldn't want yuzu and Shoma to meet so early in the season & risk their chances of getting into gpf. Both going into gpf with 2 gold medals sure sounds alot better than one of them with 1 gold only.

Shoma looks happy enough. The casual way Zags has her arm propped on Shoma's shoulder - but she's been sorta handsy with him before. He's everybody's human puppy.

Just a lovely set of Yuzu photos here, including the one where Zach Donohue puts his hand nearly on Yuzu's crotch WTF?

Anyway, the first one - is it his torso that's relatively long instead of his legs/arms? Something about his body suggests length, ahem but he's only 5 ft 8. And most men are so blocky compared to him. Such an interesting sinewy body. Reminds me most of a tall female supermodel - kind of like what Eteri said about him - soft lines like a beautiful girl.

[quote]Hello everyone, this is Yuzuru Hanyu. The other day I participated in the Sekkisei event. I learned about the effectiveness of its toner against dry skin and pregenting acne. When your skin is good, every day becomes more fun doesn't it. Wishing everyone a wonderful day!

At this rate, Yuzu will end up giving Gabby a run for her money!

[quote]Hello everyone, this is Yuzuru Hanyu. Today I'd like to introduce Sendai, the town where I grew up. I love the beautiful green areas in Sendai. Even in daily life, if I recall the green of Sendai, I feel very relaxed. Please tell me the good things about where you grew up! Wishing everyone a wonderful day!

Or maybe not.

Oh I like those. I think I'm addicted. He could have a column in the newspaper with uplifting messages every day - maybe as an after-skating career? "Minimalist optimist" - "KISS" (keep in simple, stupid)... Very inspiring.

Young You's 2019-2020 free program is "Evita," including "You Must Love Me," "Buenos Aires," and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

There is going to be a broadcast of FAOI Toyama July 5th from 18.54 to 20.00. Maybe we'll get to see the Masquerade roar after all.

For those who have had trouble posting - there is an option to register for free. When you do that, times to post are still more restricted than usual but less restricted than if you don't register.

Side by side quad sals - Zhou and Kihira!

Someone on his GS thread suggested that Shoma would be good in an ice dance team with Marin Honda.

I found that weird because Marin is taller than Shoma - but it started me thinking that he and Satoko might work.

But whatever you think of his technique, he's a jumper. Why don't more of the big group of sub-par Japanese male singles skaters think about ice dance (besides Shingo) - with somebody like Satoko, who I doubt is going to keep up with the quadsterettes. Keiji? He's big enough to even consider pairs.

Yuzuru's Sekkisei event has been translated.

Iron Klaus‏ @Iron_Klaus

This is most of #SPUR's report on the #SEKKISEI event written by @fumofumocolumn. It's abridged but I've translated roughly 90% of it. Remember to click through to give them #PVs.

Apparently this is the last blog entry for now? I hope not forever. How my beauty routine will languish without his sage advice!

#JavierFernandez will be competing at #JapanOpen2019

Kaori Sakamoto’s 2019-20 short program is “No Roots” by Alice Merton.

Tuk SP: “Drumming Song” by Florence and the Machine (chor Shae Lynn Bourne)

At GS, a poster said “Don't forget Lilbet in SA-she is landing her quad AND 3A.”

What has happened to our flourishing discussion? Are they requiring everyone to pay to get hardly any posting time at all? (I'm a paid subscriber for a year or so now - I got tired of waiting around) Hey, it's only $2. I miss you guys. Guess I'll have to re-acclimate to GS and FSU and start biting my tongue a whole lot.

r212 Tuk is doing The Drumming Song?

Holy shit, I guess I have the the new favorite program right there, one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite singers!

Now, Mariah needs to do a "Girl With One Eye" program and all shall be forgiven.

R213 We're talking about Tuk here, remember - program will likely be jump jump, hand wave, slut mime, jump jump. I like the music too, but am not getting my hopes up.

r214 Jump jump slut mime will be much easier to bear with a song I love, and with a few nice Shae-Lynn figures on a nice music highlight!

Cool article about Tuk that I forgot to link above. Small excerpt:

On the tour [Fantasy on Ice in Japan], the 2015 World champion enjoyed spending time with the other skaters, including Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva and Satoko Miyahara and bonded with them.

“It was very sad to say goodbye,” she said. “I found new friends. It was fun, a firework of emotions, and it all went by fast.”

Tuktamysheva was happy to take care of Zagitova, one of the youngest skaters on the tour.

“At the beginning, she was a bit shy and I tried to help her,” said Tuktamysheva. At the end, it was all good, she talked with everybody. And Satoko is a wonderful girl. We were hanging out together with Satoko, Stéphane [Lambiel] and Deniss Vassiljevs a lot.”

I thought Javier was over competition

r219 Does Japan Open really count as a competition? It isn't even ISU sanctioned, no SP, no pairs or dance, calculated so that Japan can win, team medals etc. Didn't Oda do it after he retired? And actually jumped a quad or two?

R217 JO pays very well IIRC and even when he was talking about his retirement, Javi left open the possibility of doing JO. He's gonna pimp out MOLM until that ho' can't walk no mo'

And besides, it's an event designed to sell tickets, so if it wants to remain such, better Fernandez than Samarin. And I do like Samarin.

I like the song for Kaori's SP even better than Tuk's.

ICE TIME PODCAST. 6/28 Nathan Chen interview. [G=Jack Gallagher] Part 1. G: Shoma to Eteri? N: It was a surprise that he decided to leave his coach, but I think Eteri is a great coach -- considering, I mean look at her students and the success they've had over the past few years. I don't fully understand it. It was a little bit of a surprise, again whatever all my competitors do, it's ultimately their decision and they clearly know what's best for themselves and I shouldn't question it. 3 G: How do you feel about your gps? N: [My rinkmate] Romain Ponsart will be at both my gps so that’ll be nice; I haven’t seen him much due to school. 5 G: Your heritage is Chinese so why haven’t you skated at Cup of China? N: Just coincidence. [My gps have] usually not been my choice anyway. This season it was too far to travel. My first choice was NHK because of a break in school, but France is also good, schedule-wise, but China wasn’t ideal. But I wd love to compete there someday. 8 G: Looking back at Pyeongchang, have any regrets? N: You can’t dwell on the past too much. It was a great growing experience for me. I still can look forward to Olympics in the future, at least I hope to.

Chen, Part 2 – 10: G: Your rivalry w/Yuzu? What’s your personal rel’ship with him? N: We’re competitors and that’s how we know each other. But we’ve had some opportunities to talk and get to know each other on a more personal level – he’s a great guy, definitely a great person, very very dedicated. He’s definitely progressed – uh, promoted and sort of revolutionized men’s skating during his career and already has a crazy legacy behind him, and I look forward to what’s to come in the next years. I’ve really looked up to him for a long time. It’s really an honor to compete against him, but outside of skating, we don’t get to talk a lot. His English is actually getting pretty good so we communicate a little bit better now, but we still don’t really have opportunities to sit down and talk. But I know from the brief conversations we’ve had that he’s a really good person and he’s very dedicated, and he has a good heart. 13 G: Is it accurate that it’s really the skater against the discipline, like the quads, and not as much against their rivals? N: There’s definitely a lot of truth behind that. At the end of the day, of course, we’re competing against each other so you have to have that sort of competitive edge – it’s sort of what pushes us to be better: I like to look at it as that rather than coming for the other person’s throat, from a personal standpoint, because that’s really not the case. We all dedicate our lives to this, and we know how much effort we put into the sport. Every single athlete has his ups and downs, and through that shared experience, we sort of empathize and respect the other athletes, because it’s not always an easy journey to get to where we are now, so there’s a mutual form of respect that we have for each other. But of course, we all do want to be Olympic champions, world champions, nationals – we all want to be on top of that podium. Knowing what the other guys are doing has definitely pushed me, and I hope it’s pushing other guys to be better and that’s promoting – well, not really promoting but progressing figure skating in a really cool direction.

Chen, Part 3 – 15 G: Daisuke Takahashi returned after 4 yr absence – what did you think about that? N: It was cool. I’ve looked up to him a long time and I tried to emulate him when I was much younger – and even now. He’s one of the first people I’ll look to on Youtube. I hope I’ll have an opportunity to compete with him. G: Can you compare prep for shows to comps? N: Shows are different – we’re here to put out a good performance and potentially try out some difficult elements. The risk of making errors is smaller than in comps but we still need to put a lot of effort into it. But shows are more fun. We’re more casual, there's a sense of fun, a little bit less structure and we're not being evaluated – that brings out some great performances. 19: All That Skate – can you talk about that and your rel’ship with Yuna? N: One of coolest shows I’ve done, one of the better ones. The audience was so engaged and Yuna’s a huge factor in that. She has developed women’s skating in Korea. Without her, I wdn’t expect to be at that show so she’s allowed us to experience Korean audiences/skating. It was my first time to meet her. I trained w/Adam and he told me about her, so I was honored that she thought of me to perform... 21 G: You’re at Yale… The skaters – do you talk about politics and things going on in the world? N: Uh, within like really close friends, perhaps a little bit, but typically not so much, esp at competition times… for the most part, it’s pretty non-political and I don’t think skaters want [to get into politics] 23 G: It cd be argued you’re more famous in Japan than the US because of the popularity of skating. Is that accurate? N: I think so. I mean, it’s hard to say, you’d have to do a poll. But I definitely do get recognized more in Japan. Skating is not super-popular in the US. I wd love to see that change, but thru the works of Mao Asada, Daisuke Takahashi, Takeshi Honda, all these past – of course you can’t leave out Hanyu – skating has become very popular in Japan... I’d say it’s definitely less popular [in US] – I mean in just the number of people who come to the ice shows in the US compared to the number who come in Japan.

Chen, Part 4 – G: Do you think that wd change if there were a female star that was on your level, like a world champ or Oly contender? 26 N: Yeah, the Olys I think obviously draw the most popularity, the most legitimacy, because there’s a lot of comps and if someone doesn’t know a lot about skating, they might think it’s just some irrelevant competition which ppl don’t take super seriously – and I don’t think it necessarily has to be a woman – just someone w/longevity, not just a one and done person. I think that was the case w/Michelle and some others – they were prevalent and successful for so long – we don’t quite have that right now. 28 G: At Saitama, the cheers you got were almost as much as Yuzu's – what did you think? N: The respect that Yuzu is getting is definitely 100% deserved, but I don’t feel - I mean, Yuzu’s 2-time Olympic champion and I can’t compare to that at all, so I’d feel uncomfortable if people gave me that same kind of respect – like, he should be receiving greater respect. However, it is really nice to hear that they respect the work I’m putting in and that they love the sport of figure skating, besides national comparisons, and just enjoy skating. 30 G: In Saitama, Yuzu skated before you and the ice was full of Poohs? N: It was nice that I had the [side] of ice that I did because I remember at 4CC once I had no room to skate, but as soon as I step on the ice, it’s all business… G: How often do you communicate with Raf, once a week? 32 N: If that. We don’t really communicate that often. We check in every now and then… If things go change or go awry, we’ll check in. 33 G: Injury at an exhibition a few yrs ago? Something you have to look out for? N: Definitely. Anytime I’m on the ice, at practice, shows or comps, my health is the #1 thing, because w/o that, I can’t really skate at the highest level… Right now I’m healthy, knock on wood… if my body feels off, I try to adapt to it. [stuff about veteran US skaters admiring N who says he doesn’t see them much but appreciates their support] 37 G: What about your finances? Do your parents do that for you? N: Yeah, most of my finances are taken care of by my parents, my family. My brother actually – he works in finance – he gives me advice, but mostly, my parents take care of that.

Chen, Part 5 – G: Do you get back home to SLC? 39 N: Not much. I’m mostly based in Cali & I’m in Japan this summer for shows. When I can, I like to maximize my time with Raf. 40 G: Benoit? N: He was creative/cool to work with but now I’m happy w/Shae & Marie France. I feel I work really well w/them… [spare time? (study) Shows post career (no)] 45 G: Your major? N: Undeclared but probably will be statistics. G: What? N: It’s a branch of math… applicable to everything. 49 N: The world is switching to AI… 50 [Pro basketball fan crap – some Japanese player? N’s thinks it’s great to have an Asian player] 52 G: Have you met Jeremy Lin? N: We traded tweets… 53 G: What kind of rel’ship do you have w/Vincent Zhou? N: We grew up together, competing. It’s cool to see that the work he’s put in has played out the way it has. It means a lot for US skating to have 2 on Worlds podium. 55 G: Young Russians and quads?– some say the jumps take away from artistry? N: There’s a time for tech and a time for artistry which takes longer and is just as difficult, but tech has a window and if you pass it, it’s difficult to acquire. These girls are so impressive throwing down these jumps – it wd have been impossible for me at their age! It becomes much more difficult to learn quads when you’re older. Maybe in the future, artistry will be emphasized more. It takes a long time to develop – some are innately better but anyone can improve. I get the argument from both sides. I totally understand, but what I do is all I am capable of. I can just try to improve. I hope ppl will see me improve artistically and maintain my quads. END

Thanks for the summary of the podcast! I like how Nathan straight up says he doesn't get why Shoma left his coach lol. (And wow, it certainly has gotten really quiet round these parts at the DL. Where is everyone?)

OK. You need to register now to post. Registration is free to post in not peak time

Sinistina/Katsalapov's RD: Singing in the Rain

[quote] Thanks for the summary of the podcast! I like how Nathan straight up says he doesn't get why Shoma left his coach lol. (And wow, it certainly has gotten really quiet round these parts at the DL. Where is everyone?)

I know! I feel like I'm saying goodbye :( I wasn't gonna summarize Nathan's interview but I read that he talked about Yuzuru and Shoma, so I couldn't resist. But Gallagher sure asked rude questions - tell me about your finances ?!? Is the problem with US skating the lack of a FEMALE on your level !?! And just slam right into the jumps vs artistry that Chen's slammed for. sheesh. But Chen took it in stride, at least going by his calm, measured replies. He always strikes me as a good kid. Like he said about Yuzu, he sure seems to have a "good heart"

Thanks for coming by to the wake, lol. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe things will pick up. I can't now how hard it is now to post because I pay the monthly fee and there's been no recent change. I did notice for a few weeks that ads were coming up despite paying. Maybe they were experimenting? Or just in a switchoever mode? And now it keeps up with how many "likes" each post has had when before, even w/subscription, that didn't show up.

Anyway, miss you guys!! And thanks for the thanks R227

Video of Shoma doing 3A+4T at Eteri's - is that the kind of thing you do at a "camp"?

Nathan seems to have some goood natural PR skills.

R230 I'm one of those whores that doesn't pay (I'm registered though) and the times to post have become reeeeally restricted even as a registered user. Any time I can come on here is never a time I can post (except today miraculously but I suppose it's not peak hours right now). So I think people just gave up and stopped checking? Also there really isn't anything going except the odd SP/FS music and choreography announcement every so often. And no Med drama or any drama really to bitch about.

Thanks for explaining, R233. It just took me by surprise, but I guess I'll have to give up too.

BTW, I'm TSL Troll who did the Chen interview. I just finished watching the latest Dave/Jonathan show but didn't take notes. OTHER than they dissed Misha Ge's choreography at 1 hr 3 minutes and I loved that :)

There's an excellent time stamper there and I skipped Meryl's wedding and a bunch of Gracie Gold stuff (ugh on both counts) and then tuned in just in time to hear them defending Mariah in slice-gate and that really pisses me off. I did enjoy the show though, but they didn't talk about Yuzuru so who cares, lol. Anyhow, here's a repeat of the time-stamper's info, if anybody's interested:

Natalie Wiens 2 hours ago (edited) Time Stamps

1:03 Meryl Davis wedding 3:15 Gracie Gold (social media clips, motivation, Vincent) 13:00 Karen Chen, USFS is not supportive, Sean Rabbitt (what top 6 U.S. man is a leftie?) 22:20 Jonathan is a reality TV star (Worst Cooks in America) (Dave was also contacted) 26:45 Commission on Patreon! 28:00 Bad Guy-Bille Eilish-Zagita-Danny G choreography controversy (Russian exhibitions in general, skating twitter) 38:20 Polina Tsurskaya interview (coaching based in shame - generational?) 42:10 Colorado Broadmoor open (Rika’s quad sal, Vincent going to Brown, Tom Z leaving, Young You) 48:45 Eunsoo 50:00 Alysa Liu 57:00 Olympic team event 59:41 Trusova interview 1:03:00 Hanna Harrell 1:04:48 Jason and Camden at Peggy Fleming Trophy (mention of Josh Farris)

Oh I meant to post a link - just in honor of the old days, I guess.

R235 I had a feeling it was you who did the Chen interview summary, TSL Troll! Seriously if you're gone, how will we ever get through the off season? Will I actually have to listen to TSL now instead of relying on your summaries? And where is JDC? Or even daitroll lol? Actually I haven't bothered to check the other FS thread on DL but I wonder if it is as much of a wasteland as this one has become. Well, to keep it going I suppose...here is a little update I stole from PH for those who still visit here. Yuzu is back in Toronto it seems, and already back to work.

Do 12 years old girls wear makep to training now, or is the Daleman instagram filter that contagious?

Thanks, R236! I think I need to head back to PH myself (and GS). Well, I never completely left, but Datalounge took up a lot of time I could have spent poring over the multiple threads in those places (and FSU). At least we have something! But without JDC, skating fandom will be much drearier ;(

Thank heavens for little girls (who post selfies with Yuzu). He looks sleepy, poor guy. Hope he has a healthy summer and 2019-20 season. As Nathan said, knock on wood!

Speaking of little girls, here are the three Russian prodigies frollicking with Nathan Chen, while rehearsing for Dreams on Ice in Japan

Broadmoor Open (local competition in US)

1) Alysa Liu 214.58

2) Young You (South Korea) 204.31

3) Leung (Hong Kong) 169.25

4) Harrell 155.31

then names I never heard about

Men won by Ma with 195 points

Didn't Trusova also had a photo with Uno? She's catching them all.

C'mon ladies, pony up, it's only $2. You can't be all teenage girls without a credit card.

Trusova and Uno did side-by-side cantilevers. Dave thought her technique already improved (in the cantilever I guess) just from watching him. I posted the video here and said it was Shoma and his mini-me :)

Vincent is pestering Tomono in Pic4

So, If I got it right, on June 2020 there'll be a sailor moon ice show in Japan, and guess who will be playing the main character?

R244

Me?

Sorry Vince, maybe you could star as that useless and overhyped male counterpart that is Mamoru... quite fitting.

R244 If you retire by that time

R247 that was for Vincent

Anyone willing to place bets on when the first "Yuzu should be Mamoru" tweet appears?

I'm going to bring back some classics to get us through this trying time of post restrictions. Just do the free registration, it takes ten seconds.

Not the biggest or flashiest of backsides, but top quality. The ass equivalent of +5 on a beautiful quad toe.

Good stuff.

A personal favorite!

R429 I think such shows're only for retired skaters?

R254 Med isn't retired yet though. I guess she could be planning to retire next year but she was talking about Beijing at Worlds.

Whose slutty waist is in the corner there?

Next week there are the exams for new International judges

I love how the criteria to pass the examinations are not made explicit.: "The criteria to pass the written part of these ISU Examinations are established by the Technical Committees."

Maybe it is getting 1 right out of 10

R256 What...a....WHORE!!!

R257 I learn a lot from your posts, but they sometimes depress me and make me hate this sport.

Ok. So I registered and didn’t let me post any earlier. Just getting back on.

Love the ass pics, good job DL team in keeping our spirits up.

Still can’t believe Zhou is a bronze medalist in WC-come on - thats a travesty . Right?!?! Can’t watch him in competition without rolling my eyes, so why would I watch him in an ice show.

Nathan is a good kid, and he says all the right things about Hanyu...problem? Is that Nathan is do Booooorrrrinnnng . He’s boring, his outfits are boring and his skating is boring. But he’s a nice guy, no arguments there.

If JDC leaves....I’m out of here.

Same for TSL troll, you save me hours of my life...

We could play fuck, marry, kill with the old cronies at GS to liven things up here

Fuck, marry, kill: canadianskaterguy, 4everchan, and a random eteri/russian stan (take your pic there’s like 50 of them on GS)

Fuck: no one, but kind of want to see Hanyu naked, but we all know figure skaters may not have genitals

Marry: Hanyu- duh, cause he’s reeeatchhhh beeeeaaatch for a figure skater, although I kind of think mama Hanyu may make the other boy/girl life miserable

Kill: FS judges for giving random candies for Amy successful quads regardless of bullet points, and anyone who actually says and believes Chen is as artistic and deserves even within 5 points of Hanyu’s PCS.

*any - at least dL still has stupid spell check

I just signed up too. I hope the others do as well. I was wondering why it was quiet here.

[R262] That reminds me of a rumour i saw years ago that Mama Hanyu got in the way of Yuzu and Kanako's friendship because she worried they were getting too close and it would mess with Yuzu's skating lol

DL seems to go through these stages of limiting traffic to test things out. It comes and goes. Also, nothing has really happened in skating these past few days. Hopefully the moratorium on posting will be lifted by the time we get to media day.

R262 I'm the opposite. I would totally be his fuckbuddy, no strings attached. No amount of money could convince me to take on his high maintenance ho ass 24/7. No thank you. Sorry R261 I know we're playing the wrong game, but I don't pay enough attention to GS to want to FMK anyone there. I do sometimes want to bitchslap some of the people you mentioned.

R265 Sounds like Hanyu and Mama Hanyu take turns cockblocking each other. That sounds gross, don't take it the wrong way.

How much hate do u guys think hanyu is gonna get for recyxking

I would kill Hanyu if he even dares to recycle. Although sometimes I do wish that we could see Origin in its full potential. Idk the choreo in general just lacks some “umph”

Japan really needs to up their game in pairs and dance.

I bet he's gonna recycle at least one program. Probably SP because he needs a new layout to accommodate the 4Lz. I wish he'd rather recycle FS, I like it.

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R270 I approve if he recycles p̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶ LGC

I want to see new programs because who knows just how many seasons he’ll still be competing?

Sondre Boe's latest IG story is captioned with "my Norwegian ass is not made for this heat". Really.

Fuck, Marry, Kill: Coaching Team Edition

Lambiel Tamura Gleikhengauz

Caved and registered. Need an outlet and I don't like it enough anywhere else to register and/or delurk.

I'm completely a-ok with recycled stuff. I think it's a good idea even, especially if he does it like SEIMEI and wait a season or two before recycling. Which means I won't just be completely on board, I'm actually hoping very hard he'll bring back LGC or, if not, something like it. And I hope he'll bring Origin back again someday, given that I like it even better than SEIMEI (it's 3rd on my list of personal favorite LPs from him after H&L and R&J1.0--SEIMEI got bumped to 4th). In fact, if he brings back both LGC and Origin in the same season at some point before he retires, I'll be absolutely over the moon. Otherwise, I'll be happy with them as show pieces.

Of course, if he dares use them in competitions again, he'll have to run and hide from those who'll plan his murder for recycling in the first place. But if he manages to dodge the witchhunters long enough to perform these two to perfection, I think even those who rage will immediately come around. Because when he performs his programs the way he wants to perfectly, nothing else will really matter. As much as I want to see new programs as any other person, a perfect LGC and Origin--or as close to it as they can get by Hanyu's own insane standard--will be totally worth the loss of new programs.

That said, LGC and Origin are the only two programs I'm hoping will make a comeback. Origin preferably in a later season, if he's physically able to stick around long enough for more than just one more.

Fuck, Marry, Kill: Hanyu Choreography Team Edition! I left Wilson out for more of a challenge.

Shae-Lynn Bourne (but you're not sexually attracted to her)

Jeff Buttle (but he makes that huge toothy grin the entire time and you can't face away)

Yuzuru Hanyu (but his mom and Yoshiko Kobayashi have to stay with you to supervise)

Killing Hanyu would mean killing three people. Not worth it. And sides, why would I wanna kill the guy? Don't wanna fuck or marry him either cos he strikes me as a high maintenance asexual-towards-living-beings cryptid who's also a pretty hardcore otaku to boot. So I'll have to do all this work and put up with his obsessions, all without expecting him to put out in return. I don't think I admire anyone more as a person (other than my own mother) and an athlete than I do him, but I prefer to it to do it from a very safe distance. Don't wanna fuck or kill Buttle either cos the previous is just ew (guy's seriously not my type) and the latter would be like killing a loyal pooch. I'll marry Shae, though.

If you had put Wilson in there instead of Hanyu, i'd have been able to fill two criteria easily. Hell, I'll even put Buttle under fuck just to make things even.

r278 yeah, why would you kill Hanyu...that's the same as killing this thread. who wants to keep showing ass of dead people

I really hope he drops Otonal. First, he already perfected it and can't get more than a point or 2 compared to what he's already received for it. MAINLY, I'm so sick of references to Wier and Hanyu because of this program.

Some crazy twitter chick (will not name) keeps posting the Wier flower picture and the bunny nose IG video saying Hanyu's management is controlling his image. Implying that they don't want him to seem gay. I think we covered that that is not the case. Of course, that is mainly Wier's drama seeking bull shit leading to all of this.

Oh. Just saw your little note about why you didn't include Wilson. Point. Still, Hanyu being in there seems a tad strange. If it'd been Miyamoto instead, i'd list him under fuck and if'd been Abe, i'd take her as my second wife. Or the first wife and Shae can be the second. Abe just seems more like a wife #1. But I still wouldn't kill anyone but Wilson.

How does one apply a strikethrough here?

We must. be supremely bored. I'm leaving Zhou out because I know he'd get killed every time.

1) Uno, Jin, Chen 2) Kolyada, Kovtun, Samarin 3) Chen, Brown, Hiwatashi 4) Cipres, Cizeron, Aymoz 5) Takahashi, Machida, Oda

r284 wait wait, you'd fuck Takahashi and kill Oda? why would you kill Oda? He's harmless

Oh this is great to see the thread pick up again! I honestly thought it was kaput. BTW, love the game but why is Hanyu with the choreographers - don't really get that - or why you want to kill him R278 or am I misunderstanding?

Anyway - choreographers - KILL Misha Ge and David Wilson. That was easy! Oh and maybe even Sandra Bezic - I don't think I've ever seen anyone so arrogant. And that includes Ge.

FUCK Lambiel, Kenji Myamoto, Benoit.

MARRY Shae Lynn and Jeffrey Buttle.

r258 Those are hard. Some sets are just unfuckable.

1. F Jin, M Chen, K Uno 2. F Kovtun M Kolyada K Kovtun (Yeah, I know. But I'd really rather fuck Kovtun than Samarin, but I also dislike Kovtun way more than Samarin) 3. I just can't fuck any of them. But ok. F Chen, M Hiwatashi, K Brown. (Sorry Brown) 4. F Cizeron M Aymoz K Cipres 5. F Takahashi, M Oda K Machida (Sorry Machida)

[quote] We must. be supremely bored. I'm leaving Zhou out because I know he'd get killed every time. 1) Uno, Jin, Chen 2) Kolyada, Kovtun, Samarin 3) Chen, Brown, Hiwatashi 4) Cipres, Cizeron, Aymoz 5) Takahashi, Machida, Oda

Hmm. 1) F Uno M Che K Jin. 2) F Kovtun M Kolyada K Samarin. 3) F Chen M Brown K Hiwatashi (because I don't know shit about him). 4) F Cizeron M Aymoz K Cipres. 5) F Takahashi M Oda K Machida.

To really put Hanyu in a dilemma, someone should ask him which of the below he'd fmk:

Jumps, spins, step sequence

r285 No, I meant it as the task for others! I'd definitely pick Oda to marry.

Interesting to see Nathan's balletic mincing. Makes Hanyu and Weir look butch!

r284 OK, got it now. as noted, most would marry goofy Oda

Chen would be good to marry since he'll be a doctor or something someday, although I don't find him attractive so it may be a fuckless marriage.

I would never kill adorable Jin

R274 Love that Boe is such an unrepentant slut.

R275 Good list - Daniil would be hot except for his matchstick teeth and outsized ego, so I agree with you there. Tamura - I'd F & M. Lambiel - beautiful man but looks too needy. My coach list would be F-Joubert, M-Tamura, K-Tom Z, Daniil.

R289 Jumps are Hanyu's ride or die, but I can't decide whether they'd be a longterm F or a stormy marriage. He'd definitely kill spins.

Gotta love the fact that among the first trickle of posts following the dry spell here, almost half of the posts contain ass pics.

Oda is as easy to love as Zhou is easy to hate.

Why is everyone orgasming over Hanyu's profile pic on JSF like they've never seen it before? It's nice but I'm dead certain we've all seen it before somewhere. I know I definitely have. I just can't quite put my finger on where. I also like Higuchi's profile pic a lot. Kihira looks a little overly put together for the occasion to me. She looks more like a bridesmaid than an athlete in that picture.

r289 Hanyu already fucked the ice didn't he- as the Sakura fairy? He'll marry whoever the hell he wants, there's probably a list already. He's gonna kill the fucking judges perception of +5 GOEs

Thanks for the heads up R294. That's a great Hanyu photo and Rika looks like a million dollars. Agree maybe a bit overdone but better that than a shit pic like Mai's. I enjoyed checking out their blood types. Sure are a lot of B's. Must have more in Japan than US, where I think it's less than 10%. Yuzu's a B. I think according to the typing "theory" they're the most temperamental and/or difficult? Oh something like that, not that I believe it.

R294 I think that pic is part of the set of Sendai brochure pictures that were released during the monument unveiling. He was wearing that expensive Dior jacket in some of the pics and that shirt in others.

Now I feel guilty - looked again and Mai's isn't too bad but the hairstyle struck me as unflattering when I first looked at it. It's fine. It is weird that so many are suited but some have on training gear and then there's Rika, ready for the ball.

R296 Wha? Mihara's mugshot isn't shitty. It's nothing to shout about sure but it's fine for an athlete profile pic. It's pretty much like most of the others only she's a lot more photogenic than some. She certainly looks a lot more natural than the stiff expression Miyahara has on, whose picture btw looks more like a something you'd see on a job resume. And there are other pictures that are actually shoddily taken like a couple of the guys from the lower ranked group. But overall, Kihira is the only one that really sticks out, looking more like she's staring at you from out of a wedding album or a talent catalog rather than from among a bunch of other athletes on a sports federation page. She does look great, I'm not denying that, but sorely out of place among everyone else.

Higuchi's one, though, is my favorite. Hanyu's one is a close second.

I think Rika's wearing one of her skating dresses. It's such a hodge podge, lol. Poor Tomono.

Marin who?

Dai's probably pissed they made him look like a Cambodian immigrant while the other top men got glamour shots.

Yuzuru and a great big turtle.

Too bad Honda isn't on any of the categories this year. I'd imagine Kihira would stick out a little less if she were. Why'd they drop her entirely though? Surely she's fared better than some of the ladies in the B group, most of which I've never even heard of?

Hanyu has so many professional photogs after his image that I won't even be surprised if I were told that they each have a personal treasure trove JSF probably had a hard time picking from.

[Quote] Dai's probably pissed they made him look like a Cambodian immigrant while the other top men got glamour shots.

But isn't that what he always looks like? And Uno's picture looks like passport photo to me.

Also, Tanaka's one makes him looks like he's trying a tad too hard. The only real glamor shot out of that lot is Hanyu's. For the ladies, glamor is probably what Kihira was aiming for but she's got a ways to go if she thinks that looking like a talent hoping to be scouted is what it's all about.

makes him look* like

Nothing can beat the Olympics mugshot. Cha probably wins as the most horrendous one as he looked like a plastic doll

Oh well, there were the mugshot of Olympic judges. Some looked like scaring people

R304 Uno's picture is from a photoshoot for a magazine (I think it was last summer). Tanaka's pic is less glamorous but still looks like it's benefited from a few filters and/or retouching - maybe more like a hs yearbook picture. Dai looks like he's just been processed, given regulation clothing and wants to start a new life as "David Taka."

R284

1) Marry Uno, fuck Chen, kill Jin.

2) Kill Kolyada, fuck Kovtun, marry Samarin.

3) Marry Chen, kill Brown, fuck Hiwatashi (?).

4) Fuck Cipres, kill Cizeron, marry Aymoz.

5) Fuck Takahashi, kill Machida, marry Oda.

R286 I included him because he's essentially part of his own choreography team now. That's not actually my FMK order, it's just the list. I wouldn't kill him. I'd probably kill Buttle, fuck Shae, platonic marriage of convenience Yuzu.

R289

Hanyu would marry jumps and there'd be a lot of sex in that marriage too. He'd fuck step sequence and kill spins. Five minutes a week, screw that.

Why doesn't anyone want to fuck Hanyu? He seems loud, aggressive and would tell you exactly what he wants. He'd probably start tidying up and kick you out the minute it ends because "playtime over, time to image train now." What's not to like?

[quote] Why doesn't anyone want to fuck Hanyu? He seems loud, aggressive and would tell you exactly what he wants. He'd probably start tidying up and kick you out the minute it ends because "playtime over, time to image train now." What's not to like?

I thought we had to follow R284's groupings. Maybe like everybody would kill Zhou, everybody would fuck Hanyu.

R308 Judge 1, are you that "Judge 1" aka Judge Bulge? I forget what your handle is, and can't find your bulge selfies on instagram anymore. Please help!

R294 Okay, I found it - Hanyu's headshot is part of that Sendai pamphlet we saw during the monument unveiling. I think they just distributed the actual pamphlet a few days ago.

R313 In my time this not modest behaviour didn't exist. But here you go

R315 Thanks Ms. Riley! You're swell.

R308 Judge Bulge, I know you're retired now, but might I suggest this very modest pic for your LinkedIn profile?

If Kihira looms like a bridesmaid, then Tanaks looks like a groom, straight from the altar.

So much ugly in those profiles. I hope most of these kids, boys in particular, will have some major glow up.

R317 They have hope. Hanyu was a ugly duckling after all.

I can't tell if Hanyu is the best looking guy on the Japanese team right now or if he just lucked out with a better photoshoot. In all fairness, most of them look fine, but there are a handful of cases where the lighting and angles are really just unfortunate.

An**

Hanyu actually has a glow over his head. Shoma and Keiji look fine. Dai looks fine too, just a little out of place cause he looks so much older-not sure about the Cambodian thing.

r312 Yea, that's why I left Hanyu out. After all the ass pics I thought he'd be an unfair competition.

R319 I mean, Hanyu has a massive portfolio of photos to choose from so if they can't find a proper glamour shot from the thousands he has, then I'd be surprised. I guess for the other skaters it's slim pickings, especially the younger ones. Some just look like they were taken with a phone.

R319 To be honest they all look a little strange in their own unique ways. The handsomest guy on the team is Tanaka. He looks like he could have been a movie star sixty years ago.

You're right, Tanaka is pretty handsome. Perhaps a bit boring though, so maybe that's why DL doesn't give him much love.

R324 R325 Tanaka's forehead is a boner killer for me. Also, I've found that weirdos are the best sexual partners and Tanaka is the most normal of the men in Team JPN.

Shoma really is pretty imo, in a boyband kind of way. Not as fond of the suit ones but in the red jacket at the bottom, especially the very last one, I think he's doe-eyed and scrumptious (your mileage may vary I realize.) I'd still put him, Yuzu, Dai, and one more at the very top - not Keiji though. Somebody I don't really know other than his mug shot at JSF (Miyake Sena) would be 4th. Maybe then Shimada and Tanaka (and Yamamoto? the pickings are pretty slim at that point)

Some of it is unflattering photography though - hopefully.

Here's my boy though. How can anybody not love that last picture :)

r327 blehhh, i just don't see it. His face is not unpleasant, but his nose is too big for his face. His height is the major barrier. He looks like a tiny elf.

r327 Miyake is good-looking, and when compared to those unfortunate faces in the 2 lower groups, he looks outstanding. Yamamoto is 19 but looks 30, how did he accomplish that. When Yuzu, in the pic with Kurakova, is back to looking like a 13 year old girl.

Edit. Maybe those pics just add years, Yuzu almost looks his age.

So I just happen to get to Hanyu’s ISU page from JSF website. He has medaled at worlds 6 times in the past 8 years and competed in 7 of them. So impressive...a legend.

He-shib is still dating a girl who's not She-shib.

R332 confirmed... no incest going on

If there were a beauty pageant of the top 25 men's skaters (ISU world standings as of 7/1/19), my top 5 finalists would be: Hanyu, Uno, Cha, Chen, Brezina.

But am I blinded by their skating talent? Here's the top 25 in order of current ranking, bearing in mind Yuzu missed the GPF and Worlds: 1 chen; 2 uno; 3 kolyada; 4 hanyu; 5 brown; 6 zhou; 7 samarin; 8 rizzo; 9 messing; 10 brezina; 11 jin; 12 vasiljevs; 13 kvitelashvili; 14 cha; 15 voronov; 16 aliev; 17 grassl; 18 tanaka; 19 tomono; 20 krasnozhon; 21 bychenko; 22 savosin; 23 pulkinen; 24 nguyen; 25 hiwatashi.

Although, if they kept the swimsuit competition (in Speedos), and I would want them to keep that!! I'd have to drop somebody for Mikhail Kolyada!

R335 We must be slipping if it took us this many posts before someone mentioned Big Kolyada. Tsk Tsk.

Maybe the key to greater consistency for Kolyada is just more supportive undergarments. I can see Big Kolyada completely throwing him off axis. It's a wonder the dude can jump at all with that monster swinging hither and yon.

LOL R336 and R337.

Speaking of our favorite swimsuit model - I tried like hell to find 'those' pictures, and couldn't, but I did find this. I'm sure it'll get everybody excited for Kolyada's upcoming Chaplin program !!

You know, considering his, uh, performance anxiety, maybe whatever makes him feel happy and calm is what we should all want for him... even if it's Chaplin. Now what was Javi's excuse?

New ISU specification

"No individual shall serve as a member of the Technical Panel or Referee in any discipline of any ISU Senior and Junior Grand Prix Series event, the ISU Junior and Senior Grand Prix Final, any ISU Championships and Olympic Winter Games in which a Skater participates with whom the member of the Technical Panel or the Referee has a special relationship

Such a special relationship can be created e.g. by family relations (see Rule 121, paragraph 3.k) ii) 5.); godparenthood; close friendship with or personal animosity against a Skater, his/her parents, other relatives or Coaches; and, in the case of individuals who are Technical Specialists and Assistant Technical Specialists who are also active as Coaches, there may be a strong rivalry with a Coach of a Skater. In addition, a Coach who is coaching a Skater in a Senior Grand Prix event shall not serve as a member of the Technical Panel at any other Senior Grand Prix event and the Junior and Senior Grand Prix Final of the same season; and a Coach who is coaching a Skater in a Junior Grand Prix event shall not serve as a member of the Technical Panel at any other Junior Grand Prix event and the Junior and Senior Grand Prix Final of the same season."

The above examples are not exhaustive. It is the responsibility of each Official assigned to serve as a member of a Technical Panel or as the Referee to assess whether he/she could be perceived to be in a conflict of interest situation. In case of doubt, he/she shall promptly address the situation with the Vice President for Figure Skating to determine whether a potential conflict of interest exists. It is important to note that not only actual conflicts of interest need to be avoided, but specifically also situations which could reasonably appear as conflict of interest to any third party.

When appointing the members of the Technical Panel and the Referees for ISU Senior Championships, whenever possible, there shall be no appointments of Officials from ISU Members whose Skaters can reasonably be expected to place 1 – 5 in the respective discipline. In case this is not possible, all members of the Technical Panel and the Referee for the respective discipline shall, whenever possible, be from ISU Members whose Skater(s) can reasonably be expected to place 1 – 5 in the respective discipline at the ISU Championships concerned.

ISUMemberPresidents,Vice-Presidents,DirectorsGeneral/Secretaries,SportDirectorsshallnot serve as a member of the Technical Panel or Referee at any ISU Championships, any ISU Senior Grand Prix event, ISU Grand Prix Final Junior and Senior or Olympic Winter Games during the entire time of his or her elected/appointed period of service in the respective above-mentioned ISU Member function.

ISU Member Presidents shall not officiate as a Judge at any ISU Championships, any ISU Senior Grand Prix event, ISU Grand Prix Final Junior and Senior or Olympic Winter Games during the entire time of his or her elected/appointed period of service as an ISU Member President.

Big Feds can't be in Technical Panels anymore. Well, Japan can call Pairs and Ice Dance as much as they want

All Feds preseidents can't judge anymore in big events. Bye bye Leanne Caron.

The conflic of interest is still a bit vague. I mean, if I don't claim I hate skater X, can I still judge him?

All sounds good, but lots of room for individual interpretation

Olympic technical panel can't judge in national competitions outside their country. This is for South Korea who used half of the Olympic TP in their 2017/2018 Nationals

Thanks for all the details, Judge1. I hope this starts to bring some legitimacy back to the scoring!!

Texting on Grinds is considered as a special relationship?

The picture JSF used is nicely taken and well-lit but I prefer this head shot, and it's not even a glamor one.

Random thought but do elite skaters ever hang around forums like dl, gs, or fsu and lurk? If so, do you guys know who?

R348. Thank you for calling me elite. I am looking forward to pictures of my derrière on DL this upcoming season as my artistry finally matches the great Yuzu.

R349 I’m sure your balletic ankles would trump everyone next season. What artistry? What underrotations? Those balletic ankles are all we need in this economy.

r342 Wait. Does that mean no more Shin Amano?

Damn, Shin, change your country to Thailand!

I doubt anybody lurks here. I didn't find this website through a Google search.

R351 He can switch to Canada...they are not in top 5 anymore

r352 excuse you, search "Yuzuru ass" and DL in top 5. assuming Hanyu or other skaters are searching that term...

Yeah that's why I doubt it will come up in a regular search. I actually found the DL while reading Armond Rizzo's Spanish Wikipedia page lmao finding this thread was a happy coincidence.

I found this place when I was looking for a Hanyu-centric forum to hang out in without having to worry about getting kicked out for repeatedly imposing on delicate senses. I literally just inputted "Yuzuru Hanyu" and "forum" and voila! This place appeared as one of the top results. Of course, this was before the flood of anatomy pics that has since trickled down to a slower but steady flow. When I first started poking around in here people were still gossiping hard about Takahashi. I think the sudden spike in anatomy images that didn't appear scientific in any way at all has messed with the search engine's algorithm somewhat and now it probably more registers this place as a fetish site.

R356 That's exactly how I came upon the DL and these threads in particular. I don't remember it being terribly obscure because I was somehow able to find my way here even though I have little patience to venture beyond the first page of hits when I'm Googling something. So it had to have been moderately accessible for someone like me to come across. I'm sure a few skaters have gone on forums, even just to glance at topics being discusses...it's a curiosity that I think is hard not to give in to. I mean, Hanyu lurks on Japanese SNS, right?

I suppose Chartrand has retired.

The new Canadian national team has been announced and Ladies is Daleman, Cotop and Mallet

Has Canada ever had successful women other than Osmond? I perceive Daleman's bronze as a fluke. Looks like Canada is back to nothing. They better throw some money and support at Men, Nguyen, Messing, Phan, Orzel to keep some momentum until Gogo becomes senior eligible.

R359 Joannie Rochette, Elizabeth Manley, Karen Magnussen

There's a Japan Times article on how Zhou secured his sponsorship.

Highlights:

How Hamada got him the Kinoshita Group sponsorship when he told her he could only pay her coaching fees with love, adoration and poetry: "Zhou admitted that he and his family had a heart-to-heart talk with Hamada about his financial situation and that is when the coach stepped up and did something about it. When I came here to Japan to work with Hamada-sensei, my mom and I talked to her about my situation with skating and money,” Zhou commented. “She is very understanding about this and willing to help her students. She contacted Mr. Kinoshita and we met at the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. We talked a little and went over some things and everything was set. Honestly, they made it pretty easy for me. I’m lucky to have these people on my team supporting me. It’s not something that all skaters or athletes have. Ice Time asked Zhou about the terms of the contract. It’s just for one year now,” Zhou said, while not disclosing the financial aspect of it. “We will meet again at the end of the coming season. We will rediscuss, but hopefully I can get some good results this season and show potential for 2022.”

How he'll practice - I’m matriculating at Brown University in the fall semester, so I pretty much won’t be able to go to Japan at all,” Zhou stated. “I will be training in Boston, which is an hour-and- a-half drive from Providence (Rhode Island), where Brown is. It will be a very difficult semester. I will be away for several weeks due to international competitions.”

How much he lurves Hamada and how she found him a place to stay (her house, j/k): “The past two weeks I was staying in a hotel and I would walk and take the bus to the (Kansai University) rink,” Zhou said. “I think after this Coach Hamada has found like a house where I can stay and I think that will be a little better than a hotel, a little more comfortable. She doesn’t just help with the on-ice stuff, she is also very caring about the off-ice stuff and making sure the skaters have the conditions they need to train at their best.”

How Nate is a coddled whore and how much he hates him sooo much and how he has it harder: Ice Time wondered if Zhou had consulted with Chen, who just completed his freshman year at Yale University. I have not talked to him,” Zhou stated. “I want to say my situation and his situation are a little different. I don’t want to make any assumptions. I believe he trains at Yale. They have an ice rink for him. Brown’s ice rink, the time is all rented out to local hockey teams. I can skate at either 7 a.m. or 12 a.m. So that means I have to commute every day. I will only be able to train one session every day. Zhou identified another issue he faces while being ranked behind world champion Chen. Because I am not No. 1 in the U.S., I don’t have the chance to pick what competitions I go to,” Zhou noted. “I can’t just pick my break weeks to go to Grand Prix. I feel like it is kind of a different situation between me and him,” Zhou continued. “All props to him for accomplishing what he has done while attending Yale. That’s incredible. In my mind it doesn’t compare that well. I do look forward to the challenge.”

Thanks, Judge 1. I guess we'll have to see how and whether those changes are implemented, but at least on paper, this seems like a huge step, right? Any behind the scenes info on what prompted these changes, which fed(s) initiated this?

Shin can still make European girls suffer

Gogo's made it official: He will "be coached by Rafael Arutyunyan, along with his current coach Lee Barkell. He will be representing the Granite Club and will be training in Irvine, California."

i feel like Gogo is similar to Zhou, not Chen. We'll see what happens when he grows past 5 ft tall

Looks like Gogo is using SLB for choreography too. Can we consider DW's collapse complete now or does Jason Brown count?

r366 Doesn't Wilson still do Cha's SPs? They're okay, maybe because they're SPs. His Il Postino FS for Cha was godawful boring. As long as he stays away from Japanese girls, they don't need any further incentive to be sugary ice princesses.

R359 Joannie Rochette did ok for herself, Elizabeth Manley got a OSM and WSM in the 80's, Karen Magnussen OSM/WGM in the 70's, Petra Burka OBM/WGM in the 60's, Barbara Ann Scott OGM/WGM in the 40's. Basically Canada gets a decent lady around every 10 years. I dont think Canada cares much about ladies, at least not nearly as much as the US seems to. Mens has always been the most popular discipline there. Even Ice dance is more popular than ladies now bcause of V/M

r363 Whew. Small mercies.

Vincent is soooo fucking funny, and that picture they used is hilarious-is that at the meeting between K Group and V’s team? The fact that they made Vincent and his Mom look like homeless ppl they dragged off the street is so fucking funny. Like they had to really sell the fact that “we need this, we’re poor”

Anyway im amused by him, sounds like he’s gonna have a piss poor season at first not even being in japan working with Hamada and with only 1 session a day and having to get up at dawn and then school....he doesn’t seem like the type to actually work hard you know? He seems like the kid who goes to class to suck up to the teacher and never turn in any assignments. So, like me in high school I guess lol

R370 Uhhh, I think the "homeless" mom you're referring to is actually Hamada. LOL.

[R372] omg oops lol anyway im also reading that article rn and it sounds like vincent is BARELY even going to be with hamada over the next year and a half, like im talking barely 6 weeks over the next year and he’s sounding sooo cocky about it. “Coach Hamada has been a great asset on my team. It would be good to try and come back to Japan if only for a week or so, just to brush up on some things.

I’m sure after four months, one semester, of training on my own I will need some technique reinforcement.”

So how much do we wanna bet us media is still gonna shove the “OMG Vincent has improved soooooooo much because of his work with renowned coach Hamada-sensei! <3” even tho he’s barely worked/working w her

Oh here’s something interesting

“Zhou realizes that results could be especially difficult for him in the coming campaign not only because of his school commitments, but also while trying to recover from a strained ligament in his left knee suffered two months ago during a Stars On Ice tour in the U.S.”

Umm but ur doing sbs 4sals with ur new buddy Rika at ice shows? God this article REEKS of “feel bad 4 me im le underdog”

““But I will be very happy to qualify for the final. I will have to work very hard to get there, because coming back from my knee injury. I told myself I was going to stay healthy this summer and not do anything stupid, but at the least expected moment I got hurt.

“It’s not an overuse injury,” Zhou remarked. “It’s not like I let myself slip into my old, bad training habits. It was a sudden thing that I could not have anticipated — bad luck. It was very unfortunate. It may or may not have an affect on the coming season. I just try to look at things through a realistic lens.”

What an absolute clown

OK, I just can't seem to drop it. I admit it. Wier at FaOI is all things annoying. Just watched the full Makuhari. When they start lining up to bow at the end Hanyu is between Zags and Plu. Then at 2:48:15 , Wier conveniently skates past Hanyu to position himself next to him for the next bow, then again at 2:49:20 acts like a fool drawing attention to himself, Hanyu and Med.

I'm still annoyed that some dumb ass twitter poster keeps posting the flower pic and the IG video of Wier talking about Hanyu's management , taggin #yuzuruhanyu, demanding an explanation of what his management meant when asking to delete the photo, iimplying they didn't want him to seem gay.

I really hope Wier does not do any more ice shows with Hanyu. Hanyu was all about Plu this year.

You gotta go a few clikcs to get to the google drive video.

" Did you know Vincent goes to Brown?" Why does that not sound as impressive as "Did you know Nathan goes to Yale"

Vincent just said it should be more impressive cause he's not as privileged as Nathan and has to walk uphil both ways to an ice rink to train.

I hate that the Vincent thing is making me defend Nathan, but I'm sure I read somewhere that he only gets an hour a day on the ice at Yale? They have two D-I hockey teams it's not like there's going to be a ton of time for a lone figure skater who doesn't actually compete for them.

R376 Zhou's attempt to create a sob story of his "difficulties" is preposterous. He already undeservedly gets more than enough help from the judges which to me disqualifies him from even thinking about being an underdog.

R377 Also doesn't Hanyu only do 10 hours a week of on-ice training due to asthma? That roughly amounts to one session per day which I guess Vincent feels is not enough for an artiste such as himself.

r378 I believe these days his low number of on-ice training hours is due to fear of injuries rather than asthma. I think I haven't heard asthma as an explanation in interviews for years. (Not that I've read every interview. )

It doesn’t matter how many hours you train if you feel you train enough. You don’t hear hanyu complaining or Nathan for that matter. (Ok, I kinda now have to defend him too). Zhou seems to be setting himself up for2 scenarios.

1- I didn’t do as well as Nathan cause my training is more limited and difficult to get to

2- look how great I did and I didn’t even train as much as others, I’m at Brown

So, what happened to Tom Z ? He still on the list of Zhou's coaches?

Given his weak character and attitude, it's no surprise why he couldn't score a more solid deal back home and even here on a foreign land, it feels more like they're throwing him a bone to get him to stop whining and off their backs. So I guess whatever happens next season, if it's something good (for him) it's all thanks to his perseverance and hard work (and nothing to do with propping that looks set to far surpass even the kind Uno got), and if it isn't despite all the whining he did to get the judges to give him scores he doesn't in any way deserve and ISU to freaking change the rules for him so that he can get even more pointa a he doesn't deserve, it's not his fault.

Well, if nothing else, the guy is consistent in giving DL reasons to love him. You know, for all the juicy content he provides. Hanyu doesn't give anything at all in the dept (respect to him with how he manages it because anyone else would've slipped up by now) though he does more than make up for it with something else that's both juicy and make even the negative nellies here react in a positive way.

Lol, this whole phan video became a Hanyu sighting. Like he’s big foot.

Yes, he's a cryptid.

R383 So...? Any rare sightings of the slim sasquatch so far?

R384 It's part of his appeal.

I think another part of his appeal is his inexplicable ability to he so damn predictable yet always be wildly unpredictable at the same time

Yuzuru, if you are lurking, please consider a Cruel Angel’s Thesis SP its what the world deserves

*shudder* I may very well be alone in this but as much as I enjoy anime, video games and their music as the next otaku, I'll be happier if skaters stay away from the really recognizable tunes for their competition programs. The music being recognizable will be fighting with the program elements for attention and I just know that I, for one, won't be able to concentrate on what the skater is actually doing and likely miss details. Especially for a skater like Hanyu who puts so many subtle details into his routines, if it's between just this and warhorses, i'd rather he stick to warhorses if it means I won't get distracted from his skating.

(Okay, that and I find the cringe factor a bit high even for Hanyu skating to highly recognizable anime and video games tunes. I mean I'm sure he'll be able to make it work somehow but unless he really wants to do it for himself, I'd rather he stay far far away from them)

Kinoshita Group has revised their athletes bios and ice dancer Kana Muramoto's profile no longer says she's returning to competition as a pairs skater. Staff made an error. Actual pairs skater Ryuichi Kihara is also still on the Kinoshita list. Kihara was paired with Miu Suzuki until last April when they ended their partnership due to a shoulder injury and concussion Kihara sustained during training that wouldn't heal.

Muramoto recently held a skating class with Takahashi in Niigata. She was also recently added to the cast of Hyoen.

The Sailor Moon ice show Medvedeva will headline will take place next June, around the same time as FaOI. Perhaps this means she will no longer appear in FaOI? Such shows generally target small children as opposed to skating and anime fans. Acting is her thing.

Chen discussed his training schedule in an interview with Canon after last worlds. I don't remember if I translated/summarized the article. He said he's allowed to use the Yale rink as freely as he wants, as long as it's available and it wouldn't have been possible if he'd gone to school in California. The rink is just 5 minutes from his dorm, and if he needs to practice more, he uses another rink a 40-minute drive away. His classes usually end by noon, so he has a lot free time not only for practice, but for studying and hanging out with friends. So what Zhou said is probably true, although the way he said it sounds like an excuse. (Probably is.)

Speaking of Zhou, I hope Hamada is playing the long game by taking him (an American skater) on and getting the judges to treat her and her skaters more equally with their American and Russian counterparts. Zhou's basic skating seemed worse than the novices at DOI, though Chen ("Land of All") may have been the most boring despite being treated as the main attraction. I don't understand why he chose to perform his FS.

Sailor Moon:

Welcome back to the fray, JDC! Thank you for coming back <3<3<3!

To commemorate this special occasion, let's all have a Hanyu-flash-of flesh pic. Not an ass pic, but just as good and much, much rarer! You know what to zoom in on. You don't need me to tell you.

Oh, and it's almost inexplicable how Zhou's name rhymes with "no". Like, "say no to Zhou" sure has a nice and comfortable ring to it. It's also not so hard to imagine that that's possibly what happened with most other potential sponsors he might have approached. I'd feel sorry for him, if I didn't know how undesirable his character and attitude are.

Here’s a double the pleasure photo, for those pearl grabbers dying for a panty pic

Welcome back JDC! Is Med going to be able to sell out a show by herself? I really hope this is not like the Habi thing where it’s a part of FaOI.

JDC's return compelled me to register too. Great to see you back here!

The tagline they've got going for the non-Chinese international market the Sekkisui campaign with Hanyu is also directed at is "Now I stand at the origin." I don't get it. I mean I get what it means in relation Hanyu but I don't get how it's relevant to the product and if I didn't know who Hanyu was, while I may understand the image Sekkisui wants him to represent, I won't have an inkling as to what the tagline is supposed to be telling me. I forgot what they had for the Japanese one but I don't remember being puzzled.

Oh wait. It's "Genten. Sore wa utuskushisa" or something right? That's so much clearer than "Now I stand at the origin." With such a huge campaign, you'd think they'd hire better English copywriters/translators.

BTW the Japanese is more along the lines of, "Beauty is in the origin." Not sure how that got muddled to what it is now.

(Sorry for the spam. Slow day at work.)

So convenient for Kose that they didn't have to do a damn thing for their Hanyu campaign. Just going about his usual business he supplied them with billboard-ready poses and footage, a beautiful costume already color-coded to the products, even a free tagline. He also brings them a bonus ravenous Chinese market along with the ravenous Japanese market. I hope they're paying him a hundred million yen.

According to rumors, they're apparently paying him 3x that. Shame about the English tagline, though. Wrote to them about it (because I really do have that much time on my hands and there's still an hour to go before it's quitting time) but with everything already rolled out and the campaign seemingly a short one, I doubt they can do much even if they wanted to. Hopefully Hanyu's face and contours are enough to do the job when it comes to the possibly just-as-ravenous international market.

It's a good deal for Hanyu, too. They're good with whatever's already existing so he doesn't have to do any extra work other than that little bit of voiceover and that seemed to be a good and fun experience for him. They seem to be a low maintenance sponsor for him so it's a win-win. :)

That seems to be a criteria for him when it comes to picking sponsors but given how lucrative the contract is rumored to be (and while I don't know for sure how much it's worth, c'mon, these kinds of deals can't not be lucrative), these guys really seem to be asking only for the bare minimum from him (they even conveniently arranged the Instalive to be in his hometown) and seem oh-so-easy to please. Then again, Hanyu is famous for going out of his way to make others happy and give the maximum capacity he's promised of himself so there's probably not a single employer who's not satisfied with what he's willing to give to them.

Oh, I see there's another tagline. "Brilliance. Where Beauty Begins." Ohhhh wait....it's tomeikan not genten. Whoops looks like I got the lines mixed up. LoL! Why are there so many of them anyway? Hope Kose ignores my message then. >.<

But now I'm back at where I started - not knowing how the origin tagline works with the product. Maybe it worked better in Japanese because I don't remember going ??? when I heard/saw it but the English one had me scratching my head.

R397 It’s 透明感、それは美しさの原点。 (Toumeikan, sore ha utsukushisa no genten.”) The genten might actually be coincidental as opposed to referencing Hanyu’s “Origin.” Toumeikan refers to having clear, translucent skin. They’re saying beauty begins with having clear, translucent skin, so use their skincare products.

I think Hanyu’s presence will affect the Chinese Sekkisei’s market more than the domestic market.

My favorite will always be P&G's ad with apron-wearing Hanyu doing laundry, ironing a shirt, and playing with detergent pods like they're toys.

R398 it’s almost too perfect like it was planned with the costumes and everything. OR he’s just so esthetically pleasing to look at it just worked...I mean Otonal’s costume was a plus or minus for many a fanyu, but for the kose campaign...perfect

R391 r393 r394 Thank you.

The Sailor Moon ice show is part of a number of events next season to commemorate the series. If it’s like their other theatrical shows, it’s aimed at small children. If it sells out, it’ll be because of Sailor Moon fans. There’s really only one skater, Japanese or foreign, capable of selling out shows on his own. The Olympics were more than a year ago, so I don’t think too many people remember Med anymore even with the letter drama.

Med says she’s playing Sailor Moon, which I also assumed would be the case, but the Japanese press and the official SM site only says she’s performing in the show so far. I think a theatrical show for children is a good fit for her. You can purchase tickets early if you’re a member of the Sailor Moon fanclub.

The 3A plus Zagitova are going to appear on Honoo no Taiikukai. Zakarian was at the recording and at DOI, so he must represent at least one if not all of the 3A, but he’s also been hanging around Zagitova a lot, so maybe he represents her now, too? It’ll be interesting to see how he juggles rival skaters.

R404 It's actually too perfect to not to be a coincidence. Both costumes were based on what the skaters whose original programs inspired these programs wore so blue was the only way Otonal could go. If anything, the shade Weir had was closer to the product's official color but they had to work with with they had.

I'm for the Otonal outfit, btw.

R402 Thanks for clearing that up for me, JDC. But the tagline I'm still confused by is the one that goes "Now I stand at the origin." Any idea what the Japanese for that is? Must have been one of the lines that made up Hanyu's voiceover but taken out of context and in English, it doesn't make much sense to me.

R403 I liked the one with the Febreze, and the one where he pretended to use the disposable razor to shave his baby 'stache.

R406 Sorry, I see what you’re talking about now. It’s right after he jumps in the CM. 今、僕は、まっさらになって、原点に立つ。Before, he says 雪肌精。強く、美しくありたい。圧倒的に輝くために。

Since there isn't any major news to talk about..

In this video the look he gives after staring at Plush for a while what are the chances something lewd crossed his mind? I'd say very likely

Of course as i post that it decides to show me 30 new posts that for some reason didn't refresh all damn day and even JDC returned!

Welcome back JDC

What do you guys think is going on here? I looked up #yuzuruhanyu on IG and got this: "Top posts from # yuzuruhanyu are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagram's community guidelines. Learn more"

R411 Probably yuzuuzu, tagging her explicit thirst posts and leaving them public for Hanyu's colleagues to find. Sis, get it off IG and onto AO3 where it belongs. Or just bring it to DL- where smut is expected and the bar is already on the ground.

R411 I’m always bothered by random FS tagging this hashtag. I mean it has nothing to do with anyone but hanyu. His hashtags RARELY has nudeness or inappropriateness. I mean ass...but always covered.

R408 Thanks! Maybe what I saw was only part of the ad. If they also had something for the first part, it would make more sense I guess, but the "now I stand at the origin" part is a bit clumsily done, imo. Tbh, even the brilliance one sounds clunky and awkward to me. I know it's hard when the source material is in a different language and the whole concept is based so heavily on the Japanese language's ability to be subtle and succinct but it really could have been better if they tried a wee bit harder. Especially for a huge, classy, multi-million project like this one. It now feels as though that whoever did this (Dentsu? Hakuhodo?) only seemed to have invested enough effort to produce something passable.

Sorry, I used to copywrite in the ad industry once upon a time so little things like this really bother me. Especially when they're trying to emulate going down the whole subtle, less is more route.

R358 Chartrand is taking a break, but insists she's not retiring.

Sui/Han pulled out of The Ice b/c Han injured himself during practice.

Little Kolyada confirmed to IFS that he's engaged and not married (his IG post was a little unclear).

r415 Between the two of them Sui/Han seem to be more often injured than Hanyu. Hope they'll recover by the beginning of the season.

Forget which one, but one of the ubers on Instagram posted this - you see, Yuzuru's waist just "looks" narrow - it isn't really, as Yuzu himself explains:

...on June 24, 2019, the fanyu world was blessed by a new Sekkisei interview where one of the questions regarded Yuzu's impossibly narrow waist.

He answered: "In this sport, we need to make rotations. I do lots if exercises involving twisting. My abdominal and back muscles are from skating, I think. I've been told my obliquus externus abdominis muscles muscles are stronger than others. Maybe that's why my waist looks narrow"

* sorry for the typos. I really tried to clean it up but I'm just incompetent. "lots OF exercises" and shouldn't have an extra word "muscles"

R418 Hey, my phone is also apparently a DLer and calls me a fat-fingered cunt so I ain't judgin

Anyone else interested in Jin boyang? With all these practice camps with Tracy and Brian, I’m hoping he has a better year

If it isn’t hanyu, I’m gonna root for boyang in 2022

R420 I've always liked Jin Boyang. Hearing about his bout with depression this past season and then Lazukin screaming in his face at practice makes me want to rally behind the guy even more.

Pleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincoc pleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincoc pleaseletjinownzhouincocpleaseletjinownzhouincoc

R423 lol, if Zhou wins a Grand Prix event, we’ll never hear the end of it...”and I did it while attending Brown in worse training conditions than Nathan...

R420 I’m kinda skeptical about what the china-tcc thing can accomplish with the skaters in a relatively short amount of time, but I do hope it pays off because I too am rooting for Boyang. Although I do think that it’s good that the tcc coaches are the ones coming to China. This way, the Chinese coaches can see what they do and learn from them as well (assuming that they’re there). Hopefully, the Chinese coaches take things in and be the ones to reinforce the skills on their own skaters

Boyang is a good kid and what's more, I'm rooting for him because you can SEE him making improvements instead of trying to coast by on his jumps. He heard the criticism of his artistry and skating skills, so he worked on those and was willing to sacrifice his technical consistency this season to do it. Hopefully he comes out stronger for it.

When is NHK going to announce Dai as host pic

God knows I love Yuzu - but maybe Dai would be an insurance policy against Yuzuru's frail joints? Still, JPN fed ought to be worried about insurance policies other than Dai and Shoma when that wretched and curséd day comes when the prince abdicates. He's given it all at the expense of one (or two) delicate lower parts.

But then, all skaters are almost equally fragile, as the years accumulate especially, but none as precious as this generational skater. No wonder JPN fed is panicky, but really, wasting Hamada on Vincent Zhou? I did like the theory that it was a ploy to get ISU/judges to take Japan more seriously, now they have an American "star" cough cough. If an Japanese company had signed Chen, I'd be more understanding (I guess)

But is Dai really an “insurance policy”. Last year it was a highly hyped “back from retirement” but now he’s just a returned older skater without the tech skills to compete internationally. I doubt he or shoma can fill stadiums by themselves.

Only one man can help them now... It's time to put Itsuki on the ice

Minto Summer Skate (25th July) entries

Orzel, Phan, Nadeau

Kurakova, Pineault

Shingo is doing Junior Dance event

Championnats Quebecois d'Ete (8-11 August)

Mallet, Pineault

Nadeau, Phan

Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen, Lajoie/Laga, Laurialt/Legac, Smart/Diaz, Soucisse/Firus

Uno and Mirai Nagasu have been confirmed for Japan Open. Lambiel is a special guest. So far, that’s Uno, Kihira, and Miyahara for Team Japan. Fernandez for Team Europe. Nagasu for Team North America.

Origin encore at FaOI Toyama:

R414 I think the translation was done in-house by a staff member with limited Japanese and English ability instead of a professional because whoever did it clearly didn’t understand the original text. The “I stand at...” is very much a google/word-for-word translation. “Brilliance” must refer to “kagayaku” from the previous line, so the translator likely didn’t know what “toumeikan” is and didn’t understand that they were working with separate sentences.

The main overseas audience is HK, Taiwan, and mainland China, so the accuracy of the English probably isn’t that important. (How was the Chinese?) Still, a checker would have noticed these issues and it’s strange that no English-speaking staff or overseas offices pointed out how wonky the English comes across, unless it was insisted that that particular translation be used, but that happens more with smaller companies/clients.

R430 Where is our true king? I haven't heard or seen much of him lately. I hope he's staying fresh + fierce and cultivating a fabulous summer glow.

Is Itsuki moving to Russia too? Otherwise how will he have stories to keep promoting themselves by calling Shoma the "absent-minded" older brother.

R434 Thing is, "tomeikan" is one of those words in the Japanese language which meaning should be ambiguous yet is clear as day to most who speak the language. As I'm sure you're well aware, the Japanese language have a lot of these words that say very little but mean a lot.

"Brilliance" isn't wrong by any means, but in English, that more indicates intelligence right off the bat and if you actually meant to imply clear skin, then you've got to use it as an adjective together with the object so here it has to be "brilliant complexion". Which doesn't fit with their concept as I suppose it's too literal, since I think they are trying to tie it to Hanyu's whole skating image and persona instead of his skin (which is clear not because of him using their product and he probably doesn't want the company to spin it from that angle because that would mean he'd be lying).

"Translucency" would have come across clearer if they are aiming for a one-worded catchphrase but it's a bit of a mouthful, uncommon, long and hard to spell, all of which makes it hard to decipher with just a quick glance. Still, I'm sure they would have come up with something clever or at least something that would have worked better had they tried a bit harder. It's just mindboggling since this is an expensive and large-scale campaign, that they do intend to also direct at an English-speaking market, even if not the western one per se. Otherwise, why waste all that money for those gigantic ads at Changi airport?

I don't know if it's in their intention but if they hope to compete with SK-II, they really need to brush up on their English copy because they have a great concept and ambassador (people don't even have to know who he is, they only need eyes to see and led further in by compelling words) and it's being wasted. Now it's just a clumsily-worded ad with some male figure skater. No way this will beat SK-II's Bare Skin Essentials campaign, if that's what they're hoping to compete with, at least in the English-speaking Asian market. It would have stood a good chance if they had invested more effort in the copy, but as things stand, if I, as Hanyu fan, don't get it when I see it in English, what hope do they have in reaching people who don't know who he is and aren't into twinky-looking dudes in twinky-looking outfits?

Sorry for the rant. Seeing such shoddily-done copy on a campaign that pretty much has everything else just brings to mind what a huge waste of opportunity and resources this is when it comes to the English-speaking market and thinking about it gets me riled up. I mean, I really expected something better because Kosé is usually classier in their handling of their international marketing materials.

Sigh. Nothing to do about it. What's done is done and it's already out there. Think I'll go drink some ice tea or something to cool down.

I'm not a fan of Alexei Krasnozhon's skating, but he did a long and interesting interview for a Russian site. They asked him a bunch of questions about gay rights and he answered very sensibly. Seems like an alright kid. Most interesting thing I learned from the article is that his father performs sex change surgeries! Well, I guess that's how he can afford to live and train over here.

He says that skaters all read the online forums, too, for someone who asked.

He seems a hell of a lot more likeable than Zhou, that's for sure.

R438 Good interview. He speaks his mind. The view of Brown's skating is interesting - I've never heard of him being considered overscored but maybe that's the view in Russian comment sections.

His story about the American athlete who wanted a car so his agent just went and made him a deal - I assume that's Chen with his cheesy sponsored post.

So now I'll have to read the interview and maybe change my mind about Krasnozhon and stop hating on his redneck vibe and horrible skating?

:) :) :)

R441 ooooh never seen this one before

Not quite as perky-looking here due to the angle but the crisp lines of his entire physique is pure aesthetic.

And gotta love how the different tones of black means he's wearing gear from a mishmash of brands, likely his personal favorites based purely on comfort and movability.

Itsuki has replaced his brother at home (the plan all along?) and met with Coach Yamada. He also got some new contacts and glasses, and shared an exciting photo from his eye exam! His brother had been complaining about being unable to stomach the food in Russia. Now that exams for the term are over, will we be seeing the supermodel brother in Russia?

R437 Sorry if it wasn’t clear. Toumeikan is a commonly-used beauty industry term, so I doubt the translator would’ve gone with “brilliance” if they were familiar with it. (ツヤ感・肌ツヤ is closer to a brilliant complexion.) 輝き is almost always translated as “brilliant” by Japanese cosmetics companies (Kose included) in their ads and sometimes they’ll even use the English “brilliant” ブリアント in their Japanese ads and product names instead. Hanyu says 圧倒的に輝くために right before 透明感, so that’s why I think the translator went with “brilliance” even though it’s incorrect and sounds odd. The “I stand at the origin” really is a google-translate job, so I’m fairly certain the problem wasn’t just clumsy English or having trouble coming up with a good line, but the translator not even understanding what was being said. (透明感 has also been used in Sekkisei ads with all of their spokesmodels and they already have a new spokesmodel as of last week: Kaya Kiyohara.)

Even though their products aren’t cheap, Sekkisei is not a high prestige brand like SKII and more like a drugstore brand in Japan, so they target different customers. Kose does have a few high prestige brands like Cosme Decorte.

You whores are feeling the drought.....and I feel you.

R444 the kose add translation is becoming as intense as mama hanyu sex life. Meaning some of us are really invested and some of us don’t really give a shit

Thanks JDC! Question....what is Itsuki without Shoma? Meaning is he a leach of a sibling or does he have any merit on the own

R447 He’s a supermodel, cook, published author, and TV talent!

r437 Ah. Everything's making more sense now. Thanks for clearing that up. Looks like Sekkisei's working already. XD

r446 Yeah, I'm one of those who are bothered by poor writing and/or translation when I expect something more. I'm pretty sure there are things you're bothered by that I don't give a shit about. To each their own, aye?

R446 There are people here who don't give a shit about Mama Hanyu's sex life? Who are these heartless whores?

R448 What? You forgot field hockey player.

Zagitova's programs for next year: FS - Cleopatra, music including ‘The Feelings Begin’ by Peter Gabriel, ‘Lawrence d’Arabie’ by Maurice Jarre, and ‘’Ramses’ by Khatir Hicham, choreo by Daniil Gleikhengauz

What's with all the Egyptian programs this year? Off topic maybe, but did you guys know that one version of the Egyptian creation myth was that some god masturbated and ejaculated the first humans? Also, Cleopatra had a vibrator made out of bees.

Just because I'm bored...

Saya needs to learn from Itsuki and start attention-whoring. I mean I'm sure daddy the school principal won't approve because that's not how he raised her (and look even your megastar of a younger bro who used to follow you around like an annoying little turd you can't get rid off and whom you've sacrificed so much for doesn't attention whore off the ice) but this classy just-pretend-we're-not-entities thing really makes all the relatives of other skaters who are clamoring for attention look like desperate clowns. Nothing against Itsuki and he does make for good fodder here at DL during the dry spell but...it's sad. I hope he's got a plan B because this isn't going to last past the moment the older, shorter Uno becomes less popular.

Then again...I don't see any other non-skating relatives of other top Japanese skaters (the ones currently competing) desperately seeking attention the way he is right now. I mean I really don't recall anyone else...

....actually, never mind. I'd rather see more of Uno #2 then Zhou. Bring it on, Itsuki!

Phrased that wrong at r449: the vibrator was a gourd or some container filled with bees swarming inside; not like they stitched together a bunch of bees and made a vibrator.

Someone explain this to me: why did Hanyu give us waist porn with his FAOI group costume, yet went for full-body panty hose with Masquerade?

Is Kozuka a furry now?

R453 that makes more sense to have a gourd that hummmms as opposed to stitched up bees that can still sting. . Also his full body panty hose depending on which HD version u see is like the black pants of sin, second only to the purple POS

Case in point a la 1:35

R453 That's simple. The group outfits aren't program outfits and they're designed and mass produced by the organizers. His program outfits are all single items of clothing. The fact that he makes them look like they're separate is something I really appreciate about him and his costumes...cos I really can't stand those shapeless full body leotards that males skaters of past generations used to subject viewers to. But, with him, even when the bottoms visibly stretch way above the waistline, they still hug his figure nicely. The dude even got stuff like the bottom half of his LGC costume to wrap around his bottom nicely and accentuate it to the high heavens. TBH, I think his full body panty hoses (lol nice term...very apt) are more provocative then his flashes of skin. Like, to me, the sight of that abdomen clad in slinky black material heaving is more risqué than if I were looking at straight-up skin.

R457 I didn't know this! His program costumes are all basically onesies?

Yeah. Oda revealed in a TV program once they're one-pieces and lamented enviously how he looks so good in them cos of his insanely tapered physique. But I think the fact that he deliberately have them designed to look separate also plays a huge part because if he hadn't, with his physique and curves, he might as well be wearing a catsuit, which is very good but would be entirely too distracting.

Anyway, it all makes sense if you think about it. I mean, even if they look separate, the way they never part to reveal any skin whatsoever when he does what he does on ice can only mean they've been sewn together. That and if you see him jump in his SEIMEI costume, especially the first incarnation, when the loose flaps below the waist belt fly up, you'll see that his pants actually stretch all the way up as well.

I think other than his PW costume, most everything else are single items. Heck, for all we know even that could have been a single piece, lol.

For some reason this looks lewder then him showing actual skin would have been or is that just me? Damn his waist really is something to be envious off

Poor guy can’t even lean on a chair when he’s exhausted, cause crazy med- hanyu shippers will take it the wrong way....or I’m assuming

@1:10

Alina Zagitova's new free program: Cleopatra.

Music:

Peter Gabriel - The Feelings Begin. Maurice Jarre - Lawrence d’Arabie Ouverture. Khatir Hicham - Ramses.

Poor guy’s exhausted and can’t even lean on a chair cause crazy Med-Hanyu shippers will take it the wrong way. Or he just wanted to be closer to Scott.

@1:10

Poster for R461 r463- I thought could go either way

Isn't Yuzu leaning even closer in to Zags?

And you can put that together with him holding hands with her at the bowing time, coming out from backstage to watch Zags' Carmen (which an audience member saw), and posing for pictures with her and Plush at the end? (without needing Weir to push himself and Med into Yuzu's personal space)

I'm NOT shipping btw - just fighting other shippers. And wasn't Moir the one who actually cried when Yuzu landed his 4Lz? And didn't Yuzu and Scott hold hands at the end of one of the shows, while circling the ice?

From Kostornaia's GS thread:

"Update it seems her LP will be her vampire program. No post yet on what the SP will be, but she edited the original post about the vampire program to say it will be her free program"

Here she is - somebody said the music was from "Twilight" (I really need to keep up)

Does this jacket make my butt look big?

Twilight actually has some good music, the soundtrack is pretty much the only good thing about it. The song below was on the soundtrack, although I doubt it'll be a part of Alena's, I mean Daniil's choice. Although knowing Daniil's penchant for emo, who knows. Anyway, Twilight seems like a fairly understandable program for a 15-yo. Much more that an escape from a mental hospital or whatever.

I really think it's an inspired choice. My hunch is if you don't really 'pop' this season - or land quads/3A's - ladies' is gonna be a bloodbath.

Apparently the music is Supermassive Black Hole and Your Eyes on Fire. Great songs, both of them, and e everybody can shut up about how Muse is overplayed. It's not Exogenesis!

Anybody's got link to Alena's performance on DoI? The one reddit linked to has already drawn the ire of Japanese tv.

Some music choices, maybe so e of them were. mentioned before?

Nam Nguyen SP: Blues for Klook.

Uh. Takahashi and Sui/Han are tough act to follow, the Dance team last season didn't manage. I'm not sure Nam is a dancer goid enough to pull it off.

Gabby Daleman SP: Jazz Man

I'm not a fan of jazz but that song sounds good and seems right up Gabby's alley.

Tuk SP: Drumming Song

Awesome choice.

Sakamoto SP: No Roots

Great song, choreo seems okay... but just okay and Kaori really needs to step it up because right now her energy really doesn't match the song.

I'm actually a bit worried if all those Shae-Lynn modern programs, No Roots, The Drumming Song, Energia etc are not becoming a bit of one-note. Still it's a better one-note than Wilson. Apparently Averbukh was originally supposed to choreograph Tuk's SP. He probably would have chosen a different song, but wouldn't it have been intersting to see Averbukh taking on a Drumming Song?

Kolyada SP: Winds of Change

I love Scorpions so that's great! It'l offset his stupid Chaplin program.

Krasnozhon SP: Runaway (from Westworld) Krasnozhon FS: Interview with Vampire/Dracula

Heh. Another vampire program. Love me some vampire programs but Krasnozhon trying to portray an erotic blooloodsucker? Ahahaha. Intersting SP choice though!

Orzel SP: In My Blood

Not a fan of Mendes but there isn't an overabundance of this type of sound and Buttle is doing the choreo so it could be good.

Tomono SP: The Hardest Button to Button Tomono FS: Moulin Rogue

Sigh. From rare rock to an awful warhorse. Why is it almost always SP that's the bolder choice?

Zhou SP: I Will Wait (Shae-Lynn) Zhou FS: Megapolis (from Cloud Atlas, Lori)

Americans, does Mumford and Sons qualify as country? Shae-Lyn doing country? I couldn't find a piece called Megapolis on the Cloud Atlas soundtrack, but the soundtrack seems like a fairy typical (read: uninspired) movie fare so I'm reserving judgement for later.

Gabby Daleman FS: It's All Coming Back To Me Now. Loena Hendricx SP: It's All Coming Back To Me Now.

Aw, shit. I live me some Celine Dion. If only Gabby could stay on her feet. It'll be fun to compare.

Trusova FS : Game of Thrones

Now, it looks goid on paper BUT. It's typical Matt Bellamy (of Muse) wailing and some slow plumking piano the strings picking up a bit movie music. Namely what Daniil seems to love best. Which means it'll be his old boring shit again.

Meanwhile, Med is stuck with Exogenesis and Memoirs of the Geisha. Averbukh and Ge. Better them than Wilson, but still.

Dmitri Aliev's 2019-2020 programs: SP: "Je Dors Sur Des Roses" from Mozart l'Opéra Rock FP: "The Sound of Silence" by Disturbed

Instagram "stories" of poster "skater_on_ice":

Gabby Daleman says she has a 3A planned in her short program and a 4T in her free.

R475 Why is Gabby setting herself up for more disappointment and mental illness? Ladies events are going to be major splatfasts this season.

Maybe she was joking? That person had a photo of Gabby, coach Barkell, and a couple other people, just before the quote, beginning, "She also said..."

Has gabby ever done either a 3A or 4T

R478 no

Short Nathan interview in Japan - Yuzu and Shoma mentions

So it looks like some popular celebrity threads have been locked down for subscribers only. If you cheap whores don't want to pay 2 measly dollars, lets try this way: I created a new thread, which shouldn't be locked down right now.

If anybody wants to follow, this is where the discussion ended up: