All Activity

Those Olympics took place in Russia, and Russia had never won gold in the women's event. Many considered Lipnitskaya the favorite over Sotnikova, but it is always good to have multiple athletes to rely on if possible. Lipnitskaya made mistakes and took herself out of medal contention, while Sotnikova’s rapid rise provided a safety net for Russia. That is somewhat similar to what the United States did in the most recent women's competition. In the 2023–24 season, Isabeau Levito was clearly the leader of the US team and a strong medal contender for major events. While she truly deserves high PCS, her jumping technique is among the ugliest I have ever seen. Within a few months, Amber Glenn stabilized her triple Axel, and her federation threw its support behind her. In the 2024–25 season, Glenn won the Grand Prix Final with higher PCS than Chiba—something that defies logic. Glenn herself acknowledges that she does not skate as well as Chiba. She has the 3A and—barring errors—a higher Base Value (BV), but Chiba is the one who deserves higher PCS. At that Grand Prix Final, Glenn scored in PCS 1.69 points more than Chiba across the Short Program and Free Skate combined. Had their scores been swapped—which would have been far more accurate—Chiba would have won the competition. At the 2025 World Championships, in the US, with Levito and Glenn both making errors, the technical panel failed to call Liu’s under-rotations, and she emerged as the new champion. The US arrived at the Olympics with three potential title contenders. If one of them faltered, the others were there to step up. It is true that Sakamoto made a costly error—otherwise, she would have won—but when a nation has multiple medal-worthy athletes (like in Sotnikova and Lipnitskaya case), the chances of winning increase.

The pictures!

Trying to get as much information as possible, I have now 4 items in my cart from amazon japan. the blue flame series and a biography. All in japanese. I know that I can get a translation of blue flame 3, when ordered. But for the rest: is there a practicable way for translation, if not have a digital version?

There is no full-footage available. They were all released by programs, some from official media and some from fancams. I made a thread on twitter the other day. There were 13 programs that he performed across 3 days practice:

TBH, the deep V-neck of the Rondo costume bothers me! The deep V-neck design for Notte Stellata makes sense since it's the swan. For Rondo? I don't get it! It might sound ridiculous, but that's the reason I cannot watch his Rondo. In fact, it takes me a long time to appreciate his Ballad since I innately hate Chopin! To me, Chopin's music is unnecessarily difficult and doesn't sound good to me. One day, I heard the Ballad music on the street, and I found that I felt excited rather than annoyed, which is quite unusual to me. Chopin has to thank Yuzuru since I don't hate his music as much now. Maybe one day I can start appreciating his Rondo like Ballad.

please bring back the video section! i miss it so muchh

Best friends forever 🥰🧸🌸

I watched the two videos about women's events 10-20 times --- a great analysis supported by solid evidence. I learnt a lot from the two videos. While it took Yuna, Javi, and Yuzu 4-5 years to increase their PCS from 6 to 9, Eteri girls' PCS often skyrocket from 7 to 9 in a few months or even weeks. Adelina Sotnikova is the first, though she was not coached by Eteri, then Medvedeva, Zagitova, and Shcherbakova. Below is the video clip of B.ESP's comments on Medvedeva's SP at the 2018 European. Her leg travelled 4 feet in a layback spin, and judges gave her level 4 and +2/+3 GOE for that element. The commentator also said if she could get 9's in PCS, then Carolina Kostner should get 11. Evgenia Medvedeva 2018 SP Europeans BRITISH SHADE + TEA SIPPING For men's events, I have only heard Massimiliano Ambesi comment on Shoma's high PCS (If Shoma could get 9, Patrick Chan should get 12), but no others. When Medvedeva was injured in 2017-18, Eteri needed a backup to secure the 2018 Olympics gold for Russia. She promoted Zagitova and closed the PCS gap between Zagitova and Medvedeva in a few months. Judges have manipulated PCS in the women's at least for 3 skaters before 2018 in a shameless way. Repeating it in the men's field is easy.

For me Rondo Cappriccioso is breathtaking perfekt in this version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq20-bU6KNc&t=4s

Looking for Yuzurus Practice at the end of Beijing. He skated through a lot of former programms there. I find snippets but not the whole practice. If it is available I would be very thankful for a link.

Thank you!!! Still tears in my eyes. "the 10 year old boy is smiling..."

Thank you! I haven't watched this video for a very long time. He's so vulnerable and yet so strong. That's why he's so unique and great!

You can open subtitles, which are auto-transcribed in Japanese, and have them auto-translated into English. The translation works fine.

Thank you all for your beeing and contribution here and elsewhere. I'm really overwhelmed. Now I will look one more time the clip with Yuzus teacher in Beijing and go to bed happily😊 with some bittersweet tears Beate

I'm so sorry to worry you with my post. I thought a lot about that over the day. In all this wonderful discussions I understand more and more that everything I can do is love him, pray for him, respect his way and destiny and leave the rest to god. That seems to be my challenge. Beate

No, I hadn't seen them. Thanks for the links. Consider the previous seasons' medalists. The 2014–15 season saw the dominance of Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, but the following season she failed to replicate those performances, and Russia could no longer rely on her. Who came before Tuktamysheva? Russia managed to secure an Olympic gold for Adelina Sotnikova, but then she disappeared. Lipnitskaya suffered a serious injury after winning just one World silver medal. Aside from those three, medals in preceding years had gone to Asian skaters—Japan’s Mao Asada and Miki Ando, and South Korea’s Yuna Kim—as well as Italy’s Carolina Kostner. Few other skaters won anything; no one won gold, and no one claimed more than two medals across the Olympics and World Championships. On the men's side, following a period of dominance that began with Urmanov—think of the Olympic champions: Urmanov (1994), Kulik (1998), Yagudin (2002), and Plushenko (2006), with Plushenko also coming agonizingly close to gold in 2010—and a haul of countless medals, Russian skating was in a slump. Skaters like Kovtun, Kolyada, Voronov, and Gachinski—who vanished immediately after winning a World bronze—stood no real chance of winning major medals. With no contenders on the men's side, Russia needed a champion among the women, and at that moment, Medvedeva—with her ability to consistently deliver clean programs—was the perfect fit. Later, when Chen became competitive, Russia and the United States simply ceded the other nation free rein in the discipline where they themselves lacked competitiveness. They didn't get in each other's way, allowing Russia to win the women's events and the US the men's events without interference. Japan? Compared to them, it didn't matter. Korea? I believe it is the nation that treats its own athletes worse than any other. No, because each analysis takes a lot of time, and I didn't manage to look at the women as well. Real-life commitments come before any online chatter. I, too, sometimes disappear for a while because I’m too busy with other things. Just go at whatever pace works best for you. Yuzu is much happier now than he was during the last four years of his competitive career, and what he’s showing us is extraordinary. That’s why I’m glad he’s a professional now—though I will never forgive the ISU and the JSF for the suffering they caused him and all the medals they stole from him. So, if there’s a chance to talk about what happened during those years, I won’t shy away from it.

I looked the full video without understanding a single word and was just happy.

Have you ever seen the two videos What is Happening to Women's Figure Skating? | An Essay | PART 1 and The Cycle of Exploitation in Women's Figure Skating | An Essay | PART 2? From the two videos, I suspect after Yuzu broke 6 world records in a row in 2015, the women's field also wanted to promote a similar prodigy --- Evgenia Medvedeva. The way she broke world records and the perfect PCS (several 10's) she received in 2016-17 looks similar to Yuzu, even though she clearly was not as perfect. Judges ignored her flaws (flutz, prerotation, and once the ESPN commentator pointed out that her axis travels 4 feet in spins) and gave her high and nearly perfect scores, just like what happened to Shoma and Nathan. It's funny that she no longer got generous PCS and judges started to made edge calls on her jumps when she moved from Eteri to Orser. Other Eteri girls were also promoted in a similar way. As judges often judge across multiple fields, if they had manipulated scores in women's fields, they could do it again with less moral stress in the men's field. Eteri paved a path that the US federation could easily follow. I remember you had an analysis that it became much easier for other skaters to get high PCS after Yuzu pushed the limit of PCS to 98 in 2015, but I don't remember whether you included women. I have many more thoughts that I want to share with you, but I have a task due this Friday and another next Tuesday. I hope I can post my thoughts shortly after that. I am still obsessed with the competitions, though many people here have moved on to his new pages.

We've all been there, more or less. Whether we follow figure skating or it just happened us to see him by chance, something strikes us, we start researching, and we're hooked. You're not alone in saying you've never been a fan like this before. This is true for many of us. One of the beautiful things about this community is that we help each other find new information, share what we know, or figure out how to navigate a language we don't know and buy what we're interested in. We'll always be worried about him. He always gives his all, and the risk of injury is always present. And if it were to happen, we'd know about it afterwards, because he never spoke before, when he was still injured, when there was something he had to do and for which we had high expectations. Respect for his competitors? Yes (except when it is the rivals who forget to respect him, which has happened on a few occasions). Chen has my respect, his coach no. And a lot of judges and ISU (and JSF) officials don't have it. It takes time to learn to distinguish jumps, and you only do it if you're willing. You don't need to know the jumps to appreciate the programs and competitions. Seeing if rotations are complete is not easy, especially if the missing part is around 90°. Is it more? Is it less? Small differences in rotation can have huge effects on the score. Chen's jumps had the virtue of being stable. He almost always landed them. They weren't big, he needed a long preparation, and the exit was always a bit rushed. He put his free foot down as soon as possible because he had not a good running edge, but fundamentally his technique was correct. He simply didn't deserve high GOEs because his jumps lacked amplitude and there was a clear gap in his programs: long preparation, then jump, then immediately put the foot down to avoid losing balance, without doing anything difficult, and then another preparation for the next technical difficulty. Yuzu made more mistakes, but his programs were a continuous flow from one movement to the next, because when he didn't make mistakes, he deserved much higher marks than Chen. And the marks, if assigned correctly (even in the PCS), should have been enough to compensate for Chen doing one more quadruple. Malinin jumps like no one before him. Right now, and with these rules, he's the strongest skater. Which doesn't mean he's a complete skater, but figure skating hasn't required completeness for years. It requires quadruple, and for skaters who are more or less at the same level in quadruple, it's a good thing to have the right passport. The judging system can be improved, but there will always be problems. The one you noted is one of the most complex, but something can be done. Chopin's Ballade in 2015 received a huge number of 10.00s. The Ballade in 2020 was a better program. The judges couldn't give the Ballade a 10.50, but they could have given that program the same marks they had in 2015, and given programs skated at the same level as the 2015 Ballade a 0.25 or a 0.50 less. Instead, in 2020 they slightly lowered the marks for the Ballade and raised the marks for lower-level programs. This distorts the results. If the judges maintain the correct level difference between the programs, the judging system works. If they lower the scores of the best programs and raise the scores of mediocre programs, they make the difference in value disappear and distort the competition results. Years have passed, but I still want to say a few words to certain people. And in one case, I'm truly hoping that justice will take its course, even though it's clear that politicians are very good at evading legal trouble. I fear his perfectionism tends to affect him too much. But I also think that turning professional, distancing himself from the toxic world of competitions and meeting artists with whom he can be himself, have helped him a lot. Much of the negativity of the past has disappeared; the important thing is that he doesn't get injured again (and that the tabloids go bankrupt). - The +5/-5 system is much more easily manipulated than the +3/-3 system. - The US Federation started applying much more pressure because they needed a champion and finally had a skater who, with a little help, could win. On the other hand, the JSF, which had never liked Yuzu, found a potential medal contender in Uno. For some time after Sochi, the JSF could only count on Yuzu for the world medals, so sabotaging Yuzu meant winning nothing. Uno's arrival prompted them to think they could have a champion they liked better because he didn't think for himself as Yuzu, but did what they wanted. - The judges, even the honest ones, stopped giving Yuzu the highest score because they expected the impossible from a two-time Olympic champion. Look at the competitions. Anyone who performs a short program with 4T and 4S, one of the two in combination, and completes the program well, is praised for having performed a very difficult program. When Yuzu did it, his jumps were considered easy, everyone assumed he could do them, after all, he was a two-time Olympic champion, and since they thought his jumps were easy, they gave him marks lower than the ones he actually deserved. Yes, Beijing was important because Yuzu finally understood that for us he as a person is more important than any medal.

I'm so thankful for this video. I will not share it! But I think will see over and over again. Still tears in my eyes. I felt already for the short snippet some weeks ago, that there was relief for Yuzuru with the message from his beloved teacher. Now it's much more complete. I just start understanding the way Yuzuru feels and think. He emphazised here again, that the strongest motivation for him is to give his absolut all. That is a tough and also dangerous way but it is his way of living at the edge. When I want to give him the respect he deserves I have to respect this and seeing it in a way as his destiny. Really thank you so much. Beate

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! Ι got to know Yuzu's skating genius just last spring when a "Megalovania" opening video popped on my YouTube. I immediately became frantic. I started watching, over and over again, all his philosophical "Ice Stories" and his heartwarming "Notte Stellatas" on Planet Hanyu. Each time with the initial exhilaration, not giving a damn about his competition years. Then I wanted to find out if he were just an athlete back then. I cried my heart out when he skated in China, bandages around his head. I got hooked on "Romeo" of 2014, "Seimei" of 2018, "Heaven and Earth" of 2021. So, not just an athlete. A very young artist. I have fallen in love with Yuzuru's skating. I noticed that whenever I watch his performances like "The swan", "Haru yo Koi" or "Prequel" , at the end I don't dare to breath so as not to spoil the moment. Never can I recall if he did any jumps at all. What I can recall is how I feel when he stretches his thread out to us all, to reach us and create a connection. To offer us a bond through his elegant fingertips, his deep gazes and his forceful steps, so that we can dance, fight or fly with him. We could not evaluate his jumps and spins anymore, the same way we could not evaluate Mozart's note arrangements or Da Vinchi's brush strokes. It is what it is. Please, don't get me wrong, I do share your worry for our brilliant boy. But I think that is the "fate" of most art pioneers. They tend to exceed limits without any resistance to their inner drive. And they are often mistreated by those in authority. But in the end, their impact on Art History goes far beyond all that 🌸

Oh~my~. I just read your words more carefully, and I feel worried again~ I don't know what to do~ As he followed the steps of Dick Button to win 2 back to back Olympic gold, I also hope he can follow Dick Button in the aspect of living up to age 95 (or more!)