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Generally, the most powerful federations are the Russian and the US. Another federation that's very active behind the scenes is the French one. Partly, it's a matter of political alignment: the Russian federation can count not only on the favorable votes of Russian judges, but also those of Belarusian, Georgian, and so on. And with so many judges voting a certain way, it's harder to see that the votes are odd. The US federation relies on the favorable votes of Mexican judges and, in many cases, those of Canadian and Japanese judges, depending on the skaters in question. The Italian and Israeli federations seem to operate differently depending on the competition, but they certainly seek strong allies. There may be actual agreements, but also more subtle influences. I've read judges state that when a judge is inexperienced, he tends to imitate what more experienced judges do, and from there, it's not far to being influenced. Then there's the matter of reputation. When a skater is touted as a great champion, judges tend to raise their scores. How come this didn't happen in the last part of Yuzu's career? Because the US federation, aided by the press, repeatedly emphasized that Yuzu was old, no longer in peak condition, that his routines had become repetitive... A couple of Yuzu mistakes, and the fact that he was no longer the strongest became common belief. And the Japanese federation sabotaged him in turn because its directors never liked him. After Sochi, they only had Yuzu, so they were more or less fair, but when Uno became strong, they saw an opportunity to surpass Yuzu and began sabotaging him, as we clearly saw at the National Championships. There's also another issue: if a skater has very difficult technical content, judges tend to raise his scores. Among the men, this means that those who perform 4Lz or 4F have higher GOEs and PCSs than they deserve, while the other quadruples are considered easy. Zagitova did all her jumps in the second half of her programs, Shcherbakova and Trusova had quadruples, and Kostornaya the 3A (Kihira also had 3A, but her federation never loved her, and anyway, the JSF means nothing compared to the Russian federation). Yes, we can consider ourselves lucky that Patrick wasn't Russian or American, although Yuzu might have won anyway. They hadn't yet realized Yuzu was so strong, so perhaps they wouldn't have used enough manipulation.

No, youre right. He broke the Zayak rule in that program. In the previous phrase I wrote "free skate", I forgot to repeat the detail in the other phrase. The Zayak rule works a little differently in SP and FS. It's rarer for the rule to be broken in SP, and the chances of changing a layout are lower, so at Skate Canada, Yuzu didn't realize the problem until he saw the score. With the new layout, the 4T in combination, he eliminated this risk, but I'm sure that if he hadn't changed the layout, he wouldn't have made that kind of mistake again. At Skate Canada, he should have left the 3Lz alone. He would have had a slightly negative GOE, but it would have been entered as a triple jump, and the toe loop would have been called as a 2T + COMBO. He would have gotten roughly 6 more points.

It's online! Go watch it!

Happy 4th Proversary!

We will all walk forward together as we enter the 5th year of pro skating

[NEWS]

Inspired by Prequel We are all hoping to see the next chapter soon

[2026.07.19] ***Machine translation, inaccuracies exist*** Source: https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2026/07/19/annexz/20260719b00079000019000c.html [Yuzuru Hanyu: 4th Anniversary as a Professional (1)] "So this is how it turned out": The view revealed by building up the present moment July 19, 2026 00:00 (Paid/Premium Article) On the 19th, Yuzuru Hanyu (31)—a two-time Olympic champion in men's figure skating—marked the fourth anniversary of his transition to the professional ranks. In an online interview with Sponichi, he looked back on these past four years and outlined his blueprint for the future. Over the last year, despite incorporating periods for physical maintenance, he successfully completed the disaster recovery-themed ice show "notte stellata" and "REALIVE," a production that encapsulated his career trajectory. With the production of ICE STORY 4th already announced, he has embarked on a fifth year of further artistic deepening.

[2026.07.19] ***Machine translation, inaccuracies exist*** Source: https://hochi.news/articles/20260718-OHT1T51401.html Yuzuru Hanyu Has “There is nothing but potential for growth.” Exclusive Interview Celebrating His 4th Anniversary as a Professional Skater — Part 1: “Changes in His Fourth Year”

July 19th is the 4th anniversary of Yuzuru's Pro conversion. Sport Hochi is releasing a 3-part series with an interview with Yuzuru. The articles will be release on July 19, 21, and 22. https://x.com/figure_hochi/status/2078208824305910206?s=20 Sponichi Has also published articles, free and paid (through Sponichi Annex)

When it comes to PCS inflation, one thing that has always puzzled me is that it’s not just a handful of biased judges—it seems to be almost all of them. Who has the power to influence practically every judge on the panel? And then I realized that PCS inflation and GOE manipulation have been standard practice in ladies’ events since at least Sochi 2014. For example, the PCS for the champion jumped dramatically—from the 7s to the 9s—in just two months. The same sudden increase in PCS occurred for several Eteri skaters (Evgenia, Alina, and the 3As). Whenever a new prodigy is promoted, the judges inflate her PCS to help close the gap between the newcomer and her predecessor. Eteri girls can easily receive GOEs of 4 or 5 as long as there are no obvious mistakes, while GOEs for other skaters are usually capped at 3. Judges also tend to overlook edge errors or underrotation in jumps for these skaters—but if any of these girls change coaches, the PCS bonus disappears and suddenly their jumps are heavily scrutinized. If judges have been systematically manipulating scores in the ladies’ events, there’s little reason to think they wouldn’t do the same in the men’s. In this article—Oleg Vasiliev: “The current system becomes obsolete. Judges have learned to manipulate the results within this system.” (source: ⛸ FS Gossips)—the scoring issues in pairs and ice dance are also called out as highly problematic. Realizing all of this, I can’t help but wonder: when did the scoring in men’s events become so corrupt? Should we say Yuzu was ‘lucky’ that Patrick Chan wasn’t American or Russian? If Patrick’s PCS at Sochi 2014 had been just a few points higher, Yuzu wouldn’t have won.

Yuzu posted a message for his 4th anniversary of turning pro! Machine translation: "It's been four years since I turned professional. Thank you so much for all the support, and for coming to watch. From before I turned pro until now, Nothing has changed—I'm still fully committed to skating with all my heart. If anything, I'm starting to understand skating and my body even more now. For those of you who come to watch, So that I can deliver something to you, With even greater passion, I'll keep sliding forward! Thank you always!"

Let's go (row) into a fantastic 5th pro year with big cheers, power, and joy! Happy 4th Pro Anniversary!

Okay. I can now see some connection between "YOLO" and his "changing layout on the fly" skill, but the connection is not straightforward to me. Didn't he also break the Zayak rule in the SP at Skate Canada 2015? He popped 4T to 2T, which invalidated the 3Lz+2T combo. Did I misunderstand the rule?

Yuzu will soon upload Prequel to YouTube and it will be available for everyone to watch for a week:

Happy 4th Pro Anniversary, Yuzu!

Machine translation of the caption: July 18–19, 2026 Large-screen tribute in Tianjin, China, organized by Cfanyus 🥳 "FLY YUZU! Soaring High in Pursuit of Dreams Four years ago, you chose the unknown. Four years later, you have proven that passion transcends all boundaries. Thank you for always staying true to yourself and bravely chasing your dreams. May every future leap soar into an even more expansive sky. May every landing touch down firmly upon happiness. Happy 4th Anniversary of Yuzuru Hanyu’s Professional Career!" Thank you, CFanyus! Happy Yuzu Pro Day!

Yes, Yuzu was clear-headed; he was careful not to broke the Zayak rule. One of the many extraordinary things he did was to repeatedly modify the layout of his free programs to correct a mistake, but he only broke the Zayak rule twice: once when he was 13, in a novice competition, and once when he was 15, in his second senior competition. But both could be true. He was clear-headed in understanding how to modify the layout, but the determination to try that risky layout came from the thought, "I either do it now, or I'll give up the competition." He still didn't win because Chen's PCS were inflated (and it wouldn't have been the last time, nor the worst time), but he tried.

Thank you. I thought the first letter "Y" would be Yuzuru, but I was wrong. I still don't quite get it. It sounds to me that YOLO is something impulsive, adventurous, or reckless. One does it since he only lives once. However, Yuzu changed his layout with calculation, not quite a YOLO thing.

For some time I too struggled to understand this. YOLO = You Only Live Once. There are moments in which, if you want to achieve something, you have to take risk.

Can anyone tell me what the 4 letters YOLO in "YOLO jump" represent? I guess "YOLO jump" means that Yuzu changes his jumping layout on the fly in a competition, like in 4CC 2017 or in the FS in 2018 Olympics, but I don't know what the 4 letters YOLO mean.