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Sorry for the late reply. What I meant is that the way a new prodigy skater’s PCS can skyrocket within just a few months, and the way the gap in PCS between the previous prodigy and the new one appears in the ladies’ field, feels very similar to what happened with Yuzu and Nathan. Another thing I learned from those two videos about the women’s field is that pre-rotation is harmful not only to the fairness of competition, but also to the skaters’ bodies. Skaters who pre-rotate begin turning their upper bodies before their blades leave the ice. Repeatedly twisting the body that way puts enormous stress on the back and spine. Medvedeva, for example, reportedly suffered serious back problems because of this technique. The videos also mentioned several Eteri skaters whose careers were cut short by severe back injuries at a very young age. Pre-rotation, incorrect take-off edge, and full-blade take-offs on toe jumps such as the Lutz and Flip are all signs of insufficient strength and flawed technique. Without enough strength and proper mechanics, skaters do not have enough time in the air to complete the rotations needed. With correct jumping technique, the skater’s face stays aligned with the direction of the skate, which reduces unnecessary twisting and helps avoid back and spine injuries. Yuzu’s jump coach, Ghislain Briand, explained in this interview (https://youtu.be/G9eEhkmfHrc) that his training approach takes longer to show results, but it is designed to support a longer career rather than produce quick results at the cost of longevity. That is why Yuzu is still able to jump quads at 31. On the contrary, Eteri's cheating jumping technique allows skaters to shine early but only for a short amount of time.

This video is four years old, but I just discovered it. In March 2022, Studio Classroom—Taiwan’s well-known English-learning magazine and radio program—featured legendary Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu right after the Beijing Olympics. I have a special connection to Studio Classroom. Back in 1995, my high school English teacher asked us to subscribe to it and listen to the radio program every week. At the time, Yuzuru was only one year old. Twenty-seven years later, he became the subject of a feature story in the same magazine I once studied from. What makes it even more meaningful is that, although he didn’t win a medal in Beijing, Studio Classroom still chose to feature him over any of the Winter Olympics medalists.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!)

It was in the [Videos] part of Planet Hanyu. However, the [Videos] part is not available after the forum upgrade. Part of coach Tsuzuki's words to Yuzu is in this YT video: 20220723Human Action羽生结弦SP 中文字幕 - YouTube starting from 3:52, but it wasn't complete. You can post your question in the thread: General Yuzuru Chat - Part 2 - Yuzuru Hanyu - Planet Hanyu. Some other fans might be able to help you.

To BeYuzu: Sorry for the long ramble. I just wanted to share how I managed to move past some of the sadness and anger over what he went through from 2019 to 2022. He did say somewhere that “Beijing 2022 saved him.” Everything else is just my own interpretation, and I may not be entirely right. The Olympic Games draw a level of public attention that the World Championships simply cannot match. If he had not gone to Beijing, he might never have had the chance to see so clearly that people loved his programs for what they were, not just for the medals attached to them. I used that list of evidence to reassure myself that I could trust my own eyes and feelings, and that I was not the only one left baffled by the score sheets. I hope it can help you get over the bad feeling from score manipulation.

Honestly, seeing what he went through from 2019 to 2022 kept me down for months. Then I came across a short interview clip in which he said that Beijing 2022 had actually saved him. Unfortunately, I can’t find the full interview now — I only saw a short clip, and I don’t remember where. But that idea stayed with me. Here’s my personal understanding of what keeps him going and why he continues to take on what seem like impossible challenges. I think, in a way, he is addicted to success — not in a shallow sense, but to the immense sense of fulfillment that comes from working unbelievably hard for something and finally achieving it. That feeling seems to drive him forward again and again. He has mentioned in interviews multiple times how much he loves his 9-year-old self, because that was when he first won the Japan Championships at the Novice B level and first learned that hard work can truly lead to success. I think that lesson became the foundation of everything for him. He doesn’t seem afraid of challenges or difficulty because he has already overcome so many of them before, including things that most people thought were impossible. He conquered the 4T, 4S, 4Lo, and 4Lz one by one, starting from success rates as low as 1 in 50 attempts. From that perspective, it becomes easier to understand why he could keep attempting the 4A thousands of times without success and still refuse to give up. His formula is not something ordinary people can easily imitate, because the amount of effort he puts in is simply enormous, but for more than 10 years, it worked for him. The harder he worked, the more his skills improved, the higher his scores became, and the more titles and records he collected. It almost sounds like a fairy tale. Of course, there were obstacles and setbacks, but he always overcame them, and it always seemed to end in a major victory — until 2018. That formula stopped working after 2018, when the judges no longer rewarded him the way they used to. He said in interviews more than once that even though he felt his skating had improved, his scores were no longer rising. So the success he had always been able to reach through hard work suddenly became unreachable. He was confused, lost confidence, and started worrying about whether he had become outdated. Then the pandemic made everything even worse: he was separated from his coaches, and he also lost the energy he drew from the audience’s support and cheers, since spectators were either not allowed into the arena or not allowed to cheer during competitions. Even though Beijing 2022 was not a happy ending in terms of results, I think it saved him in another way. There, he received from the audience the kind of recognition he could no longer get from the judges. He was able to see that all his effort — in technique, in artistry, in the programs themselves — was not in vain. The reward simply came in a different form. People appreciated his effort to preserve what many of us see as the ideal form of figure skating. Right after the free skate, he was clearly devastated. But a few days later, he already seemed visibly lighter and happier. Audience recognition does not come with numbers on a score sheet, but the amount of love, attention, and admiration he received was overwhelming. Many people who were not even figure-skating fans noticed him during the 2022 Olympics and immediately started rooting for him after watching his performances. His fandom grew massively in 2022, even though he did not win a medal. That, to me, says a lot. A few pieces of evidence of the overwhelming support. His press conference in Beijing attracted far more media attention than the medal ceremony. More than 99% of the comments under the Beijing gala performance video on YouTube are about him, even though his performance was less than 5 minutes long in a nearly 3-hour video. Based on Google Trends, he was the athlete who received the most attention during Beijing 2022 — more than the combined attention received by those ranked second through sixth. Most YouTube videos about him were uploaded around 4 years ago, which says a lot about how much his fandom expanded in 2022. He received 20K postcards in Beijing. A huge crowd gathered on the street to see him off on his way to the airport. So in the end, I think he was able to find meaning and motivation not through medals, but directly through the audience. And that’s why I feel much more relieved now.

Oh my, it’s a pity that he didn’t do this on the Olympic stage. It's so divine, more than just perfect!

I hope David can work with Yuzuru forever!!! Hope to see more collaboration between them.

Yuzuru’s legendary Seimei from the 2018 Olympics on the Olympic Channel has just passed 50 million views!! When I noticed Yuzuru in March 2026, there were 47 million views, and it increased by 3 million views in 6 months.

Yes, Yuzu put both hands down at the same time in 3F. In Patrick's 3A, both of his hands touched the ice but not concurrently. However, Patrick also put both hands down **at the same time** in his 4T. To me, the distinction is very small, and Yuzu lost 1pt, but Patrick didn't. My feeling is that Patrick got a slight advantage here. Fortunately, it didn't affect the ranking.

His FS in Sochi was not as polished as his later ones, yet still at a higher level than that of other skaters. The 4T is gorgeous. The spins are beautiful. I have another related question. Please refer to the video below. I’m wondering why Yuzu’s 3F at 39:37 was judged as a fall and received a 1-point deduction, while Patrick’s 4T at 30:53 and 3A at 31:08 did not, even though all three jumps involved both hands touching the ice and neither skater’s buttocks touched the ice. Under the current rule, a fall is defined as a situation in which “the majority of his/her own body weight is on the ice, supported by any part of the body other than the blades, e.g. hand(s), knee(s), back, buttock(s), or any part of the arm.” To me, the loss of balance on Yuzu’s 3F looks very similar to Patrick’s on his 3A. That’s why I’m confused about why Patrick’s 3A did not receive the same 1-point deduction, and maybe his 4T as well.

Thanks, Jenn, for finding the book and the translation. I began from Chapter 5 and haven't finished it yet. I love this book. I felt it was better organized than Yuzu's biography, at least with more details. His biography is more like plain transcriptions of his interviews, and this book digs deeper and connects everything better, more like telling a story.

To Jenn: Thank you so much for pointing me to the books and thanks for the translator. I am still reading them. Noriko Shirota is a wonderful lady and an angel who takes care of Yuzu, as important as Brian and Tracy. I only read part of the first book and will come back with more thoughts. To Martina: I just read your entire post using Google Translate. It's so dirty. I didn't know skatingscores can produce data like that. I will try to play with it more.

I didn't know the scandal of Davis/White's victory and just Googled it. How come Canada was the victim again, like in 2002? I really miss the era (pre-2016, or at least before 2018) when scores actually made sense, or at least weren’t wildly inconsistent. I also miss when commentators would genuinely appreciate the complexity of the transitions, be amazed by the size of the jumps, and how well the skaters maintained their flow before and after jumps. If commentators can recognize these nuances, there’s no reason judges couldn’t. I have one last question. Sorry that you are almost like my ChatGPT. In the video above, Brian describes how Yuzu first approached him—a mysterious phone call inviting him to a hotel room to meet someone he had never expected beforehand --- Yuzuru Hanyu. I'm really curious: who arranged this initial meeting for Yuzu? Based on the video, it seems Yuzu chose Brian Orser because of Javi. Javi had moved to Toronto a year before Yuzu, but how did Yuzu know Javi would thrive there based on just 5 competitions after the move? It's interesting that he didn't opt to train with Patrick, and after all, Javi wasn't the only skater attempting a 4S at that time. Having studied abroad myself at 22, I remember how anxious and uncertain that transition was. I was lucky to have a professor who encouraged and guided me through the process of researching and applying to schools. Without that support, I doubt I could have navigated everything on my own. It looks like he studied other skaters and coaches around the world and made the decision by himself. Amazing! Moreover, how did he communicate his decision to leave his former coach—the coach who had helped him achieve a World Bronze medal? It must have been incredibly difficult at just 17. Changing coaches is rarely easy. When Evgenia switched to Toronto, Eteri publicly criticized both her and Brian for months. When Boyang tried to move to TCC, his coach's son even called him a "traitor." The transition faced long delays, and the pandemic pushed it back further, so Boyang didn’t really make the move to Canada until 2022—after his prime had already passed. The whole process seems so complicated and emotionally charged, especially for such young athletes. I have a lot of admiration for those who manage these transitions so bravely.

To Martina: Thanks for the explanation. Score manipulation or the incompetence of judges not only affects a few titles or the color of a few medals, invalidates Nathan's world records or streak of wins, but also affects the credibility of Yuzu's titles or records. The last thing upsets me the most. If the score cannot properly reflect the level of a performance, then the competition means nothing. It ruins skaters' efforts and makes the rivalry nonsense. I heard from some Chinese fans that the French Fed chair met the JSF chair at the airport after GPF 2019, and asked why JSF didn't speak up for their skater about the scoring. Is it true? I couldn't find the origin of this. I really hope someone could have spoken up for Yuzu like Katarina Witt spoke up for Yuna publicly in Sochi 2014 that there should have been a bigger difference between the PCSs of Yuna and Adelina. When Adelina's FS scores were announced, the commentators were all surprised, including Kurt Browning. Johnny Weir said it is very very generous. Of course, Russia cannot control the US media. Has any commentator or media questioned Nathan's PCS?

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.

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?

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.

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.

OMG, I feel awful just reading your words. I cannot imagine how his parents bear with his burning candle behavior. The emotional roller-coaster of watching live events would be too much for me. I cannot watch a live competition unless I don't care about it. I have no problems watching old programs since I know the results. To be honest, I watch his programs for emotional serenity, soothing, healing, and inspiration. I do not have the mental strength to know more about him now. I have to distance myself a bit.

Oh~no. I wish I hadn't asked. He did three 2-hour shows with an injured ankle? How could he go on like that? Maybe he can change the format of the performance. Instead of doing live shows, he can film his performance or ice story as a movie, and then people can watch it in movie theaters. He can sell it overseas. I think the box office will be great. This way, he doesn't have to perform 10+ programs in 2 hours and can rest several days between filming.