Lyyli

Joshi said in the Swedish article that she has not yet decided about the future but she would like to stay in FS. Just now she will go back home to Tibro and work there in the local club where her sister Viktoria has worked as a coach since she retired. Viktoria will soon have twins. (From the article: "Vad som väntar härnäst är inte riktigt bestämt berättar hon, men att hon väldigt gärna vill vara kvar i sporten. Planen för henne just nu är att hjälpa till i klubben hemma i Tibro, då systern Viktoria som valt att fortsätta som tränare i Tibro KK sedan sin avslutade karriär, väntar tvillingar inom kort.")

Thanks for the info. Did you find these articles: http://iceskatingresources.org/HistoryOfIceSkatingFacilities.html https://thehockeywriters.com/the-ice-rink-a-brief-histo I didn´t find anything about the rinks in London, Paris, Milan and Davos where DB competed but there must have been at least special outdoor ice rinks that time. The first indoor ice rinks were built already in the end of 19th century. These quotes are from the first article: "Ice skating remained a sport for commoners until about 1600, when the appeal of ice skating began to spread to various members of European nobility. The aristocracy did not want to associate with commoners, thus the first specially designed skating rinks were built. Members of the lower classes -- many of whom were still on wood skates -- were confined to skating on frozen lakes and canals for the next couple hundred years or so, until cities began constructing community rinks." "The first Olympic figure skating competition was held on a refrigerated indoor rink in London in 1908. Figure skating was, a summer Olympic sport held indoors from 1908-1924. The first Winter Olympics didn't start until 1924."

I add here translation of the press release with comments of Kiira and Jere Nurminen who writes the book in co-operation with her. Kiira wants to put her story into a book because she has received lots of insights and strength by reading biographies. Now she hopes to give them to other people with her own story. Kiira reveals there also some facts that only her family and closest friends have been aware of. She says that the book is about what it is like to live in a world where nothing feels to be enough, where your own mind starts to turn against you furtively and how it is possible little by little to set free from the chains that your mind has built up. Jere Nurminen says that the book is not only about FS. It is a growth story of a young woman surrounded by publicity, top sport life, school and strictly ambitious mind. He says all has not been as beautiful as Kiira´s skating on the ice. He hopes that Kiira´s story helps people to understand the mindset of talented athletes striving towards perfection no matter what the sport discipline is. _________________________ It´s going to be an interesting read because I believe she will be open. After retirement she has already talked about these things. She has said that her ambition was almost sickly: she would not have been satisfied if she had won OG gold or everything. Skating occupied her mind and at competitions she couldn´t much socialize with the other skaters. After retirement she has done that a lot and enjoys doing ice shows. She never lost her love for skating though. Years ago when she had already become famous I remember she attended a TV talk show and spoke there how confused she was because she got lots of publicity and attention because of her looks, not only for skating. As a young skater she was amazed why people paid a lot of attention to her face. She has said also that she got sponsors more easily than the other top ladies at that time which also puzzled her.

In fact I have been following FS from the 70´s so I have seen lots of different Turandots during these decades. Watched also Marin´s Turandot but personally I like Shoma´s version a lot more.

Thanks a lot for taking time for such a thorough reply! So you would also give him over 300. Not possible for me to read each comment here but from those that I read I started to wonder how low people would rank his performances at Lombardia. It looks like not low at all. I noticed the cross-overs in FS and preparations for the quads but they did not spoil my impression of the performance. As it is still early he can surely do better overall but to me the performances and his skating were already outstanding. My personal grading scale is apparently lower because I don´t really expect programs to be revolutionary. Didn´t notice the big problem with the interpretation of the music, on the contrary I see him as a musical skater. All this is naturally subjective and only my opinions. And it is finally up to the judges to make their decisions and now I got really curious about his scores of music interpretation so I will keep an eye on them during the season.

Many thanks CubidsBow and Katt for your replies. So you would have given him scores between 300-310 if I understood correctly. That is a lot too and imo well deserved. After FS I was expecting him to get total over 300 so I was not that surprised then. Not easy for me to compare these programs with Loco because of the different music genre. I think at Lombardia he was expressing this type of classic music splendidly already. I got the impression that he has taken steps forward in skating skills and other PCS areas. What comes to empty spots, aren´t they there mostly because of the quads. Quads make big scores also without transitions and the skaters and coaches probably need to eliminate the risks there. I think the demands for the skaters are really huge at the moment, maybe too huge. (Probably this is unnecessary but I need to say this as there is lots of cuteness talk here which is ok for me: About the cuteness comment, I know it was a joke, but as a (humorless??) person who does not care about those things and never participates on discussions concerning the looks of skaters, I need to say that his or anyone´s cuteness never effects on my opinions or impressions of the performances or of the skaters.)

Did anyone make calculations, for how many points do you think Shoma was overscored at Lombardia? To me it looked like he was skating there in a very high tech and artistic level but I don´t see all the mistakes he is doing. What would be fair scores for that kind of a skate? I liked both of his programs and am amazed how great he has become. To me he is an artist because he is able to deliver a complete performance, not just execute elements one after another. About Jason, what do you think about his scores, was he overscored there?

At least one more because So-Youn Park´s SP is Black swan.

If I didn´t know it was Kolyada I would not have recognized him. Couldn´t see his face clearly on the video. His skating was smoother and the choreo was very different than before. To me it looked like he had to try very hard to get all the moves with arms etc done but it´s still early.

Looks like he got a present, a personalized jersey of the Ice Dogs hockey team that plays at Glacier arena.

I tried to check how many indoor ice rinks there are in Ireland as it is a small country like my country and found only three. Maybe also some ice hockey teams etc use those same rink so not easy to be a figure skater there. Here up in the North the situation is so different due to cold winters and long traditions in winter sports. Every child still puts the skates on because the kids skate also at school. Lots of outdoor rinks here during the winter. Because ice hockey is a tremendous thing and good business too for the professional teams, there are also many indoor ice rinks in the country. Figure skating clubs can rent them but the numerous junior and senior hockey teams take lots of ice time.

What comes to Spain, due to the climate no winter sport disciplines have stabilized their position there. Nowadays it is of course possible to build rinks, bring top coaches from abroad or move abroad to train but that´s not possible without strong support of the state. Spain has been in serious financial problems for a long time. The specialists here say that for example in China and Russia the state supports sports including FS much more than in many other countries. They have created top training centers and efficient coaching systems. Russia did that a long ago. Huge population means that there are lots of children and among them lots of talents involved in FS so chances to get skaters on top level are very good. So it is in Japan, and maybe to some extend in North America but there more money probably comes from private sources. Success in Olys, Worlds etc brings more resources, sponsors, audience and popularity for the sport. Here in Europe FS is not supported that much by the states so the skaters need private money. They get publicity and sponsors only after they have achieved good positions or medals in Europeans etc. Actually I wrote much more about this subject but better stop here. Maybe my thoughts are self-evident point of views. I´ve been thinking a lot about the state of FS here in my country, and everything around it, like the role of media. We get seldom FS news and TV shows usually only parts of Worlds, Europeans and Olys.

Kevin Reynolds SP Whiplash OST Choreo by Shae-Lynn. LP The Armed Man. A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins. Choreo by Mark Pillay. Source: his interview at HP camp.

Too bad Satoko is still suffering from the stress fracture in her hip. She was injured in January, right? I thought it was already fine but she said the injury has recovered a lot, not totally unfortunately. So she is not skipping Finlandia only as a precaution. I wish it is not something more serious than has been announced and her hip is totally cured before the main competitions start.

Posted yesterday in a wrong thread (Team we´re fewer but still good) about Kiira Korpi taking part in an upcoming film about Sonja Henie´s life. I continue here a little bit because just read two interesting interviews of Kiira. She tells there about her preparations for the film, for being the skating stunt in Sonja´s role. The skating is in a big role in the film. Kiira started the work already in May by watching old footage of Sonja´s skating. First she thought it will be easy to do the tricks and skate like her but when she started to practice them on the ice she realized how different and difficult it was. She felt like she had to forget everything she has learned before. The director Anne Sewitsky wants everything in the film to be authentic, also the skating. So Kiira has learned to do old time twirls and jumps, getting up on the toe picks here and there and making cross-overs with waving her arms at the same time. She started to practice for her role in her old home rink in Tampere at the same practice session of her former coach´s current group. The coach kept telling to her skaters not to look at Kiira and not to do things like she was doing there. When asked is there anything similar between Sonja and her, Kiira´s answer was the strong will to achieve perfection. She also thought that as a child she was skating with the same kind of joy as Sonja was skating in the beginning of her career. Kiira was asked to do the role in addition to her ability to skate and experience of performing also because she and Ine Wilmann, another Sonja there and leading actress of the film, look alike. The shootings of the film are continuing at the moment in Romania for five weeks and the film should be ready in December 2018. Here´s the link for an article. It is in Finnish but it includes also a link for a footage of Sonja in 1934 European championships, if someone wants to have a look. https://www.aamulehti.fi/viihde/kiira-korpi-valmistautuu-elokuvarooliin-tuntuu-etta-minun-on-pitanyt-heittaa-romukoppaan-kaikki-mita-olen-oppinut-200342891/

She competed in Austria JGP this weekend and got the 6th place. I don´t know where she will compete next, sorry.

Kiira Korpi is doing the skating stunts for Sonja Henie´s role in the upcoming film Queen of Ice. It is a movie about Sonja´s life. There are about ten skating scenes Kiira is doing and some of them are copies of Sonja´s programs. Six male skaters and a "choir" of 10 female skaters is there too, didn´t find their names though. Also Team Surprise from Sweden is participating the film.

So sorry for Julia, she´s been through a lot at a young age. I wish her all the best, health and happiness in the future.

The only article I´ve seen her talking about Yuzu is the one in Japan Times. Probably not the one you mean though. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2017/06/27/figure-skating/olympic-champion-kristi-yamaguchi-speaks-on-greatness-of-hanyu-mao-takahashi/#.WaD7rvpJbIU I remember she was also a guest in Scott Hamilton´s show in Icenetwork but can´t remember anymore was she talking about Yuzu there: http://web.icenetwork.com/fans/scotthamiltonshow

Anybody following this thread anymore? This ID pair wanted first of all perform for the audience. Through their career they kept looking for new unique moves and artistic performances, though they were not always sure how the judges would take them. Their choreographer was a dancer, he did both ballet and modern dance himself. The piece is Valse triste by Sibelius. This choreo brings to my mind Gaby and Guillaume. I wish they will some day skate to Valse triste too.

Just found out from GS that Stolbova/Klimov worked on FS with Marie-France but their coach was not satisfied and so Pascal Camerlengo is doing also their FS Carmen. Would be interesting to know what happened there.

What makes me very interested in Stolbova/Klimov FS is that the choreo is by Marie-France. I doubt she would do something that has been seen before. I hope they will surprise us. That is a challenge but choreos Marie-France has done have been very innovative.

“To focus for today’s performance I imagined myself somewhere at the river, I thought about nature”. (Lovely image btw) Recycling saves the nature.

Julia was an outstanding talent. Agree with your comments about her situation and wish her all the best. I remember some commentators were discussing during the season if this sad and serious theme is suitable for a young skater like she was back then, but in the end she convinced I guess everyone including me with her performance. Though still I found some parts of the program too restless for a peaceful piece of music like Schindler´s list is. About the dragging: don´t really know what happened there but here where I live that type of action would have been approved only if it was done just for fun and they were both enjoying the situation, not for couching purposes. In some countries there is a long tradition of authoritarian couching but things have been changing towards more individual approach I guess almost everywhere. In his junior days Yuzu was working also with former Russian ice dancers and appreciated their co-operation but as far as I remember there were no considerations that he would have chosen Russia instead of the Cricket club, was there?

Thanks. I know the money comes from the sponsors and the advertisements etc.and it all probably goes straight to his bank account. I guess I can´t explain this well enough in English but I mean does he have a kind of a company and is he the employer of Ms Shirota etc or is JSF involved in this all.