SparkleSalad

51 minutes ago, JanMary said:

If possible, of course the SOI should have at least keep some distance between the audiences, like what they did in WTT and JNs. They went for the worst option. But I also understand ice shows can hardly be held without audience. I believe many ice shows staffs have already been jobless for more than one year and for young athletes who don't have other sources of income, it must be very hard. I don't think we should blame them for holding ice shows, but I do think they could have done better. 

 

I think it's entirely possible to hold it without an audience if they provide a paid live stream for all days, as they did today. If they make it available internationally, as some other events in Japan have, they'd make a fortune. They could sell merchandise by mail order as well. It could be really successful. I really hope they'll do this in future instead of taking the massive risks they're taking with this tour. 

27 minutes ago, Pammi said:

Are people allowed to travel when there is a state of emergency declared? Do the police enforce restrictions? Were the tickets for SOI in Hachinohe restricted geographically, or in their numbers eg reduced audience? I hope so, but I have this feeling that whoever knows the answer to my questions will say no to each...

The thing is that Yuzu and skating colleagues have all managed to stay well as far as I know for a year, it would be a terrible shame for them to become ill now as the Olympic season approaches for the sake of ice shows. Nationals and NHK seemed to be held in much better, safer conditions for them and any audience.

I believe people from Tohoku were given priority for tickets for Hachinohe, but Miyagi is in a quasi-state of emergency at the moment as well. Afaik Japan is like Sweden in that they can't enforce lockdowns so it's only a request for people not to go out unnecessarily. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.')

50% audience is safer but still unsafe. We only see everyone sitting apart on TV, we don't see the congested lines at the entrance/exit and for the toilets, then there's the matter of trains and hotels and cafes etc that audience members go to. People who went to WTT said it was very scary and

dangerous.
 

It's distressing to see skaters without masks at all these events mixing together freely without quarantining. 😥 I really hope they can stay safe...

3 hours ago, Pammi said:

Glad it's now time to move on from Yokohama where infection rates are higher and onto the less effected north of Honshu. I was disappointed in how covid security was managed in Yokohama, having generally had great trust in how Japanese people (not necessarily government) are dealing with the pandemic. It seems that fans maybe just cant resist a chance to see him....which I sort of get, but it's still not the right thing to do.  But I cant cast stones, because what would I have done if I'd had a ticket I wonder?? I do think about the issue Yuzuru raised, about unemployment, people's hardships, and that many ppl relied on these shows going ahead. He tries hard to see the bigger picture always.  He looked relaxed and happy which is always wonderful for us his fans to see. Tough decisions have to continue to be made so we wont see an end to this, just hope the best knowledge about the virus leads to effective management of each situation. I also wonder if Yuzuru has had the vaccine? It is very highly effective at preventing serious disease and hospitalisation, 100% in one of the studies done (well afaik Pfeizer and Astra Zenica have had these studies done).  My young adult daughter had her vaccine early due to asthma, maybe he will have had his too? I hope he has. I hope the athletes will have been doing regular lateral flow tests too as part of managing risk.

 

 

Unfortunately holding an ice show in a less affected reason means bringing people in from harder hit areas and spreading the virus to the local community. I think perhaps he's missing the bigger picture here, jobs are certainly not more important than health, especially when the virus can leave people permanently ill or worse. IMO a lot of people involved in this show and with competitions in Japan don't deserve to keep their jobs for creating such dangerous events, anyway. What a shame fans didn't pressure organisers to hold it without an audience. Beyond disappointing to see tens of thousands of people happily risking everyone's health to watch an ice show. Horrifying to see so many elderly people in the audience as well. 😓

From what I've read, people with underlying conditions may begin to receive vaccines in May/June but vaccination of the general public isn't expected to begin until July, so no one in the cast or crew nor the vast majority of people in the audience will have received even their first shot. 😓
 

8 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

The greater risk is airborne transmission,  any way. Here's hoping every last person in that crowd kept their masks on the entire time. And that the skaters are at the very least, keeping distance behind the scenes, masking, and screening themselves every day for symptoms, or testing every day using a rapid test. Something. 

 

Anything.  

Reports from today were that there were lots of people  eating and drinking and talking in the passages in the arena even though all three are prohibited. The person who reported it said they were scared to walk through them.

7 hours ago, Ladysci said:

 

 

Many Japanese ladies carry small hand towels or packets of tissues just for that purpose- so washing hands should not be a problem. Guys have hankies and tissue. That’s why those little hand towels are such popular Yuzu merchandise.  Nowadays, i always have my little Origin hand towel, mini bottle of hand sanitizer, and extra masks in my bag.

The same person who said there were no paper towels reported that people we running out of the toilets without washing their hands at all because instead of moving the start time earlier so it could finish in time the organisers only gave people a 15 minute intermission, and people cared more about watching the show than proper hygiene.   
 

8 hours ago, Whoopiewoop said:

 

Seriously? Just dry your hands (not your hands @IceWings of course) in the air or against your trousers. That's what I do when I'm on the road at service stations run out of paper or the driers are out of service. So picky.

Paper towels are important for turning off the taps to avoid touching bacteria and virus. Dryers spread particles and shouldn't be used. With thousands of people a day using the facilities, it's not a matter of being "picky." Why should anyone have to wipe their hands on their clothes after touching contaminated surfaces in the middle of a pandemic? Not that any one of those people should be there in the first place. I'm flawed by the level of denial.

31 minutes ago, SitTwizzle said:

I would have been a few days ago but there's now a survey showing that no contamination results from that sort of queue, attendance in stadium etc, all clusters came from before- and after- gatherings in cafés etc. So I'm quieter now. (I'm sorry I didn't take the reference of the survey, I know I should have.)

This is just not true. 

Four days of this...
 

Poor Zhenya has tested positive for covid.

Why would they be testing her regularly if she wasn't a close contact of a confirmed case? How are any members of Sambo allowed at CoR? They should all be quarantining right now.

I'd be surprised if yesterday's WD was due to pneumonia. 

Would China even agree to let in American skaters and their teams?

They're already not healthy. They're over trained and underfed to delay puberty. 

I don't understand Russian so I'm not sure if this is accurate but if it is then 

9 hours ago, Paskud said:

of course we wouldn't

ok

they could have done GP series this way and we'd be seeing Yuzu's new programs soon but ISU is really that dense

Not sure if it's been posted here but the Australian National Championships scheduled for Nov/Dec have been cancelled and won't be rescheduled due to the uncertainty of domestic border closures and quarantine measures. 

https://bddb0f3c-5b25-4fd8-b64c-5ae09e0c4567.filesusr.com/ugd/b5945d_2dae37622bff4dc1ae5b0d464ec781d2.pdf

ISU really is crazy to think 4CC could ever happen. 

14 hours ago, SitTwizzle said:

I really think it possible to organise a championship with audience and zero contamination. I mean, to do things so as to make any contamination much less likely than a car accident on the way, because zero risk doesn't exist. But it is a fact that an audience is a danger to skaters as long as they are not protected by "claddings" suspended to ceiling, not erected on the floor (the latter would "protect" audience of a contamination from the skater, quite unlikely) because in an usual configuration (with good prophylactic other measures), although the viral density over the rink (as elsewhere) remains too low to contaminate a "normal" person, I fear even a very small amount can contaminate an athlete "giving 120%" ©YH and inspiring to the deepest of his/her lungs. I don't think there have been any experiment of the sort to prove it of course, it would be unethical (but there have been unethical experiments in this epidemic).

Are you considering the audience or just the athletes? Because if you've seen the lines for toilets at FS events...

Iirc the extra monitor at Nats was an asthma monitor. I think he's only worn a monitor during competition that once but he's worn the usual monitor during galas.

It's just cruel to advertise 4CC at this point. It's impossible.

Yuzu won't be there anyway even if there is a miracle.

EP's entire career is based on painting celebrities which imo is the only reason her work draws any attention at all. I agree that her paintings of Yuzu capture nothing at all of his essence.

I personally have no qualms about purchasing fanart/fan goods so long as it's actually *art* and not just a photo printed on something. It's not an either or situation when it comes to buying official goods vs fanart so it's not like it's taking money from Yuzu or his sponsors. I wish more fan artists were okay in selling their work because I'd love to own it. Imo there are far more talented artists on Twitter than EP but she's made more money than any of them would see in a lifetime even from selling small "mass produced" fan goods. 

2 hours ago, yuzuru_hanyu_is_an_angel said:

I wonder why Nessun Dorma (Shoma's Turandot program????) and Con Te Partiro were the background tracks for the first clip... (though I can't blame them, they're brilliant pieces)

Nessun Dorma is the theme music for TV Asahi's coverage of the GP series as well as Figure Skating Legend Program, so I guess it's probably because of its strong association with FS? 🤔

22 hours ago, Veveco said:

 

This is what I had seen, with the link to the ISU website. I thought it was weird, now I'm  It was quoted a lot yesterday but I guess they were wrong then?

 

 

I just assumed that ISU failed to update the document to reflect the postponement. They're not exactly the most competent organisation, right? 

32 minutes ago, Old Cat Lady said:

 

What do people mean by "test" event?  Is it just an opportunity for skaters to see what a venue is like or does it have a real impact on qualification or something?  Either way, I think it makes more sense for a "test" even to be an event in which the most possible number of skaters have an opportunity to try it out.

A venue must hold an international competition before it's allowed to be used for the Olympics. It's to test the readiness of the venue and the host etc.

3 hours ago, SitTwizzle said:

Maybe are they implicitly acknowledging there will be no 4CC in Sydney? But what about EC?

I agree with @LadyLou : better no GPF and normal EC and 4CC (somewhere else if Australia don't want to let them in and out, then China seems to fit), than a mock GP and no 4CC. Well, better all of them, even with a somehow different GP, but... only if safety is really efficiently promoted. Well, maybe should it not be called GP, rather "special GP" or something approaching?

There's really no way we can have 4CC here and it does look like ISU is abandoning it for the sake of the GPF test event. I think the idea of moving 4CC to a Beijing is better but the best idea is to just cancel everything and stop risking lives for a corrupt sport. 

IOC could easily make exceptions to the rules for test events during a pandemic and stop this madness.