Xen

Alrighto! 1K hit! Mission accomplished. I'd probably just take a picture, say Ganbatte ne, and then run for my life in embarassment....unless I had a planet hanyu banner, in which case I'll wave it using the banner to cover my face. Considering my height, all he'll see are my feet-aka a banner with feet waving itself. Realistically though, if somehow I end up right in front, besides or behind him, I'd probably open my backpack, open up the trusty sketchbook, write Ganbatte ne on a sheet, do a really really quick sketch of him as fanart, and hand it directly to him. And nothing more. That's pretty much what I've done in the past with other people. =) And if they are okay with me taking a photo, they usually do ask if I wanted to take a photo.

I feel like that as planet Hanyu members, we should sing a version for every language we know.

Didn't know that, did anyone manage to capture it on fancam?

...but since he has to compete, he can't eat cake....

....Tomatoes--> Pasta-->Italy-> this year's WC is in Milan...so if the men's at PC is relatively clean, does that mean the splat is coming in Milan? Well, I hope Yuzu doesn't join the tomatoes/pasta brigade...please don't....

That's the thing though that bugs me about men's skating. Somewhere sometime ago, men's skating became known for it's technical difficulty along with consistent splatfests. So it's a breath of fresh air if Yuzu does a clean FS, and the other guys minimize their splats. Then we finally will have a quadfest that is not a splatfest. I think to a degree, that current men's skating, if you want to go super clean, the max is at 5 quads, so when the younger guys push for more than that, I cringe because it's just asking for a splatfest.

...is this the economy class or the first class/biz class line? Is his privacy safe in economy class?

Holy cow...do I see some small blemishes on his skin? You mean he's made of human instead of perfect porcelain?

When Pchiddy decides to r*, I hope hope that he opens a skating academy and we get to see the Pchiddy school of edge work on future skaters. What he says here is so important: "Reporter: You have outstanding skating skills. What kind of training did you go through to achieve this level of success? Patrick: Skating is something I grew up with. It’s something that takes time, not something you can learn in a year. For me, good skating skills depend on many factors like my body-build, muscle structure, early learning, childhood coach, and many years of training. This is the most difficult part. You can see quick results in jump practices, learning a new quad in a year. But skating takes years and years of training and practice for me to have the skating skills and level that I have now." If I have a child who decides to really pick up skating, I hope one day that child can learn Patrick's edge control.....

Always viewed Yuzu as more gender neutral (though that boobskirt...). It does tick me off a bit when people decide to label skaters as feminine or masculine, because it does narrow down the variety of music guys/gals can skate too .Okay, maybe the dance of the sugar plum fairy from the Nutcracker is an exclusive girls only music (unless a guy goes pink tutu on us), but there are plenty of songs that can go both ways- Rach 2, Chopin, Carmen is possible too. It also makes it seem that very atheltic skaters are more masculine...not really the case, because a graceful flow exit from a jump ( a la Yuzu) is no less atheltic than a muscled through jump. Then there's the split that makes it seem more technical means more masculine, and sometimes gives people the impression that female skaters won't need to push the technical envelope. And in the same vein, more artistic seems more feminine, so guys can get away with less artistic choreopgrahy. In that sense, I'm grateful for Yuzu, since in order to beat him, you can't short change either side

...Not as a SP, he might be too intense in the SP with this music choice. I think given his development over the years, he can probably do a good job on etude for a long. The last part can be the ending foot step sequence.

Thank you for this post. It's pretty much what I'm thinking mentally, but cannot fathom how to say in writing. I think as fans, we tend to forget that ultimately figure skating is a competitive sport, and our atheletes want to (or must) win at some point. And overall, this oly cycle, even with all the quads, hasn't really let us down too much on artistry. I won't name names, but there were definitely guys who were very jump-jump-jump in the previous cycles, more so than even Nathan's Prince Igor long. I can understand the issue of Chopin, but his chopin choice didn't surprise me at all. The short program at Olys, your goal is to not be too down in terms of points, and considering the consistency of LGC, LGC was out of the question. Then there's JButt's time issue. Assuming that Yuzu does not win the SP portion ( he might not since his BV is not the highest), then the goal is to stay very close to the top score, which is easily doable with a clean Chopin. Seimei as a long, is even scarier than H&L in terms of PCS points. Considering Yuzu came back from 10 point deficits, would you want to be the guy in front of him after the SP if your scores are very close (like 1-5 points)? Nevermind the possibility that he could win the SP outright with Chopin if anyone so much as wobbles. As for Seimei, while a fan of fresh new programs, I'm also fine with Seimei (better than R&J 3.0). Much as I love LGC and H&L, when I try to introduce new people to figure skating and Yuzu in particular, I've had the greatest success with Chopin 2.0 and Seimei. They are simply commanding programs that demand your attention, even if you know nothing about figure skating, you know greatness when you see it. After these interviews, I'm also wondering if he's going to stay to 2022 (65% possibility?)

Well we don't know if that Raf thing is true or not, since we don't train with Raf. It might be hearsay. I checked out Nate's ISU profile and it only lists about 30 hrs/week low season, and 23/week during high season. Which doesn't sound that bad (Medvedeva lists hers as 40 hr/week). About Brian and Yuzu, when are they going to translate and publish Brian's book in English?

Yeah, high score that got busted later at GPF...the excited one should speak with Uncle Kurt at some point. I still like the CBC version of the GFP long, uncle Kurt was leading the gushing parade.

I thought Nate already had one injured knee that took him out for a season? So yeah, recipe for injury. I'm not a fan of it personally based on that information, it just seems inefficient.

Well it was something related to Ashley when I was reading through the GS threads on her. But supposedly Raf makes you practice a bunch of stuff till you're tired, and then you start the jumps, so you're used to jumping on tired legs in theory. I'm not sure how true it is, but supposedly Patrick got inspired by Nathan's training....

White top with red underlining, with silvery-blue embroidery in a cloud /mist pattern, black pants. That could work too.

I trust Yuzu's edge jumps. Actually BOrser's boys all have nice edge jumps (though Cha needs to work on that Axel). And if he's really limiting his practice time to be more efficiency oriented, he should be alright. The one I'm worried about is Nate's practice schedule, I heard that Raf has some weird grueling training regime to get stamina up? Question is, would that really be good, if true, or lead to more health issues down the road?

....we've already passed that state of Fanyu-ism....

Dress up poohs in panda outfits, or dress up pandas in pooh outfits. If the Shanghai one can be topped, I bet they need to organize the skaters to just go out and help collect up all the poohs....

I have an idea....we're doing a that autumn classic messages thingy. Should we maybe do a hit list? Or drop an mp3 with the music playlist? I just thought that I have the perfect definition of Fanyu. Fanyu: a masochistic state of mind and emotions, where one adores and worships a human being that they have no real life connection or relation to, in a way that is similar to love, only completely one-sided, with the possibility of only watching from afar, as the other side probably has only a vague notion that the other side adores him in a theoretical sense.

Well...if he decides to do so...I'll fight tooth and nail for the Beijing seats.....wonder if it's sane to suggest Hanyu to skate to music from The Last Emperor? Some of those music choices in the music thread are awesome, maybe we can suggest them?

Gladi, thank you for all the translations. Where would we be without you? At this rate, I wonder if he's thinking of 2022 if his ideal is just beginning to shape up...ugh, we're such masochists if we're hoping for another 4 years eh?

It's too bad he's not willing to move overseas. 175-176 is not a bad height for ice dance, and at his age he might still grow a bit more. I don't get the "build" arguement since you can always work towards getting the build. And it sounds like people forget there are smaller, lighter ice dance guys, such as Victor Kratz, Gwendel Peizerat, and even Vanagas. There's got to be a 15-16 year old, 160-165 cm girl somewhere in the world who would take the chance....

....from baggy pants to this?! Oh dear, no!