Xen

Hmm, "Should not be answered by me." Thanks! Checked the clip. Guess he is staying put then. Well century star is one of the more Figure skating focused commercial rinks in China, but still, conditions won't be that great compared to the national center.

Yes, and that does seem to contradict with the official line given initially that it was due to his preference and out of respect for his training habits or something like that, as reason for him not going to Canada. The chinese line given back then in Helsinki, was more along the line of "It's not my decision to make." From what I've heard on Baidu, he's what, at Century Star rink, which is a commercial rink in Beijing.

May I say that I'm so *not* surprised that some of the most consistent biases are coming from the larger feds? Specifically 3 feds can't seem to find that many judges without biases, but also kind of proves some stat someone posted long ago that for major competitions, Feds do send judges who already have more national bias than avg. I am amused however at the Geo and Isr judges you have listed.

Ah that would fit with the troll hiding under the ice rink image. Purrrfect.

Nope, team beijing is not Pang/Tong, sorry for the mistake earlier. I am having trouble finding info on who heads that team. Pang/Tong I think are the ones heading Nats Team 2. @xeyra To answer your question

Well the issue is that he's now part of Team Beijing, and not the national team. Technically when he is under team China, he would have Shen/Zhao as his head coaches, even though his direct coaches might not change. But that also means that lessons that are for "team china" such as the seminar with Savchenko, Orser etc might not involve him either, since he's "Team Beijing." Not same rink etc.

This is just....scary. I feel really bad for him. There are discussions in chinese FS baidu bars about internal feuds, and how he's no longer training with Team China (supposedly he's in Team Beijing, training in a private/commercial rink with An Xiangyi, but now this interview kind of confirms it). But it also sounds like there is training time issues-ice time for practice that has to be balanced against meals, ugh. Hope that now he's in Team Beijing he gets more ice time. On top of all that, all the pressure now coming on to him since he's now the lone hope of China in the singles discipline. Gods, hope he's okay....

Please heal well Yuzu. *silently puts away the 6 foot plush that almost went into the luggage to be used for whacking a certain Japanese guy*

Uh, still did you get it checked? Twisting ankles isn't exactly good or light thing to just brush off.

Pass the tea please. I tend to not bother about people's views about the fandom, until something or someone exasperates me enough to explode. Then I need some tea to go back to peaceful state. Now the media's focus on his fandom, is a bit like a sticky sore spot, one that I don't care about but just do when it gets brought up. On a lighter note, my supervisor at work refers to Yuzu as my "Japanese skating god." Congratulated me on Yuzu getting another WR, and may end up asking me for advice when he signs his daughter up for skating lessons. o_O

Then you are a saint, which is not a phrase that can be applied to most people frankly.

Well in which case as a media sensation piece, it's well done-it caused enough hooblah and noise to get clicks. And I think you have a greater faith in normal human intelligence and rationale than I do- I think unless you have been in the FS community long enough, it is unfortunately these pieces that will garner your attention more. It's a bit like how do you view Justin Bieber fans as an example? (apologies in advance to Justin Bieber fans) Do you usually go "Oh, airhead!" or "Oh, there might be some nice ones!" initially? Anyways, dropping it.

I think the reason why this becomes a touchy subject is this- to a degree, this perpuates the idea that Hanyu fans are obessive fans. I think what @KatjaThera mentioned about how mentioning that you like Yuzu for reasons other than his looks, his stardom etc they chose to really focus on the obsession, not his skating, not that much on his background, not much on his personality. This to a degree, could result in the casual person associating Yuzuru Hanyu with just a. Winnie the Pooh and b. Obsessive fandom. And unfortunately, it is the negative that tend to stick out and be remembered, rather than the positive. Anecdotally, I am a Hanyu fan, but if you were to ask people who skate around me, they won't think of me as one-because to them, to be considered a "Hanyu fan", you need to be more obsessive. An older guy said it's a bit like a cult, you mention Hanyu and you need to be able to recite and defend everything he does, argue that no one does anything better or even closer to equal to him, want to marry him etc. To us in the fandom, that's on the extreme end, but based on media report and narrative, this extreme end is now the "average." This is the power of media, I guess. NOTE: I don't have much issue with the majority of the video, I really do find the last bit um, a bit overdone. If they snipped it out, it would have been okay.

For the forward scratch spin- your arms are not folding in unison, you have one arm folding in first, then the other arm coming in, that might be why your upper and lower are slightly out of sync when you fold in.

Um, I actually don't find it that surprising that he's in Japan? Overall, asian health systems for these things might be faster and more responsive than in North America. While I'm not sure how the waiting periods are in Canada, anyone from the US system can probably understand what I mean (haha...3 week waiting time, okay). And if the medical treatment is complex, I imagine Yuzu would prefer it in a language he understands thoroughly so he can make the best judgment for himself. Besides, in Japan he's got family to monitor him (also think of the stress on his mother if she has to solo it in Canada with him). Well...if he rests for 3 weeks-great time to catch up on university work, right Mister Yuzuru "Just make sure it's turned in on time" Hanyu?

So he could be Japan's ambassador at large in the future-China could adopt him (Yuzuru Hanyu from China! at 4CC), Canada has adopted him (gave him the digital canadian flag at ACI), and Russia obviously loves him. I don't mind that idea at all...probably the only way he'd ever set foot in China in the future.

I know. If it were me, I'd make the decision in a heartbeat that I'll stick with such a layout and only toy with 4Lo occassionally (maybe only 1 GP event and 1 GPF and 1 worlds). But I'm not an ambitious person like him. And of course, he would consider it not challenging enough, perhaps even cowardly, since he could do more. But to me, this is the compromise and a decision he would have to make and he is loathe to make. @ICeleste: In short, sometimes I want to take him by the shoulders and shake him. But alas, life of a Fanyu. When in years down the road I can remind my daughter/neice/granddaughter about this. "Remember dear, never fall for boys like these! They will drive you nuts, make you crazy, break your heart and inspire you all at once!" "But auntie Xen/mom/granny Xen, did you succeed?" "...No! Which is why I have these clear files and magazines of him that you are holding in your hands."

You mean the statement that he is still trying to aim for GPF? I think all their statements so far are pretty standard fare for anything from any official governing body, and the fact he has until Dec 3 to WD, is pretty normal, even last year. It's not her position, nor Yuzu's to make any such statements-of his official injury status, of his WD and healing period etc. It's just protocol, not whether or not she hid info. (besides, it's pretty telling that JSF had a meeting and made statements today about the team selection criteria and reminded everyone that other than nationals, there are exceptions criterias for selection to the team).

@Vulnavia: Hmm, a bit of thought on your readings. I'm hiding it since it's not exactly happy thoughts. @sweetwater: You're on the way to becoming a medical translator! But thank you so so much for the translation and double checking. With more news, and information, I have a better idea of timeline and it's actually more comforting than the NHK 17 incident. =)

I think it's better to assume that he won't go to GPF? The injury is pretty bad, even if not as bad as last season's, and I think this time Yuzu does need to take time off to heal properly. My greedy self wants him, if World's is his goal, to just wait and heal and do not strain himself until then-drop GPF, drop JNats and drop 4CC. He needs the time. On a positive note, he has now more time to recover than he did for the lead-up to PyeongChang. And with how things are shaping up, he might not need more than a 4S and a 4T. Stamina has been in short supply in the men's, he just needs to go with his natural jumps and he'll probably still do fine. Of all seasons to go easy on, this is the season.

I think for athletes it's pretty normal to say "I'll heal and try my best to at the next competition." It's just that even if he doesn't participate, the standard protocol would have JSF make such statements and contact endorsers and sponsors ahead of official news. At this point, still focus is on healing first. (Else if he shows up at GPF in skating boots, and is not fully healed- apologies in advance guys, but I'll chase after him with a giant plushy and whack him over the head.)

Oh @Hydroblade it's too early to kill all the new fans this season.

我今年只去GPF....开始好想去俄罗斯杯呀。 觉得B级赛真心没必要晚上熬夜排队， 位置是够的。 倒是现在柚子粉丝那么多， 他们可以考虑安排固定座位了。

Oh I like this "dark" Yuzu actually. Contrary to you, I really wanted a more violent and destructive Yuzu. Something like with death comes the birth of something and creation borne from destruction. It was easier to feel when he did the open practice-but his movements in Helsinki didn't really give that vibe. At some point, he got tired and gave us floppy-ish arms and movements. It might be something he could work on though-a very dark and grounded first half with a lighter section from the chsq to the ending?

Hmm, I get where people are getting the "cold" and "darker" vibes. Though I thought it wasn't "dark" enough. I generally don't really pay attention to skaters facial expressions when skating and only concentrate on what "mood" they are trying to show with arms//feet/leg and relative to the open practice, I thought his movements in Helsinki were not strong, forceful or "dark" enough. I was waiting for that epic struggle and uphills emotional/dramatic battle to be shown, and it kind of went softer than I thought it would-his movements were not big enough, relative to the open practice.