Xen

We say that, and then after the off season, that app will revert back to identifying him as female, age 19.

He has ideas now.

Hmm, I'm still translating, but almost done. And Zhao is pretty complimentary of Yuzu, but you won't get that if you only look at the Yuzu specific clip. If you look at the full interview, there is a section where Zhao says what is amazing about Yuzu's mentality- he essentially states that what Yuzu does mentally is something worthwhile for coaches to study. Because most skaters, no matter how elite, crumble under pressure and do less than practice, but Yuzu is usually able to drive himself to achieve above what you see from his practice. That is a champion mindset, and is the ideal mindset (if you take it with the earlier question) for a figure skater by Zhao's standards. This is something he did not say about any other skater. Additionally, with the judges and the "trend"- Zhao says much earlier that Yuzu did not have a very good performance at Sochi (and considering mistakes he is probably objectively right). So he took the entire new 4 year preparation period for PC, to build his dominance, his presence and his confidence on the ice. So if you take that into context, then there should be no question that the "hanyu era" is earned, not just gifted, and that Yuzu is the gold standard for skating in the men's discipline now.

I spot very familiar faces! The pins, I still have mine from ACI! The nail art-daaaamn! And those grandmas in the pooh onesies...goals for later! Though now a days, I think if you get to know him a bit better, you wonder why the heck are there still people confused about why he has the fandom he has? It's pretty obvious to me, and I think the fandom number is lower than it should be.

Again, thank you for the summaries! I'm catching up. Hm, well it's mister McSmile-a-lot, so I'm not surprised he's smiling while saying something very painful. I'm hoping that the injury is not that bad (and a week or 2 off is enough), but considering Japan's spots, I am worried he might consider gunning it. A part of me wants to smack him over the head, knock him out, chain him to a bed for rehab, and remind him to trust his damn teammates (Keiji isn't bad yo) for those spots. And gunning for worlds, plus new programs later on , plus shows in the summer, there might not be enough time for the full rest he needs depending on his ankle's situation. If I could lend him my right ankle, I totally would. On the other hand...I feel like we have a potential cheer project again this off-season perhaps? Depending on what his situation is?

Not really, you're just getting filled up before ninja season starts.

Why still that jacket? The short sleeves....

Nessie is our nickname for 4A. As far as we know, he isn't dating anyone. This is a guy some time ago said all he thinks and breathes is skating. Dating isn't on his radar. I think he admires Medvedeva's consistency and mental strength, so maybe they are pals when on ice together. But the same can be said about him and many other skaters, female skaters included. @Yatagarasu @kaeryth: I loved that look on Brian's face at the end of the interview when talking about 4A. That moment where he drops all pretense of being a coach and just looks like a boy in a lego store going, "Holy wow, that would be amazing." Like he also just realized he might have the athlete capable of performing that feat as his student. I look forward to the 4A too, but on the condition that Yuzu is healed enough to take it. I still await the return of Lady 4Loop and Lady 4 Lutz.

No problem. I also need another day or 2 since I can only work on this during off work hours. And each 8 minutes of the clip is about 20 -30 mins for me. Zhao is a talker. Also, this interview was for Zhao to introduce figure skating as a sport to the general audience, not necessarily skating fans. So he also went on to de-mythologize Yuzuru.

There might be some misquoting going on? Because I don't know if Brian's hair will survive, and I don't think Nessie is quite that ready yet. Seriously, they need to have some mercy on our fragile souls. No, 5, 6 months off season is Not enough. The injury isn't one that he can just surgery away-it's a soft tissue ligament type, and he would need significant time off-ice. I dont' think worlds is happening this season, he will need at least the next 2 months to rest and figure out what's wrong. Then about a month, 2 months of on ice training to regain form. He won't be ready to really train until august at earliest. >_>I'm editing this to say I wish him a speedy recovery and we can see his glorious form, fully healthy, full on training by July or earlier, because I'm starting to get scared of letting dates out into the universe (too many came true).

We have side projects to show support for TCC? We have a lot of banners to design? New birthday gift this year to top last year's? Then we start the guessing game of what he's going to show us next under the new rules? Care to help out with Yuzu+Assassin's Tango?

We need to stash up on all this olympics stuff, our emperor is going ninja style in less than 2 months. At that time, we need to slowly release our saved goods to fend of starvation/droughts. Let's get him a glitter cape.

Done! Guys, Zhao is now also the head coach for the entire chinese team, essentially runs the skating system in China. There is no way he would ever publicly disown the system in place, especially if he wants to get any changes in place. Believe it or not, there's a lot of criticism of the system inside China itself, about how we pool talent, about how some skaters should go overseas because the chinese skating system for coaching is an old fashioned dinosaur. And this gets emphasized a lot by commentators during the figure skating events. Just in the gala broadcast now, the chinese commentator just said "South Korea started figure skating much later than China or Japan, but in such a short time they were able to get ladies who placed so high (higher than Chinese ladies)." The implication is, "Yo China, what's going on?" Full 53 min interview is here: https://v.qq.com/x/cover/vc1ig4drkvw1ujb/u0025jg5mlg.html I'm translating the entire video under spoilers. By the way, the full title of the interview translates as "Interview with Zhao Hongbo: Figure skating is an extreme technical task. Coach explains the secret behind Yuzuru Hanyu's Olympic victory." And the solo part for Yuzu talk, is actually titled "Asking Director Zhao Hongbo, where is China's Yuzuru Hanyu?" (Lol, the envy is real) Key takeaways and context of the interview: -The interview is to introduce normal people (non-FS fans) to Figure skating as a whole. The focus is more on the chinese teams, and where Chinese team stands relative to the rest of the world. -Zhao is head coach for China, but he also specifies that he only coaches directly pairs skating, and only takes general glances at the other disciplines. The more I translate this interview, the more I wonder what Zhao and Brian will talk about if they had a coffee chat about training/preparation methods. Both are pretty systemic. Parts regarding Yuzu are bolded. So while translating, based on the entire context of the interview, Zhao is actually more complimentary to Yuzu than dismissive. He has a very objective, neutral tone throughout, but there are some details that came through. Note that these are just some inferences, and conjectures I personally made. I could be totally wrong. 1) Zhao is very impressed by Yuzu's mentality. When discussing artistry, he goes and waxes poetic about how Yuzu's mental strength is something that coaches are looking into (hint: your loss as a coach if you don't). Because unlike other athletes, Yuzu when under pressure can find a way to draw out even stronger ability levels than what he had at practice. Normally athletes tend to perform less than practice when under pressure. This is part and parcel of what he considers the champion mentality and drive for getting that gold, which he considers the best state of mind for a figure skater when competing. And if you watch that part of the video, and notice the tone, Zhao is kind of gushing and a bit in awe. 2) He did discuss momentum, and based on what he said, Yuzu, or the style of skating that Yuzu represents, is the golden standard now. But this momentum was not gifted to him, since he also mentions above that Yuzu had to prepare the entire 4 years between Sochi and PC to establish his dominance. 3) Given momentum, and that he was the golden standard, it was natural that a clean Yuzu won. There's nothing odd about it, it should be expected. I guess Zhao did not read the US media hype? 4) Regarding Yuzu's artistry, the interviewer posed it as a bit of "why do our athletes suck next to this/ why don't our athletes do this" since he goes on about Yuzu being involved in his own music edits, costume designs etc. So Zhao said to stop mythologizing Yuzu, and recognize that for many athletes a team is necessary, that even in Yuzu's case, he still has a professional team behind him. So in the end, it's a team vs team competition. 5) He sounds pretty neutral, but on the whole he is respectful towards Yuzu. Actually what he said towards the end is that if you truly love the sport and have the technical skillset, the artistry, the passion, maturity, then you should have the confidence to win (implied: like Yuzuru). He's actually not surprised by Yuzu's actions, since he views them as natural outgrowths of Yuzu's love for figure skating. 6) He does de-mythologize Yuzu quite a bit. To him, Yuzu is human, but he showed what should be expected as a result when a normal human applies himself thoroughly to his sport/his passion. Since Yuzu did his utmost to apply himself to skating, his result is natural. The implication and take away seems to be, he's not a god, he is a human who worked his max, so do not put him on a godlike status-instead if you did less than what he did as a human, maybe it should be expected you did not get equivalent results. 7) Lastly, in some ways, his description of the professional athlete at the end, is what Yuzu embodies. So perhaps to a degree, Yuzu is what he considers a model, ideal professional athlete. Considering Zhao's high standards, that's a pretty big compliment. I'm not sure why people expected gushing. Zhao is the head of chinese skating after all- he gave a lot of compliments to Yuzuru and Yuzu's entire team, but you do have to read the entire context, all the questions and subtext. It's kind of like asking the director of USFSA to gush about Yuzuru-I don't think we'd get a comment about how all coaches should study Yuzu's mentality and ability to drive himself and deal with pressure.

The new theme is really lovely! Thanks! @Hydroblade Nice choice of photos too.

2022 to be remembered as the battle between members of the Yuzu fan club. How will it end?

Thanks for the summary! When you watch stuff like this, it really makes you think of just how much Yuzu is loved in Sendai. It's not a small city by any means, yet people gathered together to watch his skating in the middle of the day, cheering him on. The out pour of support is amazing. That they had a city hall (or auditorium) along with the sendai station showings is pretty amazing.There's a bit of a small town warmth, despite the size of the city. I don't think this is frequently done for athletes in larger cities regardless of their titles? As for his hand print, someone needs to tell us just what size it really is. It's so petite and delicate for a guy (small palm and long fingers).

Save everything and then slowly release them when you can't take the drought anymore.

You know there is a music suggestions thread. =)

I'm thinking that he's already used Kuyashii once in a recent interview. But I think this season made him figure out how to deal with reality, how to balance his hyperfocus and drive with happiness and fun.

Enjoy this while we can. Soon, he's going to revert back to kuyashii form.

Someone (Misha ahem) teach Yuzu how to say “You're handsome” in Chinese so he can say that to Boyang next time. If he does that, I'm sure the 5Lz will be ready from Boyang within a month.

I need to figure out how to record out the broadcast from cctv phone app. They're doing a full broadcast of the gala with Pang/Tong as commentators, and Yuzu+Misha+Javi+Boyang+Uno+Cha doing a giant train line through the middle. *dies laughing* Pang and Tong are having a couples spat about the future of Kostner and how she can maintain her form (if possible) since the broadcaster insists on showing the ice resurfacing. So Pang/Tong decided to teach everyone about how FS scoring works and give us a giant discourse about Kostner (and her stamina and why she didn't podium etc).

So he waits for boyang to do it first, then get a good image for a quint, and lands one next? So devious....

@kaerb: Did he seriously just say he is waiting for Boyang to do a quint and a 5Lz at that? I can't...I always wondered whom Yuzu viewed as his greatest rival amongst the squadsters, and he goes and essentially lays down the war declaration to Boyang. Edit: I can't...waiting for someone to send this to Boyang's weibo.

Should we have a streaming party of all the interviews that Yuzu had post Olys?