axelsandwich

Haha you're pretty much spot on re: brush strokes. The Chinese commentators would not have a heavy Beijing accent, they have 'standard announcer' Chinese (which is like the BBC English of China), perhaps with a bit of a Beijing enunciation on their words. I guess I'm thinking of a heavy uncle Beijing dialect which I heard a lot of when I was working in Beijing and basically couldn't understand LOL. To bring this (slightly) back on topic, the Chinese commentator during WC2017 basically started waxing poetic about Yuzu's skating in a ~super dramatic~ way (like she was composing a poem for him). If someone finds me a clip, I'll see if I can consult my parents and translate it

Hahaha both Beijing and Taiwanese accents are pretty polarising and very distinctive - I don't think I've ever heard someone love the sound of a Beijing accent but I'm glad you do

It is (albeit slightly unusual since I haven't heard many four-syllable Chinese names) but not so much when you put the Jié Xián first LOL

LOL. Wait....who's Luke????? ? ?? (if it's another picture of Yuzu bc ~twins~, that is really weird lighting because he looks completely different)

hahaha I'm grateful the Chinese use Asian naming conventions (ie. surname first and then first name) because Jié Xián Yǔ Shēng sounds possibly even weirder

Ahh. Not at all actually but I can see how that might be confusing when it's romanised. Chinese and Japanese kanji actually differ quite a lot (which makes both super annoying to learn and not transferable much at all lol) Jian (簡) is his surname. Hóng yǔ (宏宇) is his first name and is actually pronounced 'Hiroyu' (according to Google translate) in Japanese. The Chinese pronunciation of 'Hongyu' is also extremely different to how 'Hanyu' is pronounced. 'Hanyu' (羽生) is pronounced yǔ shēng in Mandarin Chinese and 结弦 (Yuzuru) is pronounced Jié xián, so his name sounds completely different when you read the characters in the Chinese way ( :

????

The Chinese of the title says it's an invitational competition of a sports centre in China (or Taiwan, judging by the poster). It says 滑輪, which I believe means roller skates (I've only ever heard rollerskates being called 溜冰鞋 but that would probably be the colloquial Chinese usage - 滑輪 may be a more formal word). The skater's name seems to be Jian Hongyu. Frankly, I'm a little surprised by the comments here about it - it's definitely not any sort of 'elite' performance but for roller skates, that looks pretty damn impressive to me (he got some triples in). Not sure why he's got the Chopin costume on, except it's probably much easier to replicate than Seimei's actual costume and/or he also skated a short program.

And yet he still has perfect skin (perhaps because he sweats out all the bad stuff )

Well no, I don't think he hates the colour but just...maybe not in competition costumes? I like your optimism though! But not since CoC.......which is such a pity cos he looks good in red T___T

The only thing that stops me from going all in on red!Seimei is that...we know the boy is superstitious and he hasn't worn an outfit with red in it since CoC 2014.... : /

Speaking of Brendan Kerry, apparently one of my close friends lived next door to him when he was growing up. Small world (I actually quite like his skating - music is a bit of a strange cover but I don't mind it)

Actually I think we make a good team - you provide the clips, I'll translate (thank youu!!) Unfortunately I'm almost 100% blind with the Spanish so I'm just going to wildly guess at vaguely similar words. Thank goodness they kept the English interviews and didn't dub over them a la Japan.

lol I'll believe it if they show me a proper source and not just a typed Facebook post translated from typed Russian. Don't doubt there might be a grain of truth in there somewhere but it's so vague it's not worth freaking out about and nothing we haven't already heard/speculated on before

Does anyone have a link to where these clips are from? I think I've heard someone mention it's a Javi documentary? http://xoxomyseriesxoxo.tumblr.com/post/158678267991/theyre-both-better-because-of-each-other-javi

this is one of my favourite interviews, mostly bc it makes me affectionately weepy about his crying and it also makes me laugh at the same time (also, I think this confirms an earlier point that we need Yuzu to skate after everyone's done very well and also we should piss him off by not paying attention to him before he starts)

yuzu's indignant high voice makes me laugh every time - post 4CC, says the EX was bad, reporter asking him if he needs more practice on his EX. yuzu like: I PRACTISED IT.

Oh of course - I've learned it's actually a good thing if his competitors do well, but I guess I see it as a bonus. I don't know if he'd be terribly affected if they're performing poorly - I guess the splatfest in Sochi wasn't ideal but his poor skate had more to do Yuzu psyching himself out, more than the fact everyone else was failing. He definitely does tends to do better if his lead is under threat though...it's just not great for his fans' health. Yes, it's why I don't mind if he bolsters himself up - his version of 'talking the talk' is grounded in self confidence and never dependent on putting others down, and he also works hard to walk the walk. He's the opposite to me when it comes to articulating goals though - I have friends like that who tell people whatever they want to do because they'd then be under pressure to make it come true (and also get bolstered by support from others) whereas scrutiny/support/expectation creates bad pressure for me and I'd rather quietly accomplish my goal and then bask in surprise/admiration after the fact (or suffer disappointment alone LOL). Probably has to do with self confidence tbh, which the boy has in spades, and a healthier attitude towards failure/support from others. Gotta learn from him as always

I was JUST about to post that. Why is he like this "I’m happy about that, and if it is because I visited them that those who suffered from the disaster can forget about their hardships for even just a moment, to me that would be something very meaningful. Therefore, at that moment, I thought that I wanted to get another Gold medal at the next Olympics."

Okay I don't mean to stoke the fires but what happened at Nationals? EDIT: Oh wait, I think I recall an interview where he thought his PCS was really inflated in this and that he didn't deserve to win?

He said himself somewhere that his mistakes in the 2014 FS was precisely because his thinking had shifted to thinking about gold, instead of delivering the performance he wanted. You're absolutely right that this frame of thinking is his biggest enemy and I'm glad he recognises that and seems to be focused on delivering perfect performances - and letting the chips fall where they may (it so happens that right now, his perfect skate is almost certain to also get the goal he wants). I just hope he doesn't lose that focus on delivering his ideal skate, not achieving his ideal result, given that literally everything is currently 'in place' for him to achieve that exact life dream/goal he's been aiming for since he started skating (despite just scraping into the first part of that goal at Sochi). I can't imagine how you can not be thinking at least a little about that. I'm with you in thinking it's very unlikely he retires immediately after Olympics, no matter the result. I'm really not worried about retirement - but I do imagine the kuyashii if anything goes wrong (touch wood) would be the biggest one ever. It'd be cool if we didn't have to experience that, I'm just sayin', thanks Yuzu : P (again, natural pessimist who likes to be prepared for the worst; in my heart of hearts, I actually am pretty optimistic about the whole thing, despite all outward appearances). Hmm that's interesting. I didn't really think of Yuzu as the type to be affected by others' poor performances (though he is the rare breed of human who is excited and fired up by other people's successes and as we saw in GPF 2015 re: Ten's alleged interference, he can sometimes skate brilliantly out of anger/saltiness too lmao). His biggest enemy has always been himself so in that, he's right in putting the focus on distilling what makes Zhenya get into that zone all the time. Oh I am absolutely a goal setter - but I'm a goal setter who is scared of articulating a huge life goal out loud or having something ideal/very hard crystallise too much in my head before it happens (and I get more nervous, the closer I am to achieving the goal). A combination of illogical superstition, not wanting to hype that goal up only to fail in front of others and knowing that talking too much about it puts me into a complacent mindset. I actually think it's a much healthier thing to not be afraid of failing spectacularly, as long as you try your best. Yuzu doesn't have those hangups because his primary drive is to work bloody hard so he'll be okay

Context is that these are the Yuzu cuts from a broader documentary about Daisuke. Daisuke's commenting on what he's excited about for the coming season re: Yuzu and Shoma + answering general questions about Yuzu, esp in the context of his experiences competing with Yuzu (hence older clips). The clip where Yuzu talks about his Pyeongchang skate seems to be a new/recent clip. It's too late where I am to attempt a translation but I might write a couple of notes tomorrow if no one translates it

Yeah, I only quickly scanned that clip and to be fair, it's a program that's all about Daisuke's journey so it's not like he couldn't talk about 2013. It's unfortunate that talking about it from his POV will inevitably stoke memories of old 'rivalries' that aren't applicable to the current conversation at all (esp given Yuzu is still actively competing). I like to think that the people who irrationally might hate on Yuzu after this would not be any different from the ones who already hate on him but it's hard not to be somewhat cool/lightly salty about someone who knocked your fave off their perch. Just an inevitable fact of sports and life.

You're right in that Yuzu's tone is that of anticipation more than nerves/pressure and I do think his attitude going in is very much on the right track (you need an amazing amount of self confidence to be a world champion of any sort so I would never raise an eyebrow at Yuzu for his determination and self belief esp because he never needs to put anyone down or cast aspersions in the process). Personally though, it's the weight and significance he's placing on that one skate ('the culmination'/the ideal/the peak of his entire life) along with his determination to skate perfectly throughout the whole season that makes me slightly nervous. I am fully aware this may just be personal projection from a natural pessimist - I find that I perform better when I'm not thinking too hard about the significance/gravity of whatever I'm doing or building expectation of any particular outcome - so all I can say is that I believe Yuzu will prove me wrong

I can't imagine how it must feel to have your entire life kind of culminate into a single moment that could make or break everything. I'm not sure if the right way to deal with the situation is to admit to yourself that this is it, this means everything to me and roll with it (a la Yuzu) or try to put it into perspective, minimise it and treat it as a regular thing (a la Eteri-style?). Can only hope his solution is the right way for him - it terrifies me, but that's because I don't like putting all my emotional eggs into one basket, so to speak (but this is...also why I'm not an elite athlete LOL)