KatjaThera

I think it depends a lot also in what shows the surprise guest(s) will skate in... if it's just the December shows, it can be Scott and Tessa, if it's not, then other dates... I'm not sure Daisuke will have time for shows if he's serious about competing. I can't really imagine Yuna doing shows in Spain, but it would definitely be a huge surprise. And Mao has skated in Spain, so it can't be her as the bomb (but could be one of the other big names). I'm not sure Yulia would count as a bomb, though, especially for Spanish spectators... but not sure about this. No idea who it could be... I know I'd love to see Johnny (not as the big bomb), too... And Nobu! But they'll both likely be in Moscow reporting/commentating... (for Malaga at least)

I want to teleport to Japan NOW, PLEASE!!!

I'm thinking Tessa and Scott. Others seem to think it's them, too. Plus, wasn't Plushenko in the original ROI? Or was it just my impression? I can't really imagine anyone else... Also, hasn't Mao skated in Spain? In one of the GPFs?

The first skaters for Revolution on Ice were published on the website: http://revolutiononice.com/ So far we have Elladj Balde, Jeffrey Buttle, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Yuka Sato, Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz (not in Malaga T_T I really wanted to see them again!) and some others I don't know ^_^; Also someone mentioned Ondrej, but I can't see him on the website. Apparently the full lists will be revealed next week and will include a bomb announcement of someone who has never skated in Spain before, as well as a last minute addition. Source: https://twitter.com/Hieloespanol

I also think it's fairly low... I think he'll be far more focused on Worlds. He went in 2017 probably just because it was in Pyeongchang. And before that I think he went pretty much where he was told. From my understanding, 4CC was usually where federations sent their B teams. It's rather rare that the top of the top go there. Being so close to Worlds, there's not much point unless they really need the mileage. The traveling isn't really worth it. And even though it's technically not that far this time, I'm not sure a trip to California in the midst of preparations for Worlds in Toronto makes much sense (I'm not sure, but I think it'd also be a bit of a temperature change and that's always risky, as it can lead to colds and/or fevers and with Yuzu aiming for Nessie, I'd really rather he never sets foot on ice while sick again...). That said, it is the only title he has left and he might want to fight it out with Nathan again - assuming Nathan is going - one more time before Worlds. So who knows... but I wouldn't hold my breath. (I wouldn't be surprised if, in the circumstances of a good result at Nationals, Daisuke might go to 4CC, though...)

It could be for practical reasons. He uses their AIR mattress (takes it with him when traveling, too)... no idea if he used it before as well, but even if not, it's probably something he can use, so it's practical.

If they had that in the size of my mattress, I might be tempted, too LOL It looks fluffy! Imagine sleeping on that! ETA: I'm not sure if they haven't started online sale yet or it's the Yuzu effect, but it seems that particular model is not in stock on the Tokyo Nishikawa website...

Is it bad that I like Yuzu's execution more than Jeff of this little moment? (I always wonder how Brian feels about Yuzu's Sing Sing Sing, too...) And I just watched Sing Sing Sing last night... though I prefer the 2007 Medalists on Ice version, despite the poor quality...

Personally, I'm ok with Yuzu only having about 5 sponsors. Having sponsors doesn't mean just getting financial benefits, it also means having to work to promote them, do CMs, participate in events etc. With Yuzu based in Canada, doing that for his Japanese sponsors means he has to travel back to Japan to do it. I think it's great he's managed to find ways to work with them in such a way that he can do all that stuff whenever he's in Japan, and cram them all into a short period of time, as opposed to having to travel back and forth. If he had more sponsors to work with, I'm not sure it'd be as convenient.

I admit I wasn't following FS in the Yuna era, but I can honestly say I had never heard of her before I really got into FS after watching Yuzu skate in 2016. I had heard of Carolina Kostner and even Mao Asada, but had never heard of Yuna Kim. So I'm not sure she was really that big a superstar? Although I probably also wouldn't have heard of Yuzu if not for my general interest in Japan. (Maybe Yuna's popularity also had some connection with the increased popularity of KPop and other Korean entertainment in that same period, too? No idea, but I think those things do help open people's minds more.) I also wouldn't say her fame didn't affect her results. Being at TCC, they were able to help her keep away from it, some, but I remember some things Brian said did sound like they had to work pretty hard for that. And I also remember something about a breakdown before the Olympics. That she managed to rise from it and still get the results is awesome, but I wouldn't say the pressure didn't get to her. She just managed to overcome it - partially, because then she reportedly lost motivation, though, admittedly, that might be unrelated. Anyway, all my opinions about Yuna are just based on hearsay so I could be wrong. But like @TallyT said, Yuzu's popularity is the result of an incredible and unique sum of circumstances that are extremely unlikely to ever happen again. (And no, no way could Shoma, Nathan, Boyang or even Javi, much as I love him, get that same kind of popularity. Though Javi's story + personality might be closest to reaching similar levels, if properly promoted.) Of course, an athlete having that kind of rock star status isn't ideal. However, there is also a bright side. Yuzu uses his popularity to help the earthquake and tsunami affected areas. Or to help in general and to promote important agendas - like the blood donation campaign. And I think in the future he could use it to promote figure skating in general. He knows all those things would have far less impact if not for the popularity. So, like with everything, there are pros and cons. He does manage to limit the cons a lot by being very private and keeping control of every aspect of his life, although it'd still help a lot if people respected his privacy more. I think he is very aware of the situation and the way he has been handling it has been amazing so far. I doubt any agency could have done a better job of balancing the two aspects, IMO. As for music cuts, there were some really bad ones even at ACI and I was joking that after Yuzu retires, ISU should hire him as a music consultant and have all program music go through him first. That would save the world from really bad music cuts lol I'm quite sure both SP and FS are at least rough cuts by him, with him then hounding some poor music editor with fine-tuning them. The risks of working with a perfectionist lol

It's most likely a heart monitor and/or pulseoxymeter. It's been discussed before, that most athletes wear heart monitors when exercising and I also threw in the idea of a pulseoxymeter because measuring his oxygen saturation could also be a good idea, with his asthma. But most likely it's just a heart monitor.

Oh did he? I knew they had them, I didn't know Brian actually carried them. I'd like some pictures now lol

And now Luna's too lol I actually LOL-ed hard when Brian showed up on Wednesday at ACI with Luna in his arms. (I know other TCC skaters had their own plushy tissue cases, but I don't remember seeing Brian carry them. Only Pooh and now Luna lol)

LOL yes, that's from last year before Seimei. We had quite the laugh about it... it's hilarious how he just stares at the gloves in disbelief. (I also find it pretty funny that none of the people around him seem to notice the whole thing. Only Brian looks as he stuffs the gloves back in his backpack, a bit like "Huh?" but still doesn't say anything)

You know, it's pretty funny how quickly we've gone from Nessie, the mythical beast, possible or impossible discussions, to tips on recognizing it and discussing when he'll do it, without any doubt any longer that he WILL do it.

Actually, I doubt it was on purpose, as they've shown him saying it on other occasions - even subtitled it, in case anyone missed it LOL. My understanding is that "くそ！" in Japanese isn't quite as bad as regular cursing in English/other languages, but I'm not entirely sure lol (I actually often use it myself, as I prefer it to cursing in Romanian, which sounds really vulgar to me :P) I've had that same fear regarding 4A, but aside from the length and height, I'll be counting on the much more experienced people in the audience to react lol That first 3A in Thursday practice was already crazy high and long and effortless. I was somewhat high up - 3rd row above the KnC - and it almost felt like he jumped at the same level I was at. It was particularly huge compared to all the other jumps we'd seen that far, too. The others didn't seem quite as huge - or maybe I'd just gotten spoiled by that one, but that first one was crazy. However, I was sure it was just 3A. Not sure how I knew, but I knew...

Honestly, I think Yuzu is somewhat used to the cheering during the program and it's actually standard. It wasn't just for Yuzu, everyone clapped and cheered (albeit more loudly for home skaters or popular skaters) at every element. Even the falls, because you want to encourage them. Remember at Worlds 2012 when Yuzu fell on his step sequence, the crowd cheered for him and he said that encouraged him and helped him get up and continue his program even though he could barely breathe anymore. Cheering during a program I don't think feels like pressure, I think it feels more like support and "wow, they're really enjoying it!" IMO, the moment when everything needs to be quiet is when the program starts. Afterwards, cheering for the elements I think is fine - as long as we don't get totally hysterical "OMG, have my babies!" type of screams . This actually reminds me a bit of that crap article recently, where the author said he believed Shoma could have won if not for the excited atmosphere at PC after Yuzu skated. Being able to deal with that kind of thing, as well as pressure in general, is also part of being an athlete. An athlete who is just physically skilled but doesn't have mental strength isn't going to get very far, IMO. Yuzu's ability to deal with pressure is one of the reasons why he's the best. His only issues is that he still has a tendency to overthink lol (and fixate on things... for the SP in ACI, he was fixated on the 4S in warmup, for the FP, he was fixated on the 4Lo and personally I think that took away his focus from the program as a whole, hence the following mistakes) But I'd much rather he have a human side like that, than be perfect all the time...

This might have been mentioned by other ACI attendees in the ACI threads - haven't managed to catch up with those - but, after finally getting around to watching Origin from TV Asahi last night, I wanted to cry a bit. And not from the awesomeness, but from the fact that the TV footage does not even come anywhere close to how awesome it was live... The TV footage really does not do it justice, IMO. Everything was better in real life, from the costume and how he looked to the elements and the skating and... everything. It makes me sad they couldn't capture all that for everyone to see (and for me to be able to re-live it properly, too)...

If I had a chance to approach and it wouldn't be too awkward or intrusive, I guess I'd try to make it about him... like congratulating him, wishing him luck, not asking for an autograph or a selfie or something that is about me. That's for private. Though that would be mostly in a situation where pretending I don't know who he is would be more awkward. I agree that on the 'job' approaching is generally ok, as long as it's done respectfully and leaving any kind of physical interaction up to them (I will never not cringe at fans hugging celebrities out of their own initiative, especially when Japanese celebrities >_< Asking for a hug is marginally better, but you don't give them much of a choice like that, either...). And of course, not interrupting or so. Agreed on private time. As for in between, I'd say it depends on a lot of things. For example, on a bad day, I'd rather he be left alone. Even if the intention is good, I'm not sure he'd want to see fans in between. On a good day, I'd be all for it. I am however a bigger fan of clapping or shouting congrats and good luck than non-descript shrieking, because that doesn't really tell him much, just that he has very loud fans. And of course, yes, keeping a respectful distance. Also, only if the place to see him is easily accessible. If you have to search too hard, it means either the organizers arranged it so, or he wanted it so, and that's a good hint to stay away, IMO. I think the best place to show support is still in the venue, though. Banners, applause and cheering should be our universal language.

Regarding Ghislain, I think he's a genuinely nice guy, who really likes talking to people and there's nothing wrong with that. I do wonder, however, if he's as media/public/fans savvy as Brian or Tracy. I don't think he ever got this much attention before and he might not know how to deal with some things. I still remember when he said Yuzu was crying when he withdrew from NHK. I always wondered if Yuzu ok-ed that detail - for Ghislain it was probably just something he added to show that Yuzu felt really awful about it, but personally, if it were me, I'd rather have such a detail kept private - or if Brian or Tracy would have said it. I tend to lean towards no, because both of them, and especially Brian, know what it's like when your every gesture is put under the magnifying glass and would have kept the extent of Yuzu's upset private. Of course, it was no big deal, but it made me wonder then and now it's making me wonder again, if Ghislain has that media/public speaking experience.I mean, Brian learned the hard way to be very sensitive to what skaters want revealed and what not, so I'm sure he's particularly careful. Most of the time, at least... It's nothing against Ghislain, really - he's way too nice to ever dislike - and unless he revealed really big things, I'm sure nobody will get mad at him, but knowing the extent to which Yuzu is private and even secretive, I'd really personally not reveal anything Yuzu doesn't reveal himself. Then again, I'm used to keeping bits of info to myself, at least for a while, to see if it comes from elsewhere or not... I guess in the age of SNS that's harder to do, though... As for selfies and pictures, I get it, actually. Memories fade away eventually, but a picture you can keep for a very very long time. At times like that - though it also goes for competitions, concerts etc. - it's essential to find a balance that is ideal for you. Some people are fine with no pictures and want to be there 100%. Others want just the footage and that's enough. Others do both, to various extents. I was determined not to film anything on Friday and Saturday, but in the end, I really wanted a few things for myself, so I still filmed. I also filmed on Thursday, mostly because I knew the official footage wasn't great. But I didn't film the actual runthroughs or programs. Those I wanted to experience just with my own eyes. So I think it really depends from person to person. But actually, I agree. I'm also in favor of not approaching at all. Hell, like I said, I didn't even approach skaters/coaches at the rink, although they were there and very approachable. At most, I'd probably just say omedetou or ganbatte kudasai (to Yuzu that is), if I ran into him somewhere, but even that I'd do in the most non-intrusive and not-attention drawing way possible. But I probably wouldn't even do that...

I'm not surprised if he is afraid - though it might not be so much fear fear, but fear of causing a commotion and so on - but I don't think he should have to come out and say it for people to get themselves under control. And I'm a little less optimistic, I think not even that will get to the truly scary fans, because I think they likely don't realize they're scary. They'll think it's not them. They might think "Oh, don't worry, we'll protect you!" or things like that. But hopefully you're right and revealing that will help with at least some of them. (As you can see, I have little faith in human kind :P) And I'm sorry, I never meant to attack anyone. Different people have different attitudes and I'm sure that fan had no bad intentions. I myself sometimes have trouble reconciling my very private attitude - including towards respecting other's privacy, perhaps to an extreme - and an otherwise very voyeuristic curiosity. Hence always asking myself: "How would I feel if that happened to me?" But that's why particularly hearing that someone said Yuzu is afraid of fan's reactions if he goes out rubbed me the wrong way, because that's about feelings and feelings are private. I'm not sure how I'd feel if a friend spoke about my feelings to someone else. It'd depend on the feelings, but I'm not sure I'd always be ok with it. *shrugs*

I get what you're saying. Someone could have seen me downstairs on Saturday or seen me shout good luck to Jason as he was leaving and assume I was one of the crazy fans and that wouldn't be fun at all. But I also don't understand why feel the need to share, even if it's all stuff Ghislain volunteered. Even if he ok-ed sharing it. At the end of the day, as much as I love him, Ghislain isn't Yuzu. I'm not saying Yuzu wouldn't agree to the sharing or that Ghislain did anything wrong, or even that what she did was anything wrong. I'm just saying it makes me uncomfortable, to get private information like this. I'd much rather get only whatever Yuzu wants to volunteer. I think that not everything you hear, you also need to share with the world. When I saw Satoko, I wanted to post about it, then was like: you know, what? Better not... maybe she's here privately, let's not risk her getting more attention than she'd like. So I only told a friend about it, privately, a friend who wasn't there. But then people posted on twitter so, yeah. I'm sure she wasn't bothered, but that's how I function. *shrugs*

Even if she got the OK, I'm not sure I'm OK with it... Can we be sure she got his OK on each and every bit of info? Then again, would he tell someone he's known for maybe not so long, stuff he wouldn't want shared? It's a bit But actually, the very thing of walking up to Ghislain and talking to him about Yuzu is a bit off for me... it sounds like fishing for info, no matter what and to me, that's rude. Even if I might want or like to know that info, myself. It's one thing to go and say congrats and good luck and maybe that we're a bit worried about 4A or whatever, it's another thing to talk about those things Yuzu doesn't mention in public, like his training, his private life, his relationship or attitude or feelings towards his fans. Even if it's true and it might help temper fans, I would never feel comfortable saying it publicly that Yuzu is afraid to go outside because of how fans behave, as long as it's not something he said publicly. Even if Ghislain gave his ok. I don't know, maybe my limits on what's ok and what's not are weirder, but all these 'oh, I talked to Ghislain and he said this and this' makes me really uncomfortable. And actually while waiting for Yuzu, Ghislain was there and talking to someone in French - and he hugged her, too. No idea if it was this person or not, but I actually tried hard NOT to eavesdrop. I was also right next to a group of Japanese fans talking to a gentleman who I think was Wakaba's coach? Or in any way, the coach of one of the girls and I overheard bits and pieces, but I tried hard not to listen, because it wasn't my place. These people are people, they might naturally say things like they would in a normal conversation with anyone, they might not have a chance to actually sit and consider if that's something they want making it to the general public. How many of us in a normal chat actually have time to consider things in detail?

Honestly, I think if it weren't really bad they wouldn't have done it. It only happened three times that I could see. There was a lot of filming and picture taking, with filming technically not allowed, but they let a lot of stuff go. So my guess is it was really bad and that's why they did it, even if it was in the middle of the performance. Otherwise they were very particular about not doing anything distracting during performances. The doors were only open between performances, people didn't leave or go back to their seats during performances etc.

I agree. On Friday, I admit, I would film and watch him even as he appeared in the skaters' entrance, even while there was another skater, and again, watched him leave, even while the next skater had started. I didn't cheer for him while others were skating, but I still felt pretty bad about it. So on Saturday, I did set up my camera to film the area, but focused on the skating myself. (And then didn't even film anymore, because my batteries were gone ^_^; ) It's what I meant by being scolded by him and adjusting my behavior accordingly. It's hard not to focus entirely on him, but knowing that he hates that sort of thing is enough to make one search for more respectful options.