WinForPooh

I'm really, terribly sad about this. But if he's too hurt/unhappy/stressed out/whatever to go on, then he should do what's best for him. I'll still be very sad, though.

I... I guess Misha isn't injured, then? Ankles seem fine.

Loads in senior Bs as well. Didn't even Lambiel avoid the 3A when he could?

Edited because ninja'd.

Yes, very suspicious. It was a smirk, when they showed him that projection. A real smirk.

Who knows anything with him. Remember that gala or ice show or something where they had the quad-off and he gave the 4A a go? And fell, obviously? What if he did that because he'd already landed it? Though the 4Lz training was interrupted by the intensive 4Lo training, and now there is only the 4A left. And the 4F (hehe). You know, we should go back and watch his 3As from the last two seasons and see when they started getting quite so big, with his arms so relatively loose. If all we have is speculation, we should really dive deep into it.

There's no option for my awesome 0% success rate in the second question so I just said 'others'. On the other hand, my husband is a huge Monster Hunter fan now.

Alien. Wasn't he training all of those quads for a couple of seasons before he put them in his programmes? It might depend on just how long he's been doing that 4A training. I remember something about him having been training the 4Lz for a while before he put it in his layout. Now that I think about it, it does fit with the timeline of when Max and Miki mentioned him and Nessie.

He'll have to do it in bio-science subject and he'll have minimum hour requirements to get through to med school, won't he? Doing pre-med should still be really demanding. Junhwan's free skate was special. He really put himself out there. He landed his jumps very well at that national competition to get chosen for the Olympics, but that free skate was far better for me. But there will probably never be a new Yuzu, unless he finds somebody that incredibly talented and coaches them, and Yuzu turns out to have the kind of talent for coaching that he does for skating. Doing a few one-hour sessions isn't the same, so we can't know. Even then, they won't be the new Yuzu. They will be a new one of a kind. I'd hope Yuzu would never drill the uniqueness out of a skating prodigy if he finds one. Boyang did a great job with his free skate, too. He didn't have much to work with, tbh. The music cuts. The choreo. That's really why my affection for that young man went up. He really tried, and you could see it. Nathan tried, too, but to land his jumps, and he had much better programmes to work with. Ah well, Olympics can do things to athletes. Boyang seems to be doing well after it. We'll see if Nathan's priorities shift. Speaking of youngsters, I hope Krasnozhon is okay after that terrible fall.

Nathan said before the Olympic season that he wanted to go to med school, giving the impression that that was his focus. But during the Olympic season, he said he wanted to balance the two. He is only 18, motivations and aims change a lot. He might have said something a couple of years ago, believing that his Olympics would go a lot differently, and then everything happened and we don't know how he feels about it. He's a very talented young man whose parents are doctors, I believe. If he finds now after facing such disappointment that his joy and passion is in figure skating, then he could become a wonderful skater. If he feels it's not, he might not go on till then. We don't know. But doing med school AND being an elite skater would be just about impossible. Boyang doesn't have Yuzu's enchanting artistry, but he does have a different kind of very engaging artistry and a commitment to improving his skating skills and performance skills. It would be a mistake for him to try to emulate Yuzu, the almost recluse (I am not talking about his immediate personal life) who focuses almost entirely on skating, the perfectionist who can shut everything else out until it's time to let us and our support in again, for his strength. Boyang is a social media-happy little tol bean who puts his energy out there and who gets it back from his supporters. That's reflected in his performances, too. This season's programmes were very different for him, a stepping stone to more serious ones, and considering that he went from Spiderman to Crouching Tiger, he did a great job. Yuzu reminds us often that artistry is built on technique. You can't focus on expressive movements if your edges are uncertain. Boyang, when he develops more, will have a different kind of artistry, but it will also be the kind that can make you feel something special. Different, maybe never equal to Yuzu's because he's one in many ages, but very good, very special. Shoma's height won't make so much difference, I think. When the rink is so big and the audience is far away, the ability to project is what matters, and how much can five centimetres help you project dramatically better? Shoma has that performance skill of keeping people's eyes on him. Personally, I think he needs to work with more choreographers to develop because it's Intense-Shoma all the time and his off ice personality is more interesting. His jumps, on the other hand, with the +/-5 GOE system, we'll see how that goes. He does come from a skating school that has more influence, unlike Yuzu. And gets GOE for fun apparently, but that's snark, don't mind me.

I'll fight anybody who says Yuzu has to do even more to be the GOAT, tbh. He's already the GOAT, he'll just be GOATer with everything he does now. Until somebody as incredible as he is comes along again, there will be nobody who can surpass him, and after many seasons of figure skating like this season's GP series, ALL the people will grudgingly admit, yeah maybe he is the GOAT after all.

And yet, his own words belie your view of how he feels about his achievements this season. He says he has no regrets. He said he was happy with his achievement because he won against himself. Everything else expressed here is pure conjecture that does not hold up to his actual words or his demeanour after that free skate. I can't tell if you don't really get just how huge a goal the 4A is, or if you understand and still don't think it's not an adequate higher goal for a perfectionist? As for your assessment of his season, I mean, read this again: The Olympics is a greater goal than either of those things. You could win ten straight GPFs and four straight Worlds but no Olympics and the lack of Olympic gold would always be an asterisk. But it doesn't work the other way round. He could've won both GPF and Worlds, not won the Olympics this season, and it would've been considered a failure of a season for him by most of the world. Nathan Chen might win both GPF and Worlds, do you really think that would make his season one with more momentum or success than Yuzuru Hanyu's second OGM? If you do, I'll just disagree SO MUCH yet again. ETA: I have harsh words for any actual Hanyu fan who calls his free skate this time flawed and compares it to Sochi, btw. Hanyu fans are supposed to know what went into that, and how it came to be. To call it flawed is, well, a flawed analysis.

For some reason I read that as emotional wrecked poodle and I was a little puzzled for a moment.

But he'd rock disco, too. Just sayin', he would rock a disco SP.

Thrift shops are the place to go for out of style but comfortable clothes. Cheap, too. I've come to the conclusion that he can make me like anything. He could do a Taylor Swift SP and a Katy Perry free and create long-lasting twitter peace. We do need to survive multiple performances, so... Hmm, maybe he could embrace the hip rolls and do Ricky Martin. Or Enrique. Aaand now I should get my coat and go to music talk, where I will annoy people who have serious thoughts about music with my jibber-jabber of 'ooooh how about the Backstreet Boys, then, how about it!'

Oh, come on. I don't care if he skates to Selena Gomez to go with the Justin Bieber ex. But... Well, you know how history goes in cycles and old things come back and become new? It might happen. Like flared pants, they came back.

I would be quite happy if he did a completely Tokyo Ghoul-themed SP or FS, too. I want him to do programmes that let him have a blast. He should do exactly what he wants and give zero f*cks. If anybody has earned that right...

In all new stuff. Doing new stuff.

All the GP talk only means one thing to me. NEW PROGRAMMES!!! NEW COSTUMES!!!! SHINY SPARKLY ALL NEW STUFF!!!! PRECIOUSSSS!!!!! *ahem* Yes, I was saying, much as I love his repeats, too, I am quite looking forward to new programmes from him.

We'd need flash-freezing of an overgrown pond. Shoma would get lost. And not notice and fall asleep. Boyang could probably jump high enough to find his way out. Yuzu might go into one with nature, felt like the wind and water H&L state. I'm not even sleep-deprived anymore, I have no excuse, it's just my brain.

You heard that growl at the end of that? That's me at just the mention of shifting goalposts at ice shows.

lol Not a kangaroo. Sometimes when even his fans talk about him, I feel like I'm watching the real life figure skating life story version of this ad. Shifting goal posts, like... Not even subtle anymore.

Even he will have trouble doing a 4A without a change of foot. That's not a challenge! It's not!!

The headliner only turns up for the main event. The spread eagle sandwich is probably one of his easier axel setups and exits now! Very Extra.

Wow, I disagree so much. Staying at the top for over four years after winning a first OGM to then win a second OGM - how can that ever be considered a fluke? He's still top of the ISU world rankings, where has has been for years! The top-ranked skater who holds all world records won his second OGM (while injured) - that would be a completely new definition of fluke. If it hadn't been for the injury and US media, it would've been the expected norm. Also, he will have seven jumping passes in his free skate soon. He does not need a 4F for an all-quad-3A programme. Also, a 4A would be a good starter to not have his second OGM taken as fluke? The 4A is the jump that has never been seen. The 3A is currently the jump that is not often seen from the quadsters. A 4A is not a starter for anything, it's the huge climax.