WinForPooh

Remembering all those entries and exits and different jump setups (because you know, Yuzu has those things for each jump in each layout) better not interfere with getting all of those difficult steps and turns in for a level 4! Imagine if after everything, it's a level 3 step sequence that causes kuyashii this time around.

Shoma does better when he competes regularly. He showed that last season. He's not struggling with any injury. He's been in top training condition all season, so he's not losing anything by competing in the team event. Yuzu needs every moment of training at his rink that he can get because he is, despite all good news, still preparing for a comeback from a pretty serious injury. Without the extra few days, Shoma is probably more competition ready so that decision is also good for Team Japan. But anybody who wants to complain about Yuzu will find something to complain about. If he'd decided to compete TE SP, then a chronic complainer would say: This is Shoma's shot, he competed at Nationals and at 4CC, he should have the chance to compete in that rink and familiarise himself properly to competition setting at the Olympics especially because he's not had Olympic experience. Yuzu is stealing Shoma's spotlight and experience to ruin his advantage for the individual event!! So. Haters can shrivel up and dry.

This could be the competition where he goes in the best shape this season! Loads of conditioning, weeks of very good training where his jumps are behaving, the right amount of time to recover from jet lag and acclimatise but avoid the different flus that seem to be going around... *checks top of head* Yes, I think this cactus is blooming.

Me AF rn Training without pain, training without pain, he's back, he's training without pain!

He's training without pain. HE'S TRAINING WITHOUT PAIN!!!!

The Boyang erasure yet again. No, Nathan is not the one who prompted the quadburst, that was Boyang. Ooooh the US media making me mad. Their pushing makes me want to dislike the kid when I honestly think he is pretty phenomenal. His 4F and 4Lz technique, his SP as it was before... Ugh. But Vera Wang, what an own goal if a casual watcher's impression of Nathan was Darth Vader!

I'd think avoiding a jump that he landed just once in competition, then fell/popped in practice about a hundred times though he did fine in TCC with it, is a smart decision for an Olympic comeback. It's a strength to recognise that it could be a weakness under that very high pressure situation and avoid it. He's going with the jumps he has landed in competition so many times. It's good, especially because hopefully the loop has started behaving again. Frankly, I'd prefer to think it's not a physical issue. A mental block can be overcome, especially after the pressure cooker of the Olympics has been navigated successfully. If his training hasn't progressed enough that he can't jump the 4Lz because of the pick, then I'd rather he didn't risk himself at all, for even an Olympic gold. That's just how I feel. I hope he's avoiding it because he can but he doesn't want to.

It could be, but most of the initial stuff about his recovery being delayed seemed to be around how it's the landing foot and so couldn't be risked. Wise to avoid any additional strain, of course, but I'd think if he can land everything else fine, then would the pick for just the 4Lz be a bigger deal? Maybe it is. No point speculating. I'm scarred from his fall and projecting, probably lol

Has the poor bb developed a very understandable mental block for the 4Lz? If he has, and he's decided that he'll focus on the Olympics before he sets to work battering that 4Lz block out of the way, then it would be an excellent decision to avoid it. He can still do a five-quad layout though I will cry bitter tears for the second 3A. He'll have that YOLO-3A, even a YOLO-3A combo, in reserve if he does pop a quad combo earlier. And seriously, if he does a clean four-quad two-3A SEIMEI, who can beat him? Please don't be trolling, though, Brian. Please. I am glad the loop is behaving itself again, too.

Maybe... Maybe they've understood that the skating gods demand sacrifices and have found out that there's a planet of more or less willing sacrifices here if it will keep Yuzu safe, and we're getting death by ambiguous news?

Please don't be trolling, I don't want 4Lz especially under such terribly stressful circumstances. And btw ISU and their loop BV can go . I don't understand the timing of this little Brian special, though. I know nothing. I'm Jonette Snow.

Ah, I think a lot of people (like me) who swear by H&L had the advantage of seeing H&L Worlds version first. I crammed my Yuzu-education during the off season after that, so I didn't see the earlier ones - like SC spin-fail lol - until after I had completely fallen for the perfect one, hook, line and sinker. Seimei is dramatic and gorgeous and I love how he gets into character so well, but if perfect H&L was what made you give up your soul to this skater you didn't even know existed before that... Well, lemme tell you, that's a life-altering experience.

Will there be Asian inflation for Asian skaters? I would like that because after the Euros, that would only be getting rid of an unfair advantage for everybody else! But Javi, I think, will still get the love if he's clean. He got fairly generous PCS and ended up apologising for complaining about them, didn't he? That is true. Also an indication of the ridiculous PCS inflation this season because during ACI, didn't that free skate PCS seem almost generous, considering the skate he had? In the end, he's lucky because it's in his hands. If he goes clean, he's good. He doesn't depend on anybody else bombing. Everybody else depends on Yuzu not going clean.

He needs to skate clean to have a chance and he hasn't had a clean FS so far, has he? He didn't seem his usual self anywhere. And yet he did win a GP event, so... Honestly, it feels like judging is geared towards getting the younger guys up. I'm still not over Patrick Chan's PCS at Skate Canada, terrible free skate or not. Even the short got him lower than Shoma's PCS by a fraction. I guess looking at it that way, we should be glad that Yuzu's stock hasn't fallen. Though his popSeimei did only get him 89.5 AND he got a ! on his 3F.

Me suddenly realising that Javi has an excellent chance of podium if he skates clean. Unless judges do a Patrick Chan Skate Canada '17 on him. It is pretty remarkable that Yuzu clearly made progress this season before that *bleep*ing fall. Shoma, despite the problems with his jumps, did have a good showing at Lombardia, though since then it's been downhill. Boyang has had a very difficult season but the improvement is there for all to see now. Nathan is the one who has been riding on his excellent SP choreo and music, and PR. (And his 4F has been getting rotated less, too. The 4CC tech panel wouldn't have let some of his landed 4Fs through without a carrot.) The PR has been stellar from the US.

Nathan is just 18. He's practically still a child. No thirst allowed if they can't buy a drink, that's a good rule, I think.

Only if it gets serialised. Might need a powerful and evil alien being introduced to take over the earth at some point. Yuzu will reveal his true identity as a universe-saving skating space kitty.

We really are living in a narrative trope. Well, then the only ending that makes sense is the one we all want.

Wait, you didn't edit the background? Oh boy. So this is all written, is it? Who's the bleddy author, I need to have a word with him. At least, my boots do. And by word I mean hard connection with tender area.

Your sig is just making me chuckle bleakly and joylessly because it is accurate af.

Your sig, it's both killing me and giving me life.

I wouldn't be surprised to see ACI Chopin layout, and the whole damn deal for Seimei. Including the 4Lz. ACI Chopin because he can do that without mistakes and strain himself less. 4Lz Seimei because he doesn't have to conserve anything and he can go all out for the free. I don't want the 4Lz. But I think we'll get it.

I think we're getting Olympic training, too. Look at how quickly the fire was put out on the Planet this time. Compare to NHK when fire raged and raged and raged for hours and hours, and we had to make multiple bucket chains to put out each other's heads on fire, taking turns being the panicked ones and the comforting cacti. We're getting our firefighting skills honed good.

All of what @Xen said, too. I'm not panicked because... I didn't expect to see him in the team event, honestly. It looks like the men's individual event is being seen as do or die. That's the sense I've been getting from the complete ninja-ing. Well, he'll do or we'll die, I suppose. Nothing we can do except believe that his mind is in the perfect space, because if it is, he can skate on phantom feet and still win. The lad has been as Extra about the whole mind over matter philosophy as about anything else.

I would also not completely believe anything about his injury and recovery being said by anybody right now. It makes absolutely no sense to give that information away when the Olympics is as much about mental strength as physical conditioning. Nobody who wants their athlete to win and have an advantage would come right out and say 'yeah his ankle is, like, totally fucked and we're considering cyborging the shit out of him' unless the athlete was withdrawing. It is completely nonsensical to give his opponents that kind of a mental boost! And I'm sure every camp knows it. Whatever statements come out now about his injury, we can't really believe that it'll be true. It might be because they want somebody like Nathan to underestimate Yuzu's condition and use a lower BV layout. If they say he's perfectly recovered, it might be because they want to put the fear of Yuzu in his competitors. They're not going to tell the whole truth. This is part of the game, too. ETA: We might have seen something different in the way of a PR strategy if Shoma hadn't been beaten by both Nathan and Boyang this season. Yuzu has gone back to being their great medal hope and he's currently both the best and the wildcard. It's a weird combination, but keeping him and his condition completely under wraps makes sense considering his performances are so unpredictable.