micaelis

I just watched the vid of Javi clinching his seventh consecutive European title. Congratulations to Javi and tears (of joy) all around (I cried after watching it and I'm sure Yuzu must have also). Javi got his record seventh consecutive win and now retires as skating Grand Master of Spain. Next tear-fest? Yuzu's turn at Worlds.

I think it is safe to say that Yuzu is following his medical team's orders to the letter. The injury during the Olympic season and his subsequent winning performances at PC while dosed with pain-killers convinced Yuzu that he is not invulnerable. The fact that the pre-Olympic injury was, until they knew much more about it, potentially one that might have ended Yuzu's career. That made him realize that injuries have consequences and some injuries can have consequences that he will carry with him to his grave. The Yuzu we have now is a wiser Yuzu than the Yuzu who existed before that 'fall seen 'round the world'.

My mistake. However my observations about Misha Ge remain. His skating style is very individual and principled. Like Jason Brown he eschews the aerobatics of the elite but he also skates programs that would be fatally damaged were there additional jumps incorporated. Misha loves the ice and what it offers him, while too many others love their time flying above the ice at the expense of what they could accomplish remaining on it. As far as Kolyada goes I have always admired him but like others see that he is wildly inconsistent. I see him as one whose talent has him standing right at the fringes of the elite, one whose fortunes depend on those above him making mistakes and he making less than they do (sounds like Yuzu at Sochi). Turning back to Misha Ge, like so many others here I do wish Yuzu would employ Misha for an exhibition piece. They would be perfect together.

I like the comparison of Mikhail with Yuzu. They seem to have the same aesthetic but Yuzu has the advantage of higher consistency and he is more adventurous when it comes to new things (ie 4A and the quad/3A combination). Yuzu's difference from Mikhail also is that his level of consistency is much higher. He can skate a program with high PCS numbers much more reliably than Mikhail, part of that being that those things which make for 9's in PCS's have been engraved literally in Yuzu's skating DNA. Misha, if I understand correctly, has left competition. He is, fortunately, always welcome in ice shows, since his choreography is always so sensitive to the music and his expressiveness puts him up with the best of all time (for expressiveness, since his programs rarely have him up in the air). I think his skating future is probably in choreography. A good move for him would be to remove himself to Toronto where the number of needy (needing programs) skaters is quite large. Exhibition programs would probably be his specialty and the best advertisement he could hope to have would be to do one for Yuzu. Like so many here I would LOVE to see Yuzu skate a Misha program. With the exception of the aerobatics Yuzu and Misha are very much on the same page there.

Just watched Yuzu's message to Javi. No tears but my eyes did get moist. First thing that struck me is that there was no necessary reason that Yuzu send the message. He did it because he wanted to. Second, it seems to me that Yuzu is saying that the period of life when the two trained together and competed against each other is now in the past. They will both continue in their lives and careers and almost certainly they will see each other again in ice shows and such but except for those times their lives will now proceed on different paths. In German the word 'Tschuss' is used when parting with the expectation that the two parties will again see other soon and when the parties are friends of each other, sort of like the Italian 'ciao'. 'Auf Wiedersehen' is used when there is not a close relationship but the time expected for separation is still fairly short. 'Lebwohl', which means literally 'live well' is the term used when there is expectation of no longer seeing each other or where the expected duration of separation is of some length. Yuzu's message struck me as very much a 'Lebwohl' message. As much as we miss those days of Yuzu and Javi together, like the two of them we must realize that the two are now moving on. If we have tears it is because we realize something precious has come to an end. Their friendship continues but their lives are now separate.

It might work for all of you but I'm almost 72 years old and need a walker to get around. Just watching it made my back ache (just joking on that part) but I have to say that in watching that workout of Yuzu's I got the feeling that there was more than physical action involved and that this was part of a ritual he uses when readying to compete that not only works out his body but also his mind and prepares him to focus for those upcoming minutes on the ice.

Last year Stephen Gogolev finished in 10th place at the senior Canadian national championships. This year, after the short program, he is in first. What will tomorrow bring about. If he medals he'll become very much a young skater to watch internationally (if he isn't already). If by sheer chance he takes the gold, well, I don't know exactly how that might play out but it will certainly be interesting.

Here's a bit of a thought for everybody to ponder - If Yuzu does not retire after next season he's probably intending to go to Beijing. I cannot see him retiring in the season preceding the Olympics. If he does go to Beijing he'll probably be the leading storyline for the press. Only one person has ever won three consecutive golds in the men's skating and that was way back in the 1920s into the 30s.

Perhaps not silly enough. Not a Pooh headband, but rather Yuzu buried in a pile of Winnie-the-Poohs with only his head and shoulders visible. Yuzu still giggling, however. You can make it monumentally silly by gradually backing away and showing Yuzu at the top of a huge mountain of Poohs and him saying, "We're still trying to figure out where to put them all."

That says something along the lines I was thinking but I was seeing it as a situation where he deliberately does not create a life for himself in Toronto because his loyalty to Japan is greater than his desire to truly lead a life in Toronto. It may also be involved with the guilt feelings he felt when he resumed his skating training after the earthquake. March of 2011 was when the quake occurred and it was in the summer of the next year (2012) that he made the move to Toronto. All of this is speculation on my part, urged on by my constant desire to put events into some kind of narrative rationale. That's the literary scholar in me and when I tire of doing such analysis in the books I read I tend to see how such methods might work with actual individuals. Yuzu has proven to be a great challenge. One word lends itself to describing him - inscrutable. It's that sense of mystery he has about him that I think is a major part of what draws so many fans to him.

This brings up an issue I've been thinking about for some time, the issue relating to Yuzu's nearly complete lack of a life outside of his apartment and TCC. Could it be that Yuzu is avoiding any sort of life outside of those two venues so he can say that while he 'resides' in Toronto, he 'lives' in Japan. Just some speculation on my part but it does help to explain the fact that he's never even been to downtown Toronto.

Just wondering if Yuzu might travel with Brian and the crew to the Europeans to cheer Javi on.

Javi - Auntie Tracy! There's no place like home.

Just a thought - With Yuzu's iconic stature in Japan I wonder how many boy babies are now being named 'Yuzuru'?

Well, remember there's a bit of next year and next season going together and so if he might be intending to unveil 'Nessie' at the GPF both next year and next season would be right.

With his jacket blowing backward in the last part of this video he almost looks like a caped superhero preparing to launch himself. Couldn't be more fitting!

To all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I add also a Thank You to this forum and especially to those who manage it. With always new Yuzu fans signing up and with all those threads to manage it can't be easy. So a special thank you there. As for Yuzu, I wish it were Christmas every day for him and in his stocking he'd find an infinite supply of uninjured ankles ready to be popped in whenever things go amiss.

For those who have not been following the activity at the Japanese Nationals, probably because Yuzu isn't there, the results after the short program are very intriguing. At the top, with a commanding lead, is Shoma. Expected. In second, not expected but certainly not beyond belief, is Daisuke. If you see things as I see them, things at Worlds this year could be very interesting if you have the first time ever Daisuke , Shoma and Yuzu are face to face in a competition. That, of course, is subject to who JSF sends to Worlds, but with the competition being held in Japan the sending of those three would guarantee standing room only in the men's events and TV ratings that go through the roof.

Actually, I'm not sure where I saw it, but it was on one of those more extended documentaries on Yuzu, that Yuzu is using some of what he's learning at university to do just exactly that. He was putting together mathematical formuli that describe the dynamics of jumping.

For us up north it is the darkest, shortest day, but in places like Argentina and Australia in the southern hemisphere it's the longest, brightest day. Things get reversed come next June so everything balances out in the end.

I don't know if the textile type would be amenable to attaching all the sparkly things Yuzu loves.

I really find it difficult to understand those here who think Yuzu's chance of going to WC are jeopardized if he doesn't go to Nats. There is no way JSF would not send Yuzu. Not only is he the greatest opportunity for Japan to get a World gold but if he were not there there would be hell to pay from his fans in Japan. Yuzu is JSFs biggest single moneymaker. He can fill stadiums like no one else in Japan and he has the biggest international fandom of any current Japanese skater. Moreover I can't believe P&G and his other sponsors have not gotten to the JSF and told them that Yuzu goes or they'll rethink some of their involvement with Japan figure-skating. There's big money behind Yuzu and they will not let JSF leave Yuzu at home when Worlds come around.

Unless a person recognized the setting as TCC and so there's a possibility that Yuzu might be on the ice with the result a viewer is looking hard to find him, there's no way one could say that video's about Yuzu because the casual watcher on that Instagram post, even if TCC was identified as the setting, would not have the vaguest idea what TCC is and its relationship to Yuzu. The girl who is skating is the obvious object of that short snippet. I had to watch it three times before I was reasonably sure I had identified him. The real focus was on the girl skating and this whole thing strikes me as a tempest in a teapot. The one thing this whole affair teaches us is that not only are there a large mob of antis out there but also their umbrage too easily sets off too many Yuzu fans. Come on, everybody. We need to keep the emotions in check and take things in stride. After all, that's exactly what Yuzu would do.

So Yuzu is out of Nationals. Will he skip 4CC? He might just do so in order to be in absolute good form for Worlds. I have a feeling he does not want to skate Worlds on painkillers. He wants a drug-free skate to win and if passing up 4CC to take gold at Worlds is necessary, he'll do it. Admittedly 4CC is business that needs to be concluded, as also Japanese nationals, but he can save it for the next season. A 3rd World Championship right now is what I have a feeling is his primary mission and what greater stage than that can there be for bringing Nessie out of the water and onto the ice? Retiring after that? I have a feeling that's not in the cards. Actually, while he's never said anything about it publicly I can't help but feel he'd like a season like his last in Juniors, where he got gold in every competition. For him the best exit from competition would be a perfect season. The ultimate dream season for him would be the 2021/22 season, winning everything including a 3rd Olympic gold and a 4th World Championship.

I have a suspicion that Ice Rink Sendai may be the biggest tourist attraction in Sendai. If not, it's almost certainly up there. Yuzu has put it on the map, not just for Japan but at least as far as skating fans go, on the world map. I would not be surprised if Sendai in general has found itself on the tourist agenda of many simply because it is Yuzu's hometown.