micaelis

It's been some time since I have submitted a fairly lengthy post but now is the time, though this one is about several odds and ends. First up - Yuzu and figure skating shows. I was able to see Prologue and take in the basic approach, which was autobiographical. On his own he was able to in just those performances up the bar for figure-skating exhibitions. We were promised more with Gift. I have only been able to see short snippets from it but they were enough to realize that Yuzu has risen exponentially above the formats for everyday ice shows. Quite simply he's revolutionized the whole concept, bringing a merging of skating, lighting and other techno elements and bringing in other elements also (including Japan's leading symphony orchestra) to create a show that more resembles a high-end rock concert than figure skating shows as we known them. It was a game changer. Signor Anbesi was right, This was likely the single most important event in the history of figure skating. Which brings me to a second topic - Yuzu in Stars on Ice. There was rather a bit of controversy there but I will begin by saying Yuzu wasn't under duress. It is impossible to force Yuzu to do anything he really doesn't want to do. So why did he agree to go with Stars on Ice. My guess is that he is scouting for performers since the normal SOI gang is different from the normal FOI gang. He's putting out a net. True, he could go to vids of their performances and such ;but he needs to get up close and personal. We have to realize that over the years the only times Yuzu has had to mix with other skaters across all the disciplines have been in galas and ice shows. Over the years he's encountered many but back then he wasn't seeing them with an eye looking for future skaters in ice shows he's producing. He needs particularly to see how they work in ice shows rather than galas, although what comprises ice shows is so similar that one might just as well view them as galas without a preceding competition. Another reason he might have decided to go with SOI was because it would be an opportunity for him to meet with one Ilia Malinin, who will be in Japan with SOI. It will be the first time the world's greatest figure-skating superstar meets the superstar emerging. Now I know that a while back I was shot down by putting a description of Ilia on this thread since this threat deals with Yuzu and I think it was probably my fault for not framing it as I will now proceed to do. This is just as much about Yuzu as it is about Ilia, since in Ilia we are seeing emerge a Yuzu done lite. He will never eclipse Yuzu but he is right now the Next Big Thing in men's figure-skating and the Americans are embracing him wholeheartedly. That's easy to understand since at age 18 he's already better than Nathan Chen ever was and unlike Nathan he has a 4A in his weaponry.. And Ilia's emerging greatness is primarily owed to Yuzu. Ilia's parents are both former Olympic athletes (his mother even medaled). They emigrated from Uzbekistan and settled in the US in Virginia and Ilia grew up American. With two talented skaters as parents his decision to enter skating would not be surprising but he has, in interviews, stated that it was Yuzu's example that inspired him to seriously pursue skating. Later Nathan would be an influence too, but Yuzu is where the initial inspiration came from. And he still remains influential. Case in point - amongst Yuzu's signature moves was the doughnut spin and the Bielmann spin but he never did what I thought would be obvious to him, that is moving from a doughnut to a Bielmann by raising his leg up to the proper position. Ilia does do that. There are some other traces of Yuzu to be found in his programs but those are not the important part The important part is that, as he stated in an interview, now that he's got the jumps under control he will focus on basic skating skills and improving his program components, in short, make him something more than quadgOd, make him more complete as a skater, with Yuzu very much the model here, and he's already well on the way. Look at his short program, at either the GPF or the US Nationals. The choreography is dense and his arms are almost at much in motion as his legs. He has to achieve that sense of effortless flow that lies at the heart of Yuzu's greatness and he might never attain that but he's wanting to go in the right direction, unlike Nathan who figured his jumps would be sufficient and the cooperative judges would pad his PC scores and hand him the wins. Ilia's free skate program, which includes as its first jump his signature 4A is not as strong choreographically as his SP, even though Shae-Lynn choreographed it. I think that's probably due to the choice of music. There is, however, another element at play here. Ilia looks like he is going to duplicate Yuzu's achievement from his 2013/14 season, a season in which he took the GPF, the Olympic gold and the World Championship. Basically he began the season as an 'up-and-coming' to end it being the One to Beat. Ilia might do just that this season by doing what is very much a possibility, taking the World Championship. If he does that than this particular up-and-coming one will at season's end be that One to Beat. And much more impressive - This is his first season skating senior level. That is not to denigrate Yuzu. He took every important thing in his fourth season of senior competition. He did not have a Yuzuru Hanyu as inspiration. There is yet another point of comparison. Ilia has a charisma that Nathan never had, a charisma almost as great as Yuzu's but of a different sort. Yuzu's appearance begins with the fact that he is enormously good-looking ('boy-band good looks' as one commentator put it), a ten on a scale of ten. Ilia I would put at an eight or nine, but like Yuzu he has presence. His presence, though, is energetically boyish. He has a radiant smile and gives the impression at times on the ice that he is having a great deal of fun. That is not really like Yuzu, who gets so much into the music that the only times he's really having fun on the ice is when the music is having fun. Another thing to keep in mind is that Ilia does not show a major depth of character. He's very much an American teenager who just happens to be a world class skater. Part of that is that he doesn't have an earthquake in his past. Yuzu does, as we will be very much reminded in a couple weeks in "Notte Stellata', Yuzu's commemoration with others of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, memories of which even after twelve years have the same vividness as the day after the quake. Facing the prospect of imminent death does tend to have a lasting effect on fifteen-year-olds. So as we look ahead for Yuzu there is Notte Stellata and then Stars on Ice later this year, after the competition is over. What follows only Yuzu knows, although knowing his habit of planning things well ahead of time (remember, he stated he was going after TWO Olympic golds even before he'd gotten the first one) he already has things mapped out in his mind. The most important thing to keep in mind about Yuzu is that there has never been in the past a figure skater like Yuzuru Hanyu. There have been great skaters, true, but none have had the conscious determination, as we see with Yuzu, of making figure-skating better, not merely in terms of skills but in terms of the aesthetics. Yuzu wants to make figure-skating better not by developing more impressive jumps and such, but rather making figure-skating more beautiful. I'm sure he will do so and that will be his true legacy. PS - I have a feeling that the real reason Nathan decided to head back to Yale was that he saw Ilia coming and knew he'd never be able to beat him.

He performed alone in a stadium (not a mere arena) with some 35000 spectators and with many thousands more in theatres across Japan and elsewhere watching the show via streaming video. He soldiered through a one-skater performance of some two and a half hours. He enlisted the Tokyo Philharmonic to provide the music for the event. He brought in lighting and other effects unprecedented in figure skating history. He put together and starred in, as one prominent skating commentator described as 'the biggest event in the long history of figure skating'. Put it all together and we see that 'Gift' is spelled G O A T.

I think many of us are trying to get a handle on the significance of Prologue and Gift. True, we know that Yuzu is transforming the possibilities in terms of structure and technology that these exhibitions encompass but for us the question remains what is the significance of these shows for Yuzu. I think I might have the answer. Looking back at a competitive career that is basically unmatched by any other male skater these shows are a symbolic 'victory lap'. He's simultaneously embracing new possibilities as well as putting the past behind him and embracing a future in which ice shows can be serious statement as well as skating spectacle. I can't wait until he starts bringing others into his shows. There will have been nothing like those in the past.

Perhaps this has been noticed before but it certainly merits mentioning again - I just took a look at Shomo's free-skate at the GPF and I was struck by how many empty seats there were. If Yuzu had been competing the place would have been jammed. I guess the ISU and JSF are learning now that this is what happens when you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

I like the idea of Yuzu touring the world, courtesy of Photoshop Airlines, and I have one location which will cause everyone to take a doubletake, show him with the pyramids behind him. 'Nuf said.

I think when Yuzu fills the seats in a baseball stadium and not a mere arena (we're talking about 50,000 versus 15000 seats) both ISU and JSF will realize what they lost when they more or less forced Yuzu to exit competing. The thing is Yuzu is, as has been said by many others, is a skating rock star and he'll fill up the stands at that baseball field in Tokyo just like the Beatles did in that baseball field in New York City in 1964.

With some of the matters that have emerged of late, specifically Yuzu's great sensitivity to music, I think we might see evolving the next stage in Yuzu's development in figure-skating - Yuzu the choreographer, initially for himself but eventually for others, particularly for those needing programs for galas and ice shows and not competition. It is there that Yuzu could become a very potent influence in the development of figure-skating and its expressive potential. Particularly if he is producing ice shows he could be the major shaper of the overall choreography of the show. If this is to be it can't come along soon enough for me.

One should be careful with one wishes, since the results might not be desirable. The skating authorities wanted Yuzu to retire, but they didn't really think about the fact that all those sold out arenas were sold out because of Yuzuru Hanyu. Now there will be those many empty seats and the discouraging sights of arenas filled to capacity where Yuzu's ice shows are underway. Yuzu was the goose that laid the golden eggs and the ISU and JSF killed the goose. No more Yuzu, no more golden eggs, no more sold-out arenas. I shed no tears for them. They wished for his retirement and now they must live with the results.

It's going to take a while before I gather my thoughts to express my homage to that seminal human being, Yuzuru Hanyu. Right now, though, I have some thoughts about his immediate career choice - ice shows. There seems to be a consensus emerging that Yuzu will not hire himself out to those ice shows already existent. Rather, he will go it alone and produce shows over which he can exert full artistic control. Will he get the financial support to do so? You have to be kidding. He is the greatest draw in the history of figure skating. The money will be there as also will be the skaters. Indeed, because Yuzu's at the helm, his figure skating shows will be able to tour internationally because it doesn't matter where he goes sellouts will be guaranteed. I can see, in fact, that Yuzu's company could become something similar to Cirque du Soleil, a place where retired skaters (retired gymnasts in Cirque) go to develop their skills beyond what was required to rack up the points in competition. More importantly his shows will probably also be instrumental in making figure skating popular beyond the bounds of the traditional skating countries. All in all, Yuzu is well-placed to place his stamp on ice shows just in the way he has made his stamp on the stuff that makes ice shows - figure-skating.

With his looks, his musicality, his reputation, if he decided to embrace J-pop he'd be an overnight superstar. (Not that he isn't already, but that's in figure-skating).

As a person who vividly remembers the assassination of John F Kennedy (I was a junior in high school at the time) I can fully empathize with the shock the Japanese people must be experiencing right now. My sorrow at this is not merely for Abe's family but the Japanese people as a whole. No nation should have to be put through this. It's not business as usual in Japan today and won't be for some time to come. For the Japanese people the parallels are similar to America's when JFK was shot since he survived long enough to be taken to a hospital where he then passed away. My memories of hearing that Kennedy had died over the school's announcement speakers and what followed immediately after remain etched in detail in my memory even to this day. Sadly the Japanese now have a similar memory to take to their dying day.

I'd not watched that video of Yuzu in practice before but watching it and particularly how interesting he was just when skating without both his skates leaving the ice together in a jump, watching just his stroking and turning and such and it suddenly came to me why Yuzu is so successful in the PCS scores, it's because he's not just skating; he's making love to the ice. No other skater seems to have such a relationship between himself and the surface on which he is soaring. Yuzu loves the ice and his every program is a serenade to that most frigid of beloveds.

The world will be tuning in again to see Yuzu. Just think, is there any other skater out there who will draw the viewers like Yuzu. His nobility and purity of purpose are the gold standard for figure skaters, although, considering it's Yuzu, we might better say the 'platinum standard'. All other skaters pale in comparison to Yuzu since none others are so pure in their dedication to the sport. If figure skating could have saints, he'd be at the head of the list.

With all this speculation about Yuzu retiring my thoughts have led me to think that maybe they want Yuzu to retire, to make room for those younger. The thing is, as I look over the situation season by season the accusations of underscoring him really don't become numerous until after the 2017/18 season in which he took his second gold. I know it is fairly usual for an Olympic FS men's gold-medalist to retire after that season but for Yuzu that would be absurd as he was only nineteen when he won in Sochi. Retiring at age nineteen would be absurd. On top of that he had stated publicly he wanted a second straight gold and actually that was quite good to the authorities since it added suspense through the countdown to PC. But then he didn't retire after attaining his second gold medal but instead he declared he was determined to be the first to do a quad-axel, the Holy Grail of skating jumps. As far as the ISU and JSF were concerned Yuzu was overstaying his welcome. The figure-skating industry (I use that word deliberately) is driven by the need to have ever fresh young faces working on clawing their way to the top. Yuzu, however, was at the top and showed every sign of remaining at or near the top. He was fouling up the normal modes of procedure. Moreover, I think the skating authorities are afraid of Yuzu. He's TOO popular, too much the object of an almost cultlike following (nothing wrong there, though, considering it's Yuzu). In Japan he's one of the most popular individuals in any field of endeavor. They can't simply demand he retire so they start making it ever harder for him to succeed in winning. Thus all the underscorings. They want him to finally tell the ISU and everyone out there that he's had enough and quit in disgust. They really don't understanding Yuzu very well. He'll keep on going until he has his 4A. What the ISU and the other authorities have to do is to help him get that 4A so he can retire with grace. He almost had it this season but landed on two-feet. A one-foot landing would have Yuzu now duly retired and have everybody here and elsewhere wondering 'What next?'

An idea has recently occurred to me about what Yuzu might do post-retirement. Might he go into movie acting? It's not a farfetched idea. We know he's capable of acting by the way he sinks into the music when skating. So why not Japanese hollywood? I'm not thinking of truly serious roles but rather into movies similar to those of Sonja Henie, a Norwegian three-time Olympics gold-medal winner back in the 1930's. She starred in a number of Hollywood films that were designed around her skating and they were quite successful. Further, I'm not thinking of Yuzu going to Hollywood. No, these would be Japanese productions which could be shown worldwide with either dubbing or subtitles. The thing is that Yuzu would have almost complete artistic control and in these movies would be able to display and promote his skating aesthetic. I'm thinking that this vehicle would be far more effective in reaching audiences beyond those of skating competitions and ice shows. As far as financing, it's a no-brainer. Yuzu has looks that are as good as the best Japanese pop idols and he has a reputation as being a person with a personality of exceptional depth and, to be blunt, Yuzu is amongst the most 'bankable' individuals in Japan. I know this idea seems far-fetched but if you think about it movies would give Yuzu a platform for his skating in terms of international exposure second only to Olympic competitions and might actually be greater. We have to remember that Yuzu is extraordinarily gorgeous and has all the ingredients for movie-stardom - good looks, talent, a record of skating achievement unrivalled by any skater male or female today, and an inspirational biography beginning with the earthquake and his subsequent efforts to aid in the recovery. and his struggles despite his many injuries to achieve his many skating successes. So think about it. I really do think that if Yuzu went into movie-acting he could achieve astonishing success and could also display what he thinks figure-skating is capable of doing and should, in fact , be doing.

When Yuzuru put the blade-cover on his right foot after his FS in Beijing, he said 『頑張ったね』 (“You’ve worked hard!”). He probably said those words to his right ankle which had been holding up so well until the very end. I read somewhere that when Yuzu does those motions with his hands just before he skates (it looks sort of like making the sign of the cross) that he's actually taking a mental inventory of all of his body reminding himself where each part is required to do the skate, rather like telling each part of his body that 'it's showtime' so be ready. Maybe here he's thanking his ankle for going beyond what duty requires. After a skate he always bows to his coaches. Unfortunately he can't bow to his ankle so he bends down and thanks it.

My guess is that he chooses that time for two reasons - One, as noted, he has the rink to himself. Secondly, he's practicing at that time so he can link up with Toronto, which is during the daytime there. I also feel he's not practicing absolutely alone, just no other skaters practicing. There is somebody with him for safety reasons.

Yuzu producing an ice show? He's done it once and shown that he can do it. If he wants to do it he'll not lack for backers. Yuzu's name attached to an ice show, particularly as its producer, guarantees a sell-out anywhere on the planet (yes, even in my US of A). The reason is that unlike some other prominent skaters Yuzu is the symbol of style, of completeness, of integrity. Will he have trouble bringing on other skaters? You have to be kidding. They'll be lining up hoping they're among the chosen. Nathan may hold the various top medals right now but there is no way that he can lay claim to the GOAT. That's Yuzu's and he's locked it up even before he displays Nessie. Nessie will simply tell everyone they were right all along in proclaiming him the GOAT.

I get beyond 2014 COC by focusing on GPF 2014 where Yuzu, having just squeaked into the final went to deliver one of his greatest skates ever and winning the thing by a landslide. One of the things many people have not picked up on is that if Yuzu hadn't fallen on his final jump (a Lutz) he would have broken the FS scoring record (he was that close). As it was he had to wait until 2015 when in NHK and GPF he did it twice.

I'd be very happy if his gala program was POTO, which was my favorite of his programs until --- until Masquerade -- which I think is an absolute masterpiece. Hope to see Phantom but I'd be in seventh heaven if I see Masquerade, which was a program of Yuzu's that had far too short a lifespan.

I have to agree with all that people here have been saying about Yuzu and this won't be one of my long discussions but a simple observation very relevant to Yuzu's GOAT status and that is this. - How many skaters have there been who have competed in 3 Olympics and been a contender in all of them? I can't think of anyone offhand but I think you get my point. Yuzu's name will be in the histories of figure skating long after the names of most of those competing today have been forgotten.

I know everybody is upset, almost everybody is more upset than Yuzu. You have to remember that 11 years ago next month Yuzu experienced something that radically altered his perspectives, namely the earthquake. He survived and thousands others perished. He felt guilty about continuing skating, feeling he should be more directly involved in the recovery efforts but a series of experiences later made him realize that his skating was sufficient to cheer up many of those who were so frustrated with their situations following the quake. On 3/11 Yuzu learned what it takes to be a survivor and he's carried that knowledge within himself ever since. I doubt that there are any other skaters out there who literally have stared death in the face as Yuzu did that afternoon scrambling from the ice wondering whether he'd make it outside before the building came down. He did and the building didn't collapse (though it was heavily damaged and Yuzu's still contributing funds to IceRink Sendai to help it pay off the loans it needed for its repairs). If anything, though, this accident has given him the ability to keep in focus his real reason for being in Beijing - bringing Nessie out in all her 4 1/2 spins glory. No longer considering himself in contention for the gold he can now relax and do the 4A like he has in the past (I'm privately convinced that those failed attempts everyone saw the other day were fakes, meant to keep his opposition asking - Can he? Will he?). I think we will see a Yuzu beginning his free skate with a zen-like calmness tomorrow, with all his focus on solving that figure-skating koan, the 4A (4A is analogous to the Zen koan, being in its way like the riddle of explaining the sound of one hand clapping, the answer being that you can only explain it by doing it). PS - I'm thinking (maybe even hoping, though Yuzu would thoroughly disapprove of me doing so) that having sailed through the SP with a trumped up world record score Nathan might lose his focus because of overconfidence and thoroughly screw up his free skate, delivering the gold not necessarily to Yuzu but at least to someone not named Nathan Chen.

The Americans are talking up Nathan as much as possible but I have a feeling that secretly they are terrified because China is a place where American money and influence will not work as far as this Olympics are concerned. I know everyone here has been lamenting over unfair judging but (this might be wishful thinking on my part) they are not taking into account that these Olympics are also a political event as well as a sporting event and here's where the American scenario will not inevitably work to the Americans' liking. The fact is that the current Chinese head of state, Xi Jinping, is betting a lot on this spectacle. He wants it to run smoothly and free of controversy. He even went so far as to order the shutdown of many industrial facilities so as to remove as far as possible the air pollution so prevalent in Beijing. He wants blue skies for the event (at least if the skies are grey he wants them to be natural, not manmade). The last thing he wants is a scandal and a scandal in figure-skating would be the last kind of scandal he wants. One has to remember that figure-skating and alpine skiing are the two glamor sports in the winter games. They go all the way back to the beginnings of the Winter Olympics. He knows also that Yuzu has a huge following in China, a following that is substantially greater than that of Boyang Jin, China's premier men's skater and that Nathan's following there is virtually nonexistent. I am certain that he is quite aware of the criticism of judging of Yuzu and Nathan and realizes there is potential scandal there and he also probably knows how strong Yuzu's fanbase is around the world and that outside of North America the prevailing sentiment amongst the public as well as the skating commentariat is for Yuzu to get his third gold and do his 4A. I am quite certain that the Olympics authorities have been told that the judging of the men's figure-skating be totally by the book and that if Yuzu is clearly the superior the judges' scores should reflect that. The thing is that if Nathan were to win because of biased judging the furor would not make Xi look good. It would mar his Olympics and right now his position in the Chinese power structure is a bit shaky because of very serious problems with financing of construction projects over the years that are now facing the fact that the bills are due. The problems threaten the entire Chinese economy and Xi needs every bit of good news that he can get and an Olympics scandal is not the kind of news he wants. So I am not so bleak in my outlook as so many here are. If the scoring is fair (and it should be if my reasoning here is sound) then Yuzu can do the job all of us expect him to do and come home with the gold.

The ISU might resist as much as possible AI judging but that won't stop the skating broadcasters from doing it and they, of course, will let the public know how inept or biased the judges are. There's nothing the ISU can do to stop the networks from using AI technology since the ISU is not in a position to stand against the money these networks bring to skating. Basically the ISU is in a Catch-22 situation, they will lose one way or another, one way by taking up AI technology and showing the emperor has no clothes, or they will lose because the networks and their commentators will use it. l shed no tears here for the ISU.

I can see how it would. If Yuzu successfullylands a 4A it would be virtually impossible for the judges to give someone else (guess who?) the gold. The resultant scandal would involve not only Yuzu's fans (plus all of Japan) but would be worldwide. I know there are those who say the judging is owned by American money, but money can only go so far. We have to remember that except for the Americans pitching the line of a showdown between Nathan and Yuzu the overwhelming story from everybody else will be will he get his third gold and will he do a 4A. I imagine that Nathan will be seen in a fairly negative light as the person wanting to deprive the king of his well-deserved gold. Keep your hopes up, everyone. America is not the whole world (though it likes to think so, and I have a right to say it as I'm American) and American money can only go so far. If Yuzu misses the gold it will be because it's something he didn't do and not because of something Nathan did.