micaelis

Thinking out of the box here. Could the 10 points Yuzu is talking about be the approximate points he was behind after the SP? Might he have been thinking how those ten points in arrears that he was then might have enabled him to set a new combined record or whatever? On the other hand, if that were the case I can see how his thinking there might have been erroneous because more than one commentator, remarking on Yuzu's stellar FS performance said that it was because he was behind that he was motivated to do the skate he did. I can't really say but I remember GPF 2014 in his free skate, indeed in his entire performance there but particularly the FS, where I think he was trying to salvage a season that had gone incredibly bad after his fourth place at the NHK. I still think his FS at GPF 2014 was his most intensely driven performance ever. He fell once but that was a mere blip on a performance that was simply inspired, at least as I see it. If not for that fall he would have set a new FS record, this a year before he actually did at NHK 2015. Looking at that and then at WC this year, where again he was attempting to salvage something, I think it can be said that a Yuzu WELL behind is like a cornered wild animal. He attacks. And he wins.

This has me thinking. We know that Yuzu is always after a challenge and that he's quite ferocious in pursuing those he's set for himself. Here he seems to be thinking about going beyond the skate he'd just had, a skate which had set a new world record for the FS. So what might be lying at the back of his mind? We know about his ideal of the 'absolute champion'. So what comprises that ideal? What comprises 'perfection' in Yuzu's thought? We can look first at the TES. Perfection there would be making every element and getting maximum GOE on every one of them. Then PCS. The mathematical definition of perfection for the PCS would be fifty points in the short and one hundred points in the free skate. He has scored well into the forties on his short programs and well up in the nineties for his free skates. He knows that both goals might be actually feasible for him (a feasibility that is essentially unreachable by all present competitors with the possible exception of Patrick Chan, but he is weak on his TES, at least as far as his base values are concerned). So a perfect competition for Yuzu would be scoring maximum GOEs on a program that in base value is higher than any of the other participants and then having a maximum PCS of fifty and one hundred for his two skates there. If he were ever to achieve that I think he would in fact become the 'absolute champion' he envisions. I doubt that he actually expects to achieve that but I would not be surprised if something like what I've just been describing here might not lurk in Yuzu's mind as the ultimate skate for the absolute champion. Earlier in this thread there was discussion of Yuzu's chronic dissatisfaction with what he does, if it can be described as such, and I made the comment that on the day Yuzu is satisfied Yuzu would announce his retirement. That of course was an exaggeration on my part but I think it highlights something that he has and that actually I think all truly successful athletes must have, and that is that their expectations of what they want to achieve are always higher than the expectations of their coaches and managers. Their coaches, in fact, probably have the dubious task of helping them deal with failing those self-expectations as one of their main tasks. All in all those ten points Yuzu talks about, whichever of the two interpretations we make, those ten points are actually symbolic of Yuzu's intense ambition and desire to outskate not only his competitors but also himself. I think one of the things that really sets Yuzu apart from the other male skaters is that when taking the ice the person he's skating against is himself. He might set short-term goals as equaling other skaters in terms of the jumps in his repertoire and such, but the burning image for him is whatever ideal skater he sees himself as. Like Johnny Weir once said - He's skating against himself. What's harder than that?

If Yuzu has had any ballet training he should be able to handle it. In ballet, turnout, as it is called, is a rotation of the legs FROM THE HIP to 180 degrees (ideally). Not everybody can do it. They have to have the genes that shape the pelvis to allow that degree of rotation. Turnout is absolutely central to ballet. The so-called 'five basic positions' are all variations of the placement of the feet in a turnout position. With all good dancers it is so ingrained as to be routine. The crucial factor here is that the turnout is done from the hip and does not involve the knees or ankles. If not done from the hip the knees and ankles can be dangerously stressed. I don't know if Yuzu has had any formal ballet training but if he has, he would have known about turnout and been trained in it from his very first lesson. Considering his legendary flexibility I would think he probably mastered it easily. The thing is that turnout is also something that can leave one vulnerable to injuries since it is not a 'natural' position. Committed dancers, though, learn to minimize those dangers. If Yuzu has had ankle or knee problems they might be related to an insufficient care made to guard against turnout injuries. I don't know whether that is the case or not. From looking at the video of the fall that precipitated all this I can't say, although I will note that when he fell he was momentarily in a full-split. That he had no groin or pelvic injuries would seem to indicate he has plenty of pelvic flexibility. In any case I felt that those who might not already know should know that a 180 degree rotation is not something that should be automatically feared as unnatural since with ballet dancers it is absolutely routine and one should not be quick to think his position in his lunge is difficult to achieve. If the ballet training he might have had has been absorbed, the turnout would be routine.

The day he's satisfied is the day he retires.

I have to agree there as far as the actual competition goes and I thank you for the clarification. What I was trying to point out, though, is that there are so many other factors in the Olympic experience that are not directly connected to the seven minutes total spent on the ice collecting points. There is, for one, the ceremonial aspect, with huge opening and closing ceremonies and all the ritual there. There's also the fact that one is part of a national team that contains far more than figure skaters and that one is living with all the other athletes from all over in the Olympic village. There's also the medal count (unofficial, of course, but everyone does it) of the medals for each country. For the first-time Olympian all these factors are so new and I'd imagine rather intimidating. There is also the fact that one is skating on a world stage, far more than one does in the big annual international competitions (GPF, 4CC, Worlds). All these factors can be very distracting, particularly for a first-timer. These distractions will be reduced for somebody who's already gone through that experience (although I don't think anyone ever gets to the point that one is dealing with just another competition). Yuzu has been living with PC for four years. That has been the focus for him for competition after competition through these last four years. The one thing that is different for him than it is for Shoma, (for example) I feel, is that Shoma will be like Yuzu at Sochi, the new guy in town and also, like Yuzu, one of the youngest athletes there in any sport. Yuzu has spent these years since Sochi preparing himself for PC. Shoma has spent these first years of his in senior international competition unsure of whether he'd be going at all, despite how well he was doing. PC for Yuzu was basically a sure thing, particularly as he cemented his position at the top of his sport. For Shoma PC was a hope but he knew he'd have to earn it (Yuzu earned it too, admittedly, but he was MAINTAINING his position as number one in the world - Shoma was having to create his position in the world hierarchy). All in all I agree with the point above. International competitions, particularly the big 3 annual ones, are qualitatively different from the Olympics. It's an apples and oranges comparison. The crucial difference is the context surrounding Olympic competition, differences I pointed out above. Yuzu has already experienced these differences and as such he has an advantage over the newbies in terms of mentally preparing for the actual competition. I realize the Olympics can never become routine for an athlete. Just ask Michael Phelps, who went to five straight Olympics. I'm sure they were never routine, although for him, as each Olympics passed by, he became increasingly focused on the medal count he was adding to each time (after his first medal-free Olympics in Sidney). For Yuzu the focus was in tying Dick Button's twice in a row record, although I can't help but feel that if he's successful at PC he'll be thinking of doing it again at Beijing. That would tie him with Gillis Grafstrom (1920-24-28), the only threepeater. He'll still be at an age (27) where he can be thinking realistically of repeating (Plushy was in his thirties at Sochi, although he did have to drop out for medical reasons). So, in the end I'll say that the ordinary seasonal competitions cannot really prepare one for the Olympics experience, but those who've already had the Olympic experience have an advantage because they've been through it. Because they've been through it before they can minimize the distractions (though never totally eliminate them). Hanyu is a different breed, I'll agree, but a major part of that confidence he has going into PC will be because he's been there before.

I wouldn't say everyone goes in without rehearsals. There are those who've been there before, Yuzu being one. But he hasn't been there enough to say 'been there, done that'. If he's still going strong and gets to Beijing, then he'll be able to say that. There are not many who've made it to three Olympics. The thing about Yuzu though is that he's been THE major player in the men's figure skating spotlight since Sochi, when that Olympic gold plus the GPF gold and World Champion gold made him definitely the one to beat for those wanting any of those three titles. That said, the real issue is that Yuzu has been living under a great deal of expectation and media coverage since then. He has become a Japanese cultural icon and his career's successes and the nature of them have had more than one commentator talking about him as GOAT. There are very few skaters who have ever found themselves a living legend. In the male arena we'd probably have to go back to Dick Button, whose career encompassed far more than two Olympic golds, but also five straight World Championships, three straight North American Championships and eight straight American Championships. There's been nothing like that on the men's side since then (late '40s through early '50s). Yuzu has not been the consistent winner like Dick Button was, but he has established a different claim to legendary status, and that's his record scores, a product of the new-scoring system established in the mid-2000s. The last time someone other than Yuzu established a world-record score was in 2013. Since then Yuzu has owned the record book, and not simply the top score, but also a majority of the top-ten scores of the SP, FS and combined. It is that numerical dominance, plus the fact that he skates with a balance established between the technical and artistic side of skating that sets him apart from all the others and gives him the living legend aura. The absolute devotion of his very large international fan-base also is a factor. The cascade of Pooh toys onto the ice after every Yuzu performance is something without precedent in the annals of competitive figure skating. So, Yuzu is going into PC with some sense of what he'll be facing. What is new for him, however, is going into a major competition after a long absence from the ice, a situation almost like starting a whole new season. He will not have recent competitions to rate himself on how he does vis-a-vis other skaters. With that being the case, the mindset he needs at PC then is one where he skates against his program and not other skaters. His base-value is sufficient that if he skates clean the other skaters have to skate better than clean to be a threat and if he skates better than clean, which he has done more than just a few times (his records speak for him there), then for the other skaters the battle is for the silver. I'm sure that Yuzu has watched the videos of all his major opponents through this season. He knows what they can do and makes his plans accordingly. It has to be a comfort that none of the six major threats (Patrick, Javi, Shoma, Nathan, Boyang and Mikhail) have had a consistently successful season (Shoma coming the closest). All in all, then, Yuzu is not the virginal Olympian come PC. He's had practice in dealing with the pressures, the expectations, and the media since the 2013-2014 season. He's learned how to handle those. Now he just has to handle the confidence issues that must be surely present now because of that long layoff. If he copes with those successfully than we might find ourselves wondering if he can threepeat.

I decided to go a bit off-topic and wish everybody a very, very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. May the new year bring us a healthy and victorious Yuzu at both Olympics and World Championship and news from Yuzu that he's NOT retiring. Hopefully at this time next year we'll be in the countdown to Beijing.

My apologies. I looked at the wrong year evidently.

Now that we know for certain he's going, I think the major element of speculation will be whether he competes in the team competition. As far as I know it's not mandatory that someone skate in the team event and I'm not sure how many skaters a national team can put forward for each event in the competition. The only thing I know for certain is that a team does not have to use the same skater for the short and long programs. To me the issue for Yuzu will be whether he thinks he needs some competition before the actual individual competition. After all, this is almost like beginning a whole new season. Incidentally, he's not the only top skater to miss their nation's nationals. Evegenia Medvedeva missed the Russian nationals. That means the two highest profile individual skaters both missed their national championships and for precisely the same reason - an injury. This season has truly been a star-crossed one as far as injuries go. Remember Boyang bowed out of the GPF because of an injury. (He did compete in the Chinese nationals this year and fully as expected took the gold.) So the question is regarding the team competition - To skate or not to skate. That is a very big question.

I appreciate your talk about seniority and such and accept your correction about seniority, but my comment about whether he might decide not to participate in the opening ceremony was not about a 'prima donna' element but about his concerns about undue physical stress. I do not know exactly how the ceremony at PC is slated to go, but it is not unusual for the athletes to find themselves standing in the field for a lengthy period of time. I have found that basically standing still is much more stressful physically than movement over the same period of time. Yuzuru, if he is participating in the team competition, will have skated earlier on the day of the opening ceremony and he might wish to have the rest of the day to prepare himself for later competition. I realize that the next competition, which would be the FS part of the team competition is three days later, but the heart of his competing takes place very soon after that. He's coming back from a long period of convalescence and may wish to avoid any undue physical stress. In any case not participating in the opening ceremony is not necessarily a matter of pride but might be contingent on whether that participation might adversely affect the competitive performance. I'm thinking of the case with Michael Phelps, who participated in five Olympics beginning with Sidney in 2000 and ending with Rio in 2016. The Rio opening was the first in which he participated. Why he chose not to participate in the four earlier ones I do not know. It certainly was not contingent on his successes, as with his first Olympics he was only 15 years old and had no reputation outside of the American swimming world. A question I have someone might be able to answer - Did Yuzu participate in the Sochi opening? I've looked at videos of the opening ceremony, looking closely as the Japanese team entered. I failed to see him there, although everyone was moving and trying to distinguish a face in a moving crowd is not exactly an easy task.

I know many of you might be wondering why Yuzu was not made captain as he was the only Japanese athlete to win gold at Sochi and is the Japanese athlete with the highest profile at the games. I don't know what the politics involved is but I can see a rationale here. Being captain of the Japanese team mandates participation in the opening ceremony, a ceremony which usually involves an extended period of standing for the athletes. The Japanese Olympic committee may have been thinking that that might not be advisable for him, wanting to avoid any periods of physical stress for Yuzu, considering his long hiatus. Another reason is that they may have asked him but he declined, declining to be in the ceremony entirely, wishing to avoid any unnecessary physical stress before competing. It's difficult to say why, but this might be an early indication that Yuzu is prepared to baby himself all the way up to getting on the ice to score points.

I've just been checking up on the Russian and Japanese nationals. Russia is finished. As expected, Mikhail Kolyada won it, easily in fact. He scored some 22 points ahead of Alexander Samarin, the silver medalist. Kolyada's total, however, was not impressive, a mere 281 points. At PC one should expect combined totals over 300 to be mandatory for any place on the podium. I watched Kolyada's FS and I wasn't overly impressed. He made some very visible mistakes and his FS score was second. He won on the basis of a strong SP. Then onto Japan. No surprises there so far. Shoma was leading after the SP, but his score was just under 97 points. Podium position at PC will have to be over 100 points. Shoma has topped 100 on more than one occasion so we know he can do it. Not this time though. Perhaps Shoma's feeling a little careless since Yuzu isn't there. In any case it must be frustrating to Shoma that for the second year in a row he took Japanese nationals but won more or less by default. I'm sure Shoma was wanting to meet Yuzu head to head. That should have happened at the GPF, but no Yuzu. Then at nationals. No Yuzu. I'm sure right now Shoma must be feeling very frustrated. He should have won the GPF. After all, he was a mere .50 behind Nathan, but Shoma received a one point penalty for a time violation. That point would have given him the GPF win. So Shoma has to wait to meet Yuzu. I'm increasingly pessimistic that Yuzu will go to 4CC, which means that PC will be for Yuzu and Shoma a figure-skating version of the Showdown at the OK Corral. The other potential contenders will be background since the real drama will be between the two Japanese FINALLY meeting in competition. Of course the Canadian and American commentators will be concentrating on Patrick and Nathan but by and large I think the focus elsewhere will be on Yuzu and Shoma, this Olympics' version of the 'Battle of the Brians'.

For me, it's the total package. His jumps are amazing, of course, but the quality of his jumps, as far as I've been able to do so by comparing him to others, is even more amazing, due to his complex entries and transitions. What I find most interesting with him, though, and we have to thank his choreographers for this also, is his ability to merge movement with music. He isn't skating on the ice, he's dancing on it, he's turning it into a statement and not just a sequence of moves. A large part of that is the sheer complexity and density of his programs. There's hardly a second in them that is not choreographed. In so many of the skaters the amount of choreographic detail is perfunctory, enough to get them by. For Yuzu, not only are the steps planned, but also the placement of the arms, the attitude of the torso, the position of the head. That is the degree of detail you see in the best of ballet, but here it's skating. If Yuzu had been trained in ballet, he'd be a headliner today, a premier danseur. So I do admire his aerial acrobatics but for me it's the total package and right now the only one who seems to approach Yuzu is Shoma. I think having Yuzu for a countryman is a major reason Shoma's skating has developed in the way it has, since the two are both skating in the same fan market. Of course, there is a threat on the horizon for both, but one that will not appear until Yuzu has retired (unless he goes for Beijing). That's that 12 year old and I think the major reason that that boy has gotten so far at such a young age is that he's had the constant presence of Yuzu and Javi as both an inspiration and a goad to succeed. Back to Yuzu, though - his spot in skating history is guaranteed by the fact that he's more than just a jumping machine, he's so very much much more.

I have no significant other and I'm unlikely to get one at my age (70) but I wonder though, since almost everyone on this forum seems to be female, are there many male fans of Yuzu? I was drawn to him originally because of the sheer mastery of movement he has. As a lifelong fan of ballet I found his abilities quite the equal of Nureyev and Baryshnikov and (more recently) Roberto Bolle. One thing, though, that impresses me more than his skating abilities is how he's managed to be backed by a number of choreographers who have put together programs that have him continually skating on the edge of what he can do, a factor that accounts for his sometimes lapses when he's going after the points. That's the greatest thing about him. He doesn't skate 'safe'. As to my earlier point, there are times when I feel rather lonesome in this crowd here, wondering who out there is a male of the species. I'm sure there are some but it would be interesting to find out why they are Yuzu fans. For me, it's that he's the equal of any danseur (male dancer) I've ever observed over the years and, in fact, there's no ballet male dancing right now whom I would consider the equal of Yuzu.

Right now the most pertinent question is, should he go to 4CC. I really think he should, simply to get him back to thinking of himself as a competitor. Should he 'dumb down' his program, that is maybe eliminate a jump pass or downgrade a quad to a triple, or...well, you get the drift. It's really significant what happened at ACI this year. He didn't skate fully his intended program but still established a new scoring record. His program has one of the highest, if not the highest, base values. He should really think about getting the points with his PCS, an aspect of his skating that is consistently very high. Everybody's so obsessed with quads, both skaters and fans. Yuzu should not yield to that thinking, after all, he's the COMPLETE skater. That's his advantage. The only other skater that can be seen as 'complete' is Shoma but he is not consistently so. Patrick has the PCS but not the jumps. Boyang and Nathan have the jumps, but not the PCS. Shoma's the only real threat there, but lacks consistency, as I pointed out. I really feel that if Yuzu skated 'safe' he'd get the gold. I know that is not his usual approach. He'd like to pull out all stops and we have seen that he can succeed sometimes when he does that. Look at GPF 2014, FS program. But I can think of some times where he skated so hard he became careless. There are no easy answers, I know, and this season has been undoubtedly the most troublesome season Yuzu has ever skated, even more than 2014-2015. Above all it has been a test of Yuzu's patience. He'd like to heal overnight. That isn't happening. I think it might be a blessing in disguise that he has had to endure such a long interruption in his training. His patience is going to be really tested once he's back on the ice, but he should remember that the problems he's been facing are largely due to his having attempted that jump back in November before he was sufficiently warmed up, a clear example to him of what can happen if you lose patience. If anything, I think the knowledge that he was the element largely responsible for that fall has to have a sobering effect on him. But has it sobered him enough that once back on the ice he is ready to exercise patience every second of the way? I can't say. None of us can say. Probably Yuzu himself can't say. But if he's learned the value of patience and applies that knowledge as he returns to the ice and ultimately to competition, well, then I can see gold in his future, hopefully gold accompanied by a couple of new records. Now THAT would be the mark of the 'absolute champion'.

I said some of this in an earlier post but I'll repeat it. He's officially out of the nationals now but if tickets went on sale before there was doubt he would make the competition or even before the fall 'heard round the world', I think a significant part of the tickets are in the hands of the Yuzu fans. He's out, but will they still go? I think it quite possible and I think they'll sport their Pooh paraphernalia there, ears and cloaks and all. No Pooh toys, though. Yuzu will be able to see very visibly his fans are still with him when he watches the proceedings. As for the Pooh toys, well, he's missed two competitions so far and at the end of this week we'll add another. There's quite a logjam forming. Will it be sprung at 4CC? I hope he does go there. He needs a competition to put him back into competition mode mentally. Right now he's operating in recuperation mode and then he'll be in practice mode once he's back on the ice and doing serious training. It's good that both programs he's doing this year are revivals, even though they do have some changes but these primarily concern the jumping passes, so he can do much of the programs in his sleep. I do hope he'll take seriously what happened at ACI. He dumbed down his short program a little but still managed to set a world record score. He should think of doing the same now because he can win with a competitive TES and the bulk of his effort in earning as many 10s from the various judges on his PCS. That's where he can find the gold. Sure, Patrick is in the same league as Yuzu is when PCS is concerned, but Patrick does not have the jumps. Yuzu is THE total skater and he should remember that he wins the competitions and sets the records not necessarily when his TES is the highest but when his TES is competitive and his PCS leaves every other skater in the dust. Looking at the skates of his likely rivals at PC, only Shoma approaches Yuzu in terms of PCS. Boyang is improving as also Nathan, but I think it would be better for Yuzu to dial back on the number of quads and instead concentrate on doing his jumps as perfectly as possible. Base values have their value, but the real advantage in TES comes when you rack up the GOE points. Yuzu gets high GOEs because his jump entrances and transitions simply outshine everyone else around and his spins have a complexity that no other skater approaches. Years ago, in his junior days, he had trouble with the triple axel. Now he's the master of the jump, primarily because of his very difficult entry and his frequent landing straight into a spread-eagle. It's touches like that (and there are many others) that rack up his GOE score. With all that in mind, I hope that Yuzu trains safely and that he does go to 4CC to get him back to competing mode. Also, remember everyone, 4CC is the only major competition (not counting the GP legs) he has never won. Could this year finally be the year for that. And what a morale booster that would be, going to PC with that gold medal in hand. He wouldn't take to the ice there in competing mood. He'd take to the ice in WINNING mode.

Except for Patrick breaking Yuzu's then-current SP record in 2013 (which Yuzu then just two weeks later at the GPF took back) nobody has broken a record Yuzu has set except Yuzu himself. Some skaters have bettered record marks he'd established, but always after Yuzu has gone and broken that record and set the bar even higher. If you were to look at the record, for instance, of skaters and their points who have broken the 100 mark, the 200 mark, and the 300 combined mark, those lists are dominated not by the names of other skaters. Yuzu's scores are far more numerous and largely confined to the upper end of those stats. Incidentally, I would think that with their being so many of those records he has set, there is scant evidence to think the judges are biased against him. If they were biased, how did he establish so many records?

Actually, I think the greatest challenge he has faced was the earthquake where, he has said, he almost left skating. This is, however, a case of apples and oranges. In 2011 he was healthy but having difficulty finding a practice venue. This time resembles somewhat what happened in 2014 as a result of the collision in Shanghai. Through this present ordeal I keep going back and watching his FS at the GPF that year, where, except for one fall late in the program, he skated better than perfectly. In an earlier post I said that I think Yuzu has to recapture the mindset he had at that competition because whatever it was resulted in one of the greatest performances he has ever given. The element this time, however, is how long he's been out of competition. He didn't disrupt his competition schedule back in 2014-2015. I think also the nature of the injuries is decidedly different. The collision resulted in injury primarily to his head. This time the problem is an ankle, which is rather more important for skating than the head (meaning that one can skate with an injured head, as long as it doesn't involve concussion or something like that). If Yuzu is back on the ice, my guess is that he's working primarily with things like steps and the elements in his program which involve primarily arm and torso movements. Actually (and I could be wrong here) I'm thinking that spins might be potentially more threatening than jumps as far as his ankle is concerned (if I am wrong, I'll welcome correction). In any case I'm sure that Brian will be monitoring every second that Yuzu is on the ice (if he's there, and if not, Tracy's the baby-sitter). As far as next week's nationals in Japan, I think everybody can consider he won't be there because if he were planning to skate there, he'd already be in Japan so he can get the jet lag behind him before the competition. As far as those in the stands, I don't know when tickets went on sale there, but if they were available before the injury or before it became apparent Yuzu would not be there, there are almost certainly a huge number of Yuzu fans holding tickets who nevertheless will still be there in the stands. It would not surprise me to see a large number of Pooh-ears and other Pooh paraphernalia in the audience. Since Yuzu almost certainly will be watching the competition (primarily to see how Shoma does, I would think), the sight of all that Pooh yellow in the stands will give him a lot of psychological encouragement, giving him vivid visual evidence that his fan-base is still there and even willing to cheer him on in absentia. We now know that the men's events at PC are sold out. With the very real possibility that he might be going to 4CC, I imagine the tickets there are fleeing at a record pace and it won't be long before they are no longer available. For those of us who miss him, not merely as a skater but as a person, and who hang on every bit of news that comes out about him and his condition, these weeks which have now become months have been a test of our endurance. But we will deal with it, seeing in our situation something analogous to Yuzu's own trials and his endurance will, I think, be fueling his determination to show the world when he finally is on the ice and skating for points, that he is back and what we are getting is the new and improved version of Yuzuru Hanyu.

Will he go to the Olympics despite not competing in nationals? Yes. As was pointed out, the JSF might be incompetent but it's not stupid. It also, I feel, shares the Japanese dislike of losing face. If the JSF did not send the world-ranked number one men's skater, the holder of all three of the major scoring records, the one who has set a total of 12 scoring records, the two-time World Champion and two-time World silver medalist, the reigning Olympic champion and currently the most popular skater in Japan, not to mention the rest of the world, and who is the one male skater today who might legitimately claim the GOAT, well it would look totally ridiculous in the eyes of every other skating federation and every other skating fan. The JSF does not want to look ridiculous. Yuzu's in, don't worry.

I've had a couple people correct me on my speculation about a quad/quad combo and the inadvisability of premiering something at the Olympics so I'll admit I was in error there. However I do think I'd like to reemphasize a point I made in that same post, and that is how Yuzu 'dumbed down' his short program at ACI but still managed to set a world record. I'm thinking now that Yuzu would maybe be advised to slightlydumb down his programs (perhaps replacing one or two quads with triples) and concentrate his efforts on getting his PCS as high as possible. If he's going to be setting records, which I think would be really great if he could do them at PC, he should remember that it's his PCS that often makes the difference, particularly when all the other major skaters are jumping all over the place. If nothing else, the contrast between a Yuzu who's obviously restraining his jumping even when all the judges know he's capable of doing more, that obvious emphasis then on artistry might actually cause the judges to rate him even higher there. In the perennial struggle between technical elements and program components, that a leading skater is putting his emphasis on the artistic end and where, in fact, few people have his style as far as that aspect goes, well, it might possibly result in a 50 or 100 for his PCS in the respective programs. If nothing else, getting a perfect PCS would be a record that nobody will equal any time soon. In any case and to conclude, I do stand by my assertion that it will be far better he recapture the mindset he had at the 2014 GPF than the mindset of NHK and GPF 2015. In the latter year he was skating a season that was by and large routine. In the 2014 GPF he was battling his way back from a disastrous earlier season. That's the exact situation here. That's why his experience back in 2014 is far more relevant than that of 2015, however spectacular the achievement then. PS - I think Yuzu's career can be marked off by three major crises he's faced over the years. The first was the earthquake, where he even contemplated abandoning skating. The second was the collision and injury and the third is this year's crisis. In the previous two cases he emerged even better than ever. Here's hoping that he does the same here and do remember, as they say, the third time's the charm.

As I pointed out earlier, I do think Yuzu will go to 4CC. He needs to have one competition under his belt before he takes the ice at PC. For those who worry, the fact that 4CC is so close to PC is not worrisome. Competitions can be just as close during the GP series and Yuzu's dealt with that before. I do think he might skate a 'dumbed down' program then. Remember how he did that at ACI and still set a record in his short program. My guess will be that once Yuzu's back on the ice Brian will have him skate his programs with an emphasis on PCS elements. Don't forget that when Yuzu's performance composites are maxed the only person who approaches him there is Patrick. The good thing about concentrating on them is that he can skate a practice where he does almost no jumping, making his quads, perhaps, into just doubles, just enough to allow him not to forget the pace of things. Actually, I think the jumps might not be so dangerous to him, in terms of re-injury, as much as the spins. There's a lot of ankle stress in those. At least with recent news we know the knee is all right. I think a lot of us a few days ago were thinking it was a double injury Yuzu faced. If what Nobu said is true, that Yuzu can recover his quads in just a couple days, I think Yuzu's practices up to 4CC might largely eliminate the quads and I think he and Brian are rethinking the advisability of going after a quad lutz at PC. Yuzu's pride might want him to include it, but it was his impetuous pursuit of that quad in practice that caused all the agony to begin with. If Yuzu wants to wow the world, I think he might think of a quad/quad combination. I'm positive, with his legendary momentum coming out of his jumps, that he could pull it off, particularly if it's a combination of two fairly simple quads (simple? remember though that 12 year old in the wings at TCC). If there is a base value for a quad/quad combination in the scoring manual, then I think he should pursue it. That would give him a definite record to embellish this very difficult (non)season he's been having, being the first skater to do a quad/quad combo, although I'd recommend that he save that for PC rather than Taipei. Knowing Yuzu's competitive nature, I think he needs to have something new to show off when he's back in competition. Remember that Yuzu's number one fan is himself, and that that particular fan is more exacting than any of those in the stands. As for the quad lutz, well, while it would be hard for Yuzu to back off from that in competition, he can console himself with the fact that Boyang's the first to do that before a panel of judges, which means that Yuzu is just following someone else and is not the first to do it. A quad/quad, however, would be a first and I don't think any other skater has the necessary height and speed to pull it off, and particularly no other skater could pull it off and follow it with a combination that knits the jump into the choreography. Any other skater would be happy just to land the thing and not having fallen or touched his hand to the ice. If not a quad/quad, maybe Yuzu might pull off a quad axle instead, a move he'd been developing in absolute secrecy (wouldn't that be nice?). If not any of those two possibilities, then there is something else Yuzu could do at PC to put his mark in skating history as the 'Absolute Champion', and that would be to set three new world records. After all, he's already done that twice and nobody else has even come close. In fact, remember that another skater has only breaken a record Yuzu set once, and that was Patrick back in 2013. Yuzu, though, just two weeks earlier broke Patrick's mark. There have been skaters who have bettered Yuzu's record-setting scores but Yuzu had already set a new record by the time they did it. I'm fairly serene in thinking that Yuzu can triumph and I think he can, not by capturing his mind-set from 2015 but getting back into the mental mode he had for the GPF in 2014, where he was recovering from that disastrous collision in Shanghai. His long-program there, where he did fall once late in the proceedings, would have set a long-program record if he hadn't had the fall. The reason I think that was Yuzu's greatest performance is that it involved his recovery from an incident just as grave as the one he's dealing with this year. It showed a Yuzu hell-bent on victory. That's the Yuzu we need this year.

Yes, he is intelligent, and what his major is at university tells all. Cognitive science is not education lite. It goes into computer science, epistemology, linguistics, sociology and a number of other fields. It's fairly new as an academic discipline, but its roots are spread all over established fields. If he is truly interested in that field he might be looking at a life in which skating becomes history and his biography reboots itself after his retirement.

Suggestion for a streaming party - Instead of looking at a particular year why not do one focusing on all the skates he did where he set a world record, getting as many different commentators on each event as possible. If nothing else it will remind us just what he's capable of doing when all goes right.

There's been some discussion about training right before the Olympics and where it should be. Right now Yuzu and Javi are Brian's top priorities so it would be very possible and practical for Brian and Tracy to head to Japan or Korea to work on polishing those two in the run-up to the games, particularly if Yuzu goes to 4CC. Japan's in the same time zone as Korea and I don't think it would be difficult for Brian to find a rink in Japan for his two skater's to practice. I would almost think there'd be a competition amongst various rinks to be the one because it would put whichever one is chosen in the media spotlight. By that time Yuzu's day to day activities would be a major element of Japanese media concerns. I also think there will be (as if there already isn't) major media spotlights on a 'rivalry' between Yuzu and Shoma. To have two of a nation's skaters viewed as very potential Olympic gold medalists in the same discipline will be like manna from heaven for the media. Just as in 1988 there was a big media spotlight on the so-called 'battle of the Brians (Orser and Boitano), there is going to be a big push on Yuzu and Shoma, and it won't be just the Japanese media. Sports journalism everywhere loves athlete rivalries and the media will do everything it can to spotlight Yuzu and Shoma, since such rivalries keep the viewers and readers coming back for more. I think the Yuzu/Shoma rivalry will be one of the big human interest stories of these upcoming games. How real that rivalry is, though, I won't say. I think if there is one, it's more on Shoma's side then Yuzu. Yuzu will not be focusing on besting Shoma as much as he will be focusing on getting the gold. Shoma, however, I'm quite sure will be thinking about any of his gold medal chances as being contingent on surpassing Yuzu. With Yuzu likely out of Japanese nationals and almost certainly wanting to get one competition under his belt, I think he will go to 4CC. Would Shoma go? Quite probably. And Boyang, who's temporarily off the ice, might use 4CC to put him back in the spotlight. If Nathan goes, it will mean there are four Olympic gold hopefuls there, a dream come true for the 4CC organizers. I would not be surprised if Patrick decides to enter, also, since he might feel he needs a competition to put him into the desired competitive mindset. That would have five of the top gold medal prospects there. Javi won't be there since being European, he's ineligible. The international media will look at the line-up at 4CC as a 'preview of the upcoming games. So even if (as is likely) Yuzu misses nationals there will be that one chance to measure himself against the field at 4CC. I don't think he'll be one to miss that. The most frustrating thing of all for all of us is that we won't see Yuzu for another two months. Summers are long enough not to see our guy in action (except in the shows). We shouldn't have to deal with a prolonged absence during the season. The one consolation is that when we finally see him out on the ice and ready to rack up the points, it will be so much the sweeter to welcome him back.

I can see him as one of those who carries the torch for a short distance, such as is done with the torch at every Olympiad. Torch-bearers across Japan will be oftentimes those locals in the area it is passing through who have a distinction of one sort or another. In Tokyo we're likely to see the torch borne by a collection of who's who in Japanese national and international sport. That's where Yuzu would be found. He would not be the one to light the fire that oversees the games. That would go to someone with experience in the summer games. My guess would be Takashi Ono, if he is still alive (since he's in his eighties now) and who is rather like a Michael Phelps of gymnasts, that is one who won so much gold in his career that if he were to wear all of them at once we'd see very little of the man who won them.