wingman

Um. Well, I'm probably biased, but I had ED to some extent while doing a lot of sports in my teenage years. There was a long stretch of time when I would eat only yogurt for lunch and diner in a bid to lose weight. And definitely before weighing in for competitions I would dehydrate myself intentionally to make sure that I don't have "excess water" in my body, and then drink up later. It's common practice, done in a "controlled" way. Eventually I quit due to injuries, which may or may not be related, one would never know (it's a sport with high rate of injuries anyway). But let me clarify why it's tough for athletes to take the ED message. Their initial reaction would be "what, not another one of these unnecessary concerns from people who don't understand athletes anyway." Or they could say : "no that's totally not me, I'm just managing my diet responsibly". I, honestly, still identify with these messages so much, that i find the hype over Alina's comment hard to understand. 1/ All top athletes manage their diets. This makes sense, we are what we eat. But nutrition science is a dark art - nobody knows what works 100%, and then there's our own body that's unique too. So often you would just go with the trend - do what others do - do what works for you. eg: having a full breakfast / lunch, then a fruit for dinner, is *very* common. But not everyone ends their career with injuries. And those who did - well, it's just part of sports. It's hard to pin down (except for clinically clear ED cases) that the imbalance of whatever intake was the cause. So, ED exists on a continuous scale, and normal athletes are quite up-there already (definitely *far* from the general public's way of diet management). 2/ Puberty is complicated: while we gain an enormous amount of muscles, there's also some random fat deposits that we're not used to. There's a lot of self-consciousness / bodyshaming from the athlete themselves: why can't I be like XYZ kind of mentality. And I think this is an issue not in sports, but in society as a whole. In athletics, the male body is the symbol of strength, power, etc. Think of a sport - any sport -- and name a few stars. Now, tell me, "what's the body type of an athlete in this sport? Long-distance runners? Thin and well-defined, like raisins, almost fat-free. Rowers: some upper arm muscles, but mostly enormous legs. Swimmers: broad shoulders etc. Now, how many of the bodies you have mentioned are based on *female* athletes? For me, zero. I have plenty of female athletes whom I admire, but the male body type is still what I associate with the top performance. And with this, it's natural for female athletes to hate the changes that happen to them (their bodies seem to be going in the wrong direction). 3/ There's the notion that if you have period, then you're not practicing hard enough. It's true that if you train lots + not eat much, there's no period (or it's super light, and very irregular). But we don't feel anything weird, and so we think it's just a result of hard training. If anything, it is very convenient not to have heavy periods, and it confirms that we've been working hard. THere's also a theory floating around in my team that the blood just get reabsorbed by the body, so that it's very "efficient". We all believed it in. And we didn't bother to check. There wasn't time , plus, a lot of the times, you just need to work yourself into believing, and then you will achieve. That's the mentality in sports, and we're used to that. 4/ As teenagers, we're still kids. Having a family etc, honestly, was not on my radar. Boys / loves are just nuisances, so to speak. Our idols train hard, have grit, go through all the tough stuff, and we want to do that too. So while I'm very grateful that Akiko spoke up -- words came from an athlete there's a lot of credibility with them -- but I don't find the reasoning she gave too compelling. (It sounds like that's what she's thinking about now, but not years back then when she was in competitions) 5/ Athletes push boundaries, physical and mental ones. We cut corners. Whether we like it or not, we get injured. Physically. Mentally. And we triumph. No pain no gain - then, why not push the internals of the body to the limits too? Pains and injuries, sadly, are necessities in sports, and to get anywhere, be on any podium with some competition, you must be able to overcome the challenges. So, related to my point 3/, it's like a badge of pride to push yourself to the limits, and survive. The long ramble is to say: it's part of the job, we accept it, we take pride in being able condition our bodies into crazy shapes. Yes we're damaging it, but any obsession is unhealthy, and to win you just have to be obsessed. Athletes are mature -- and of course they know the risks (though they may not assess it correctly, or choose to do it anyway for crazy reasons). . But how's (managing your diet) is that different from running on the treadmill until having cardiac arrhythmia, for example? (Positive risk from over training, and yes it does happen). Or how about tonnes of people skate with sprained ankles, broken bones, this and that. I mean, your body is not perfect everyday, should you give in to every single cuts? I'm sure that a lot of what I just said are like "common myths" around ED, but this is really how athletes think, and to convince them, you would need to address those points. (Actually, I do have a theory on what to do, but it's late now so let me just post this).

I like Jason's ACI SP quite a bit! The music.. hmmmm.... but his spins were beatiful. I wish Lambiel tipped him to do more variations though.

Hmph, what's with that interviewer? The tone is so sore, like they want to coax Eteri to say stuff. Good for Sasha. I like her spirit. I'm not sure if all the women would feel like a sudden quad race though. Many don't even have 3A consistently.

Yeah, totally agree w you on this one. He wants to be first, eg look at that story Brian revealed on 4Lo. Plus, ACI is totally ok to bomb, but not GPF or National, or World Plus I'm suspicious why he didn't demo his SP on media day.

I love you guys - this place is like a beehive! All the buzz before, during and after his program revelation. (And then it'll be Autumn Classic, and all the buzz, during and after that etc...) The Planet is never quiet!

Oh wow, it's interesting to hear your 6.0 perspective, @rockstaryuzu. Thanks! I came from other less subjective sports, so the ISU weirdo scoring system really infuriates me. Good to know that it's actually an improvement of what came before! I'm fascinated with Yuzuru Hany the athlete (it doesn't matter if he's doing FS or skiing or boxing). So once he retired I guess that's it for me - I would be interested in books / biographies etc of his, to understand how one can overcome so many obstacles, but I probably won't follow FS so much. Ice shows won't cut it for me Figure skating is an extremely beautiful sport, it won't die for sure, but personally I'm not so emotionally invested in it (simply because I have other sports that I actually practice, and therefore can appreciate it at a much deeper level).

@CupidsBow Serious?! Are these your photos? Pretty amazing! On jumps: If 4A is his only motivation (so he said), then I would expect it him to be training it 24/7 and roll it out by Worlds the latest. (Unless if Brian stops him). In any case, can't wait for his new program!

Good sighting training, that photo. My initial reaction was like "huh, off topic?" Then next thought: "oh, I'm supposed to find Yuzu here". To be honest if that photo wasn't posted here, I wouldn't have 100% confidence that it's him. Nomura Mansai has such a big name to live up to (his father is a national treasure or something). I can't imagine the stress. Does well, that uncle. And yep, I feel like he's a big fan of Zu.

I dunno about Firebird, that's such a warhorse. After seeing Machida doing it, I'm somehow convinced that it's a bad choice for anyone. The music is cool though (but even then it's such a warhorse for orchestras). Good memory on the interview. I remember somewhere that he said he would like Jazz in one of the past off seasons... (can't find it right now, should have bookmarked it).

That matatabido mug is sooo cute. I also like the Ina Bauer cat, nice shout out to Shizu chan. This is going to turn Sendai into a tourist hotspot for me.

What's the horizontal axis for? And I wonder what the size of the circles mean?

Thanks so much! I love it. Now I have extra reasons to look forward to media day this year.

@Xen and @Murieleirum: so where is this home-brewed One Day More? I'd love to see it!

Bumping this thread since August is getting close! Jazz for SP would be my guess. FS... hmmm..MMM.mmm... something serious. Maybe a violin classics. I don't think Yuzu would go and do two funky programs in one shot.

Sorry for adding to the alcohol story, but my dad's case is an extreme example and kind of funny so I cannot not share. My dad is allergic to all forms: rubbing alcohol (the kind you use in hospitals), drinking ones, etc. Even fermented grapes give him itches. The funny thing is that he's a doctor himself, so during his surgery rotation as a medical student, he could only sit outside the operating room and watch. (He's not allowed to go in because of all the alcohol they use for disinfectant!). Generally hospital rotations were very tough for him, with a lot of rashes, hives and itches all over. I'm proud that he managed to graduate (though his only option was to do research). On business trips, my dad would take "sips" (like, letting the alcohol touch his lips), but otherwise I've never seen him drink any. So some people have it quite bad. Yuzu sounds like he's close to this camp.

How far do torch runners have to run? With the crowd surrounding him the torch might not get very far... Jack must have seen the beer line to use "all eyes were on Yuzu...". I wonder if the joke came from BO himself

Omg Jack... how long is he intending to do this Today's Yuzu thing? I am sure he lurks here.

On the glass medal: umm... I don't know. A "classic" medal (solid round thing with color, preferrably gold-plated) is still better. Like the PC medal - that looks WAY cooler than the Sochi one in my opinion. @meoima Oh no, poor Gracie. How can they not replace it for her??? That's so sad. I hope she has some fans as dedicated as Misha's to make her a substitute medal.

Well it seems like SkC always had glass medals though? Like this podium from 2012 Or this one from 2013 Glass medals can be kind of cool though. I have one with cool inscriptions, it's nice. Though I still prefer a gold medal. Those can be quite cheap to make too, dunno why they don't do it. Maybe it's a fashion statement from the sponsor.

Really? Not sure about that , many men and women like the 'warrior' look... Omg, 2 to 1 ratio of yes to no. Our community is full of the romantic type.

Yep, agree with @robin. The ice is cold and he moves so fast, it's just not feasible. Close though!

Yep, that was my first reaction when I saw his assignment. Nice to see it affirmed by others. Poor Zu, I'm sure that he would like to be at NHK.

Oh there there... I know this can't make up for seeing Zu, but...

I know right. That EAR. I'm so tone deaf it's embarrassing for a piano player There must be software that automatically transcribe it though?

@Fay Thanks! Is St Petersburg more dangerous? I heard that it is more conservative. My friend ran into skinheads at an airport (I can't remember which one). They had a bad flight that landed at 11PM, and had a connecting flight at 7AM, so they had to spend the night there. They almost died (luckily they managed to shut themselves in a coffee place that didn't close the door properly, and then got kicked out when the place reopened in the morning). I knew this friend since junior high, he did judo and all, and he was visibly shaken when he recounted the story. The whole thing left such a deep impression in me, as it resonates with some other incidents I had (in other countries though, not Russia). Anyway, sorry for being OT. If I do go to Moscow I'll probably just hang out with other fanyus all the time. Safety in numbers.