rockstaryuzu

I thought so too. My understanding is that they're officially responsible for receiving fan mail for their skaters.

Thank you for saying it, @Geo1.

from what I've seen reported, even with Canadian citizens returning from abroad, they've been fairly strict up 'til now. If you can't show good proof of vaccination to the customs and border agent, you will be told to quarantine. That being said, the quarantine is proving difficult to enforce at times. The authorities are mostly trusting people to do the right thing and stay home. However, a group of foreign athletes would probably attract attention, so people would definitely notice and start to ask questions if a large contingent of foreign skaters suddenly showed up and didn't seem to be observing quarantine. On the other hand, now that the borders have been opened to international travel again, I suspect Health Canada will be in a hurry to review Sputnik and Sinovac and so on, and make a decision on approval or not. So by the end of October, the way may be clear. Possibly.

interesting list. a lot of them would normally have been at ACI. I hope Roman will be able to secure that second spot!

She already said earlier she was taking this season off from competition. Then she gave that interview that said her lung function dropped to 48% when she had COVID. IMO she's still recovering and whether she ever comes back remains to be seen. But I'm glad she's decided to further her education, that will always be useful.

as far as coming to Canada, not unless the government decides they'll be bringing COVID in with them...to my knowledge there's no ban on Russian entry to Canada at the moment.

excuse you, they are the Gleaming Pants of Ascension....because fanyus ascend to Heaven upon seeing them grace our boy's beautiful leg lines... @Henni147 again with the tough to answer questions! Rather than pick a program for each one, I'm just going to go with the one that I think is the best all-arounder on all those points, and that's LGC. Notwithstanding that Yuzu never quite did it clean in competition, it's still the best designed and probably most difficult program he's ever attempted. The step sequence alone is insane.I think if he revisited it now, with the added ability all his training for 4A has given him, not even a judging-bias-boosted certain other someone could possibly touch it in terms of excellence. if he ran it with 4A as the starting jump...just imagine. but in terms of a skate that was perfectly performed by Yuzu in every way, and was everything skating should be, it's Worlds 2017 H&L, and then 20204CC Ballade.

Rika has travelled so much during this pandemic, that I think she must have a very good set up for training in quarantine when she returns to Japan. I can't see how she's managed, otherwise. She's been around the globe while everyone else has been stuck at home. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: I am not saying the above as a criticism. If Rika has this pandemic thing figured out so that she can safely go where she needs to, when she needs to, then good for her. It might just be the thing that gives her the edge she needs in Beijing.

That, or a repeat of PW or R&J 2 to revisit his triumph and exorcise any lingering kuyashii feelings, if he has any.

When you're training at the level and intensity Yuzu does, you probably need a physio as a preventative to keep any minor strains from growing into serious injuries

Yes, time is getting short.

My understanding is that Rika was originally supposed to go to TCC last year anyway, until the pandemic intervened. I hope TCC will give her that last little push she needs to get to the top and stay there. As for whether Yuzu will go back to TCC or not, who knows? He's a law unto himself and it's pointless to speculate. I personally think that he will go for at least some time this fall, if only to get out of his own head for a while and hear some other perspectives. I'm also interested in seeing whether Jun will come back. I think he badly needs to, but the situation in SK is different from Japan so whether Jun can travel yet is still an open question.

Dead unfair question, @Henni147! How am I supposed to chose? I will say my favorite video of his Ina Bauer is the overhead shot from Saitama Worlds of his Origin 1.0 IB. Just spectacular in every way.

Really good taste. I'm not joking. It takes a discerning eye to fully appreciate all Yuzu has to offer. But more importantly, I think our hearts were open at the right time while Yuzu was there ready to walk in. You feel it when he skates: the guy is trying to communicate with his performances, trying to say something important from the depths of his heart. If you're ready for it, you'll receive the signal and the connection gets made. It sounds a bit hokey, but I really do think that's what it is.

ACI usually has a box behind the ticket table where the volunteers will place gifts for skaters, because throwing things on the ice has always been against the rules there. So it can be done that way. I think Geo1's experience was different though.

I don't think any of them are into figure skating, or know/care who Yuzu is. But in a way, that makes their videos more useful, because you get to see Sendai more as Yuzu himself would see it: not 'home of Yuzuru Hanyu' touristy, but just 'Sendai, the city' . Also, I don't think Norm has plans to leave Tokyo any time soon, but I imagine he'll be in Sendai more often now.

Norm ( the man) and Sharla ( the woman) are both well-known Youtubers who have been living and working in Japan for many years and speak Japanese fluently. But they're new to Sendai. As for insects, Canada has nothing nearly as big and scary as the hornets Sharla was describing. Blackflies and mosquitoes are tiny but annoying. The hornets in the video can grow up to 2 inches long!

Blues for Klook and Beatles Medley were definitely crowd pleasers...esp in Kelowna..maybe too much . I distinctly felt wooed after watching. Or perhaps "strongly flirted with" would be a better choice of words.

Is he even in contention? He dropped out of sight last year after moving to Raf which in my opinion was a big mistake on his part. Nicholas Nadeau saw the writing on the wall, for him anyway, and switched to pairs. If he gets the right partner, he could still do really well, he's a very decent skater and only 20 or so.

I think we can say for certain that Nam is challenging himself by trying White Legend. While we're on that topic, we can definitely expect the Canadian men to be pulling out all the stops to secure their Olympic spot. They're all high quality skaters who have the ability to score top 10 in the world, but there's only two spots, and a bunch of young and hungry lads chasing after them coming up from juniors, too. It is going to be a battle Royale for them.

Nam 100% feeds off crowd energy, so if it works to get the crowd with him, I say go for it, but it's also pretty risky. If he can't perform up to snuff people will be dissing him for trying to follow in Yuzu's steps and failing. I think Nam is very confident in his abilities though.

So this is vaguely Yuzu-related... If anyone's bored and wondering what the weather's been like in Sendai recently, just generally what Yuzu's city and the area around it is like, here are two Canadian ex-pats who know zip about Yuzu and Sendai getting into adventures there:

This goes without saying, it's their constant state

It's probably just some tech-unsavvy volunteer who made a mistake updating the pages. Someone who can't be bothered to proofread. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

Definitely better commitment to the hip thrusting than the bum-wiggling. I think Yuzu would have a ton of fun playing a mascot character though. Especially if he was doing it for a rink full of kids or something.