rockstaryuzu

Oooh, exciting! Also on a lighter note: it's not really Yuzu-related, but will definitely cheer us up! Also, would a proper Scotsman's kilt be considered a costume violation?

If that ain't 70% of being Yuzu's fan in a nutshell, I don't know what is. The other 50% being, of course, the parts. Yes that adds up to 120%. If Yuzu gives 120%, then I will too.

I agree with this 100%. And the sport has learned nothing from it since, if what happened at Canadian Nationals* this past winter is any indication. They really need to update their first aid/ medical protocols for competitions. *I'm talking about the junior pairs skater who fell from six feet up flat down on the ice when her partner tripped and fell while she was mid air in a twist. They let her skate afterwards but she should have been immediately sent to an ER.

Oh, of course. There's also delayed onset of head injury symptoms, like what killed the actress Natasha Richardson. Truly, he took a lot of risk that time. It paid off, but still.

@sweetwater 'SIS'? @micaelis

I'm sure it's at least in part for the safety of everyone, because there are five other people whizzing around the ice at high speeds going backwards at the same time. If medics ran out there unannounced, there's a chance of another collision happening. But it's horrible to watch.

And when I made my original post, I had no intention of disputing or judging Yuzu's decision to skate that skate. I was only saying that watching him do it makes me feel that way. I'm also a former athlete. And in my sport, although you might be in pain before the start of a race, once the starter's gun goes off, you don't feel the pain in that sense of having to force yourself through it - your mind kind of shuts off those pain signals for a bit and your adrenaline and your conditioning carries you through, then you're in a world of hurt once the race ends. So while it's obvious that Yuzu was hurting during that skate, to me it's also obvious that his adrenaline had to have played a huge role in helping him get through it, particularly after he starts falling. And then when he's done, he collapsed because all the pain rushes back in as the adrenaline leaves. I tend to associate the word 'forcing' with mental unwillingness, not physical effort, especially in relation to sport, so, in this case 'force himself' is not a phrase I'd use. He decided he was going to do it and so he did it. Do I think he got through that performance mainly by will and adrenaline? Yes. Do I think he in any way resisted the experience and felt like he had to push himself to do it? No. And I'm willing to bet that during the skate itself, he didn't allow the thought of stopping before the music was done to cross his mind even once.

It's definitely an image I can't get out of my mind. Yuzu looked like he'd been run over. They were both going pretty fast when they collided.

As far as I can tell from reading interviews about the incident, rather than force himself, Yuzu wanted to get back out there and skate. And given that since then he's totally ignored doctor's advice and skated on fresh injury at least twice, even if someone had tried to stop him back then, they likely would not have succeeded. Still doesn't stop me from feeling such an emotion while watching that particular skate.

It's not the falls in that one - it's the collision during the six-minute warmup at the start and the way he and Han Yan are just lying there dazed and gasping, for several moments, until Han finally staggers to his feet and then it's just Yuzu, flat on his back, with his abdomen laboring up and down trying to force some air into his lungs while you can see his brain going "what just happened?', while it takes the medics another full minute to get out there and help him, that does me in. The falls afterwards are more of a "why is he hurting himself like that now, somebody stop him" feeling.

Oh my gosh, that one? That video always makes me cry, it's the most traumatic video of him...so glad he recovered from that.

Welcome!

I was thinking in terms of the amount of contact with people from outside of the team 'bubble' that's needed. A whole F1 team could more-or-less isolate together and then as long as they limit contact outside their 'bubble', they can still race. But for figure skating, it's a whole of individuals who have to come together from all over. For example, every judge comes from a different country, every athlete and coach comes from a different country, etc. So you can't 'bubble' in the same way. I think they key will be the judges and technical panel. If ISU can figure out a fair, transparent, and COVID-safe way for judging to happen, then international competitions could go ahead, even if the number of skaters is limited. Another thought occurred to me, one which no one is going to like...but I thought that if worse comes to worst, they could take close-up video of skater's individual elements and judge each one as a standalone, then aggregate the scores to arrive at the standings. Then video the whole program to get an artistic score and add that in afterwards. Of course, if they did that Yuzu would win all, because for once they'd be forced to view his elements objectively and in isolation. It would probably shake up the women's standings rather a lot, though....

Yes, there's a lot more money in F1. Also, car racing is overall an easier sport to social distance and wear masks, etc, I would think.

That's horrible, that someone would fling an accusation like that around on social media at a time like this. I read his Insta; he sounded, as you said, distraught.

Oh for crying out loud. Unreal.

I keep 'liking ' these posts by habit but 'likes' feel wrong for such tragic news. I appreciate the information in your post.

????

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Anyway, I'm glad to have been in error.

It's tragic no matter how you look at it. Her poor mother must be beside herself.

Oh, how sad.

4CC can't happen unless it's relocated, Australia has pretty well closed their borders until March 2021 That would be awesome. @sweetwater I was under the impression this was a new and different announcement...my bad. And I should have known better than to take IK at face value given how they go for the dramatic interpretation everytime

Something we're all going to have to learn how to do now, apparently.

Oh s***. Excuse me while I go cry again over the cancellation of Worlds. Basically this means there's no chance to see him live until Stockholm Worlds unless you live in Japan. Unless a miracle* occurs. Now I'm upset. I was optimistic until this. *I.e. he goes to a GP in November that's possible to get to and get tickets for

Also, not really sure how to comment on the performances in the Peggy Fleming event but Jason's skating looks absolutely LIT. If we have any kind of a season this year, I think he's going to surprise people.