rockstaryuzu

I read that article, and it doesn't seem like it was written by our usual Oly-chan. Reads more like it was written one of the NBC hacks.

Which speaks even more to my original point: don't sell the tickets until the event is properly planned, with all the scheduling and content details nailed down and set in cement.

Yes, exactly. pitchforks, indeed!! And there's also torches:

Okay, here are my two cents about the awards. I was going to post this in General Skating Chat but since everyone seems to be talking about it here: My main takeaway from this: the Awards would be best done as a stand-alone event. Even doing it virtually, getting through the six awards took more than an hour. I can't picture grafting that onto any arena event such as a Gala or even ice-show type performance that came at the end of a week of competition, when everyone's weary and their butts are sore from stadium seats and their hands are sore from clapping and skaters just want to get home . If it has to be held in any way that's connected to a competition, such as Worlds, then it should still be a separate event from the Gala. For the skaters' and audience sakes, both. Literally schedule it apart from the other stuff, and sell separate tickets to it. Or, keep it virtual. The format works pretty well and probably costs less to stage. It should NOT replace a Gala exhibition. Why? Because the Gala exhibition is an important opportunity for skaters to show their stuff in a non-competitive setting, as performers. It's a stepping stone to landing professional ice show contracts as far as I can tell. Especially for non-medal winners, this could be key to their future careers. Don't take it away. On top of that, every year skaters retire, and the Worlds Gala is the swansong for some of them...they and their fans deserve that opportunity to say goodbye. Now, as for the awards themselves, I agree with everyone else that the lack of transparency around the nomination process, voting, criteria for the awards etc are problems. To that I would add that costume designers should be getting equal billing for the Best Costume award (and maybe this award isn't really all that appropriate anyway? seems a bit like an elementary school Halloween party idea to me. 'Achievement in Costume Design' would be a better approach), that they need to have awards categories for every discipline (pairs being left out of the nominees is a problem!), and that 'Best Coach' seems like a nightmare to judge (another award that would be best switched to the 'Achievement in' approach instead). I am very pleased that Yuzu got MVS, he's put more bums in seats at competitions for the last ten years than any five of his competitors combined. And I feel mildly ashamed that as his fan, I haven't been able to live up to his level of class and graciousness in regards to these awards. On the other hand, unlike some of us, Yuzu didn't spend $1300 dollars (or more) on an all-event ticket only to find out six months later that he wasn't going to be getting what he paid for. So while I will try to emulate his wonderful manners in future, I still will give voice to my reality here. Which brings me to the crux of the problem: the reason we all hated the very thought of these awards is because they were introduced to us by means of a trick. Worlds 2020 all-event tickets were sold including a traditional two-hour gala. Long after the deadline for purchasing and paying for the tickets has passed, we were then told we would not be getting the Gala but something entirely different. It doesn't matter one iota that the 'something entirely different' turned out to be something sort-of okay. What matters is that we were tricked initially and will not forget it. I ask one thing of the ISU and all future Worlds organizing committees, and one thing only, from here on out: Be upfront about what you're selling us. Every time. When people are investing the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment in the ticket price, it is the rock-bottom least you can do.

Absolutely! Save the Yuzu files! Joking apart, I hope the rains let up and the floods subside soon, Japan has been hit with an awful lot of that lately. Stay safe!

I think this is the chief problem for every skating federation on the planet right now. Even if things are good locally, how do you go about holding a competition with skaters from other places? Not to sound too wildly paranoid, but I'm not too keen on people travelling from city to city within Canada right now, let alone coming here from overseas. So how does a sports organization ensure useful competitions can happen? It's as unrealistic to cancel the entire season as it is to try and host major international events. Not going to lie, I'm concerned that if the entire 20/21 season gets cancelled, a lot of skaters just aren't going to come back at all and the sport itself will be hamstrung. Yet I also don't want to see rinks packed full of fans and skaters right now either. So some way forward needs to be found.

Looks like he got a haircut...and this video cracks me up

If there's one thing that never changes, it's the age recognition app getting Yuzu all wrong

So pleased that Yuzu won! And oh my goodness, his English was practically perfect! You can tell he worked so hard on it...good man himself. Yuzu..always a champion. I have other thoughts about the awards, since I did watch a bit, but I will post them later in General Skating Chat.

I don't know... It might work. Maybe.

Probably this

Best idea I've heard all year

The craziest part of that whole thing is where someone said the mom was an adult figure skater who didn't take up the sport until very late in life. So she literally has no idea what she's asking of her daughter. The mind boggles.

I know. His German sounds so pleasant, too! @sallycinnamon Thank you!

Is Stephane saying 'why not?" for Alexia to get a quad, or just 'why not?' to women's quads in general? My German ist keine gut, ja.

Yeah, this would be the biggest hurdle. It would make more sense to have smaller, more localized competitions, with the performance video being reviewed after the fact by a neutral international panel and the scores either ratified or adjusted if necessary, then use the final scores to determine international rankings. It wouldn't be ideal but it would be better than nothing.

The ISU would have to embrace modern technology in order for that to happen.

Scroll up that thread and the poster in question says this: "of course #yuzuruhanyu would be MVS！I specially made these four charts to show you how popular Yuzuru is in China" Gotta hand it to the Chinese fans...they work hard at being his fans! The charts are pretty involved, too. Nicely done.

Hmm. It's also at the beginning of December so quite a long time away, but then CoC is, what, only a month before that or something? Realistically speaking, it looks to me like the chances of China GPF is more like 50-50.

Is GPF 2020 really considered a Beijing 2022 test event though?

Ottawa. My city. Which is actually doing quite well, pandemic-wise.* I just don't know if we'll be letting international travellers in by then. And the arena where SCI is being held is not the best, in terms of seating. The seats are crammed together. If SCI goes ahead, right now my bet is it'll be at half capacity or less. Anyway, China really had no option, what with the new outbreak in Beijing that started a couple weeks ago. So much for CoC. Lord knows what kind of a season we're going to have. *Numbers of new infections have been trending down for weeks, to the point where public health authorities are letting people visit their loved ones in old-age homes again - provided they can prove they test negative for COVID-19. Suddenly everyone's getting tested like mad...we will probably find a few more cases but nothing serious. And masks have just been made mandatory indoors, so hopefully things will go well from here on out.

He was shorter then. At least as far as I can tell, anyway. So fitting into the costume would be a big challenge.

Beauty! This is such a great interview in all aspects. It's cute how he thinks of the 3A as a helpful friend. . . . Only Zu...

There's an interview somewhere where Yuzu draws a pie graph of how he spends his day. I wish I could remember which one it was.

Thanks so much for the translation. It's really interesting to hear what the photographers have to say about Yuzu, because apart from Yuzu's team, they're probably the people who see him the most at competitions and they have this unique point of view that's one step closer than being a fan, but is still not in the inner circle. I'm thinking they really get to see Hanyu from both sides.