rockstaryuzu

If an alien landed rinkside and was asked to tell how difficult different jumps were by watching Yuzu do them, they'd probably say 3A was the easiest one! And then you think about the 'top' skaters who can barely land a 3A to save their lives and it's like, what the heck gives?

What makes me laugh about that article is Todd Eldredge claiming that he and Elvis had a rivalry. Please! They were never even in the same league! But Todd got rewarded with high scores for skating 'classically' while Elvis always got spanked for trying to do new things and for pushing the athleticism of the sport. Reminds me of someone actually.

Whoever it is, they've been having the time of their lives writing about Yuzu. And the fanyus.

Well, I'm not surprised, ankles can be very tricky and he's beaten the hell out of his already. I hope this time marks the last time he decides to skate a competition injured, though. He's not doing himself any favours when he does that.

Seriously. When you look at that, you wonder why it's so hard for everyone else.

Doesn't he already do that?

Especially if you ask the age-finding app!!

Yuzu saying that made me laugh because he himself still has the aura of 'boy wonder' - even though, at the ripe old age of 24, he's squarely between the young'uns and the uncles. He's not a whippersnapper any more, but you can hardly put him in ojii-san territory yet.

This should go in the " if weren't for Yuzuru" thread!

That photo always throws me for a loop, because although it's logical that Yuzu has those kind of leg muscles, they're not so obvious under his skating pants so you forget they must be there.

I can see it now: Tokyo 2020 --> the IOC sends Yuzu to cover all the sports.

I very much think we need to include the "thank you for your hard work!" sentiment, for two reasons: 1. It's a part of Japanese culture to say exactly that to your co-workers at the end of every day, so it'll resonate with Yuzu; and 2. he absolutely deserves the gratitude. I know we're planning to include it anyway, but I just want to emphasize how important I think it is.

Exactly so.

Talk about heated rinks...

I know...but it's the design, not the craftsmanship.

Now I can't unsee...

It's not entirely relevant but you remind me of something I saw in one of Roman Sadovsky's Youtube vids. He's doing viewer Q&A while in a friend's car and someone asks about his sexuality (which is a rude question at any time). Before Roman could answer, his friend pipes up with "They all think that if you don't skate like a block of wood, you must be gay", which to me is a great way of highlighting the exact same attitude that those people have, who think there's a correct kind of skating that has be appreciated a correct way. Reality is, the sport can't expect to survive on traditionalism, and at least the athletes and the coaches have enough good sense to realize it, even if the spectators and the ISU don't.

If so, the only thing I can imagine it being is some kind of allergy? or her boots don't fit correctly? Both of those would be easily sorted out within a four week time frame, though, you'd expect.

At least Skate Canada chose the better costume. No offense to those who like it, but I hate that Zigeunerweisen outfit.

You know, at SCI last fall I had a very illuminating conversation with a much older lady who'd been following figure skating for a very long time. When I mentioned that I was a Hanyu fan, she sniffed and made it clear that she wasn't impressed. She literally had this expression on her face like "you seemed like such a sensible person, and then you had to go and say that." Not being entirely dense, I sensed her disapproval and said, "I see you're not a fan." She didn't want to come out and say directly what it was she didn't like about him, just that she didn't, and that she had no time for fanyus. But she was a Medvedeva fan, and so she and I kept on talking, and eventually one thing became clear: She didn't like Yuzu or his fans, not because of his skating, but because she didn't like the change they represent for her way of experiencing the sport. Or rather, she didn't like that he was A change, any change....and a light bulb went off for me. You see, there's a huge contigent of FS people - fans, officials, whatever - who are actually very stick-in-the-mud types. They remind me of the people who think classical ballet is the only kind of ballet, that everything after Debussy is a travesty of music. They LIKE FS always being the same. Of course they want to see excellence, but only within the narrowly defined bounds that they are used to thinking of as figure skating. They want to sit peacefully in the stands at competitions, tucked under a blanket with their thermos of coffee, and clap politely, and generally behave as if it was opera they were going to see. And Yuzu and the fanyus have taken their cozy little world and smashed it upside down. So their resentment is understandable. They thought they had a nice sedate hobby and now look what they get! You could almost feel sorry for them, except for the fact that they're so wrong...

I can think of a few things, and the best case scenario is shin splints. Could also be a stress fracture or something more serious.

No, I meant number of pages. There's already 5000 satellites and counting. If everyone did a page with that template, we're into encyclopedia territory.

I have to say Origin is my favorite of this season, although I'm pretty sure it hasn't been skated to it's full potential ...yet. (because who knows- maybe we'll see it again.) I like it because it puts away the cute boy he was and brings forth the very passionate man that he is clearly becoming. To me it represents everything that Yuzu is as a competitor - all the fierceness, all the strength - and puts it together in a fresh way. I like that you can see a story in the music and you can see the music in his movements. I know Yuzu didn't really intend for this program to be a tribute to Nijinsky, but I'd wager good money that if Nijinsky were alive to see it, he'd recognize himself in it. (Aside: It would be interesting to hear male lead ballet dancers assess men's figure skating from a ballet perspective. I wonder what they'd think of the performances.) Otonal I admire objectively, but it isn't my cup of tea generally speaking. What I love about Otonal is that you can so clearly see that Yuzu loves skating it, especially that step sequence. And the hydroblade leap is to die for. All in all, H&L at WC17 is still tops for me of all Yuzu's performances, and Olys Seimei and all the LGC's are still my faves of his competition programs. Now, HYK I very much like. It's the nicest of his recent exes, IMO. It's delicate and lovely and has just the right amount of content to hold your interest, without being too much for an ex. I hope it sticks around for a while.