rockstaryuzu

I wish I could tell you, but when I watch skating live the jumps happen so fast I can't pick up on details like that. At least one was definitely a Sal.

I personally think that Kaetlyn is skating better now than when she won World's. And she's just a strong woman overall, with a powerful physique. As for Evgenia, there was a cute moment at the end of the show. As part of the finale, the skaters are stroking around in a circle, doing pivots to go alternately forwards and backwards but travelling in the same direction. Paul Poirier was leading and he set a really fast pace, with Kurt bringing up the rear. Evgenia was really trying, but she just couldn't keep up with the Canadians, and by the end when they all peel off and head for the end of the rink, a gap had opened up between her and the others. Because Kurt was behind her, he had to slow down too, and she looks back at him, looks sort of embarrassed. He gives her a smile and a gentle little push to get her back up to speed and she laughs. He was saying something to her, not sure what. Anyway, I don't want to draw conclusions but I couldn't help but remember what Brian said in interviews last season about her speed. This was a graphic representation of what he meant. And it's got to be technique, because even Meagan Duhamel, who is shorter and has shorter legs than Evgenia and is three months pregnant, could skate faster. ALL of the Canadians could skate faster. I guess this is what people mean when they talk about Canadian skating skills.

I already mentioned this over in the Team Canada thread, but I'll add it here too: I saw Evgenia skate in Stars On Ice Canada last night and she was very good! Her performances were wonderful, but I didn't know what to make of her jump technique. She was using both a lot of arm and a lot of leg to get into the jump. It looked kind of wild. She only tried a couple of jumps. Just wondering if anyone else has seen her jumps during the shows and if they can comment because that really confused me. It was like a hybrid technique of her old way and the new stuff she's been learning. Other than that, she looked really healthy and happy and seemed to be having fun.

Stars On Ice Canada is underway. I went to the Ottawa show last night and Kurt stunned everyone by jumping a 2A, a triple something and doing one of his famous back flips! Not to be outdone, Elvis cracked out at huge 2or 3A too. Not bad for a pair of 50somethings! The rest of the show was excellent as well. No weak spots. Just awesomeness from start to finish. I wish Nam could skate like that in competition! He was so good! Evgenia and Kaetlyn Osmond did side-by-side jumps which was verrry interesting to watch. Kaetlyn's jumps are so huge and powerful. You can really see that all her power comes from her legs. Whereas Evgenia's technique right now looks halfway between her old technique and her new one. She's using a lot of arm but trying to jump from the legs too...not sure what she trying to accomplish but it looked a little wild. All that to say, if you have the opportunity to go, it's worth it!!!

Yikes.

You can never watch just one... Also, Youtube needs to just give up and accept the fact they've become the world's de facto sports TV archive. Just make the deals already for the rights and keep the bloody videos up. It'd be so much simpler in the long run.

When they say 'surplus', are they talking about net economic benefit to the Finnish economy at large, or just the profit the host federation/ organisers made?

If so, then they can pick me!!

It goes beyond "willingly". - he throws himself into it and is happy to do it, and if you watch the news footage on his visit to the disaster areas post-Sochi, he has said that he feels like it's not enough and he should be doing more. My guess is what Yuzu symbolizes to Sendai is probably something like "We're not crushed. We will get over this and have a future."

Yes, I find that very very surprising, especially given that Dai hasn't decided whether he'll compete next year or not, as far as I know.

Five women and four men on the special list? Makes me wonder exactly how athletes qualify for these levels, because I would have expected an equal number of each. Also, too bad Kazuki's not on the special list at this moment. I think he's the one from the Category A group that could benefit the most from having that extra level of support.

Now that I know that, I wanna see him do a Detective Conan-inspired ex. Since he seems to have a lot of fun with anime programs.

Something on the lighter side: Google Translate often calls Yuzu 'Hanyu Strings' when I try to read Japanese articles with it. Now it's taken to calling Keiji 'Tanaka Detective'.

Aww! See? Everyone can grow! This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

This is going to sound terrible, but what I remember about Kwan is that she was the girl who came second to Tara Lipinski at the Olympics. Like seriously, I just looked her up on Wikipedia and I had no idea she had five World titles, Olympic silver and Olympic bronze. Yet I wouldn't think of her as a GOAT, even though she ticks most of the boxes. Guess I've just proved to myself that having Olympic gold is a requirement for becoming the GOAT.

There's something to that. Tennis and gymnastics both have a much longer tradition of accepting and celebrating female excellence alongside and equally with male athletes. I'll talk about swimming again because it's the sport I know best, and in swimming, while there are a lot of great women athletes, the G.O.A.T. title just doesn't even start to get mentioned unless you're talking about people who've dominated an event for multiple Olympics ( like Janet Evans) or are heroic, history-making long-distance swimmers, like the first woman to swim the English Channel and so forth ( and even among them, there's a G.O.A.T. of G.O.A.Ts now, since there are a couple of women who've swim nearly every major long-distance crossing you could do). My point being, women athletes have to be uber-extraordinary before the GOAT thing enters the conversation. Most female skaters simply don't stick around the sport long enough to get there. Edited to add: I'm not sure how to move this post to the GOAT thread ...help?

Can't say I blame him. It must be embarrassing for him that scalpers are trying to profit off something his hometown is doing to honour him.

I think that depends on whether you're old enough to have watched her in her competitive years , or not. I'd also put Midori Ito in contention because of her 3A, but I'd never consider Michelle Kwan - I remember nothing about Kwan's competitive performances even though I know I watched them. The G.O.A.T. designation can be highly subjective. That being said, I think that one of the main requirements for being the G.O.A.T. is probably that a decent majority of people agree that you are.

Tbh, l think it's still not that common for people to think of female athletes in those terms. For whatever reason, there just aren't that many female athletes that stand out to people on that way. But I'd certainly give it to Witt, at least for now. In my opinion, Medvedeva has very strong potential to become the G.O.A.T., especially now that she's decided to go for longevity in her career. A lot depends on the choices she makes in the next year or so.

Yeah, when I saw that I had to chuckle. Granted, it's filtered through Google Translate, but still. Layers of meaning are packed into that sentence.

I would. God only knows what might show up.

Google Translate tells me the title is " the reason why Hanyu is the greatest and most respected men's figure skater" and the first line talks about the joy he brings to others. It's basically a praise-filled summary of his talents as an athletes and an artist, and talks about his intention to go for the 4A. It quotes Tara Lipinski saying that the joy he brings to fans, and his charisma and presence on the ice, are like nobody else's. And the writer starts off by saying ' Hanyu Yuzuru is the greatest male figure skater. Any American with some knowledge of figure skating knows it is safe to say that.' - LOL

I think he's dead? He won his medals before WW2. So he can't actually congratulate any winners who match his feat...

I don't know. maybe?