rockstaryuzu

I stumbled across that video on YouTube early on in my Yuzu indoctrination, and oh my God it was gut-wrenching. I can't believe they let him back on the ice in that state. Never mind the coaches or team officials, the competition referee ( or whoever the head official is) should have stopped him from competing for safety's sake. In other news, fanyus can be scary. I waited all morning for Autumn Classic tickets to go on sale at noon, and the all-events pass was sold out by 12:09. All I could get were individual day passes. This despite the fact I'm still not sure I can go.

Ah I see. I knew of the rule, just not the name.

I don't know what Zayak means, but I'll take your word for it. I'm just impressed that she's considering something so hard.

4T or 3T3A? Wow! Ambitious girl!

Yuzu and Shoma singing voices. Not sure my heart can take it

This is so extra. Where do you even get chocolates like that? --> You don't. You have to get a chocolatier to make them specially. So Yuzu!

I wonder if the reason she's doing it is because of the rules changes? Maybe she wants to sit back and see what happens first? Or maybe she just doesn't have enough funding to cover a full season this year? In Canadian sport, WCs and OMs don't necessarily pay off in terms of financial gain. There's all kinds of reasons for taking a break. That being said, I hope her break is a short one, because I thought she was just getting on a roll with her skating

Hope springs eternal.

Truth. That and his utter lack of self-awareness. Some of the things he said, even this year, not even when he was talking about other skaters but about himself, and even though he was acknowledging that his time at the top had passed, had me facepalming so hard...at one point I remember being angry that tax dollars were being spent to send him to PyeongChang while he was talking like it was some kind of a farewell tour. Like, come on. It's the Olympics, you HAVE to bring your A game no matter what or else let someone else compete instead.

Looks like everyone noticed except Patrick. Kind of a shame really. His sometimes unsportsmanlike attitude is why I didn't like him at first - we Canadians much prefer our athletes to be more like Scott Moir - but watching live changed my mind about him.

Tbh, it just makes me wonder what might have been if Patrick had switched coaches earlier and had gotten over his mental/ego hurdles sooner, and applied himself to either solidifying his 3A, or else adding another quad. He skated his Olympic FP at SOI, and although he reduced the number of jumps because it was a show and not a competition, it was clear to see that the program itself actually was worthy of the top men at the Olympics. Had Patrick skated clean, who knows what might have happened in PC. And given the way the rest of the team rallied around him to get the team gold, it seems like a good bet that he's a much nicer person than his interviews make him out to be. To my mind, I don't think Yuzu took Patrick any less seriously in PC than he did any of his other competitors. And that's part of why Yuzu has remained on top for so long.

Song Link : https://youtu.be/v0KpfrJE4zw Also, that Olympic theme idea...maybe if Nobu did it with him? It could be comedy gold.

Read through this thread and I have a couple comments to add: First, anyone who read the interviews Patrick gave at the start of this season probably realized very quickly, same as I did, that Patrick didn't have his mental game together. And if you look back at his career, the same pattern appears over and over again. IMO, the blame for this can and should be laid at the feet of his coach. It's a coach's job to train the mental aspects of competition as well as the physical. And the proof is in the pudding - the second Patrick left Zoueva and moved to Wallia, he perked up and frankly I think it's the only reason Patrick was able to have a reasonably decent Olympics at all. Having realized that, it puts Patrick's career into a different perspective for me: that of a very talented guy who needed a firm hand to guide him to greatness - and didn't ever get one. It explains why he's a bit oblivious and always has his foot in his mouth, it explains his insecurity and arrogance, it explains his failure to improve his technical skills even when it was obvious he needed to. So although I've always half-disliked him because of his foot-in-mouth disease, l have sympathy for him because he just never learned. Secondly, now that I've had a chance to see him skate live (at SOI), I get why his scores were so high and all the rest: he's a completely different skater than the impression you get from TV. His presence on the ice is very much larger than life - TV makes him seem small but he has a tremendous spirit that fills the whole arena. And seen IRL, those 'skating skills' he always talks about are impressive, delicate and beautiful, like he's weaving lace on the ice. After seeing that, I totally get why judges scored him so high. Thirdly, having seen that, I get why Yuzu has mentioned him as an inspiration for his skating. And finally, I second the motion on seeing them both on the same ice again soon.

I like him in red too. And while I was thinking that, this idea popped into my head: Wouldn't it be awesome to see Yuzu do an SP to Prince's "Little Red Corvette"? I think he could really do it justice. There are some lines it in it the really make me think of him, like the "baby, you're much too fast" one. I mean, isn't that what we're all thinking when he pushes his limits while he's injured and stuff? That he should slow it down a bit? Of course, you have ignore the song's other connotations but who cares? Yuzu in red doing rock...

Mathematical formula for determining if you're an aunty fan or not. Moving on to the rules change: I don't see that it will make much difference to Yuzu, he's determined to win under any rules system. As long as the ISU doesn't go back to the old, corruption prone 6 point system or try to use ordinal scoring, Yuzu is capable of winning. I expect he'll solve it like a math problem and it's going to be fun to see what he comes up with. Will the rules change force more uniformity of layout? Maybe. Would that be a bad thing? Not necessarily. It will make it easier to compare apples to apples and might make things like over- or underscoring more transparent. If two or more skaters are doing 3A at the same place in their program, we'll start getting an idea of what a 3A at that point in the program should generally be and know who's doing it better or worse. Personally, what I think will happen is this is going to affect the music that people use for their programs. Some of the old faves might fall out of use, different rhythms might come into play.

If we live long enough for Yuzu to catch up! And I'm definitely past the cut off, absolutely an auntie..the boy is half my age plus a year...

Yes. One for the ages.

At the age when someone Yuzu's age starts calling you 'Ma'am'. or, in my case, when my siblings were old enough to start having kids...:P

Hey, I might be one of those aunty fans.. . comparable in age anyway... And oogling Yuzu on a plinth... isn't that kinda what the parade was all about?

Honestly, at this rate, if Yuzu wins any more stuff, they'll probably make him a UNESCO World Heritage site.

LOL. Well in a sense, Brian is also a citizen of Planet Hanyu...

It's more a matter of not upsetting my sister in law. Don't think she'd take kindly to me missing 2 years in a row. I can definitely do the Friday, should be able to manage the Thursday. Will have to think on it. This year is killing me. Usually the competitions are out of reach but here we are with ACI and SCI within driving distance of me, and GPF within the country. If only I didn't have to work for a living from September to December...

I have a terrible dilemma regarding that. I could easily go, but the Saturday session is the same day as my nephew's 2nd birthday. I missed his first birthday last year because I was out of the country and i don't want to miss it again. ACI/Skate Canada hasn't released the schedule of the comp, so I don't know which day is the men's competition. I don't know whether to go or not, or if I go, which day. Maybe I shouldn't be greedy and should just hope for the best when I go to Skate Canada International in Laval...*confused* Oh hey look! I'm a tissue box now! Yay!!

That's so Yuzu! He's such a baseball fan too.

Yes we are. This is a bit OT but indulge me for a bit: there's a wonderful story about the time Pierce Brosnan came to my (Ontario) town to film a movie. He and the director went shopping in our biggest, busiest downtown mall...and no one even noticed. They went to the food court to get coffees and were sitting there enjoying the anonymity, when suddenly they overhear two kids at the next table arguing. It turns out one kid had recognized them and was trying to convince his friend that they were famous. The other wasn't buying it, arguing that if it really Pierce Brosnan, he'd have bodyguards and a manager with him. And then the kids argued over whether they should approach him and finally decided not to. Brosnan himself told the story to the local newspaper when they came round to write a piece about the movie, because it gave him such a chuckle. Canada. The place where no one will admit they recognize you, even if they do. 😆