Sombreuil

Nooooooo - I’ve bought several lovely things from them

The little toe rag is probably hoping to use his name to stay in the media spotlight.

As a purist I would love it if judges could see the technicalities of jumps properly - correct edges, fully rotated landings etc, and also the bullet points for which to award extra marks- which I can’t at the moment remember, but they’re out there somewhere, and then, award the correct points for the jump, irrespective of flag, reputation, what they saw in practice,etc etc. And of course the opposite for wrong edges etc.... But they don’t. So you might as well lump those three jumps together base points wise because the judges can’t tell the difference between a stiff scratchy low 4ltz, and that beast of Boyang Jin’s that tries to propel him out of the rink on a regular basis. Someone - @rockstaryuzu? - said if they spent the time and money on tech to assist the judges to see all that stuff in my first paragraph they wouldn’t need to fiddle with the rule book at all a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree but can’t see happening in the near future.

Two of them Olympic Team Japan socks

Yesss - the shading on the sleeves from white to black and those graduated big to medium crystals .... chefs kiss .... so underrated

Unfortunately that’s pretty typical of their output. It’s the favoured tabloid of the over 80s. Absolutely maddening but unfortunately serious newspapers don’t cover figure skating in this country. l Iove R&J 2 costume - I quite like the infamous boob skirt, I reaaly love the mesh panel sleeve edged with big coloured crystals, and I adore the wrapped with cord sleeve. Not to mention the lace overlap onto the black pants .It’s beautiful and no other skater could have worn it. If you doubt me look at the thread re bad costumes and the Brian Joubert attempt at a similar look. IDC what western media etc say about it - he looks fabulous. As for anyone else - see Brian Joubert.

I really hope the treatment has solved the problem once and for all and that he comes storming back.

This is probably the wrong place for this but I’m due to take a second pass over the heads of the men of my family and it occurs to me that maybe Stephane simply entrusted the clippers to the wrong person. Sleepy Shoma springs to mind... I cannot wait for the hairdressers to reopen.

I’m happy to ignore, but so many groups of every possible political stripe worldwide are using this crisis to make capital out of unrelated happenings that it just makes me so frustrated - one can never stop people who are committed to grinding their particular axe.

It looks very different to any other rink we see footage of. I wonder if it’s an older design, pre multi purpose rinks. It’s lovely.

As luck would have it I can watch too - car breakdown has scuppered our Friday evening so I’m on my own

I wish I spoke baseball. And Japanese. Masquerade was such a gift to those of us who loved Phantom. Wonderful .....

I’m referring really to his general skating skills - stiff knees principally, which make his landings look awkward and his steps jerky, and I’m not particularly a fan of his spins. I’m no fan of Patrick Chan but rewatching GPF 2013 when he was still in his pomp the smoothness of his skating is amazing. Don’t miss the carping interview after the competition, and don’t expect the depth of PCs edges, but some effort to improve would be good. Or as I say, accept gratefully and don’t comment.

High scores no matter the quality may make him uncomfortable- probably do if he has any integrity or awareness of what quality is- but he’s going to forge ahead for that Olympic gold anyway because he doesn’t care enough about skating to try and retool his technique into something better. He doesn’t love skating- he likes it well enough, it rewards him on the international stage, in my view disproportionately, and he envisions his life without skating after 2022. Why mess with a winning formula ? Frankly I don’t think he would be feeling any problem with it at all if he weren’t up against Yuzuru, whose quality he acknowledges even if US media would like him to foster some sort of poisonous rivalry. (And Nathan fans need not have a go at me over this- I’m not suggesting that he’s not a nice kid or that he ought to be trying to give back points; I am saying that he should shut up and take the candy or do something to improve his skating.)

He’d do it again in a heartbeat if he thought it was necessary- I was amazed he dropped the bomb then, not three years later as an aside in a documentary or a ‘making of CM’ vid, according to custom, but I suppose he knew he’d have to miss worlds and take it easy in shows so he had to tell all. I was astonished he did the gala and all those messing around practices - painkillers? What painkillers? Must have been good stuff.

I think he said it himself? Personally I think he was being extremely sensible taking it easy first practice, not long after he arrived, probably still a little stiff from the flight, but he did the jumps in the other practices - also there’s a slightly evil little smile while he takes his bow at the end - whatever practical reason might have been behind it, he definitely knew everyone was waiting to see what sort of condition he was in and that he’d left them guessing. I felt for Machida all dressed up in the studio to comment and very little to talk about.... iirc he didn’t talk to the press afterwards either - did a press conference after the next practice?

I’ve got the lock down miseries today so I’m ignoring the housework and watching past favourites, then practices, then the fan made vids - I’ve just watched the first Olympic troll practice. I feel much better. 😌

I’d like CiONTU too - less stressful and more of the skating we enjoy

Sometimes commentators/pundits make such a fuss about naming elements after luminaries of sport. Well ISU threw Lutz out of the window this week, so that rather emphasises how much they care about the history of the sport. Thank you for this analysis. I really enjoyed it.

Well I hope he comes steaming out of the blocks and blows the rest of the Russians out of the water when skating finally comes back.

Note Stellata is my favourite too - when he was younger and had less stamina he used to snatch at it, or drop out of it abruptly at times, but there it’s really smooth.

And me

Tbh I think it’s good that someone is giving Dudakov credit- he’s there working away, looking a bit dour at times but at least when he’s at the boards it’s all about the skater not the designer twosome

Not surprised that gymnastics is postponed - it would be impossible to keep the equipment clean.