Sombreuil

I agree - two of my children, my husband and one of my siblings have asthma and swimming is really quite aggressively encouraged in the uk. However if your asthma is accompanied by allergies as is the case with one of my children, the chlorine can be a problem. Also the body fat percentage is a problem for buoyancy- there is a documentary about Kenzo Shirai at NSSU with a bit showing him trying hard to pass the swimming component of his course and struggling to stay afloat

I sometimes wonder what they’re drinking.....

I envy you - have a fabulous time - I hope you get to see a great performance

Yes - black ones - I loved that costume https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nadia639/yuzuru-hanyu/

Interesting- the way he thinks about 4A. Shizuka is so supportive and nice - let’s hope he listens to his fellow gold medalist and not random idiot reporters looking for a sound bite.

Iirc it was after practice as he was leaving the ice that they sang it to him at the Marseilles GPF?

Home after a long weekend of hospital appointments, hearing aid crises and a f***ton of octogenarian opinionated and in some cases dementia driven drivel. If you could read my mind right now you would see ‘ remember that he/she is 89 and can’t help it’ stuck at the front of my conscious thought because I’ve been repeating that mantra since Friday morning. Too tired to catch up properly but hoping that a binge watch tomorrow will rinse my mind clear.

Does anyone know whether now that I have my shiny new vpn that lets me pretend that I’m in Tokyo whether I will be able to watch Japanese Nationals?

I agree that judges don’t care about repeats - it’s media and fans that go on about recycling. Selfishly I would have loved some new programmes but I take the view that he owes us nothing and will (and should) do whatever he thinks is best. These two programmes had limited outings last season - no GPF, no nationals, no 4CC - due to injury and the effects of that injury and the lack of mileage was clear at Worlds. If there was ever any doubt about his judgement the decision to reuse Chopin and Seimei was totally vindicated by the events of the last Olympic season. I also agree that judges don’t really seem to care about the music at all. If they did warhorses wouldn’t work and terrible music cuts and poor music choices would have an adverse effect, which they clearly don’t.

Real life has conspired to take CoC and now Rostelecom and NHK away from me. Travelling all three weekends, and no WiFi for NHK . I’m saving my data roaming in case I can sneak away to watch but it doesn’t look as though timing is going to be on my side. At least I can follow events through your comments here.

Why don’t we all calm down, and with the last two seasons in mind, take a leaf out of his own book and concentrate on NHK for now. I think Pluschenko, although he is a very different personality, recognises something of his own hunger to be at the top in Yuzuru. However I’m not sure he understands the drive for self improvement that Yuzuru has in spades which makes him this figure skating hermit pursuing his skating goals and his degree to the exclusion of everything else. IIRC Plushy enjoys life and rather took his foot off the gas at times when he felt no one was a real rival to him. That’s not to belittle his achievements, but I don’t think he was the perfectionist that Yuzuru is. He was angry that Lysacek beat him, not that he himself didn’t perform so perfectly that no one could beat him, and that’s the difference I think.

For those of us who can’t read Japanese Utana and Shingo https://twitter.com/figureskatingm1/status/1191207509559656448?s=20

One can hope....

I would only want him to do an interview with any western interviewer in Japanese with a top notch translator.

Muddled thinking - without competition what is the value of your idols success? Also living in a bubble - one of my children describes their circle of friends as living in an echo chamber - they only associate with people who think the same way as they do so they rarely encounter a really different viewpoint. When they do it is a shock, an immense affront to their sensibilities and they overreact.

Oh, I don’t engage anywhere but here anymore- but one can’t help wondering whether that narrative gets through to the skaters, especially those who engage on social media like Jason.

Depressingly the more strident ‘fans’ would like to make the likes of Yuzuru and Jason retire too, because they are ‘past their best’ ‘boring and repetitive ‘ and should ‘make way for younger skaters’. I sometimes wonder who the hell these people are that feel entitled to make such pronouncements about the careers of intelligent talented hard working athletes. I very much doubt there is a fraction of their talent or hard work, and as for intelligence......

Well there you have the difference - a group of random figure skating fans podcast vs that of a highly experienced, well respected winter sports journalist - read/listen to the latter. If you want to engage with other fans pick a forum where you are at least having a discussion as a group rather than trying to engage with the owner of a platform.

Under armour don’t need to give him a contract - he gives them a ton of free publicity every time he practices at competitions....

Positive reinforcement...... Makes me think of ISU as a smelly flatulent old dog that can’t be trained - works for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

I want Change - this version.

He was noticeably different this weekend- he looked strained all last season, not surprisingly as he was in pain and physically and mentally tired, with post Olympic come down and the immense frustration of the repeat injury. He looked kuyashii and I thought a bit annoyed at ACI - I think that interview was carefully considered after the result there. Here - on tv which is not the same as being there as we know- he looked absolutely resolute- imperious even. Maybe its it’s simply that last year he looked tired, he had a second injury same place and it looked like a good bet to write him off- god knows in his position they’d all retire and cash in as a few of them said in commentary last season. This year 🤞he looks as though he’s roaring back, he’s revived, putting 4L back in the free, declaring no intention to retire, his popularity is unquestionable, and pundits like / need to look omniscient - it’s in the job description and so they’re hedging their bets. It will be fascinating if Shoma has a good outing in France ....

I dare say the coaches of children and young teenagers are pushing them towards the high yield low risk techniques- we know they are even encouraging pre and under rotation because at the moment the calls are so off kilter from quotes earlier in this thread. The older teenagers and 20+ group can’t do much about it - their technique is already set, which we can see from Satoko and Evgenias struggles, and confirmed by Yuzuru in this interview. To my mind skating will be poorer for it. Edit: not this thread, I think it was the general skating thread.

While it’s a lot worse for the women, it’s no easy ride for the men with good but risky and difficult to execute 4Ltz like Boyang and Kolyada and Yuzuru, when pre and under rotated jumps without either the wow or the risk factor get good results because of ballet ankles or intense expressions. ( not talking about Nathan - his is as far as I can see fully rotated- a fast rotation, with less height and length seems to make his efficient and consistent, probably because it’s less risky. IMO it also makes it less impressive to watch than Boyang nearly jumping out of the rink.)

How glad are we all to be wrong?