Sombreuil

The online presence of fans is probably a big factor- if it weren’t for this place I would have nowhere to talk about FS - and if it weren’t for FS I would never have had an online presence. It’s a bit the same with gymnastics - no one I know is interested in it in general, and if they notice it at the Olympics etc it’s usually the women although the UK men have become a force in the last 10 years. Whereas tennis, golf, football etc lots of people play themselves and follow the pros, support a team, they go in skiing holidays and they have plenty of people to talk to about it. FS doesn’t get televised in the same way, so there isn’t much access - you have to go looking for it. So the fans there are, are on social media and get excited if it gets some recognition in the general sporting world.

I found this enjoyable- Hosoda seems happy with achieving her personal goal of getting the 3A ( which would get her a big fanfare anywhere else) without resenting the successes of her training mates. It was nice to watch after reading some unpleasant comments emerging from Euros and US nationals and underlines for me that it’s media and fans that cause the nastiness, not the skaters themselves.

I think it’s partly an expectation born out of previous eras in figure skating, when rivals did seem to hate each other and the public lapped up the drama - Yagudin/Pluschenko, Harding/Kerrigan, Weir/Lysacek. Pre Sochi Patrick Chan wasn’t exactly friendly towards his rivals, other Canadian skaters in pairs and ice dance, but not his competitors. Somewhere on YouTube there is a clip of a tv programme with Tracey Wilson in which her co presenters can’t wrap their heads around the idea that Fernandez and Hanyu could co exist at TCC without that kind of enmity. Hence the Olympic channel’s surprised coverage of the friendliness of the PC podium. US media wants the drama of confrontation- and Weir and Lipinski are employed to stir that up. Hopefully the skaters are level headed enough not to take the bait.

I think we’re all projecting our own anxieties onto YH and we have no idea of his thought processes. Some of us may be right/wrong / any interval in between, but none of us know. I realise that it’s really difficult not to speculate, but can we not? Just accept what we get, knowing it will be his best effort, whatever transpires and try not to add to the boiling pot?

Daily Mail is horrible, but they have been on the side of prominent people in the UK who were falsely accused a few years ago in the witch hunt that followed the Jimmy Savile revelations. They probably feel pretty smug about being on the right side in that mess and see this as a way of keeping that storyline running, but it’s not been really an equivalent situation - no overzealous, inappropriately heavy handed police investigation, police promoted excess publicity, etc.( not that the DM is likely to care about that - headlines headlines). The worst part is that the case looks like it won’t now be investigated, which seems to leave the US figure skating community taking sides with no real information on which to base their opinions, just their knee jerk reactions, which is unfair to the complainants and to the person accused.

I had never heard of the Laureus awards - looks very tennis golf and western oriented. Very swish black tie award ceremonies- can’t imagine him doing the red carpet, limo, black tie thing. If he goes I hope he wears the Sendai hakama and shows them a bit of true Japanese elegance.

What happened to Javi’s reebok gear- end of sponsorship or too much home cooking since February? BO is looking quite trim - poster boy for low fat post gall bladder surgery diet. Tracey looks great as always and everyone so happy - really cheered me up. We need a scrunchy smile emoji...

I wish all that he would wish for himself for the coming year.🍀🍀🍀🍀

Merry Christmas to everyone.🥂🎄

@raebia I’ll drink to that 🤞🏻

Thank you too

I’m having an extremely bad day, in an extremely bad month at the end of a horrible year. Sat down for a break and while I wouldn’t say my bad mood has gone this conversation about costumes has definitely taken the edge off my temper - my family would thank you if they knew so on their behalf

@Anzi he might decide to go if his rehab went really well and he wanted to put in some extra competition time on Origin. I hope if he does go it’s because he’s totally confident that his ankle is as good as it can be - otherwise I’d rather he rested it until that is the case.

Halfway in the table was a lot better than I expected - thanks @Joey for doing this again.

Horses for courses - I’m a big fan of ski jumping myself and Noriaki went to 4? 5? Olympics. If I were a Finn I might well be more interested in Noriaki than Yuzuru. As for the plaques at TCC - think about the person in whose honour the plaque has been installed- he wouldn’t expect them to do anything other than the usual order of things....

Bit of perspective people - if the poor kid had known who he was and wanted to publicise it the snippet would have been on its own or first up in her little photo stream of her day at TCC - not buried in the middle. IMHO looking at it she just filmed a bit of action on the skating rink - she had no idea who she was catching in the background and has probably been traumatised for life by the overreaction. Chill as no 2 son would say. As for the antis - they’re going to find something to kick off over if they have to invent it - take no notice.

He already had a pretty good streak in 2013/4 - GP, Olympics and Worlds. I know that it’s hard not to speculate about it all but we really don’t have any real information - press releases are worded carefully because of the way that critics as well as fans pick them over for significant factoids- we just need to keep being patient, difficult though that might be.

Home for the weekend - done my predictions- wishful thinking rather than sensible forecast - would love Japanese ladies to clean sweep.

Well, I managed to watch the SP on my phone in the back of a car. I’m clearly brainwashed because I woke at 5 am just in time to watch his practice..... ended up sneakily reading some of the fallout, trying to decide how much to panic. Watched his FS on my phone sitting on an iron bench in a freezing garden. I don’t know what to say at this stage. We’ve been here before, we got through it. The pessimists may prove to be right, but if that ends up being the case I hope it’s because he chooses to rather than having to. The injury doesn’t sound as bad as last year, he said he doesn’t plan to retire, I hope he gives it a good long recovery time and comes back when he’s ready. I’d think Japanese Nationals will be more of a priority for him than GPF - his appearance on the podium with crutches encourages me to hope that he’ll make his health the real priority. I am about to disappear into a WiFi desert - i can’t pretend that my interest in the GP is quite what it was but I shall follow with interest as best I can and will try and get my predictions for I de F in - probably from a cafe. Will be watching the Hanyu grapevine with interest for any bits of news that might get through.

How many of these shows are personal vehicles? Javier's possibly as he’s the only one likely to pull in the Spanish audience so RoI probably is. Plushy's in Russia? As I understand it, the Japanese shows are sponsored and feature the skaters the sponsors back - ex Fantasy on Ice =P&G = Yuzuru currently but in the past Takahashi, a back up to their ad campaigns. No idea about NA shows which seem to only involve their own skaters or the arty European ones that use the likes of Arakawa, Lambiel etc. Continues with wings was a new thing - a present from his sponsors to Yuzuru, and a good commercial bet on the back of a 2 nd OGM.

I agree - as long as no one gets injured in the attempt or in any attempt to respond to the challenge....

I think it’s like Nathan’s FS to Polovtsian Dances in 16/17 season - US media were raving about how balletic and artistic he was and someone capable of critical thought - can’t remember who - wrote ‘Borodin is doing the heavy lifting for him in this piece’. In other words people were reacting to a fabulous piece of music rather than the actual skating of the actual choreography- a few balletic arm waves at the right points and what are transitions? Moonlight Sonata casts its own spell and Shoma is the beneficiary. Its a pity because his ex by SLB shows he can do something besides the usual. I know that not everyone can be like Yuzuru and Machida or would necessarily want to be - iirc Tanaka said he preferred to let his coach pick the music because he didn’t want to risk getting fed up with something he chose himself because he liked it, and he has a point- JW said towards the end of 16/17/season that Javier Fernandez was looking tired of Elvis, and I think we all were by the time poor Kolyada had slogged through the Olympic season with his version. I just think Shoma would benefit from a change of choreographers, if only for the SP.

These things are relative

I didn’t get the right ladies in the wrong order - nor did I get the men- should have had more faith in Rika and Uncle Voronov, though I still wouldn’t have put Rika in first or Sergei in second, so it doesn’t really matter. Really must learn to make a note of what I’m putting in next time.

Eye popping - people in glass houses.....