Sombreuil

Without removing the skate...

I don't have a problem with people finding fs through anime or any other medium, it doesn't matter how you found it. How you carry on afterwards does matter - the odd YOI reference doesn't bother me but the idiots who change the Wikipedia page etc do.

It's the way he's always been - I'm astonished we're finding out now rather than in a book or an aside in an interview in 2 years time or something similar. Probably because he's going to have to skip the gala and possibly worlds. But he's not planning to retire so it's ok - he'll be back if he possibly can.

All this negative stuff seems to be coming from one place. It may or may not be accurate - even if it is it's coming from an extremely tired emotional person who is probably in pain. Large pinch of that salt that tends to be lying around required I think.

I'm amazed athletes agree to be interviewed at times- it must be like tiptoeing through a minefield, with the vultures hovering and ready to pounce at the slightest ambiguity.

He looks as though he thinks it might bite...

I thought there might be a sort of trade off - ok he'll do one big press conference, time and place announced, ask your questions, then leave him in peace until it's all over - the way he avoided them after that first short warm up skate made me think of it.

Ive been looking forward to it

It is sad to read about the awful few months he's had, but look at the photos of him the last few days! I expected the return of murderface, screaming across the ice and frightening the bystanders - instead he's been sweetness, light, and smiles enough to give Jason Brown a run for his money. He's happy and calm and confident so we should be too. If if that's not enough have a look at @SparkleSalads post with the toddler doing Phantom along with him on tv - I defy anyone to stay sad.

It's a shame because the G did that nice article back in 2015 about Seimei. I'm willing to accept that the Mail is good for sport - otherwise it's a bit shouty and knee jerk reactionary over political and social issues, which is why my elderly parents like it - harks back to an inaccurate nostalgic golden age of national service, full employment etc etc. I often have to remind my mother that no matter how many years she's lived here she is actually an immigrant with a foreign passport and my father of how much he disliked his national service !

Nope - UK owned - the Guardian is lazily parroting what it has picked up from US media, and astonishingly the Mail seems to be doing some proper sports journalism - I'm gobsmacked.

UK media is odd - not much coverage but what there is goes against what one might logically expect. As @Fay pointed out a few days ago the 'quality' newspaper the Guardian is all out for Nathan Chen, might as well hand over the medal now, quick reference to Yuzuru, and it's a two horse race. The dreadful tabloid rag that my mother reads, the Daily Mail, today covers yesterday's practice and press conference in a reasonable, sensible fashion and mentions Uno,Fernandez, Chen and Jin. I noticed the same thing over the GP. Weird....

Once again the media focus on Nathan Chen, some remember Shoma Uno, some Fernandez, but they leave Boyang Jin out. It interests me how his win at 4CC and his bronze at WC are so easily discarded because they don't fit the narrative that the mainly US media is trying (and I'm sure succeeding in the US) to put across.

I've done mine - mixture of expectation and hope- won't be sorry if some of my choices are wrong.

A true academic - no hypothesis without some facts to base it on - none of this tabloid speculation for him!

You'll need the 'shuuuus' and 'paas' if future generations are to really understand ...

That photo sums it up really - I don't think any of the others ever quite put over that sense of sheer enjoyment of being on the ice and just skating around.

I feel like the BESP commentators from the early days before they all got glaucoma - wrap him up in cotton wool - sterile, antiseptic cotton wool- until he gets back on a plane to Toronto.

So he said in an interview afterwards - I hope he goes to a good hotel, drinks bottled water from Japan and eats at the team Japan kitchen for obvious reasons edit - and wears his mask at all times off the ice

Yes, you're right. I suppose bringing in Lambiel to polish Shoma up a bit made me think of NA sending Yuzuru to Bestemianova and Bobrin - it brought some big improvements but not enough for him. It would be good if the outside input gave Shoma a bit of fire. But he doesn't seem to be self propelling as Yuzuru is - all this stuff about not knowing where the rink he's skating on is makes me think of Pratchetts shark - it has an easy schedule, eat, sleep,swim, repeat. Just substitute skate for swim!

It's particularly annoying when of the three of them Boyang is the one making actual progress ( particularly impressive given the choreography he's having to work with in his FS)- Nathan looked as though he might at the start of the season but when the jumps come in the window the rest seems to fly out of it. Of the three of them he has the best choreo but he doesn't seem to appreciate or respect it. Shoma needs a choreo makeover - perhaps this is the sort of thing we would have seen if Yuzuru had stayed within his comfort zone with Nanami Abe and not struck out to Canada.

my poor eyes......those outfits were bad enough at the time - if you're going to resurrect them for Gods sake give a bit of a warning!

We need a 'Lost in translation' thread for these periodic convulsions. As @sweetwater says above English/Japanese/English interface lends itself to these ambiguous interpretations.....

Yet another panic over English to Japanese and back again. 🙄

BOs pick - Carmina Burana.