Sombreuil

It’s stagnated because it’s corrupt. Judging based on passports and Fed favouritism rather than adherence to the judging system- which was perfectly ok if there had been impartial judges to apply it - but there weren’t. Constant tinkering with the rules to suit the big federations best prospects. The erosion of the tech/ artistic balance to disadvantage the skater who is the most perfectly balanced between the two. Where will the ISU and the national federations and the gatekeeper ‘real skating fans’, who are so disdainful of fanyus and so thrilled that he’s retired so that they can reclaim their sport be when the money dries up? No one can be persuaded to take on the remaining GP. Without the hanyuconomy the venues will be half empty - there either aren’t enough ‘real skating fans’ outside Japan to fill a small stadium for their Olympic champions, or their genuine love for the sport doesn’t extend to opening their wallets to buy tickets. Whatever format Yuzuru chooses for his show it will be full to the rafters with fanyus. So who are the true fans - and who is the real keeper of the figure skating ideal? Cirque de soleil style sounds good - but I don’t know where you’ll find skaters skilled enough to staff it once the class of ‘94 get too old to skate in it.

I love the inference here…..

I wonder whether the Japanese tv companies will air some of the unused footage they are rumoured to have been sitting on for years?

No - it’s good to hear him voicing what he’s probably been thinking for years. No longer any need to pussyfoot around those incompetent politicians

I’ve just had a text from my husband to let me know that Yuzuru Hanyu is no longer going to be a competitive skater ………. like Mr Orser on a memorable occasion, I have no words.

There are a lot of smiling photos and footage of him laughing out there. The last couple of seasons must have been like being chained to a treadmill by the limitations of ISU rules and JSF expectations. Those Beijing gala practices are beginning to look almost like a physical manifestation of what was going through his mind- reviewing the past and maybe evaluating what would and would not be possible in the future under the new regs. As I’ve said before he owes us nothing - but he’s being very kind in the way he’s done this. A written statement would have been easy but then there would be speculation about his state of mind etc etc. Here we can see he’s happy - dare I say relieved? We’ve seen from Ciontu that he has ideas beyond the usual ice show format. And there’s the answer re the presence of ANA and the agency - he has the backing of his sponsors still. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes this.

Bloody hell - he’s made the bbc sports page - usually only cover Olympic and scandals. Homepage More BBCSPORT Home Football Cricket Formula 1 Rugby U Rugby L Tennis Golf Boxing Athletics Commonwealth Games All Sport Winter Sports Yuzuru Hanyu: Japanese figure skater announces retirement Last updated on 33 minutes ago33 minutes ago.From the section Winter Sports Yuzuru Hanyu became the first male figure skater in 66 years to win back-to-back Olympic singles titles Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu - considered to be one of the greatest male figure skaters of all time - has announced his retirement. Hanyu, 27, became the first man in 66 years to win back-to-back singles titles at the Olympics - at Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018. Struggling with injuries, he missed out on making it three in a row in Beijing, finishing fourth at the 2022 Games. "I'll no longer be compared with other skaters as a competitor," said Hanyu. The skater, known as the "Ice Prince", is determined to carry on in his quest to land the quadruple axel in front of an audience, though. This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

Thank you wonder boy. It’s been an incredible eight years for me. From the CoC crash which first drew my attention, through discovering the back catalogue so to speak of Sochi, R&J1, the wealth of old footage of competitions going back to the junior ones and the documentaries, and the regret that I hadn’t noticed him earlier. I adored both the programmes of my first season as a fan, his Phantom was the best ever. Then the roller coaster of the seasons- the ups (Barcelona x2) the downs (Shanghai,Boston), the droughts, the searching for Japanese links for ice shows, the media days, the costume reveals, the search for someone live-streaming practices. Becoming active on the internet. Fretting about the ankle. Staying up to watch competitions in the middle of the night, sometimes abroad, on one memorable occasion under the covers on a family trip to the west of Ireland with a terrible Wi-Fi link. Sitting in a sports bar in Malta trying to get a link to work for ACI, surrounded by football fans watching the Italian, Spanish and English league games on really loud screens all round the room. The annoyance of social obligations that clashed with his competitions. The stunning performances. The back to back triumph of 2016 NHK and GPF. The 2017 Worlds FP comeback that I watched on my phone in the ladies loos (not for the first or last time). Pretty much every minute of screen time of PC from the arrival at the airport, through that first practice, the utter perfection of the SP, the triumph of the ankle holding out through the free, the fun jokey atmosphere of gala practices and the sublime Notte Stellata at the gala. The whole of PC was a perfectly judged performance. The 4A quest, and the heart stopping moment at the GPF practice when I realised he was going to go for it in public for the first time. Its been amazing. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

I think it is highly unlikely he will talk about retirement- he will remember Javier Fernandez’ last Euros and the judges reaction to his semi retirement. When it happens I believe he will just do it - he gets the Hanyu downgrade anyway so he won’t give them any excuse to make it worse.

I veer between fear that there has been some catastrophic career ending injury since FaoI and hope that it’s just a more low key, no demonstration version of the old media days. The presence of ANA and this legal team is a bit different. It reminds me of when Kohei Uchimura left Konami and set up on his own after Rio. It may be that family can no longer cope with managing his endorsements etc and he is setting up a structure for that, coaching change, some sort of change in the way he manages his career. If it were just retirement he might need a press conference but would he need his main sponsor and a legal team to be present?

BBC article on body shaming in FS featuring our old friend Harry Mattick. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/0f78fa36-8bb8-49ee-9093-c46f389972c7

I love Kaori’s new haircut

I hope Satoko has a happy and fulfilling retirement . I have loved her skating, despite the jumps. I’m not hearing much about Muramoto/Takahashi ice dance team - I see they finished a long way down in a reduced field . I very much hope that resources aren’t being concentrated on an older, inexperienced team at the expense of younger more exciting prospects. I appreciate that JSF regards Takahashi with a great deal of reverence but it’s highly unlikely that at his age he will be able to acquire the particular skills needed for ice dance. He’s given it a good try, they got the worlds place but couldn’t capitalise on it.

Are Fujitsu’s PR dept asleep? They could have Uchimura and Hanyu in their ads - imagine the epic footage we could get from that?

Ok I think I’m going to support Canadian and Korean men in this WC. Never thought six years ago I’d be typing that, but here we are. I’ll watch and pray for Kazuki but we all know who JSF will back. for Roman’s jumps to come home and for Keegan to pull off that 4ltz

It’s weird local politics - coming from the ‘right’ rinks and universities etcetc, plus a buggins turn attitude towards who should be no. 1 which has always baffled me .

Kogan thinks the absence of Russian ladies will drop popularity of WC - somehow I doubt it’s the absence of Eteris girls that will affect the viewing figures. Actually the ladies competition might be worth a watch now.

This series of Beijing practices are such a gift to us all - all the enjoyment without the aneurism inducing worry of competition

Just caught up with Kaori ‘s gala skate. I love her costumes- they fit her personality and skating style so well. That dark red dress with clean lines but glittery at the edges is just perfect with her clean fast movement across the rink.

He’s not wrong. There have been occasions when Shoma has had his flaws called but normally only Yuzuru and Boyang in the upper echelons of the mens field and Kobe girls, Wakaba and Korean women in the upper echelons of that discipline get scrutinised the way the small fed skaters do. Passports rule - and the way they’re hedging round the invasion of Ukraine, it won’t be changing any time soon.

This sort of comment is so annoying - it’s all sour grapes starting with PC fans in Sochi and multiplied x10 by pro NC US media at PC. They were (and some still are) very sour because in the case of the former, chanflation didn’t work at the Olympics and it was hard to be too nasty about a charming polite teenager with a sad story behind him. I also ( being a cynic) think they were geared up to trash Pluschenko and Yuzuru came in when they weren’t expecting him. In the case of the latter, he bombed that SP so badly that they were all shell shocked - if PC had skated that badly at Sochi it would have been game over but NCs passport gave him a lift over Julian Yee ( and there are plenty of us who are still sour about that one USFSA, fyi) which enabled him to rise above it all (cue redemption music and cartoon clouds) yada yada. Yuzuru has lost plenty because of judging, but smaller fed skaters have lost even more. There is no power behind them to force those extra few points to get them into the FS as there is with the Russian and American skaters. It’s why I’m so pleased Donovan managed it this time because if ISU get their way there will be fewer and fewer Yees and Carillos in international competitions, more and more lower level big feds.

These interviews are scattered through his career since he was a teenager and one on one he seems to almost drop into a stream of consciousness type of ramble when talking to Matsuoka. I know that translation between Japanese and English is extremely difficult and I’m very grateful to the people who do this for us.

It’s difficult to tell when you don’t speak the language, but he appears more confident, and (as far as one can tell) more articulate than the early interviews, where he tended to look down and mumble (at the time I wondered whether it was his dialect as opposed to mandarin).

It must be hard to mature as a person when you spend most of your childhood and adolescence in the pressure cooker of any elite sport. I’m glad that time has given him some perspective, and personal happiness.

Interesting article on the history of doping in FS. https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-history-of-doping-in-figure-skating.html and another from the same blogger about the erasure of ‘unwanted ‘ champions in the soviet era - interesting in the light of JSF attitude to YH…. https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2022/02/much-ado-about-russia.html