Sukigirl

I’m emerging from my own hibernation to wish our favourite boy a beautiful and blessed birthday. May his star continue to shine bright and his road ahead bring him joy, fulfilment and all his heart desires. also wishing all satellites a great day

I just caught up on the news. I feel immense sadness for Medo. She’s not my fave, not after her shenanigans in Japan this year, but to have to uproot yourself twice all in the face of fierce criticism while fighting physical pain to keep in top form must take a huge mental and psychological toll. If even Eteri is feeling sympathetic and sorry for her, I can’t even imagine what she must be suffering right now. I take no pleasure in the Russian drama this time. Just wish her all the best. The fuss and drama reminded me that test skates were happening and I went to YT to watch some skates. Not a fan of Medo’s sp, but her fs is gorgeous. So happy to see Kolyada too. Beautiful silky smooth skating.

From your mouth to the ears of someone in Japan. I’ve been low key living with this fear since Olys. im sad cactus

I totally support his decision. It’s the wise, responsible and right thing to do overall. But I mourn the loss of his skating. He’s the most sublime skater in fs and will be sorely missed. I really really hope this isn’t him preparing to take a step back - Yuzu, don’t get too comfy off the ice, m’kay? I’m not sure if we’ll see him at Nats either. If the Covid situation remains as it is, with no vaccine yet, it’s unlikely Brian will be able to come to Japan then.

Ballade Everytime a program came up, I’d be like, hope that’s me. Cos there were so many great ones - LGC, Seimei, H&L. But Chopin is great too.

Well done Yuzu!!! Another milestone achieved in your life, one no less significant than all your skating achievements. And it's so like him to research into an area that benefits his beloved sport and seeks to improve it. I hope the fanyus get cracking on translating his thesis as it'll be a fascinating read, although as a humanities major, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't understand half of it.

I wonder if he could tell us any less than the crumbs he has deigned to drop so far. by the way, I suspect he’s gained a ton of new fans recently from TikTok. I’m not on it (my daughter’s plenty addicted and I’d rather not encourage her by example) but I’m seeing YT comments of his videos from folks who proclaim they’ve recently started stanning. Given the lack of comps and fresh appearances, I’m thinking it must hv been TikTok.

Something was prompting me to check in on the Planet....turns out my antenna was right after all. What wonderful wonderful news. He looks healthy and strong. Hope this enforced rest is put to good use by letting his old injuries heal totally. Though “thinking about what I can do everyday” sounds a little ominous....

One week away from the Planet and.... Wonder how Sasha feels. She probably thought she’d get top dog status and all the attention and ice time at Plushy’s and now one of her biggest rivals comes over.

A bit late to the party but wow. Just wow. What a beautifully shot series of photos. Can’t wait to see the TVC that inspired this. if my profile pic looks familiar, it’s probably cos it came from the same shoot.

Awesome

This whole awards thing leaves me with a bad taste in the mouth. I don’t want to support it. But if Nathan wins Most Valuable Player over Yuzu, I’ll be beyond mad. I’ll go ballistic. And I don’t think I’ll be the only one.

Twoset and Yuzu in a video is something I did NOT expect. They picked a great pic of Yuzu too.

Sounds more and more like Challengers will be cancelled. Given the timing, maybe GP series might proceed, perhaps with no audience? Might negatively affect programs or skaters that feed off the crowd. Can’t imagine what will happen if GP is cancelled altogether. Then all we hv are nationals and Worlds, if at all. I’m conscious of how little time we have left before Yuzu calls time and this pandemic is robbing us of wonderful skates we might have

Has this been posted? Thoughts from Nathan, RAF and ISU officials on tech changes, as reported by Hersh. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/05/20/figure-skating-judging-changes-nathan-chen/ “These changes being ‘new’ to 2020-21 have to be interpreted as a reaction to the Russian ladies’ dominance and that of Nathan Chen, too,” said Tom Zakrajsek, a top U.S. coach, in an email. Chen said this week by telephone that he finds the new values fair but wishes there would be a bonus for skaters like him, Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno of Japan, Vincent Zhouof the U.S., Daniel Grassl of Italy and Alexander Samarin of Russia if they land more than one of the three hardest quads in a program. According to skatingscores.com, Chen and Grassl are the only ones who have landed all three at least once in their career. Among men in major international competitions beginning in 2010-11, including Junior Grand Prix and Challenger Series events, 13 different skaters have landed a clean quad Lutz, six a clean quad flip, five a clean quad loop. By comparison, 93 have landed a clean quad toe loop and 42 a clean quad Salchow. “It makes sense they are similarly valued, but there should be some extra incentive to do all the three hardest ones because it is difficult for some skaters to do some,” Chen said. “The loop is a very difficult jump for me; for others, it is quite easy. “There are pros and cons to these changes for each athlete. I have a Lutz, and because they are reducing its value, that does negatively impact me. At the same time, I can work to get my loop consistent (he has tried just one, in 2017) and to improve the grade of execution on my jumps.”

I don't expect that ISU will reward loop accordingly. I'm surprised as it is that they've decided it's on par with Lutz/Flip, given there didn't seem to be much obvious pressure to change its value unlike RusFed & co's push on q and rotations for the benefit of its skaters. Or perhaps I'm not giving Jpn Fed credit? Cos the only skater of note that benefits from this is Yuzu (sorry Grassl!). What I'm mad about is that careers are finite. You lose a season or two and the chance to make your imprint with record scores and that's it. Bodies age, throw in a curve ball like Covid and the window of opportunity is gone. Like @memae said, Nathan's records under this scoring system are suspect with the devaluation of 4Lz and the acknowledgement that 4Lo is just as hard if not harder to achieve. What would the preceding two seasons have looked like with this change in values?

I’m still catching up but dammit this makes me so so angry. Now they decide 4lo is the hardest? Where were all these pronouncements last season? dammit.

Wow. I didn’t expect all this when I opened PH after an absence. And I was insulted by Mishin bc he moved to Canada

At times like these, I really wish our boy had some form of social media. Not to share his private life, but to state how he feels about important skating developments. Wonder if Jpn media is reaching out to their skaters for their thoughts on the cancellation.

Awesome. Only bit of good news from this whole fiasco. Still trying to get refunds from my airline

Hugs. Take care

I’m more fascinated by how many people are watching and observing by the side (I see at least Piper and Paul). It’s like you know you’re witnessing greatness. Pretty similar to how Yuma stopped to watch Yuzu’s RT during one of the practices at 4CC. That would pretty much be my reaction if I was a rival skater; absorb and learn as much as you can

Yes, when I calmed down, that was my reaction. I mean, of all the things you want to criticise, this is the hill you choose to die on?

I just made the mistake of reading comments under T*L’s review of 4CC and had to quickly leave or else my blood pressure would have gone through the roof. To insist that Yuzu has a flutz

Awesome that I’ll get to see him live.