ZuCritter

This is the essence of Yuzu's greatness: This toe loop is so quick and so smooth that I had to watch it several times and play it in extreme slow motion to believe it was a toe jump rather than an edge jump. If ever a jump was "out of nowhere" ...

I think I've discovered an emotional state new to humans, made up of equal parts jubilation and terror: Zuticipation.

Considering how badly the Beijing committee wants him to be there, I think China fed would offer him a spot. Of course, he'd never accept, but if he did it would be all-time epic shade on JSF! Another thought: What a delicious irony that the one with the most to lose if he doesn't go is NBC.

I, ZuCritter, do voluntarily, humbly and with immeasurable relief take the Fanyu Pledge: I do hereby swear and solemnly affirm, on pain of dishonoring our Exalted Overlord, that I will, henceforth and forever, refrain from holding, voicing or promulgating any opinion whatsoever about what our Most Miraculous Space Kitty thinks or does not think, wants or does not want, needs or does not need, should or should not do, etcetera and so forth, world without end, Amen.

One tiny mercy in this rotten situation: If there's any footage of this injury, we'll probably never see it.

I am terribly sad for Yuzu and for all of us. This is very hard to bear, especially since our hopes were so high for the emergence of Nessie. I mourn as I send him all my love and support and wishes for a full recovery. I would never say Yuzu brought this on himself. By virtue of who he is, however, of his stratospheric goals, his incredible perseverance and the inherent danger of the sport, injury is a risk he has willingly assumed and accepted. He has already talked about being injured repeatedly as he sought the proper technique to conquer the 4A. He is, after all, in wholly uncharted territory. We have no idea how serious any of those earlier injuries were, because he's been training alone and none of them prevented him from competing in the few competitions he's been able to attend. I pray that this injury is not as serious as in '17 and '19. Time will tell. Loving him is a hell of a ride, but one of the best experiences of my whole (very long) life. He's worth every tear, and I'll always be there for him in whatever small way I can.

Put me in the "He's going for it? Whew! What a relief!" club. It's been torture all these months (years?), knowing that he's training it and yet not having more than a few crumbs to suggest that he's going to achieve it. This sounds different -- like he's at least very, very close if not all the way to a semi-stable 4A. At the same time, I put this in the same category as his declaring that he was ready to skate in PC, which we now know was part of his strategy to boost his own confidence in the face of facts to the contrary. Maybe he's just on the edge of landing Nessie -- remember, he didn't land a 4lo until the last attempt in the last practice before he flew to Korea. And he couldn't land the 4s in the warmup before the SP. But he landed it a few minutes later when it counted. Which is to say, Yuzu works in mysterious ways his wonders to produce. Whatever the case in this instance, I believe we'll see Nessie sooner rather than later, and I'm relieved and thrilled. One more note: I, too, think he'll attempt it in the Thursday practice. He needs all the practice he can get, and he needs to test the ice. As for the presence of other skaters, he made how many attempts in Torino and Stockholm with other skaters on the ice? May the madness begin ...

Yes, that look says it all: He's landed it. Fasten your seatbelts, fanyus!

No wonder the ISU wants to shove Yuzu aside. He refuses to cede to their favorite on the TES side, so they have to distort PCS to truly ludicrous levels to get the results they want. Seeing just how ludicrous doesn't require measuring the favorite against Yuzu. Just look at his haul of candies in comparison to this skate by another American who competed in a less corrupt era:

Given the track record of the one making the predictions, I’d rather they NOT pick him to win!

I’m sure Yuzu was eager to land the 4A before now, but landing it just before the Olympics would have the advantage of generating greater media attention. Many sports publications and shows that typically ignore skating would write or broadcast stories about it. And as a former reporter, I can’t imagine that anyone would produce a story that mentions the upcoming Olympic contest without also mentioning Yuzu’s monumental achievement. I don’t know how much that would influence the judging, but it’s plausible — I would even say probable — that it would have some effect. To paraphrase Brian : Never underestimate the power of a dominant narrative.

Matthew Bourne is brilliant! Your post gave me a crazy but exciting idea: I wonder what Yuzu could produce in partnership with a choreographer who works in the dance world rather than the FS world? The two languages are similar but different, so melding them might produce an entirely new art form. If an adventurous choreographer truly grasped Yuzu's abilities, I can only imagine that he or she would be thrilled to expand his or her range. Imagine working with a dancer/athlete who can glide and, in essence, fly? I'm not thinking such a collaboration would work in the competitive skating milieu, but in the next phase of Yuzu's career it could open up whole new, mind-blowing possibilities.

I'd LIKE to believe that he's just trolling us all, and that he's fully tamed the savage beast. I must confess, though, that day by day I swing between calm certainty and absolute panic. I'm afraid that before it's all over my hair is doomed to go the way of Brian's.

Life of a fanyu, episode 9283: You feel a huge surge of affection for a white wall.

Agreed. I have to say, though, that I seldom, if ever, interpret the MADs as suggesting that Yuzu's programs would have been better -- or as good -- if he had chosen the music used by the video maker. I experience them as expressing how the maker feels about Yuzu, which is an entirely different thing. The ones I enjoy capture my own feelings about him. I can't enjoy them unless the chosen visual clips and the music are somewhat compatible, and I always stop watching if they're not. But I'm willing to overlook some incongruities in the interest of savoring the sense that someone else in the fandom is (let's say) carried away by the same sense of awe I experience at certain performances. It's noteworthy to me that many of the music selections (including the one @Henni147 employed) tend to have a heroic vibe. That's not a genre Yuzu himself favors -- wisely, I would say. But his fans do see him as heroic in any number of contexts. The MADs built around heroic music express that very common perception, just like countless posts on this forum. I accept them as valid expressions of that shared feeling, however much they may fall short of the perfect marriage of music and movement that Yuzu himself treasures and that we treasure in his performances.

1. I wish it would go on for two hours rather than two minutes. 2. Yuzu is in a class not with other humans but with phenomena like Yosemite or Chartres cathedral. 3. In the realm of humans he arguably moves more beautifully than any other member of the species -- of this or any age. I've thought about #3 for a while and this is as good a time as any to make my case. I started by trying to think of any other type of movement that rivals FS for beauty. Acrobats, gymnasts, skiers, snowboarders and other athletes sometimes move beautifully. Dancers certainly do. But none of those disciplines combines the speed, the flow, the explosiveness, the defiance of gravity, the power and especially the delicacy that skaters display. So, if skaters move more beautifully than any other group of people, Yuzu moves more beautifully than any other person ever has. I take it as an absolute given, backed by the opinions of the vast majority of his peers -- coaches, choreographers, commentators, other skaters -- that he stands alone at the apex of the FS world. He is beautiful when still, but once in motion, he is as beautiful as it is possible for a human to be.

It’s a bit frightening to realize the lengths I would go to to see him again in Helsinki. The boy has certainly bewitched me!

Thanks so much for this lovely diversion. I really hope Yuzu is lurking so he’s had a chance to enjoy it too. How about Le Jardin de Tuileries?

You're correct: The suffragettes fought successfully to win the vote for women, which was ratified in 2020. The term "Civil Rights" as I used it refers to the struggle of Black Americans to win a whole range of rights that had been denied them, including the vote. In the South, the term "lady" was part of the coded racial language used to perpetuate the manufactured fear that white women were at risk of "defilement" if Blacks (and Black men in particular) weren't kept subjugated. It was part of the whole system of racial oppression known as "Jim Crow." That's why the word makes me queasy, although, as I said, I fully understand that others, who don't have those same associations, may consider it a neutral or a positive term. My comments aren't meant to say that my view is correct, merely to to explain how that word affects someone with my background. It's a fascinating example of how the meaning of a word can't be separated from the cultural context of the person who hears it. EDIT: I apologize for having this discussion, which has nothing to do with Yuzu, in this thread. Anyone who cares to should feel free to move it to a more appropriate one. Thanks.

I was born in 1952, so I was in my teens during the height of the Civil Rights struggle.

As a child of the American South who came of age in the time of the Civil Rights Movement, "ladies" carries connotations that make me cringe. In this country it's associated with a whole system of bigoted beliefs and practices designed to keep some people under the thumb of others. In other times and places, the word undoubtedly doesn't carry those connotations, but I can't disentangle it from the historical and cultural context in which I know it. So, while I appreciate that others may prefer "ladies" for perfectly good and valid reasons, I am hugely relieved to see "women" replace it in FS.

I second this sentiment. Welcome back, @KatjaThera!

Yuzu on a gorgeous steed: something I would definitely pay to see!!!!!

Without wading into the discussion of how various cultures conceptualize and/or enforce gender roles, I've long suspected that Yuzu uses the whimsical, "cute" side of his persona (the Space Kitty side) to mask the more alpha, ultra-competitive side. I think he's naturally playful, but it seems that he shifts into that mode partly to "soften" his image and obscure the fierceness of his drive to win. I don't know enough to speculate about whether that tendency -- if I'm correct that it exists -- might reflect Japanese cultural expectations. But the interplay of those contrasting faces, which we've discussed here before, is one of the things that makes him so fascinating.

Today, reflecting on the struggles of Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles, I've been struck afresh by the insane pressure these elite athletes labor under. It makes me appreciate the magnitude of Yuzu's achievement in Pyeongchang even more -- if that's possible. I'm not making a comparison here, saying that Yuzu is somehow stronger because he won. Both Osaka and Biles are tougher -- mentally as well as physically -- than most mortals can even dream of. And I suspect that, in the arena of competitive sports, it may take more courage to acknowledge the mental toll than to deny or sugar-coat it. In a way, I think Yuzu's refusal to be drawn into the building hype about the potential for a 3rd OGM is a canny bid to safeguard his own sanity. Almost a subtle act of resistance. And if it is, I salute him for it! Anyway, I have nothing but respect for any athlete who makes it to the Olympics and profound love for Yuzu for being the incredible competitor and human being that he is.