Vulnavia

Believe me, I get it. I mean, I would love to be able to watch my own country's skating coverage! But I can't because it's such a mess. And it's not even just about Nathan. I watched the NBC coverage of the Skate America ladies event because they showed the free live and I wanted to see Satoko, and the commentators were going on and on about Bradie and how she's so consistent and never makes mistakes, and Tara kept saying she was the favorite to win. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there wondering if Satoko and Kaori missed their flight from Japan, because that's the only way Bradie should have ever been considered the favorite considering that they were the reigning SA gold and silver medalists and that Satoko had beaten Bradie comfortably at both the Olympics and Worlds the previous season. Johnny even went so far as to make a snarky comment at the beginning of Satoko's performance about how she's prone to URs 'but the tech caller today is Japanese, so...', basically implying that if she didn't get any UR calls it would be because the tech caller was biased. They also hadn't done any research and didn't know that Satoko had been working on her jumps with Ghislain during the off season, so they were shocked when her jumps looked better at that competition. So they disrespected both Japanese skaters AND set Bradie up to fail, because Bradie made some mistakes and ended up in 4th, which wasn't a terrible result for her especially given that she was trying the 3lz3lo combo for the first time, but casual viewers who trust what the commentators are saying thought that she was supposed to win so it seemed like a total flop to them. ...and I just wrote a whole rant about something that I'm not sure is even fully relevant to this thread. I blame the negative influence of US skating shenanigans

I feel that way too sometimes and I'm American. But trust me, there are many knowledgeable American skating fans who can clearly see all of the nonsense with USFS and US media for exactly what it is. I can't even count how many times I've seen comments from longtime American fans of skating saying that they're fed up with what's been going on and that they're planning to stop following the sport once Yuzu retires.

Based on Yuzu's comments here it definitely seems like we're getting new programs next season, or at the very least a new free.

Yuzu and Satoko should swap programs for next season. I think she could pull off Otonal and he could pull off LGC hair + red flower

Where TSL is concerned I feel like if you don't understand what they're going on about at any given time, you're doing just fine because neither do they. They had entirely different opinions about Yuzu earlier this season, and they were trashing Nathan and basically saying that people were delusional if they really thought that he could successfully balance school and skating. Now they're praising him and they've dusted off their old tired Yuzu critiques. It's like they're always trying to strike this weird balance of being contrarian about everyone who is popular and also simultaneously acting like they've always been on the bandwagon of whoever is most successful at the moment.

It really is like The Emperor's New Clothes at this point. First we had Raf saying that Nathan doesn't do any transitions, but it's okay because judges are too incompetent to tell the difference anyway. Now we've graduated to Inman straight up claiming to see transitions that aren't actually there. It reminds me of a comment I saw from a Nathan fan recently who was trying to argue that Nathan doing empty programs with a million crossovers was an artistic choice and that "his crossovers are part of his artistry". Like the skating version of a minimalist painter, I guess

If I remember right, Inman also had issues with Johnny Weir back in the day, so we can imagine how he feels about a skater choosing to do a Johnny tribute program.

My first thought on that tweet was that maybe it was about highlighting Inman's hypocrisy - back in the day he was all about hyping the American Lysacek over Plushenko with the argument that Evan did more complete programs with transitions, artistry, etc and wasn't all about quads, and now he's hyping the American Chen over Yuzu even though Yuzu is the one doing complete programs while Nathan is transition-free, all about quads, etc. Basically, whatever the top American skater is doing at the time is what they'll promote as the best thing ever. And not to get too far off topic, but I've always found it interesting how Evan was SO hyped at the time in the US and the media acted like his victory over Plushenko was the most amazing event in Olympic history, and now he's hardly ever mentioned in American skating coverage or cited by fans as someone who was a favorite or who had really memorable programs. And when he is mentioned, it's usually in the context of 'that guy who wore the sparkly snake costume'.

I think that Yuzu was hoping that everyone's GOEs would be judged remotely fairly, which would have given him a big advantage even with slightly lower BV. His SP scores early in the season gave some indication that that might be case, which may partly explain why he was pleasantly surprised. Now he knows that the judges have basically thrown proper GOE and PCS judging out the window, so he needs to refocus on BV.

And the claims that Nathan's programs were "perfect" really illustrate the lack of understanding of how the scoring system is supposed to work. The people who think that landing all of the jumps means a performance was 100% perfect remind me of the casual gymnastics fans back in the day who thought that if a gymnast stuck the landing on a vault it should automatically be a perfect 10, with no grasp of things like start values or any of the other things besides landings that judges deduct for.

And on the flip side in the US skating world, you have Dick Button, who is all 'I love Yuzu! I'm happy to have my records broken by a great athlete and person like Yuzu! Yes, please send a Japanese TV crew to my house so I can talk about Yuzu for an hour', etc.

Palate cleanser:

As you said, Raf may have the facilities but he doesn't have Brian and Tracy's approach (or their results), and he clearly hasn't created the same welcoming, diverse, respectful community of skaters that exists at TCC. Of course this is only my speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it really annoys someone like Scott that the top coaching facility in skating right now welcomes skaters from all over the world and produces results for so many different countries, while the US has nothing on that level producing results for American skaters. Raf's school clearly has issues, as does Tom Z's, all the top ice dance teams have left for Montreal, and so on. That's no excuse to take it out on someone like Yuzu, but that's Scott Hamilton for you.

Of course I'm not saying that I think that Adam is unmacho or anything like that, just that in a hypothetical scenario where there's no Nathan and a skater like Adam was the US #1 skater, you'd see someone like Scott and the rest of the US media singing a totally different tune and praising things like artistry instead of being all 'quads quads YALE quads QUADS Yale quads' all the time. With Johnny, I think people like Scott felt like they didn't need to pretend to support him because they had Evan as the 'masculine' alternative. Of course, the fact that Johnny made it very clear that he didn't intend to tone himself down at all and didn't care if people like Scott objected was a factor as well. Maybe that's another reason why Scott is extra bitter about Yuzu now, because he's keeping Johnny's name out there so much by skating a tribute to him.

Reading this article about them now, it's from 2013 but talks about how the org got started: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2013/09/06/our-lives/playground-of-hope-project-builds-communities-benefits-affected-kids/

I probably read the same post I also remember hearing a lot of talk last year about Scott wanting to set up a training center in the US that would basically be like the American equivalent of TCC and just as successful. Obviously that's not happening and it's highly unlikely that it ever will, so there may be some personal bitterness behind his comments about Yuzu as well.

I completely agree but this is the world of US figure skating we're talking about, where nothing makes sense. I also remember a lot of people thinking that Evan Lysacek's rhinestone snake encrusted costume was the height of ultra macho masculinity Of course, if Nathan and Adam Rippon had traded quads and Adam had been the US #1 for the last few years, or if Yuzu was American, people like Scott would be singing an entirely different tune about the virtues of artistry, sequins, and how awesome it is to see a man do a layback spin, because ultimately having an American be the best is the most important thing to someone like him.

The Red Cross actually doesn't have the best track record in recent years when it comes to using donations appropriately, but that may be a somewhat regional thing and the Japanese Red Cross Society may have a better track record. But we can look into it further, and it looks like @Veveco has given us a bunch of promising options to consider. I'm looking at Playground for Hope now and this could be a good fit. The idea of children in disaster areas and other crisis situations losing access to places for play reminds me of Yuzu's interviews about how hard it was to lose his rink after the earthquake.

As someone who used to be a big Johnny Weir fan, I remember the rumors that went around for years that Scott kept Johnny from ever being invited to the Stars on Ice tour because he thought Johnny was too "flamboyant" for the "family friendly" SOI. So I think part of it is not so much about Yuzu specifically, but about Scott's fairly narrow view of what men's skating should be and look like, and someone who has the confidence to go out and perform beautiful, emotional, sensitive programs while dressed like a sakura fairy doesn't fit into that view. And I think the other part is that Yuzu is a threat to the agenda that Scott and the rest of the US skating community are trying to push. It's a whole lot harder to convince people to believe that Nathan is the best as long as Yuzu remains around actually being the best.

Not to mention the zillions of NCAA athletes in every sport under the sun, some of whom are competing at a very high level, some who compete in popular sports like football and deal with huge pressures from fans and media and with future pro contracts on the line, and some who are already OGMs like Kyla Ross.

Ah yes, I clearly remember that and how he randomly decided that winning the long program while winning your second OGM was suddenly part of the criteria for being considered a GOAT, and how he couldn't say that Yuzu was better than Dick Button, etc etc while Tanith and the NBC host dude were both giving him the side eye. I saved [admin edit: tweet is offensive] about Scott during nationals and every time I think about it it makes me laugh and reminds me not to take anything he says seriously. (But warning before clicking that it's just as rude towards him as he is towards others, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea.)

I'm also remembering when Scott interviewed Brian Orser at the Olympics, he was going on and on about their good old days skating in shows together and acting like he and Brian were BFFs. (Of course, this was the day after he dismissed and disrespected Yuzu's victory so he could bang on about Nathan's quads for the entire show...or at least, until I changed the channel.) I don't know about you guys, but if my good friend was a coach I don't think I'd be making videos where I rudely mocked, laughed at, and disrespected my friend's best and most successful student.

I also enjoyed the part where he claimed that Nathan went into Yuzu's "hometown" and won, because I guess Saitama = Sendai when you're a narrow-minded American with an agenda to push.

Scott Hamilton is the worst. Nathan is American and also fits into Scott's narrow 'manly man in black who loves jumps and hates sequins and meaningful artistry' box, so in his mind he's the best. I'm not the biggest fan of Johnny & Tara's commentary but the Scott era was certainly no picnic either.

Yes, and I'm glad he's coming forward to speak for them now that Coughlin's camp seems to be really trying to push the 'false allegations' narrative. I hope USFS is held accountable in some way for totally mishandling this from the beginning.