Altie

Yeah. At Helsinki practices, 4Lo was one of the jumps he was practicing the most, being apparently frustrated that landing the jump was difficult on that ice (many skaters had problems with the ice at this competition). He clearly wants to include the jump this season (and he LOVES the jump). So, yeah, I'm pretty sure 4Lo will be back at worlds.

One of the commentator is Alban Préaubert, former french figure skater and French Eurosport commentator for these last 6 or 7 years I think ? I don't know the name of the other one, but he used to comment very often for french Eurosport, too. Alban is in fact one of the two infamous commentators (with Nathalie Péchalat) who were super unfair with Yuzuru during the grand prix series. Which is really a shame, because his comments are usually pretty good. But these last years he's been pretty harsh with Yuzu (and Javi, too, tbh), loving more the youger generation - I guess he's one of those guys who don't like when it's always the same ones on the top. Happy to hear comments from the time when he still loved him :) (He also looooved H&L Helsinki 2017, to be fair)

A great, long podcast about and with my childhood hero, Surya Bonaly : https://www.binge.audio/surya-le-19-novembre/ If you understand french, i's really worth listening.

Thank youuuu !!!! So, it was anan

Help ! It looks like I'm unable to find one of my favourite Yuzu picture : a very, very close close-up of his gorgeous face in hope and legacy costume, with a bit of brian's head in the picture if I remember well ? I think it was the cover of a magazine, Ice jewels or something ? Would anyone be so kind and give me a link to that beautiful picture ?

The designer of this poster should be fired, seriously... :)

Yeah, there's no "jokingly", but I'm pretty sure that was a joke indeed :).

Yeah he was wrong about that comment, for sure I don't know who the woman is. She's the same who commented Yuzu's FS in Nice I think :

Tbh honest I quite like Alban Préaubert's comments most of the time (it's the guy's name). He tries to be as objective as possible in his comments while being supportive - he even mentioned Shoma's problems ith prerotation, even if he loves Shoma, and very often calls out judges for their selective way of pushing some skaters up, and others down. So, yeah, his comment about Johnny is unfair, and I didn't like it either, but I think it's only because he really doesn't like Otonal's costume I don't like it either tbh. Nathalie Péchalat is... another story. But she doesn't comment this season, it seems ? Aaaaand... that's a good thing

Excellente initiative Je m'étais pas mal déconnectée du patinage ces derniers mois, mais un séjour à Helsinki et je suis de nouveau à fond haha. Depuis mon retour je plane toujours d'ailleurs, c'était tellement magique. Un bout de mon cerveau est resté là-bas, je crois

The best cheese around Grenoble is imho the "Saint Marcelin". So good ! You should try it. (ahem sorry for the off-topic :) )

Alban Preaubert as head of the figure skating committee might be good news though. Let's wait and see. About another topic : a long interview of Papadakis Cizeron ine Le pariens : http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/danse-sur-glace-papadakis-et-cizeron-veulent-continuer-a-toucher-les-gens-20-06-2018-7782822.php In short : - there's taking a bit of holiday, for the first time in many years. You can "feel" in the interview that what happend in the olympic games (with Gabriella's dress etc...) has been tough for them. - they don't want to think too much about medals, even less about the next olympic games. They want to focus on what inspires them and what they can bring to the sport, and then hopefully medals will come. And apparently, Guillaume Cizeron choregraphed James/Cipres short program for next sesaon !!! (https://www.facebook.com/VanessaJamesMorganCipresOfficiel/)

I've just read on a french FS forum that Didier Gaillaguet is reelected as the president of french federation for 4 years. Which was expected. What might be a good news though is that Alban Préaubert has been elected as president of the figure skating commitee - For those who don't know him, he's a former french figure skater and he's been French Eurosport main commentator for several years now. He's very knowledgable about figure skating, and clearly loves the sport, so I hope it will translate in better planning of events... if he can do something about it. I'm crossing fingers. ETA : ha, the news was already in the "team we're fewer but still good" forum :)

For what is worth, Grenoble is a quite nice city, surrounded by gorgeous mountains... so, if by any chance you want to stay longer, it might be worth it ? Another possibility is to go to Lyon, and then rent a car (or take a bus, it's longer but very cheap) - it's only 1h30 to go from there to Grenoble, and it has much (much !) better transit links.

I'm not totally sold on this costume... I do love the flowy arms and airy feeling, but the fact that the spine is emphasized by a "pink line" in the back and the black thingy in the front look ugly in my eye. I'm not a big fan of the cut at the waist either. The program is reaaaally lovely though

You should find some answers in this wonderful thread : https://planethanyu.com/topic/292-programs-we-remember/

I'm not a skater, but wouldn't 3 jumps back to back (and even combos) be awfully tiring for the skater ? Isn't it the reason why it doesn't happen already with the current rules ? Or is there a rule I'm not aware of ?

It's easier said than done. Combos are high risk, and putting the combo(s) as last jump(s) in programs means no possible layout change in case of popped combos. So I really don't think that "of course all skater will backload their combos" and that the programs will be more uniform. It remains a "high risk/high gain" strategy. Tbh, extreme backloading is more a case in ladies fiels, where this rule will change a lot of things, and, yes, probably uniformize the layouts quite a bit. I don't see why it would change the layouts that much in men's field.

I don't recall every time Yuzu praised a fellow skater, but I do remember that he said that he particularly admired Jason's artistry, Boyang's jumps and Zhenia's mindset. So... is it really Brian collecting top skaters, or Yuzu chosing his dream teammates ? The ones that, once combined, could make the perfect skater in his views ?

I'm so happy for Yuzu ! Boyang and Evgenia are people he seems to genuinely likes a lot, and these coaching changes almost guaranty that TCC will remain a safe and happy place for the next years, despite Javi leaving. More egoistically, I think that having a rival such as Boyang next to him could well fuel Yuzu's competitive spirit for 4 more years One can dream... *crossing fingers*

Since Yuzu is (was ?) good friends with mura and kanako, I've always been under the impression that they "coordinated" a PotO team Japan back then

Sorry for the off topic, it's getting political so I put it in quotes

People begging in the metro are common, yes, and always have, it's almost a "tradition". But they shouldn't make you uncomfortable (not more uncomfortable than distress and poverty could, in any case). As for the police getting someone off or prevent someone getting in ? I've never seen that myself, but I imagine that it could happen in some area. I think it really depends where and when you went. All in all, if there was a figure skating championship in Bercy, that would be no problem since it's a very safe district. As for the terrorists threat, the Bataclan attack was a deep traumatism, if you went in paris around that time, no wonder you felt the mood was very strange. (And I've lived in Paris and suburbs for 40 years and never had a single serious problem)

Gwendal Peizerat was on the red carpet in Cannes film festival source

Well, perhaps she is, but in this case it's just a french book about figure skaters going to pyeongchang that happens to have Yuzu on its cover (which is a veeery good choice, I think we all agree on that ). She even probably has a few shots of herself inside. (I considered buying this book but never went for it... yet)