river

In the end... I trust Yuzu. He won’t make a rash decision regarding his career. If he feels switching programs is best, it probably is. And quite frankly, anyone criticizing him for repeating programs can go earn back-to-back Olympic gold medals and then maybe they’ll have room to talk. At this point in his career, he‘s earned the right to do whatever he pleases.

Unstanned. Seriously, though, changing the programs kind of makes sense. He’s comfortable with Ballade and Seimei, and the judges love them. If he doesn’t feel like Otonal and Origin are getting the response he wants from the judging panel, they’re a solid choice. He doesn’t have to learn all new choreo, but getting Seimei to 4 minutes could be a challenge. The question would be if his PCS takes a hit for doing Ballade for a 4th season and Seimei for a 3rd. (But that means I don’t get to see the Origin 2.0 costume in person again...)

Oh, you know the real ISU would never do that to me. I have a passport bonus, after all. I don't think I've ever gotten zero points on a podium guess before - but then again, nobody did all that well for the men's segment. Who would have guessed, honestly?

Patrick's listed as going to all 4 locations on the website. I am so jealous of anyone with tickets, the lineup is incredible.

Oh yeah, you missed that too! Yuzu's doing SOI Japan Yokohama and Hachinohe in April.

I think just dropping BQ5 is fair if the wording is confusing. Well. Men have already completely destroyed my predictions. I don’t think anyone saw that coming, so I guess we’re all in trouble there.

No, she wants me to do prebronze and bronze moves before we start working on freestyle. The patterns are fine, I can do them with a reasonable amount of speed and power, and my coach says I'll pass. The only problem is that the forward circle eight confuses me on the waltz eight and so occasionally for the second pattern of the waltz eight I step onto a LFI instead of an RFO...

My coach, introducing me to some of her other students: "This is river. She's testing pre-bronze and bronze moves in March." My face: Somehow I've missed the memo until now that I'm doing bronze MITF as well. I should probably start practicing those patterns more, then.

@yuzuangel I can see the new posts! In celebration of us being back online, have a behind the scenes photo from the new Lotte photoshoot.

Youtube suggested this video to me today. The world's tiniest Hanyu fan is a nice counterbalance to all of the nonsense going on in the skating world right now.

People were saying Yuzu is Santa, and now JW is giving us the pics to prove it.

According to Amazon, the GOETHE issue with Yuzu on the cover will be released on December 24. Merry Christmas, everyone.

https://people.com/sports/evan-lysacek-marries-girlfriend-dang-bodiratnangkura-in-thailand/ “Joining among the guests were the princess of Patiala and the royal princess of Bhutan as well as Thai government officials, foreign ambassadors, dignitaries and several lords- and ladies-in-waiting for the Thai royal family, Lysacek says.” Sounds like it was quite an event.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/50740083 I doubt that the WADA ban is going to affect much in figure skating as it stands - it sounds like it'll be similar to the last Olympics, with most Russian athletes able to go, just not officially as Russian. But there's a push from the WADA athletes' committee to blanket ban all Russian athletes which would obviously have stark consequences for the ladies field (and pairs/dance to a lesser extent). Right now, the three season's best scores in the ladies from non-Russians are Rika Kihira, You Young, and Bradie Tennell, if that tells you just how weird the podium might look without the Russian ladies. But that doesn't seem like a fair option to me - the current WADA requirements to be able to compete internationally if you're from Russia are quite strict, and if an athlete can meet those, it only seems fair to allow them to compete.

I would say there's only one way to find out... but we all know you're right. Nobody looks good in a Speedo.

I've been struggling to spin for literally months now and my spins have completely plateaued. My new coach (old one and I couldn't find a time that worked for both of us) took one look at my gear and told me I am massively underbladed - apparently the blades I've been using barely have a spin rocker at all. (Although there was a former sectionals competitor at my rink goofing off and spinning in rentals the other day, so... it's possible to spin in anything, he's just a lot better at this than I am.) So now I have an appointment tomorrow to get new blades with her skate tech (who works with a lot of the international competitors around here, so I trust his judgment). She said that given my skating style, love of jumping, and the fact that my feet are done growing, she thinks I should just spring for either a Pattern 99 or one of its clones (she and the tech both looooooove the Matrix line, so maybe the Elite?). Part of me is oddly pleased that my coach wants me on the same blade profile that Yuzu uses. Although she's already warned me to expect to be tripping over the toepick for a while, but in the end, she swears that I'm going to love what that massive toepick does for my jumps. Just maybe no spirals until I settle into the new gear.

They did! I knew something looked strange. (And yes, that’s Prospera Place.)

I thought I read somewhere he can’t swim, but I’m not totally sure where I saw it. Swimming would definitely be easier on the knees and ankles, but it gets rough on your shoulders if you do enough of it - I had a friend who was training for the Olympic trials and had a career-ending rotator cuff injury. And I’m not sure what sort of water treatment they use at TCC - if they use chlorine as opposed to salt water, then that could potentially be an airway irritant. It always was for me back in my competitive swimming days and I don’t have any underlying airway disease. Also, while it’s possible to swim with his build, he’s definitely not buoyant to start with. But if he wanted to learn to swim, I think @rockstaryuzu and I would be more than happy to teach him. Just say the word, Yuzu! Edit: the article I’m reading about exercise in patients with asthma says “children with asthma can participate in sports at any level (including the Olympics) with proper treatment.” Well, yeah, obviously.

Wow. And Zimmerman and Fontana apparently knew and tried to cover it up.

Happy birthday, Yuzu. May this year bring you as much joy as you bring to the ones who love you.

In case anyone is curious - yep, I'm totally bombing this one so far. Pretty sure every time the results roll in for a discipline, I have the same look on my face that Hubbell had on hers in the K&C at 4CC last season when they got that base level call. Edit: yep, after all is said and done, that was a disaster.

Pretty sure that's normal the first time you see Yuzu live. It is a glorious experience, but it does tend to short out some brain cells. IIRC, @rockstaryuzu tried to talk to me during Yuzu's first ACI practice this season and the most coherent thing I could come up with was "...huh...?" in response. She finally had to give up on any attempt at conversation until after Yuzu left the ice.

They aren’t marketed as noise-cancelling, but they definitely block out sound well. Not totally, just enough where I can’t wear them at my desk at work because I won’t hear someone speaking to me unless I see them first.