Figure_Frenzy

Loena Hendrickx and other Belgian winter athletes (Bart Swings and Hanne Desmet) receive their Olympic prize from the Belgian Olympic Committee for their achievement in the Winter Olympics. https://www.hln.be/winterspelen/in-totaal-118-750-euro-swings-desmet-en-hendrickx-ontvangen-premie-voor-prestaties-winterspelen~a915d418/ Financially supported by the Nationale Loterij, the committee rewards athletes who place on 8th or higher place in their discipline. Gold medallist receives €50.000 (Bart Swings won gold in mass start in speed skating), silver medallist receives €30.000, bronze €20.000 (Hanne Desmet won bronze in 1000m shorttrack speed skating), fourth place €10.000, fifth to eight place receives €5000 (Loena placed 8th in the women's single FS event). The coaches also receive 25% of the amount their athletes receive, so in total the committee gave the athletes €118.750 for Olympic prize.

When did you become a fan of Yuzu? I know Yuzu since Sochi, though I only followed closely at Pyeongchang 🙈 When and why did you sign up for Planet Hanyu? Just right after Pyeongchang, I was already on other SNS talking about Yuzu but the Planet™ seemed like an ideal place for it Did you make any irl friends through Planet Hanyu? Noooo not yet (would like to though! ) Have you participated in any group projects on Planet Hanyu? (I forgot 🙈, maybe??) Did you attend any meetups with other satellites at competitions? Noooo I haven't even been able to attend a comp, let alone meeting up with them at it What do you like the most about this forum? The fact that I can freely discuss things about Yuzu and gush on him together with fellow satellites Would you like to participate in the giveaway? OFC!! Count me in!!! (I hope I am not too late 🙈🙈🙈, happy birthday to the Planet™, and many thanks to the admins and moderators who run this place smoothly aaaaaaa)

Loena Hendrickx teaches Average Rob how to skate (in a teensy weensy dress ) https://www.humo.be/humor/average-rob-leert-kunstschaatsen-van-loena-hendrickx-in-een-iets-te-krap-jurkje It's a Youtube video from Humo (Belgian weekly magazine), featuring Average Rob and his brother Arno The Kid, usually learning various things (including Olympic sports ) in two hours. This time they learn how to skate with Loena — see for yourself how well they do

Sorry to make it about myself, but... (Yeah, this is one of my weird flexes as a satellite )

Loena Hendrickx was celebrating her season's achievements (4th place Euros, Olympic diploma (8th place), and Worlds silver medallist) with her old skating club (Nieuw Olympia Turnhout) in Turnhout, banquet galore https://m.gva.be/cnt/dmf20220412_97340028 A pleasant event all around, she celebrated with Jorik and her fellow (now former) skating club members, Shirley, Johanna and Nathalie (who are now synchro skaters, skating in Tilburg (NL) and Deurne). The place where they had the banquet, the ice rink the club owned actually already closed in 2016, at its peak it had 330 members, now it was only down to 5 (including Loena), there was an attempt to make a new ice rink but an investor pulled out from the plan . Oh well, here's hoping to future skaters in Turnhout finding out a way to go on, somehow...

AYYYYYYY the Planet™ is back!! thanks to all the mods and admin!

A Belgian newspaper (Het Laatste Nieuws) report on Loena winning silver medal at Worlds https://www.hln.be/meer-sport/loena-hendrickx-daags-na-zilveren-wk-medaille-geweldig-om-te-lezen-dat-ik-vicewereldkampioene-ben~ab7e5ea2/ A few highlights from the article: •She was accompanied not only by her coach and brother Jorik, her choreographer Adam Solya, her physiotherapist Ellen Jacobs also came along and helped monitor her injury and treated it between her practices and the skates. •She is now better able to take ahold of her situation, not lose control during competition, which was shown by her clean performance not only in SP but also in FS (as opposed to her performance in Euros, where she nailed the SP but not the FS). •She won the medal for herself (especially after everything she'd been through, her back injury and the recovery afterwards...), but also for Belgium, and she dedicated the win for her mother's birthday (who had her birthday Saturday this week (so, yesterday from when I post this 🙈🙈)). •This is the highest achievement by a Belgian single figure skater since...well, the start of the Worlds (yeah, really(!!)). The last Belgian Worlds medallist was a pairs team winning gold twice in the few years after WW II, and the highest achievement for Belgian single skaters before Loena's Worlds silver medal was Kevin Van Der Perren's Euros Bronze, in 2003 and 2007. I could translate other points from the article upon request, but the gist of it I think has been reported in other news sources as well (like how the Russians are blocked from competing, etc.) Once again, Proficiat Loena! , now enjoy your rest and recovery

Welp, the news on the (former) Worlds commentators even made it to a Belgian newspaper (which, to my knowledge, rarely covers FS to begin with*) https://www.hln.be/time-out/die-canadese-teef-commentatoren-gaan-ver-over-de-schreef-op-wk-kunstschaatsen-en-waren-daarmee-niet-aan-hun-proefstuk-toe~a8dc7bae/ (Though they gave too much credit on ISU , well I guess I'll take a modicum of solace from the fact that everyone saw them being such [redacted] *except occasional reports on Loena ofc, but I rarely check this newspaper (Het Laatste Nieuws) actually 🙈🙈🙈

Yeah, when we heard his first interviews after Olys FS we felt the despair in him, but now it might be that he'd choose to skate in comps despite everything (it's a matter of motivation/source of fulfillment — in the end we can only see by the sideline how he'd decide...)

I think the deciding factor will be if he'd be able to feel fulfilled by his performance despite the lack of rewards going forward. He might still enjoy the thrill of competition, but admittedly he likes to be rewarded for his performance too (I mean who doesn't, duh 🙈🙈), and if he doesn't feel any more fulfillment from competing, then... 😔

...so there is a follow up earthquake 😔😔😭 Hope everyone in Iwate (and neighboring prefectures too) is safe

The last time I checked there has been no serious damage, hopefully everyone in Tohoku stays safe, and more importantly I hope there's no follow up earthquake

Deserved tbh — the journalist who asked him that question was known to have written trashy, fake articles that denigrated Yuzu

@Sun_Rise bless your heart (I mean this genuinely). Not that it couldn't be done, but I truly commend your attempt to stay above the fray... All I am going to say on this matter is, if you feel annoyed by *those* fans, it's alright to feel that way, don't feel bad for feeling so (sooner or later, you'd end up having them on your TL despite your best effort at curation, and even the slightest thing from them might set you off anyway, so again...don't feel too bad for feeling annoyed by them). And one more thing, don't bother rationally explaining how things stand to them, even one time might be too much for them (they don't bother to care for how things should actually work anyway).

I've posted this on the Fanart thread, might as well post this again here

Anyway, speaking of Yuzu and Ghislain...

The clips seem old (since Nate's Lutz edge was still kinda deep )

Hey, who knows... Maybe by 2030 he has figured out a way for a successful ankle transplant?

My response to your thoughts: 1. Yeah, this (I realize my initial comment seemed a bit flippant — not my intention 😩🙈💀) 2. Of course, this is still that significant — Yuzu ended up going to Olys because...well, it was Olys. 3. At the time of this comment France is still safe, so if he could (and he wanted to) he might have gone, but... 4. This point shows why it's justified to be wary of competing in France (even if he were in prime condition, no pandemic raging, heck complete peace). Even before all this *waves hands franticly* the ice condition in French comps is usually <<<<<<<<<

At this point the withdrawal notice gives me a relief, you know? Sure it is sad to not see him skate, but even sadder to not let his ankle recover Anyway rest well Yuzu, may your ankle recover thoroughly, we can wait

Re: Yuzu's competition status in Worlds 22 — it's always nice to have a confirmation, even if it were for WD

Scott Hamilton is absolute [redacted], not only he was someone with a shoddy view on FS, he was a [redacted*] too *PS:

Exactly! So dull was their wit . At least most JP journos understood the situation anyway

Some dullard journos back in Japan apparently complained about Yuzu (allegedly) hogging the press attention, nevermind the fact that this sort of presscon is pretty par for the course (and most journos requested for it anyway(!!)) ...doesn't hurt to spell it out, I guess (their loss if they can't understand that)

I saw somewhere else that his contract with Citizen China was supposed to end in December...but it seems like it was able to be extended(?) — anyway we'll find out about that soon enough...