barbara

Posting this all over - if the ISU is really interested in having Worlds and having it be safe, they could move it, right now, to Australia. They just hosted the Australian Open Tennis Tournament (with players from multiple countries). They even had spectators. A 14-day quarantine is enforced. Why Sweden? Move it someplace safe.

Cynicism totally warranted. I think a dance team just withdrew. And at east one of their top men. I'm pretty sure that Evgenia (not that she's in the team) will never be able to compete again. And Anna Kostornaia is seriously ill. And she's #1 in the world. I believe that the RusFed thinks of all their skaters as disposable and interchangeable. The only positive that I can think of the ISU catering to the Russians is that they are somehow favoring them (as opposed to favoring the Americans i.e. NC) so maybe Yuzu will get some fair scoring. Sweden is currently have BIG spikes in their numbers and may have to re-think Worlds, but that presumes they were thinking at all. If Yuzu goes, I would put money on him keeping a massive distance between himself and any of the Russians.

Yes - the announcement did say it would be open to the public starting today.

Is there some reason you are on this forum? Your comments are both unwarranted and unwanted here.

Ok - this is not really "general" but for all of us worried about Yuzu's health should he travel to Sweden with those infected Russians, here are a few tweets with info ALL of us who are on twitter. It late be too late to impact anything but maybe an adequate quarantine will be set up. If anyone wants to pursue this (like me),I suppose I'd concentrate on Kose and Citizen, since they also sponsor Yuzu. https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/ALmtLYwAzgRAYC_PowqqeB8SSWc?.intl=uk&.lang=en-GB This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

It costs almost as much to ship FYI

Worlds related for everyone who wants it cancelled - this is a tweet with all the official sponsors shown. Maybe appealing directly to them (especially those who also sponsor Yuzu) will help have some impact. Another Russian skater has just withdrawn because he is "ill", though it doesn't say with what.

He has muscles in his ears. It's interesting to see the reality of his muscular legs (in those few pictures out there with him in shorts - even his knee caps have muscles) but his (usually) black skating pants (leggings) draw a smooth line that may hide all that musculature but are far more aesthetically pleasing. (And I suddenly really want a chocolate eclair.)

Follow this thread for scheduling and skate order for Korean Nationals. I'm hoping the men's practices and competitions are livestreamed. (And you have to click on, pull up the tweet to get all the scheduling, etc..)

Yes, I think he knew. And when he heard Yuzu's score, it was absolute. He almost looks like he has tears in his eyes. How disrespectful for the Russians to sit while everyone else, the other teams, gave Yuzu a standing ovation. He loves the sport and, I'm sure, really looking forward to a head to head competition with the boy he knew would be his successor. If he hadn't had the number of injuries and extended times away from competition, he may well have been able to win at Sochi. I'm, of course, thrilled he didn't, but it's also encouraging to know that a 29 year old, if fit, could win. Yuzu, at 27, can be his own record setter with a third gold. He won't be too old. He'll just be stronger.

No, never. That was Plushenko's final competition and he had surgery shortly after. He didn't officially retire right away but he never competed again. He had to have known, once he felt his back hurt, and having watched Yuzu skate in the team competition (where our boy didn't even do as well as he did in the actual SP), he couldn't beat him and he wouldn't have wanted to end his career with a loss to a 19 yr old boy (in his homeland). But when I look at his history, I think his ins and outs of active competition and resolve to come back after injury have been as much of an inspiration to Yuzu as his actual skating.

Hmmm - I thought he pleaded an injury or something. He did re-injure his back, and it was important for Russia to get a gold, but his SP score in the team competition, his personal best, was 10 points less than Yuzu's world record SP. I think he'd have skated, even hurt, if he thought he could win. Yuzu would have.

It is my opinion that Plushenko, who was watching that initial practice, and then part of the run through, realized he wasn't going to be able to beat Yuzu and that's why he withdrew.

He did seem to have a suit that was tailored for him last year - up until that suit, he was always looking like he was wearing someone elses suit. I' sure those legs and thighs and tiny waist don't fit anything standard.

I can't understand Japanese so am unable to follow the live stream of the updates, but am watching on USGS for earthquake updates. So far, there have been 5 aftershocks to the 7.1 quake (two fairly intense), but these could also be foreshocks. There were several rather intense quakes in the two days prior to the 3/11 quake that were presumed to be THE big release of energy along that fault. And, yes, these could very well be aftershocks from the 3/11 earthquake. It is unusual for there to be this many years of inactivity followed by related aftershocks, but also very few quakes of that magnitude have been studied in modern history. Fingers crossed that the worst is over, and that our boy is safe. There must be so much PTSD happening right now. So unsettling.

The USGS has all updated earthquake info (at least the scientific parts). No danger of landslides or ground liquefaction. So scary.

You're making me cry.

StickFigureSkating is amazing - simple, yet we always know exactly what she's drawing.

So. Korea has handled the virus so amazingly - but I really think credit for 4CC NOT being a super spreader event goes to the Chinese fans who decided to stay home and not risk carrying the virus with them to Korea. And fans that were there masked up. I've been seeing photos on Instagram of the stupid FS event the RusFeds had this past weekend, supposedly to take the place of Europeans, and there wasn't a mask in sight. Worlds can't help but be a health threat to all other athletes if the Russian team goes, and we know they will. With such a callous disregard for their own athletes, there is no way they can attend an international anything without bringing the virus with them.

Just got this from a tweet - interesting article that uses lots of data to tell us what we know. Yuzu is underscored and NC over. https://medium.com/@renatamachado_73871/can-data-science-show-us-that-there-is-bias-on-the-figure-skating-judging-system-54ef2e033096

I would think he'll be a torch bearer but not the one who lights the cauldron - that really should be a summer athlete, I think. Will they even have the torch run all over the country while Covid is raging? Hopefully, vaccinations will be well under way in Japan by then.

Yup - it says in profession that he is a part-time coach and a YouTuber. I'm a little surprised, too, that he isn't at least a part time student.

Unless someone is still in school, which would make them students, they would be full-time amateur skaters. Even those who are taking time off from college (such as Vincent Zhou) still have student as their profession. I love that Roman is a professional YouTuber.

Why mention Johnny Weir at all? Ich. The skater he admired most was/is Plushenko, but there's no need to mention him either.

I would never call him tiny. Slim, but not tiny.