barbara

Javi skated his last championship at 27, nearly 28. If the ISU doesn't destroy Yuzu and he stays injury free, there is no reason I could see him wanting to retire before that age, meaning he would be younger than Javi was at retirement for the 2020 Olympics. But, I really think unfair judging could kill his love of competition. He has to win. And he should.

Makes you wish the ISU would pay attention to this - do they really think Yuzuru isn't the driving force behind the sports growing popularity?

I didn't know that - interesting info. But I only have the one computer - so I'll pull it up on my phone and see if that helps.

I watched this three times today and there was no uptick in the number of views... So let's keep trying.

And you are a reliable source of info on Ghislain, so thank you.

Ghislain and Tracy have children and Brian does not. So, missing Christmas in Canada is more acceptable for him -especially if he's had three years break. And why do the Russians have a championship over a major holiday? I guess Russian Orthodox Christmas is Jan 7?

And I imagine that Google chose Yuzu for that video partially because he is SO Googled. The fact that he's one of the most Googled athletes is why he makes ESPN's top 100 GLOBAL popular athletes. ESPN's criteria includes, among other things, social media followers. Yuzu has no social media at all so that fact that he still makes the top 100 (lots of soccer and cricket players on that list....it is truly global) has to translate to a staggering amount of Google searches on him. He just keeps getting better and more inspiring and more popular.

I think it's pretty clear who the Russians think is the superior skater.

I think he'd be mobbed. Maybe TCC could manage to arrange a private showing outside of regular museum open hours. I think he would LOVE it.

I think, in reality, his English is far better than how he seems in interviews. He talks to his coaches and the other skaters at TCC. I just think he prefers to speak Japanese because he can express more fully how he feels and what he thinks. So much is really not directly translatable to English.

I posted this to my Facebook page for all of those people I know who are clueless as to why I am such a Fanyu. It'd be cool to put a story about how donations to Tohoku Disaster Relief | Japan NPO Center were stunningly high for Yuzu's birthday. He's more than an elite athlete. So much more.

Thanks for posting this.

I'd be thrilled to be 1/10th as fit, but that would require me to actually work out regularly. I also would have needed to start that two decades ago. He's worked hard for all of that and we can admire away...

But it's in Italian! I, for one, do not speak Italian.

Grayson Long - the 10 yr old who trains at TCC - is in this, or at least in four episodes.

Plushenko should have checked himself in a mirror before going with this costume....and, also, Yuzu has more muscle mass in one knee than I have in my entire body.

Academic inquiry, indeed.

Only the French think they look good in speedos. I've seen a couple of pictures of Yuzu in shorts and his thighs are almost freakishly muscular (not an insult). Even his knee caps have muscles.

The judges could hold off on their total score and use instant replay before finalizing. They do sometimes have a tentative judgement - why not apply that to every element? Even if it added, say, five minutes to the K+C, it would be worth it. Part of the problem (beyond the bias and stupid calls) is that they have to make such quick decisions - the four minute format hardly gives them time to accurately judge things like transitions and flow...