memae

All I have to add here is that sinusitis gives me (someone with bad ears) vertigo, so I imagine it could make someone pretty dizzy if they are rotating quickly for jumps and spins - dizzy enough to cause headaches and/or be dangerous.

Exactly! And some of Satomi's best costumes are not worn by Yuzu. Shoma has had some stunners, as have some of the ladies.

I would cross the world for a Satomi exhibition. She's incredible at her job

Surely ISU wouldn't miss a chance to have that happen. If they let crappy, corrupt judging determine scores in the actual sport, surely they don't care about some pulled strings in fun stuff like this.

Origin 1.0 costume is a masterpiece. If it doesn't win a costume award, nothing should.

Also, on JNats: Is Takahashi competing for a singles swan song before officially beginning to compete in ice dance next season? I haven't been keeping up.

I don't think it matters either, though I enjoyed the fondness of the B.ESP uncles when they'd comment on the fans crying after Yuzu's programs without a hint of mocking. As for JNats... if Yuzu goes, then... well. I know where I'd place my bets. I think Shoma's season will improve with some stability in his coaching situation and with the mental triumph that came with (something of) a redeeming skate in Russia. JNats may well be his best event by that time and hopefully he progresses steadily for Worlds (provided he makes the team, which I think he will if he keeps his head on).

I think to help make the sport/event more transparent/accessible to casual viewers. Like, if a deduction happens and you can't even tell the jumps apart let alone if one was UR or whatever, then it becomes confusing. I mean, we know that scoring isn't consistent and that calls and scores are often political and/or biased, but a person who relies on the commentators to understand what's happening and to know if the skating is actually good or not (as opposed to just enjoyable to watch) doesn't get the bigger picture so the commentating provides a bit of context to help with that.

Commentators are necessary for the entertainment value of the sport, and we wouldn't have professional sports without that because of the avenues it opens for making money. So they're important but in a very different way to those with roles that have to do with the technical and regulatory side of the sports.

I've grew up in Australia but lived for a good whack of time in SE Asia and felt this a lot. There are things I could never deal with in Australia that are fine for me in Asia (like being called fat, lol). In Asia I felt like a lot of people had expectations about me because I'm an Australian white girl but they were things that I never really measured up to. I even feel like I have a bit of a different personality when I speak each language, and (as a linguist) I attribute that to the connection between culture and language. Yuzu has lived in Canada for a while, and at a pretty crucial point in self-development (i.e.: young adulthood). Even if it were fail-proof to make assumptions based on cultural background (and it absolutely isn't because people are individuals, as you said), he has some level of 'fluency' or 'proficiency', if you will, in a second culture. And in Torino, he'll be operating in that second culture because of the context - skating, where English is a lingua franca and he's with his team and coaches from Canada. Whatever happens, he'll handle it well. At this point I think the ball is rolling and there's no stopping it. That song is getting sung. He'll either put on a small placating smile and bear it, or he'll shush everyone, or he'll be noticeably flattered. He has never failed to respond appropriately to anything and I doubt this will be an exception. I also think that the ISU might even encourage it, because clicks=viewers=money. I say it all the time, but money drives sports. There wouldn't be professional sport if there was no money to be made from entertainment, gambling, and advertising.

About the Happy Birthday singing: Yuzu has shown he is perfectly capable of shutting a crowd up while they cheer for him without being ungracious. It takes a whole of 10 seconds to sing the song (I just timed myself lol), and it could be done during the highlight reel when fans are going to scream at every jump replay anyway. If he doesn't like it, he'll just wave his hands to the crowd and put a shushing finger to his lips and it'll work like magic to silence them, as it always does, and he'll probably do it with that cute, thankful smile to let everyone know he appreciates the gesture but it's not the right time.

*Raf keeps saying things. In the press con at WC Nathan described the Poohs as pretty cool or amazing or something along those lines.

I think we've gotten so used to these young girls landing big jumps with their back-wrap technique that we've forgotten that Midori and Tonya were around 20 when they landed their 3As and they used strength to do it. Ladies skaters just don't seem to get the chance (i.e.: the time in their ever-shortening careers) to grow strong enough to develop them (and I include quads here). None of those 15-year-olds are nearly as strong as the best of the older ladies. I know Trusova looks fit as, but it's not in a way that compares to how strong Tukta looks. I'm not surprised that Tukta has managed a quad. I also don't think we should be counting Zhenya out of the quad race just yet either. If anything, this is just going to make her even more determined. Rika too. If Tukta gets this 4T competition ready sooner rather than later and Rika finally gets her 4S in, things will get much more interesting because it'll become a battle of technique. Quality quads in the ladies might mean that the Eteri technique begins to lose some of its charm.

'Well, it's not easy but for me it is.' Literally the only person in the world who can say that without sounding arrogant.

It's because he hasn't done any spins to mess it up all nicely like we're used to lol

I think Vincent was just using her as a bit of a trophy. Like, he's showing off these quads she can jump in a harness on instagram but then she seemed to struggle to get through her programs. I've been getting the feeling that she's trying to click into being competitive but that Vincent's been trying to push for tricks that get attention. I hope she is able to knuckle down and be prepared and do well at nationals. It kind of feels like she's been held back from getting as serious as she wants with her training.

She's split with her coach too, apparently

Selamat datang!

I'm more towards a bit of port or creme de menthe myself, or just a good dose of cinnamon. My trick with hot chocolate is to put whipped cream in the bottom of the mug and pour the hot chocolate (real chocolate stirred into simmering milk, nothing else) over it because then it'll foam up just nicely.

They called it the most beautiful one of its type - 4Lz3T, not the most beautiful combo ever. I made a mental note to go back through and try to find others more deserving of that title. I can't really think of who else has actually done one besides Vincent, Boyang, Nathan, and Aliev. Kolyada too(?). And people can say what they will about Nathan's lack of transitions and the lack of height he gets in his jumps (the poor guy's like half a foot shorter than most of the other skaters lol), but I think they look better than Samarin's. And Boyang's and Kolyada's 4lz are stunning when they're good. I'm just watching one of Boyang's 4lz3T now, and while it's not perfect and didn't (and shouldn't have) received high GOE, neither should Samarin's. I guess the ones before the change from -3/+3 scoring don't count for the 'highest ever GOE', and how could they?

I think the televising of events and the need for the revenue that comes with it will be what makes the separate artistic and technical program idea stop coming into fruition. The casual audience either wants to watch pretty skating or they want to see the big jumps (and the falls that come with them) - splitting the two across programs splits the audience. Where people might watch both the short and long during, say, the Olympics or Worlds broadcast, if one program is going to be empty of what appeals to them about skating, they're not going to watch it and will just watch the other one instead of sticking around for both. The reason professional sport exists is because of money, and that money comes from entertainment and gambling. The ISU's decisions are all going to be made with that in mind, not with the sport itself (although, of course, what's best for the sport is that it continues, so I guess by making choices dictated by money, they're indirectly making choices that benefit the sport itself). I would like to see PCS criteria and judging become more stringent and, as the tech abilities of the skaters (the elite ones in general) begins to plateau (I mean, until there's a quint, how much more can the tech be maxed out with the current rules? And then what? Do we add level 5 spins or something? Allow ridiculous 4-jump combos?), PCS should become worth more, because that will be what divides the skaters once everyone catches up to the current benchmarks set by the top few (and that will happen - it always does in sport). When everyone is doing a layout with the same difficult quads and combos, GOE and PCS are going to be all there is to set programs apart from one another.

I agree. I think he likes to hone his programs and that generally takes him an extra season or so, and he wouldn't go into the Olympics without a program he felt was at a high enough standard (to his own satisfaction). I think this means we'll get new programs next season so that he's got the second season to work on them for the next Olympics. Not saying it's his concrete plan or whatever, but that's perhaps just a loose sort of outline of his long-term plan heading to Beijing. Of course, that doesn't seem to be his focus so much as 4A and improving for the sake of improving. I think he's kind of zen about the Olympics now that he's got 2 OGM.

Seeing this never gets old

OnIcePerspectives is such a beautiful tribute/service/whatever to this sport and its athletes. Jordan really manages to showcase honed technique and artistry in a way that is beyond captivating and is also kind of personal/intimate in a way that the usual sports filming style isn't. It really invites connection between skater and audience. If any footage is going to draw new people into the figure skating audience (and I mean, really want to make people watch it - not just attract attention for 10 seconds because of mid-program costume changes or a "stabbing" of someone's leg in a practice), its what's coming out of OnIcePerspectives. ISU keep shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to anything that will help them increase their audience.

I hope the result of this ISU (or whoever) clamping down on Jordan (@OnIcePerspectives) is that skaters begin personally inviting him (whether upon his request or their own initiative) to film them skate outside of ISU events. He's worked with enough of them now to at least be more than just a random cold caller and I think his work is well known enough now to perhaps be seen by skaters as a way of attracting new fans to their social media pages or as a body of work that that perhaps they consider worth contributing to. It's wishful thinking and I know it, but maybe Yuzu is pissed off enough with ISU lately to allow Jordan a chance to film him skate outside of an event. Think of all the attention that would get Jordan with no tags directing any traffic to ISU.