Fay

No official information so far - the rumours are that she hasn't been practising on ice for months now. The Russian FS fandom is buzzing..

Now it's official - Ruslan Zhiganshin has r****d. http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20170518/1120609673.html

It's been a bloodshed for years, and it's only getting worse. But perhaps, Japanese girls have it worse now..

Specs, my hat off - you're an amazing artist! And while you might have seen this artist, I'll his/her drawings here too.

We're lucky in getting the best of it - we get some early shows and then he's under Brian's watchful eyes!

I guess the chances of Adian returning are pretty slim since his back problems seem to be chronic now. And the men's skating has evolved too much now, so catching up is hard. Adelina seems to have told about her decision to train with Plushenko via a text message. Rather disappointing. And by the sound of it, she's injured - and it's quite serious, though it's only hearsay.

Oh you poor thing! Hey, lots of plans for the summer!

Yay, your magical hoard of Yuzu pics!

This is Elena Buyanova, Adelina's former and Sotskova's and Radionova's current coach. She says Radionova keeps her old SP and had the new FP choreographed by Shae Lynn - so basically, she'll have two programs from Shae. Sotskova has her programs choreographed by Chernyshev. Adian is still injured, it seems. http://www.fsrussia.ru/intervyu/2993-elena-buyanova-u-nashikh-sportsmenok-silnyj-kharakter.html

Yeah, gotta move up in the ranks, I know!

Of course - you provide me with things I've got to translate now...

Guys, how's one supposed to catch up with you?

Another aesthetically pleasing picture Source unknown, please PM if you know it.

Every time he's in Finland, he feels bound to repair the ice...

Well, considering the way they competed last year, I'd be surprised if they could make it to the Olympics anyway.

Hmmm, do I leave Patrick and Jeffrey doing pair skating here?

Oh goodie, I'd have been scared to get just under a million views in this short while. But three weeks for a million... ain't that bad either!

That's within three days?!

There are rumours Ruslan Zhiganshin might be r***ng, so Elena Ilyinykh is left on her own. Seeing how they were faring, I wouldn't find that surprising.

Plushenko is an interesting case - he wanted to have that bielman, so he made his mum stretch him everyday until he got one when he was very young - but still had to give it up at 22. But his sit spin was... not so good, as far as I remember.

Мда, перспективы прекрасные... т.е. фигуристами в Израиле могут быть только иммигранты.

Это как же Быченко с Самохиным тренируются? Вне страны?

It was quite enlightening to learn @Fresca's opinion about Jason's and Yuzu's flexibility. To sum it up, Yuzu has a fantastic flexibility in the hips and back, whereas Jason has god a tremendous flexibility in the legs. I think we could also compare more skaters - Martinez, Kolyada, Vasilievs or whoever comes into your mind. As one example of different kinds of flexibility, I can remember Yulia Lipnitskaya who's very stretched and can raise her leg up to incredible heights. She's also very flexible in her lower back. But her turnout isn't so impressive, if I remember it right. It would be furthermore interesting to hear opinions whether flexible skaters could be good jumpers. Alexei Mishin once said about the younger Yuzuru that he often messed up his jumps because he was so flexible (worm-like, as Mishin said). Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, on the other hand, was handpicked because she had an ideal figure for good jumps. When she's on, her jumps are fantastic, but she's got to be among the least flexible skaters among women. So is Yuzu so unique in being able to combine excellent jumps and outstanding flexibility?

OK, I'll do it a little later and leave the link here for everyone interested in the topic!

@Fresca thank you for all your ideas about different kinds of flexibility - what I learnt was really interesting, I thought it might be a good idea to set up a separate thread to discuss flexibility vs jumps issue, perhaps. What do you think?