KendallKlaire

Not watching the men's event kind of out of spite lol. I don't want to listen to Tara and Johnny push Ilia really hard (I figured he had this in the bag since Shoma and Yuma have been on and off all season). Interesting to note that in America they aired the pairs and ladies (the only other events I watched) on the cable exclusive channel USA rather than the main channel NBC which they aired the men's event. Very clear NBC is pushing the Ilia agenda for the 2026 Olympics. Idk I feel indifferent towards the men's event since Yuzu retired which I feel bad about. There's a lot of great men's skaters but as long as Ilia is landing his quads and he's got the PCs in the bag (suspiciously high at that) then I really don't know who can put up a good challenge to him. I'm just not a fan of Ilia as a person so I can't enjoy his skating

I'm so shocked and saddened that this happened to him and his loved ones (literally feel physically sick). It's so messed up and for this to happen only three months after his marriage announcement means the harassment was really bad. The fact he's calling out the stalkers and media means that this was a majorly f*cked up situation that he and his spouse were in. I can't even imagine how bad it was that she could not leave the house without being harassed and how unhappy that made her and her family. It's heartbreaking that divorce or separating was the only way out for them. I had thought after the first week or so all the excitement over Yuzu's marriage would have died out and very few people would actually care who his spouse was but no...I almost hope that he takes a break from everything and goes abroad for awhile to collect himself (I know this may seem like the media/haters "win" but I think it would greatly help his mental health). It's horrible to think that Yuzu may not get to have a private life in Japan unless he stops skating...

Given by how many people are surprised by this news, and I'm not talking about fans or the general, but people/skaters who know Yuzu, I think Yuzu and his s/o really kept things under wraps. I don't think any other skater or coach knew of Yuzu's relationship so he really put a tight lock on his private life. As others have said, Yuzu is very professional and separates both spheres of his life strictly. But I have to say I'm shocked that his first coach and Nobu didn't seem to know if his relationship. He really pulled a surprise out on everyone!

I really don't think we should be guessing who Yuzu's other half is. It's something he clearly wanted to keep private and unless he reveals it himself or if it gets leaked by overzealous paparazzi then we'll probably never know. Given that the info of their identity was not released they are not in the public eye and a private person (just who Yuzu needs imo) I made the mistake of glancing at TSL's latest video and the comments on that video are...stupid. They think that Yuzu made up his marriage and is using it for attention yikes...

Ahhhh! I closed Twitter for 30 minutes and I miss this????!! Congratulations to Yuzu and his partner! I'm so happy he kept their relationship so secretive, my cheeks hurt from smiling. I checked Oricon news and literally the top three stories are all about his marriage lol

*keyboard smash* these ELLE covers are all I ever wanted from Yuzu...I hope more magazines pay him loads of money to appear since these issues will certainly sell out

Ha, I was wondering if the Ilia thing was going to reach this space (it's been trending on my Twitter since last night). It's probably not worth getting into but some quick thoughts: What Ilia said was homophobic, no question, his apology was horrid (he's 18 and has been surrounded by LGBTQ+ skaters for years and should absolutely know better), his mention of Yuzu was absolutely unnecessary, and he needs serious PR training or needs to quit social media. His likes on Twitter and blocking people on Instagram do not present a good image at all. Even more surprising to me, is how even on the figure skating reddit people aren't defending him and expressing disappointment. This 18 year old either needs to show some real maturity or put out a sincere apology very soon or he's done amongst skating fans. Alysa knew what kind of person he was and him using an image of himself with Jason in the aftermath is a really weak move.

I haven't been watching but keeping tabs on live tweets from Worlds this morning and this event went pretty much as predicted. Shoma is in first with 104, Ilia got 100, the judges didn't give 100 to Jun (just 99.6?!) and Jason is in 6th with a brilliant skate To be honest, I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like the score averages have dipped quite a bit since Yuzu retired? When Yuzu was competing it felt like the judges gave really inflated scores to other skaters (Nathan and Shoma in particular) to make it seem more like a competition. Even if what Yuzu was doing was so much better - better in PCs than Nathan and better jump technique than Shoma - his scores did not reflect that. Now that Yuzu is out, skaters aren't getting 110+ scores willy nilly anymore. It feels like the judges have gotten somewhat more realistic though still terribly inconsistent.

Yuzu is doing so much and so many ice shows I can't believe it's only his first year as a pro. I believe Yuzu is in a very interesting position right now and I'm curious how his deals with SOI and FAOI are worked out. He's way too valuable compared to any other skaters doing those shows (I genuinely don't believe any other skater rn has the ability to sell out the Tokyo Dome and get a streaming deal with Disney) so I can only guess he's doing these other shows to get a "break" from doing so much work himself while also scoping out other skaters. I won't lie, I was a little upset to see Yuzu is doing all of the FAOI shows, but I think Yuzu has a good relationship with those organizers and, from what I've seen rumored, he gets paid pretty well doing FAOI. He's such a galaxy brained person that I hope next year brings another version of "his" ice show (with a world tour...)

You're right, I guess I was thinking that they may want to try and motivate competing skaters with possibilities of a great pro career (though it's unlikely any will get as popular as yuzu to do a show like GIFT). And Nam loved Yuzu’s Spirited Away piece and called it "insanely beautiful to watch" (the tweet he quoted from was deleted)

I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one a bit amused by the absence of any comment by other skaters (besides Nam and Jordan, though I can't see what Jordan said...) I was just thinking this morning about how the only ones expressing their admiration of GIFT were musicians, but no skaters/coaches. I understand that most of them probably didn't watch it live or even watch it after the fact, but I think it's strange there's not even a comment about the crowd size or level of production? My petty/salty self is thinking if this was a Nathan Chen show we'd be getting barraged by comments by other skaters Besides the IOC I think the ISU has also been silent on it (correct me if I'm wrong). Not that I really care about the ISU but you would think that for the organizing body of a dying sport they'd want to put GIFT in a positive light as another avenue for pro skating.

I haven't watched any of the performances from USNats yet, but going off of what I've seen on my Twitter feed, it feels like this was a pretty lackluster event and more commentators pointed out the abysmal, elderly crowd. Figure skating is in real trouble and I think it is just a sinking ship at this point - even with Ilia jumping his 4A no one really cares. In fact, from what I've heard, Jason was the absolute star with two amazing back to back skates which makes me so happy to hear! But he lost to Ilia by 10 points due to the technical elements on Ilia's SP, but Ilia, yet again, fell apart in his FS. It was the first time I saw people actually being upset at USNats with having the skater with the messy FS win Nationals overall, people wanted Jason as the champion! Not only that, but Ilia was upstaged, not only by Jason, but by Jimmy Ma and Samuel Mindra (correct me if I'm wrong). Just as I thought, people are getting bored by quads, they want to see good performances. But it's too late, figure skating as a competitive sport is on it's way out and US kids are just going to use it as a tool to get into good colleges.

Essentially this and it can be taken a lot of different ways so no one is really sure what he meant. But I'd guess he's not happy with who was selected...

Yeah, Shoma's comment seemed really untactful? It wasn't the time or place for him to make this comment (plus him admitting he didn't know the selection criteria as a 5 time champion is embarrassing). Saying that around your juniors who are happy to make the world's team is very disrespectful. I see some are turning his comment into him calling out the JSF but if he meant it that way, definitely not the place.

Not sure if this has been shared yet but there was someone in the audience just flipping through a Yuzu magazine at the GPF

Oh geez Yuzu, I'm literally shaking in excitement about this announcement! I can't believe he got offered the Tokyo Dome and took it! Amazing. This is making me think of that meme of "Call an ambulance! But not for me..." with Yuzu shooting off with the ISU. Seriously, there's no excitement for competitions this season, but a Yuzu Tokyo Dome show? Yes please! Just imagine if ticketing opened up to international fans, the tickets would be snatched up so quickly. I speculate Yuzu won't use the whole venue's capacity because, as others have said, the top sections are REALLY high up and it would be difficult to enjoy a skating performance like that. Unless Yuzu gets some huge screens I feel like he'll make it as intimate as possible.

I think the hype and attention for men's skating has completely died since last year. The attention on Ilia is nothing compared to what was on Nathan, even with a 4A, and I think it's because no one feels invested in him. He comes across as quite boring to me (outside his skating I mean) and very Gen Z so I certainly don't "get" him lol. It's his first year in seniors and he's winning everything with his tech scores and overscored PCs so there's been no great public struggle in reaching the top like we see with skaters like Mai, Shun, Kevin, etc. I wonder what the difference would've been if Yuzu was still competing?

I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like literally no one (except the US "experts" of course) cares that Ilia is winning. Like the boy goes out there, does some crazy quads and that's it. Boy has no substance and his packaging/marketing makes him seem like spoiled mayo (which is mean to say but how it seems to me...)

Ilia's doing 4A's in practice. There's no reason for him to do it in this competition (his biggest competitor was probably Yuma who is is out) so I can only surmise he is doing it so it can be seen on national tv. I don't really blame him since the last time he landed it in competition was in an empty arena, but it's clear he wants to show off here.

I'm going to hold out on becoming a member for now. I'd like to wait and see how much content he posts before doing so ($10/month is a bit pricy for me tbh). I really don't understand the criticism of him opening membership on his YouTube though. Plenty of other YouTubers do it and Yuzu is a big enough name to justify it easily. All fandoms have some sort of paid membership (even if not a subscription, paying for albums, concerts, etc.) It will be an easy way for international fans to support him or fans who cannot travel to his shows. Paying $120/year is pretty much the same as a ticket to a GP event anyway (not including flights or hotels).

I don't know why but this cracks me up. The Japanese youngsters follow Yuzu like baby ducks and are afraid to go in front of him until he says it's alright LOL

Something that caught my attention in that interview (if what I read was translated correctly) - is that Yuzu has received a lot of offers and not only from ice shows, but probably acting, variety show appearances, modeling, and possibly film roles. Now it's possible Yuzu has simply received offers to join talent agencies that would give him these roles, but I do think Yuzu is popular and attractive enough that the Japanese entertainment industry would love to capitalize on him. I understand and respect that Yuzu wants to focus on purely skating at the moment, but a selfish part of me desperately wants to see actor Yuzu. With some training and the right role I could see him being an excellent actor because he already interprets music so well on the ice. I do wonder if potentially another reason Yuzu avoids acting is so that he is not seen as an idol because he wants to be purely seen as an athlete (which, again, I respect). It wouldn't surprise me if some higher ups in the past have derided Yuzu in the past because of his "idol looks" (for example: saying his popularity is only because of his looks). But if he did take more entertainment opportunities it could also open more doors to ice show possibilities - more connections, resources, etc.

I hope Yuzu does go on a little tour... not only him skating, but also giving small lessons, sit-down interviews, etc. I think it's very possible he is going to do this in both Japan and China, but would not be surprised if he's getting offers from Europe (seems like Italy is already trying) and America (though I hope it's not Disney on Ice)

Out of curiosity does anyone have access to that New York Times article on Yuzu? (Or know if anyone posted screenshots?) I don't expect much but I was very curious if they were going to publishing anything and the title of it makes me intrigued...

Finally up this bittersweet morning and I have to say, despite how sad I am that I won't see Yuzu in competition anymore, my overriding feeling is that I am so happy for Yuzu. Really, truly. I'm so happy he is walking away from competition now that the ISU has destroyed it by ripping out the artistry. I think that the rule change was the nail in the coffin for Yuzu making his decision because it is obvious he cares so much about the artistry of figure skating - that it is part of his skating - now competitive skating no longer share his values. The skating he did at FAOI was so much better than any of the skating we'll see in this upcoming season (not that I plan to watch) But really, with him walking away quite suddenly I wonder if the ISU and JSF had any idea of this or were completely blindsided (I hope they were!) It's going to be a very difficult year ahead for competitive skating and it will show just how important Yuzu was for it because I doubt any venue is going to sell out (except maybe the NHK trophy and Japanese nationals because there are still dedicated fans of other skaters). I see a lot of skaters leaving pretty short, generic messages for Yuzu, but I think the sport is really in trouble without him. Anyway, I'm so excited for Yuzu's future! He can make his own ice shows, can actually have a personal life (no more training alone in the middle of the night), and pursue anything he wants. His impact on the sport and on those who followed him is immeasurable. I'm so happy I found him and, as many have already said, I wish I found him sooner! (I've been a fan since Worlds 2017)