Ulrinis

If I had the postcard books I would definitely only use them for writing home from watching Yuzu competing live ...

Yes. After having been extremely sad about the "measurable" outcome of Beijing Olympics, I am now inclined to think that Yuzu could hardly have won more hearts if he had been on the podium or even won. Which - as I still believe - was within his reach, given the constantly extremely high quality of his skating. Had there not been bad luck during SP, a fresh injury and the high pressure of having to try a risky jump due to unfair scoring. If Yuzu had won, he probably would have been considered not a normal human being and his own standards would have risen to an insane level. And the pressure of not being allowed to fail would have grown even more. Apart from all the jealousy that would have come from certain "corners". So now, I can imagine, after all the pain and bitterness it must have been a big relief. People all over the world love him for being human and become aware of the hardships he has encountered. I agree: This would also explain why he looks refreshed now while he seemed tense (and sometimes a bit red-eyed) in Beijing. Maybe there is a reason why things happen ...

Wow, thank you so much for sharing! Never thought I’d ever see Yuzu and X Japan in one show together! It was through Yuzu and Toshl’s FAOI collaboration that my family (yes, again my daughter and her dad who are also Yuzu fans) got fascinated by this band and it’s dramatic story. Of course it was very likely that, being celebrities in Japan, they have met before but seeing proof of it is like a dream come true for me.

Among all the WHAT IFs I always catch myself forgetting about the fresh injury before his Free Skate In Beijing. In my opinion, even without understanding a single word, these 2 clips should be enough to show everybody in the world what a true champion looks like.

Fully agree with every word.

It's a pity that Toshl had to give up (for now). I heard from other Toshl fans that there were so many people who wanted to take photos with the big Yuzu banner and they were too close to him (Toshl), therefore he didn't dare to speak (even whisper) anymore while secretly filming the floor and the stairs. I guess probably they would have recognized him by his voice even if he was disguised ...

This video with Thomas Bergersen’s used to be the last one to be streamed every evening before my daughter went to sleep in the summer of 2018:

Thank you, dear organizers! While re-watching Yuzu's Sochi free skate I started asking myself why people (including myself) sometimes have to take a take a deep breath before re-watching his Beijing free skate: There were two falls in 2014, too, and watching clean performances is naturally much more pleasant than being reminded that a fall must have hurt. Now the real value of Ten to Chi to becomes even more obvious to me since the quality of the program was so high despite the two falls and it is so wonderful to watch anyway.

Hello and welcome! 😊 In my opinion your message shows quite clearly the value of Yuzuru Hanyu which FS organisations can no longer ignore: People who haven’t been especially interested in figure skating are becoming intrigued by this one person (I like your comparison with Mozart!) plus start asking questions about fair scoring. I wonder if this has been Yuzu’s plan for quite some time while he was writing his thesis about AI based scoring. I personally hope this is now his top motivation if he decides to keep competing. If so, he is certainly aware that he might not get the medals he deserves but the world is watching and more questions will be raised. A very brave attitude which he has been pursuing for so long already, which has earned him my deepest respect.

Maybe therefore we shouldn't be sad that things went as they went in Beijing. It sounds weird (and surely IS hard for Yuzu) but, yes, this is probably the reason why competing for another season is not completely out of question right now. Anyway, although I understand that it's the normal process to make younger skaters popular, I still don't understand why the responsible organizations don't see that this is a once-in-a-lifetime situation and they are blessed to have someone like Yuzu. Those young skaters competing against the great Yuzuru Hanyu probably know that this is a privilege, right?

It's interesting, dear Yuzuwinnie, what happened to my expression "toxically optimistic" - probably by translating into French and back. I'd better think twice next time and chose my words carefully. As I am no English native speaker (I'm German), I just took the freedom of matching two words that normally don't belong together. Pardon! However, "optimistic drug addict" is also true, considering Yuzu's skating as a drug ... So I'll consume some more of this miraculous drug by watching the wonderful videos you share ...

Thank you for this information! Now that JSF has put Yuzu officially on the list, it may become relevant again this summer. If so, I guess we all will consider it a precious gift to get the chance to enjoy Yuzu's wonderful skating for another season. He is so unique - and therefore the scenarios that bothered me recently did NOT happen! No other skater tried (let alone landed ) 4A during Worlds and no skater was able to become BOTH senior AND junior world champion in the same season. Why? Because it is NOT that easy! This shows again how special Yuzu has been all those years staying at the top and delivering the highest quality! And still he is even improving! Later generations will shake their heads in disbelief and envy us. If only we could be sure his ankle is healing properly!

How nice! Thank you for sharing! I had missed Yuzu's training sessions so much, had been looking forward to watching him in Montpellier but ... sigh. Now that Senior and Junior Worlds are over, some questions have come to my mind. Sorry in case they have already been addressed in other threads. I read in the Worlds thread that I was not the only one who heard the German commentator say we might see a 4A by Vincent. The German Eurosport commentators had said the same. They assumed this would make Yuzu angry because the world would remember the skater who LANDED it. My first thought was a typo, too, but then the co-commentator explained that ISU made such announcements based on what the skaters had already practiced (!) in order to scare the other skaters a bit. Did I understand this correctly? I had never heard of this before. On the other hand, 4 フリツプ had been announced on the screen for Yuzu's free skate at JNats but if I remember correctly he didn't do 4F. Is this common? To hand in the highest possible layout? Now that Ilia has won Junior Worlds I wonder if the plan had been to push him to become Senior and Junior WC in one year so he would be the first and have accomplished something Yuzu has NOT. I wasn't aware that this was possible at all - starting at both competitions. Has this ever happened before? Being toxically optimistic I already look at the new GP series. Now that Yuzu hasn't competed in the last GP series, didn't medal in Beijing and skipped Worlds, all due to his injury , would he be able to chose? I mean: He is the reigning Japanese Champion! (Sometimes it seems to me people tend to forget this.) Is he allowed to compete in the same GP as Shoma, Yuma or Nathan (if Nathan keeps competing)? I could imagine Shoma might chose IDF but maybe Yuma and Nathan might stick to America and Asia. Could this mean we might see Yuzu in Europe? And speaking of Europe, I just checked: ISU calendar of events (still) has a GP in Russia. Do you think this one might be hosted by another country instead? (Sorry, I haven't considered any scenario where Yuzu doesn't keep competing ...)

Exactly! The mere announcement of Yuzu appearing somewhere is pure medicine!

Thank you very much indeed for the link - at least I recognize the voice. So it probably was Mark Hanretty, but I had never seen 4CC17 before. Interesting comment here of Yuzu's commitment compared to Shoma's ... So, yeah, understand what you mean ... In the video I remember (which MUST have been of WC17) this co-commentator was first speechless, then full of praise, I think he even giggled because he found Yuzu's performance so overwhelming. I remember the two of them saying something about real greatness and that it's a privilege to be witnessing something so beautiful. In contrast to what they had said during the warmup when Yuzu seemed to have no chance and off-camera his jumps didn't look good to them. OK, I have to face it - the video must have been taken down but at least I can almost be sure now that it was BEsp.

That's a start!

Welcome to the Planet and thank you! I have come across this video, too, and I'll probably watch it soon, but as you say: It has no comments. Anyway - it's so heartwarming how fellow fanyus try to help. This is why the Planet is such a nice place!

Thank you very much indeed for this valuable information. Yes, I remember that I had watched the video not on YouTube but probably directly on the website of the broadcasting station. I watched it almost every day on my mobile in November 2018 after returning from Helsinki GP while staying in a hotel, attending a training course and longing for my family and for Yuzu . I had just googled his name and got the link to video but, baby fanyu as I was at that time, I wasn't aware it would be taken down (like Sportschau LMEY). If I remember correctly, the co-commentator (probably a retired figure skater) had a Scottish accent. At least to me it sounded Scottish. And yes, the video you are referring to definitely has a Russian commentator. It was also offered to me when I was searching for the other video which seams to have disappeared.

Ah, maybe I mixed it up and the coffee was in fact in 2015 but I'm convinced there was something similar in 2017. Thank you anyway - rewatching GPF 2015 will be a good idea for the Yuzu draught in any case.

Welcome! Your story sounds so familiar ...

Watching this is always so soothing and calming - with nothing to worry about! No fall or spectacular safe ... Just pure magic. I take this opportunity again to ask if somebody has the full video of the last group with two English-speaking commentators. I don't remember if it was Eurosport or some British TV channel, but I remember that during warmup they mentioned that Yuzu off-camera didn't get anything right, that he fell trying jumps etc. They almost pitied him, but when he finished his gorgeous performance they were lacking superlatives. If I remember correctly, the co-commentator said something like it was an honor to be witnessing something so beautiful. They agreed that there was nothing Brian could teach Yuzu anymore, so one of them asked: "What does Brian do?" "He gets a coffee!" Does anybody know which video I mean? I'd be so grateful if someone could drop a link ...

This is wonderful ... and interesting. I somehow have the feeling that there are activities ongoing to make the public lose interest in Yuzu or at least pretend that other skaters are more popular now. Yesterday we typed his name into Google with some other figure skating key words and we got 10 times less results than when searching these key words together with NC. Further, we have some of the most clicked Yuzu videos disappearing. This might be due to rules and regulations in some cases but ... Anyway, it won't help!

Wow! Is this the first time a person who has done a lot for figure skating herself is thanking us Yuzu fans for supporting the sport? I hadn't even thought of it that way. Normally I come across Twitter messages telling fanyus to stop complaining etc. but seeing Shae's smiling into the camera and addressing us fans ...

Thank you so much for your hard work of translating this very long, highly interesting and heartwarming interview!