Summer

That's why they didn't want SA or SC. The latter GPs are fine. I think they hoped for NHK because it's the last one. Ofc France was a given.

I am reading a book called Kiira (2018) which is about a Finnish single's skater called Kiira Korpi. In chapter 14 she talks about costumes. She says there was a big difference between her costumes and regular clothes. Basicly off-ice her style was very casual and practical and she preffered track suits. The sport side of figure skating was the most important thing and not the costumes. She was particular in that a costume felt comfortable and didn't chafe. This is propably the case with most elite level skaters. I'd imagine for Hanyu costumes are his work clothes and other than that he doesn't really care. About sponsors (chapter 6) Kiira writes that each company requires for an athlete to be at disposal for 2-4 days per year depending on the size of a contract. With five companies that can mean up to 20 days which is a lot of time away from practice. I can see why Hanyu is very careful when choosing his endorsements. Another fun tidbit in the book: apparently David Wilson has a tendency to throw temper tantrums. According to Kiira, David is (was in early 2010's) a very emotional visionary whose emotions can swing up and down. He can be late for an hour or two and she never knew what time and in what mood he was going to show up. I can totally see how more reserved people like Kiira or Hanyu can find this unsetteling. Kiira preferred to work with Shae-Lynn Bourne for coreography. Her approach is totally different. Unlike David she is an excellent skater (obviously). They used to skate and experiment on the ice for hours and Shae-Lynn always wanted to know what felt natural to her. Kiira was used to it that you make a movemet as natural as possible by practicing it but Shae-Lynn's approach was the other way round. Kiira learned how to respect one's own body and it's own natural way to move.

CoR and NHK are back to back this year so I don't think he would do both.

Thank you very much for your excellent translation. I think the article is very interesting.

This is great! I hope that if/when they will make a movie about Hanyu's life during his competitive years it will be more like Whiplash and explore his obsession about his skill, and not some relationship nonsense.

Thank you for this image. I will keep it in my heart over the long winter.

Sorry for my poor English. I didn't realize acknowledging means publicly saying something. My bad. I don't think D would ever actually say it but his attitude has clearly changed. I'd like to think it's genuine but I'm not so convinced, yet anyway.

Whenever I happen to listen to T*L I do so with an attitude of "Take the good, ignore the bad, anticipate the ugly." For Shoma fans it's good because they have been praising him for years. Except even D can't ignore his poor jumping technigue any longer. They don't like Hanyu, never have. After PC, D has acknowledged that maybe it's not good business to keep bashing him. J seems to zone out every time D says something remotely nice about Hanyu. The most hilarious time was when D said something nice -ish about him (I don’t remember what exactly) and out of nowhere J was thinking about Bradie Tennell's spins. And no, they don’t like Bradie; for them she looks too junioris, didn’t like her LP last season and at least she needs to dye her hair... Anyway, their opinions fluctuate. So except for Shoma (and maybe Satoko) they don't stan any skater so be prepared to get your faves picked apart sooner than later. About the costume talk by commentators: I’m so tired of it. I feel like if commentators don’t have anything constructive to say they give personal (mostly negative) opinions about costume and/or music. They could just make a blanket statement at the beginning stating that not everyone likes all costumes or music choises and be done with it. I have my personal preferences and I don’t care about theirs.

I agree 100%.

This is such a shock. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I can still remember vividly when I saw him skate on TV his SP in Vancouver Olys 2010. He was so joyous and full of promise. To see his life end so early in such a manner is just terrible.

This is so wild! Here I thought that there are no FS competitions for me next season because all the interresting ones will be outside Europe and then they put a GP comp to Finland. New plans for me in November

No matter what words people use to describe Hanyu's looks I find him perfect as he is. I sincerely hope he doesn't get any ideas of changing his appearance surgically. That would make me very sad indeed.

Respect.

GP spots are assigned. Different feds have their own preferences. I believe skaters can make requests too. Many years it was believed that a WC gold medalist gets to choose first, a silver medalist second and a bronze medalist gets what's left. Something like that can still be going on like suggested last autumn by Vladimir Morozov: Q: Are you satisfied with Grand Prix you got? Vladimir: Yes, but before the distribution the situation was complicated. Two stages were chosen by the Chinese, then by the Germans, and for us what remained. http://fs-gossips.com/evgenia-tarasova-and-vladimir-morozov-we-always-wanted-to-be-the-first/ In Helsinki WC Japan had two men on the podium. Only one of them could get NHK and the Japan Fed chose Hanyu. I believe that he also wanted it as he seems to enjoy performing in front of a home crowd.

Thank you truly. I love reading what fellow athletes think of Hanyu's achiement from a more professional point of view. If his Olys achiement helps to push Japanese athletes to better performances in Tokyo the better.