3 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

Lol, they are so blunt!

 

Ouch!!

5 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

Ouch!!

Ikr? 

Happy Birthday and may all your dreams become reality!! 

 

12 hours ago, liv said:

Seeing the new banner was a perfect bday gift for me... even if unintended, lol. Thx, made my afternoon

 

and love my new default avatar!!!

Happy Birthday!!! 

The bigger question is, is the pic new or not? (Maybe from Aug open practice?)

6 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

Lol, they are so blunt!

 

This reminds me of that Russian analysis that got translate the other day... that was pretty brutal towards Nathan - and Shoma - too ^_^; Honestly, that's one of the big reasons why I'd feel bad if Nathan - in particular, but also Shoma - won. They're not really good enough to deserve the Olympic Champion title yet. At this point in time, Yuzu is still the best, and IMO, despite not following up on the increase of technical difficult, Javi is still the one closest to his level. Maybe he doesn't do loops, flips, lutzes, but when he nails them, his sals and toes are far better quality than anything the rest do. I do give Shoma credit for appearing artistic - though after that analysis, it seems that's more of an optical illusion ^_^; - and Nathan for taking risks and Boyang and Mikhail for obviously taking steps to improve on all fronts, but that shouldn't be enough at this point. However, as we've talked before, sadly, the Olympics isn't really about who is better overall, but who will manage to do a good job on those two days.

 

Err, sorry for the random rant ^_^;

16 minutes ago, Anya said:

The bigger question is, is the pic new or not? (Maybe from Aug open practice?)

 

That’s the same outfit in the Kumamoto photo isn’t it? But maybe he’s just really attached to it...😂

20 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

This reminds me of that Russian analysis that got translate the other day... that was pretty brutal towards Nathan - and Shoma - too ^_^; Honestly, that's one of the big reasons why I'd feel bad if Nathan - in particular, but also Shoma - won. They're not really good enough to deserve the Olympic Champion title yet. At this point in time, Yuzu is still the best, and IMO, despite not following up on the increase of technical difficult, Javi is still the one closest to his level. Maybe he doesn't do loops, flips, lutzes, but when he nails them, his sals and toes are far better quality than anything the rest do. I do give Shoma credit for appearing artistic - though after that analysis, it seems that's more of an optical illusion ^_^; - and Nathan for taking risks and Boyang and Mikhail for obviously taking steps to improve on all fronts, but that shouldn't be enough at this point. However, as we've talked before, sadly, the Olympics isn't really about who is better overall, but who will manage to do a good job on those two days.

 

Err, sorry for the random rant ^_^;

But that’s all irrelevant because Yuzu is gonna have 2 great performances and is gonna leave everyone in the dust 

 

eta: this is basically me at this point  

20 minutes ago, PomeloPooh said:

 

That’s the same outfit in the Kumamoto photo isn’t it? But maybe he’s just really attached to it...😂

and his hair kinda looks the same ... 

1 hour ago, ralucutzagy said:

Lol, they are so blunt!

 

 

We’ve seen Korean media loving Yuzu for a long time, but now they compare him to Yuna and that love’s carved in stone  She’s so revered in Korea that the other day a celebrity that thumbed up a picture of Sotnikova holding Sochi gold was scolded to the point she closed her account  

 

As a fan of both skaters I keep seeing parallels in their situations. Defending Olympic champions missing most of the season’s first half because of injury faces the challenge from younger technicians pushed by very powerful federations... I just hope Yuzu can do what Yuna did in Sochi, i.e. leave two performances for the ages, and get a different (and right) result this time. After all, he took his first gold only as a starting point and stayed at the top of technical development from the 3-quad era to the 7-quad era. That’s something nobody else’s done before, that gives him the power to force judges’s hands. 

36 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

This reminds me of that Russian analysis that got translate the other day... that was pretty brutal towards Nathan - and Shoma - too ^_^; Honestly, that's one of the big reasons why I'd feel bad if Nathan - in particular, but also Shoma - won. They're not really good enough to deserve the Olympic Champion title yet. At this point in time, Yuzu is still the best, and IMO, despite not following up on the increase of technical difficult, Javi is still the one closest to his level. Maybe he doesn't do loops, flips, lutzes, but when he nails them, his sals and toes are far better quality than anything the rest do. I do give Shoma credit for appearing artistic - though after that analysis, it seems that's more of an optical illusion ^_^; - and Nathan for taking risks and Boyang and Mikhail for obviously taking steps to improve on all fronts, but that shouldn't be enough at this point. However, as we've talked before, sadly, the Olympics isn't really about who is better overall, but who will manage to do a good job on those two days.

 

Err, sorry for the random rant ^_^;

 

I'd just like to point out that the Russian analysis doesn't really determine whether one is artistic or not, only the relative difficulty of their programs for purposes of comparative SS/TR and possibly CO scoring. I consider Shoma plenty artistic even if his FS is not as complex as others (his SP, on the other hand, seems pretty good comparatively in that analysis), because he excels in Performance and Interpretation. I do wish to see him branch out a bit more into less intense and more loose, relaxed programs in the future, so we'll see post-Olympics, but I don't want people to read these analysis and think the amount of one-foot skating is what determines artistry. I do like it when these analysis highlight how bonkers it is when some judges give Nathan the same or better SS/TR scores than Yuzuru or Patrick or even Javi, though (I am looking at you, 4CC 2017/CoR 2017 judges). And for all that Shoma has some of the best edges in the business, I don't think he should ever get higher SS scores than Patrick Chan, which is what happened at Skate Canada. And possibly never higher than Yuzuru, whose complexity really is unmatched. But that doesn't make Shoma's artistry an optical illusion. 

New magazine! 

 

2 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

New magazine! 

 

 

This is SUCH a busy cover but I like it. This must not be the full cover, though, since I'm seeing half an arm on the side (maybe a Japanese figure skater lady?). I guess it continues into the backcover. Any images of that one?

Some new pictures from Kateigaho 

 

1 hour ago, Geo1 said:

 

Looking ain the map, Oakville is midway between Toronto and Hamilton. Looks like it's pretty close to the TCC.

 

OMG. If In oakville, I am there. Anything In this area Is close. Virtually 1 cOntinuous city...

It amuses and impresses me the way he organises his media commitments efficiently into blocks so that they don't interfere too much in his life,  so we get batches of photos for different things trickling out but apart from the ones that require him to wear a costume like Ghana, the clothes and the haircut tend to give it away like the ubiquitous white t shirt.