General Yuzuru Chat

[Guest Mary_kyo]

He is a much better person than me, really. 

 

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

[SummerMemories]

4 minutes ago, Mary_kyo said:

He is a much better person than me, really. 

 

OMG he is sooooooooooooooooooo sweet T T how can he be soooo good at the sport and sooooo nice as a human being. 

 

JSF just deserves losing him （（（

[Perelandra]

3 minutes ago, Mary_kyo said:

He is a much better person than me, really. 

 

The visit to JOC, maybe they requested an audience with the King and need more help with the Sapporo bid and to measure his hand to make sure the Olympic torch will be comfortable for Yuzu  to lift and light the cauldron

[Perelandra]

13 minutes ago, Sombreuil said:

Yuzuru’s commercial standing is no surprise at all - it’s an excellent springboard for whatever he is percolating in that brain.

 

I am doubly bereft, Kohei Uchimura having also retired relatively recently, also with a terrible last Olympic quad plagued with injury and loss.  However he perfected the Bretschneider, in home competition if not in international competition before crashing out during the qualifying round at Tokyo.  They have been an aberration in my adult life.  I never expected to get fixated on any sportsman the way I did on Uchimura though I always enjoyed mens gymnastics, and especially the elegance of the Japanese men.  As a child I had a thing for John Curry so I suppose I was primed to respond when a reference to the CoC collision appeared in an interview with the Japanese gymnastics squad.  I watched and we all know the result of a casual trawl through the Hanyu footage - hook line and sinker.  Two Japanese superstars for the price of one.

 

At least Yuzuru can continue to skate and we can see him do so.  In fact I really look forward to seeing where he takes this.  I think I will probably dip into FS the way I’ve been dipping into gymnastics- I have a softer spot for team Japan in mens gymnastics than in mens skating, but I am interested to see how Roman Sadovsky progresses, I still love the Kobe girls, and as far as I know Sui &Han are still skating so I will dip in as and when it suits me. Idk if I have the heart to keep following juniors with the new rules.

FIG World Champs Oct - Nov in Liverpool

[Sombreuil]

Just now, Perelandra said:

FIG World Champs Oct - Nov in Liverpool

I know - not going.  No one I want to see badly enough to pay for the tickets - bit like those ‘real ‘ skating fans - still kicking myself for not making time and money to go to Glasgow 2015.

[SummerMemories]

46 minutes ago, Newprogramsplease said:

He might publish another autobiography, as athletes do after retirement. Maybe we will know the full story then.

Many including myself were taken aback by the sudden retirement. Yuzu said he didn't rule out Milano Olympics in Beijing. But Yuzu did say after he came back from olympics, he thought it through. So in the course of 5 months he probably did alot of thinking and decided it was best for him to retire. I'm on board with anything now, I've fully accepted his retirement and I want him to rest and live his life in freedom. I guess we will never be able to see a skater like him in competition for a long time... so I am recently developing new interests to help myself from this withdrawal symptom. 

 

Alot of Fanyus said they will leave the sport once Yuzu retires, and I think I will too. I don't care who wins Worlds or GPF in men's anymore now that Yuzu is gone. My passion for men's figure skating died when Yuzu retired.. 

 

I doubt he will reveal the true reason, if there is one that people suspect....

 

The first time I thought he is going to leave the competition was at the end of BJ exhibition, have never seen that kind of expression from him, sad but soft and hopeful. During fantasy those interviews are quite positive, but now when I re-watched them, he just never talk about competition, keep emphasizing YUZURU's figure skating, and spoke about being both athlete and artist. Maybe ppl focus too much on that athlete word and take it as - he will continue to be an amateur athlete?

 

But as he said in the 719 announcement, he is not leaving the competition level, he is still an athlete, he just doesn't care about performing his FS to the unfair judges LOL. This kinda make sense to me that he made the decision not in a sudden, or at least before the end of fantasy..... anyway, i just heard too many theories about "sth bad happened shortly after fantasy that trigger his decision", so I kinda want to see if people have opinion on going against this haha. 

 

Yea, I'm going to only focus on yuzu going forward.... maybe just be a random audience for women single, but i don't want to contribute any potential focus or money to ISU and other male skater ((((( oh of course JSF as well. The only time I care about other male skaters would be when fans of those start joking or looking down on yuzu.

[Skrimblo_iced]

i think ill stick around figure skating for team korea and japan but i won't be as invested in it as i was before, what with all the problems that have yet to be remedied and seem to be getting worse  which is part of the reason why i don't want to be nostalgic for yuzu's comp era because so many moments of happiness were taken away because of this. but you know, one cannot help reminiscing because even with the countless lows, the highs although not as numerous recently, were very much worth it. clean rondo, for example, was absolutely a gift i do not regret stressing over the state of the sport for lol. 

 

[Yuzuwinnie]

1 hour ago, TokyoDream said:

100 times yes!

 

I would love to contact Sendai Ice Rink, but I think it should be from someone who speaks at least a little Japanese.

 

I just came across it and the little I understood .... is enough      : but do you know the address? and can someone please give me a short explanation of this   letter

 

 

[Pammi]

47 minutes ago, Mary_kyo said:

He is a much better person than me, really. 

 

 

 

 

He doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk, our Yuzuru 

He says he wants to live beautifully, and he does it.

[Perelandra]

5 minutes ago, Yuzuwinnie said:

 

I just came across it and the little I understood .... is enough      : but do you know the address? and can someone please give me a short explanation of this   letter

 

 

Hi 

in summary:

They begin by giving thanks for Yuzu, how he is an artistic, expressive and athletic complete skater. They believe there will be no skater like Yuzu. 

The writer is inspired by Yuzu because he and the writer have asthma, the writer learned to skate aged 13 and they thank Yuzu for the longevity of his career

They say they are sad that they never saw Yuzu in competition but they want Yuzu to do well in the future, be happy and healthy and to see him skate professionally

Hope that helps

[Guest Mary_kyo]

23 minutes ago, Yuzuwinnie said:

 

I just came across it and the little I understood .... is enough      : but do you know the address? and can someone please give me a short explanation of this   letter

 

 

Here is the text of the video:

 

Spoiler

Dear Yuzuru,

We’re all going to miss you so, so much. There will never be another skater who is an artist just like you. Many skaters movements don’t always show emotions, so we rely on their facial expressions to feel an emotional connection to the program. Plenty of those skaters don’t give us the expressions we need to understand. Not you. Your expressions are subtle, yes, but elegant. But we don’t even need them, because the music and artistry flows through your body’s movements while you skate. It’s incredible. There will never be a pioneer just like you. You ratified a whole entire new quad jump (4Lo) and paved the way for the 4A, “breaking physics”, doing something many said was impossible. Creating the excitement and belief that yes, it IS possible. Imagine what the skaters of the past would say if they would see what you can do. I don’t know if they’d be able to say anything at all because their breath would be stolen by wonder. Off the ice, you are a kind, respectful, admirable personality. Your words and actions uplift us just like your skating does. You are a hero to me because of your success despite your asthma. I get some breathing problems from my own asthma. I’ll try to run, but then there’s a sensation of fire and smoke in my lungs and I can’t breathe. I  have to sit up and gasp for air after one program while my rink mates can do several back to back. It’s frustrating and sometimes makes me want to cry. Knowing that you made it and succeeded despite your asthma gives me hope and proof that it’s possible for someone like me to do that too. The longevity of your career also gives me so much hope and inspiration. I wasn’t able to get skating lessons until I was 13. I feel insecure seeing tiny kids surpass my skating and international skaters younger than me retiring. Seeing you compete until 27 makes me hope I’ll be able to do well even if I’m older than most of my competition. Lastly, all of us admire your fighting spirit. Despite world events, injuries, unkind people, and discouragement, you’ve always pushed through to bring joy and your beautiful skating to those of us who love you for it. Thank you for fighting for so long.

 

[LiaRy]

I've been out in nature today and it was refreshing to some extent. Now I'm completely exhausted from the physical effort, but content. I think I'm finally able to make a clear post about what I'm feeling seeing how many of you expressed your feelings, too.

 

I would've expected by now to have gotten over the "I'm so emotional I smile and laugh one second, but the next second I'll cry because I remember there's no more competitions with Yuzu". I haven't and one reason why that is is because there's so much stuff being posted on Twitter from Yuzu's career. The tributes are all very nice and heartfelt, but they all seem like a goodbye to me. We are celebrating his competitive career's end, of course, those tributes were to be expected. But I have barely seen any posts of like "guess what crazy sh*t Yuzu will pull next now that he doesn't have to play by the (stupid) rules anymore".

 

Plus, all the content skaters are posting and other people from all over the world, new photos from past years being revealed... it's a lot. And I'm starting to believe that the moment we'll all get over this super emotional phase is when we see Yuzu in action, when we have a concrete visualization of what he's going to do. It might take a few months, a year, a year and a half, I don't know - in time, of course, the emotions will dull and little by little the social media environment will go back to being calmer. However, until Yuzu shows up with his first new professional athlete stuff (I say stuff because it's really hard to find a word that fits), we will be missing him in competitions. I hope at least part of this makes sense.

 

As for his words, he was worried about how us fans will perceive the news. I saw some posts calling for an online organized fan-message similar to the Virtual Pooh Rain we did as well as that we should try and find ways to send him stuff to show our appreciation and our continuous support. I am fully on board with both ideas. If we go first with the online message, I say we have to act soon - the Virtual Pooh Rain was organized in less than a week if I remember correctly, we should do something like this now.

 

Yuzu might not necessarily need this, but it's a kind way of supporting him. Plus, it might give us a respite from all the emotional turmoil. By saying this, I don't want to sound insensitive, most of us are in the same boat - emotionally. We might not want to go through social media at the moment because all of the memories that are being shared,  we might want to stay off the internet because we want to process the news on our own - whatever the reason may be, I think we should still try and make the online support-message happen soon.

 

Not only will it help encourage Yuzu and convince him (maybe not the right word) that we are still here for him, but it could also help all of us as a community to make a step towards a more happier perspective.

 

Spoiler

What I say doesn't mean that I'm trying to force people out of the "mourning" phase, but it might be a nice stepping stone towards "healing", if I can call it that.

 

Sorry for the long post. I hope I conveyed my message in a way that doesn't offend anyone and if it does, I'm truly sorry, that was not my intention at all.

 

Edit: Completely unrelated to what I wrote - I have now the rank of 4Lo and having reached that before Yuzu announced his switch to pro athlete made me extremely happy - is my 3rd favourite Yuzu jump (3A, 4Lz, 3Lo) - so it might be totally insignificant, but it made me truly emotional and, frankly, I don't really want to get another rank. But I will continue posting and being active around here, so that's not possible, haha

[Yuzurella]

6 hours ago, Newprogramsplease said:

 

Same. You know what?

Remember how fired up Yuzu was after 2019 GPF during the press conference?

And him mentioning he later wants to try 5 quads in a program in the future at the 2019 Worlds Press Conference?

Yuzu was a totally different person back then. He actually sounded very hopeful that he would ultimately win.

Also after 2019 Worlds FS backstage, when Yuzu saw Nathan's score he said stuff like "I'm gonna practice 4Lz" in Japanese when Tracy and Brian tried to comfort him. I feel back in 2019, Yuzu thought that he had a chance against the ISU corruption, and we did too.

It's only after Covid canceled 2020 Worlds, and Yuzu went back to Japan for good, and then things started turning out very strange, with Yuzu not being able to do GP and such due to injury etc.

I think ISU corruption along with the separation from TCC and every thing else just made the last 3 years quite a miserable experience when viewing men's singles competitions. 
It's not the same sport to me anymore. For me, figure skating died in 2020 4CC.

 

I'm glad Yuzu is out of this clown show and ready to do his own thing. He doesn't need ISU competitions. ISU competitions need him, but they are either too dumb to realize or they will realize soon when they notice the new Quad King and Quad God ain't selling them men's singles tickets like Yuzu did. 

 

 

In 2019, Yuzu was clearly shown the door. He was devalued and underscored and shown that his style of skating was worthless anymore, that he was not welcome anymore. I think he believed that for a long time. For a long, painful period, he believed that he was indeed not good enough anymore, that his skating wasn't enough anymore, that he had to catch up to those jumping beans, that his time was over, that he was over. As far as I recall, he even said so in interviews. No matter how painful it was to see Yuzu injured, seeing him being treated like this and doubting himself and his skating was absolutely unbearable for me.

 

I believe that the long break due to Covid put some things into perspective for Yuzu (and many other people). I think that during this break away from his old routine, he began to realize that it's not worth compromising his integrity and his skating to conform to rules that are clearly against him. That must've been very difficult because as a competitive athlete, he was used to being judged, scored, and evaluated based on his performances. So, it took him some time to realize the disconnect between the quality of his performances and the scores he was getting. But with time, it probably dawned on him that the game was rigged to his disadvantage and that he would get underscored no matter what he did.

 

If there's one thing the Beijing Olympics showed Yuzu, it's that he's loved and appreciated by his fans and admirers all over the world regardless of him winning medals or not. After so many years of being on the podium at every competition, he was perhaps very scared of what would happen if he didn't win medals. What happened was that more people loved him more than ever. Not only did he not lose support, he even gained more fans and supporters.

 

That was the final proof that he is the one whom the people love. His skating is what people admire. It's not about medals and scores. It's about him and his skating. He and his skating are more valuable and precious than any medals could be. And therefore, I'm certain that Yuzu will soar and thrive in ways not even imaginable. He will keep on showing us beautiful skating, his skating, for many years to come.

[YuDai]

14 minutes ago, LiaRy said:

The tributes are all very nice and heartfelt, but they all seem like a goodbye to me. We are celebrating his competitive career's end, of course, those tributes were to be expected. But I have barely seen any posts of like "guess what crazy sh*t Yuzu will pull next now that he doesn't have to play by the (stupid) rules anymore".

I totally get what you're saying. I'd love to see more outlandish suggestions for his future shows - and "stuff", like you said  

[Xiupia]

51 minutes ago, SummerMemories said:

 

I doubt he will reveal the true reason, if there is one that people suspect....

 

The first time I thought he is going to leave the competition was at the end of BJ exhibition, have never seen that kind of expression from him, sad but soft and hopeful. During fantasy those interviews are quite positive, but now when I re-watched them, he just never talk about competition, keep emphasizing YUZURU's figure skating, and spoke about being both athlete and artist. Maybe ppl focus too much on that athlete word and take it as - he will continue to be an amateur athlete?

 

But as he said in the 719 announcement, he is not leaving the competition level, he is still an athlete, he just doesn't care about performing his FS to the unfair judges LOL. This kinda make sense to me that he made the decision not in a sudden, or at least before the end of fantasy..... anyway, i just heard too many theories about "sth bad happened shortly after fantasy that trigger his decision", so I kinda want to see if people have opinion on going against this haha. 

 

Yea, I'm going to only focus on yuzu going forward.... maybe just be a random audience for women single, but i don't want to contribute any potential focus or money to ISU and other male skater ((((( oh of course JSF as well. The only time I care about other male skaters would be when fans of those start joking or looking down on yuzu.

I agree… won’t get too much into it, because everyone is processing this in their own pace. But I rewatched some of those FaOI interviews now. And yeah. 
We projected quite a decent amount I think (me included). Within this new context his words still sound very much honest, is just that we were not pry to his inner thoughts (obviously LOL).

 

Anyway! 
Hope our translations teams take their time and do their work with a good headspace, because going over this type of Yuzu content is also taxing for our working fanyus. On top of translating being a delicate job in itself. Thanks to them!

 

Agree with @Yuzurella as well (which I usually do, I noticed lol). 
 

Thank you @LiaRy for articulating your thoughts! i think these ideas for showing support are lovely, and nothing you said appears to indicate that you’re calling for action without considering fans’ own feelings!