General Yuzuru Chat

[monchan]

I'll be a little more talkative and honestly, this is MEANT to be Yuzu's year, from all the coincident signs:

 

* Year of his age: DOG (he did THAT in first 2 days of year of DOG in Chinese New Year) - special 1

* 2ND GOLD MEDALLLL  - Hell yes, HISTORY!

* 1000TH GOLD MEDAL OF WINTER OLYMPIC - Extra special, ONE TIME only

* In the pair skating event right before men event, the winning couple mentioned Yuzu as their motivation to deliver their lifetime FS! They also made history as first German couple to win gold in 66 YEARS!

* Ice rink setting matched his costumes

* Costumes of both programs are literally GOLDEN PLATED! (It must be Chopin + SEIMEI, other progs don't have that)

 

I'm kinda superstitious so when I was f*cking worried I bought all of this to calm myself down as I believe he's born SPECIAL 

[WinForPooh]

1 minute ago, Sammie said:

 

I think the cat is trying to say "Master, I'm here. I'm here, I await your orders. Master! I'm here! I wait!"

[kaeryth]

2 minutes ago, Fay said:

Shit, ran out of their quota of views...

 

Spoiler

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — At a figure-skating competition in Moscow last October, Yuzuru Hanyu was told that he resembled to some a heroic character, delicate but fierce, from the Japanese tradition of anime.

 

He did not see himself that way, the slender, long-legged Hanyu said in an interview, his hair flopping over one eyebrow. But with a smile, he added, “I like to win with some drama.”

He could have had no idea how much drama lay ahead.

 

Less than three weeks later, Hanyu sustained ligament damage to his right ankle while rehearsing a difficult four-revolution jump. Nearly four months elapsed before he could compete again, here at the Winter Olympics, but he showed little erosion of skill or victorious determination from the layoff.

 

Skating on Saturday, Hanyu, 23, did not perform flawlessly before what was essentially a home crowd, in an arena where fans waved dozens of Japanese flags. But he displayed sufficient stamina, jumping ability, elastic spins and ethereal grace to win a second consecutive gold medal, becoming the first men’s repeat Olympic champion since Dick Button of the United States in 1948 and 1952.

 

The ankle is not completely healed, and Hanyu said he worried at times before the Games whether he would be able to skate again. But the injured joint held up enough to support another winning performance, with 317.85 points. Afterward, Hanyu said playfully, “I’d like to thank my ankle, you did a good job.”

 

He prevailed with a strategy of restraint, avoiding the riskiest quadruple jumps in his four-and-a-half-minute routine and relying on the completeness of his ability. His countryman, Shoma Uno, 20, took the silver medal with 306.90 points. And Javier Fernandez, 26, a training partner of Hanyu’s, won Spain’s first Olympic skating medal, taking bronze with 305.24 points.

 

Even though Nathan Chen of the United States, who was among the early favorites, did not reach the medal podium, he did find some measure of redemptive satisfaction — and perhaps some sting of regret — with a performance of audacious ambition that brought him fifth place over all. Vincent Zhou of the United States finished sixth, and Adam Rippon, also of the United States, was 10th.

 

With nothing to lose after finishing a disastrous 17th in Friday’s short program, Chen became the first Olympian to land five quadruple jumps cleanly in a routine and actually attempted six, but he put his hands to the ice on a quad flip. He still won the free skate.

 

He made the decision to attempt six quads on Friday night, after the short program. Relieved of expectation and feeling “just an anger,” he told himself, “I’ll just go for it.”

“I definitely did want to redeem myself after the two short programs that I did here,” Chen said in reference to his mistake-filled performances in the team and singles competition.

He added: “As much as I tried to deny it, I felt the pressure a lot before the short program, especially thinking about scores and placement and all that. And that was completely out of my control. That just tightened me up and made me really cautious on the ice. I just had to completely forget about expectations and allow myself to be myself.”

 

By contrast, Hanyu was every bit himself in both the Olympic short and long program — unhurried, resolute, staking a claim to be the greatest skater ever with his speed, artistry, coverage of the ice and technical skill.

 

Reached by telephone in New York, Button said of Hanyu, “I think he’s beautiful; he moves like a dream.”

 

Wearing a white tunic on Saturday, Hanyu performed as a character out of Japanese folklore: Abe no Seimei, a spiritual adviser and astrologer from the 11th century with Merlin-like mystical powers. He received one perfect score of 10 for musical interpretation and two 10s for the design of his program.

 

Hanyu can appear so relaxed on the ice that Julian Yee, a Malaysian skater, said he “looks like he wakes up from bed and goes and jumps.”

 

On Nov. 9, though, Hanyu’s Olympic chances grew uncertain, when he landed awkwardly while rehearsing a quad lutz before a competition in Japan. It is the most difficult of the four-revolution jumps currently being performed. Hanyu was trying to perfect the lutz, in part, to match Chen’s magnificent jumping ability.

 

But Hanyu’s legs pretzeled upon landing the jump. He would not be able to train again on the ice for about two months. As he recovered, he rehearsed the jumps on the floor of his training center in Toronto and used visualization techniques to imagine himself completing the maneuvers in competition.

 

“My strength is, I’m able to really analyze myself and have that image and try to match that with the physical skating,” Hanyu said Saturday.

 

He arrived at the Olympics, having been able to practice his triple axel for only about three weeks and his quad jumps for two weeks. He avoided the risky quad lutz at these Games, performing instead two quad salchows and two quad toeloops, which are considered easier and more reliable, in his long program.

 

In the end, the injury “could be the best thing that ever happened” for Hanyu, said Jackie Wong, a prominent blogger from New York who is a former skater and skating judge and who is covering the Olympics. “He wasn’t going for unnecessary difficulty.”

 

Hanyu disregarded any talk about being the greatest ever in his sport, saying, “I’m not the best skater.” But others were not so reluctant.

 

“If you want him to be, you wouldn’t be wrong,” said Kurt Browning of Canada, a four-time world champion in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “Why not. He’s everything. He’s the skater, he’s the jumper, but quintessentially, he’s the performer. He seems to have the superpower to take all the pressure, all the expectations and all the lights and all the cameras, and somehow he’s able to use it as a competitor.”

 

[kaeryth]

Yuzu's ChoreoSeq [source:Joe Ward and Jeremy White/The New York Times]

 

[Fay]

6 minutes ago, kaeryth said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — At a figure-skating competition in Moscow last October, Yuzuru Hanyu was told that he resembled to some a heroic character, delicate but fierce, from the Japanese tradition of anime.

 

He did not see himself that way, the slender, long-legged Hanyu said in an interview, his hair flopping over one eyebrow. But with a smile, he added, “I like to win with some drama.”

He could have had no idea how much drama lay ahead.

 

Less than three weeks later, Hanyu sustained ligament damage to his right ankle while rehearsing a difficult four-revolution jump. Nearly four months elapsed before he could compete again, here at the Winter Olympics, but he showed little erosion of skill or victorious determination from the layoff.

 

Skating on Saturday, Hanyu, 23, did not perform flawlessly before what was essentially a home crowd, in an arena where fans waved dozens of Japanese flags. But he displayed sufficient stamina, jumping ability, elastic spins and ethereal grace to win a second consecutive gold medal, becoming the first men’s repeat Olympic champion since Dick Button of the United States in 1948 and 1952.

 

The ankle is not completely healed, and Hanyu said he worried at times before the Games whether he would be able to skate again. But the injured joint held up enough to support another winning performance, with 317.85 points. Afterward, Hanyu said playfully, “I’d like to thank my ankle, you did a good job.”

 

He prevailed with a strategy of restraint, avoiding the riskiest quadruple jumps in his four-and-a-half-minute routine and relying on the completeness of his ability. His countryman, Shoma Uno, 20, took the silver medal with 306.90 points. And Javier Fernandez, 26, a training partner of Hanyu’s, won Spain’s first Olympic skating medal, taking bronze with 305.24 points.

 

Even though Nathan Chen of the United States, who was among the early favorites, did not reach the medal podium, he did find some measure of redemptive satisfaction — and perhaps some sting of regret — with a performance of audacious ambition that brought him fifth place over all. Vincent Zhou of the United States finished sixth, and Adam Rippon, also of the United States, was 10th.

 

With nothing to lose after finishing a disastrous 17th in Friday’s short program, Chen became the first Olympian to land five quadruple jumps cleanly in a routine and actually attempted six, but he put his hands to the ice on a quad flip. He still won the free skate.

 

He made the decision to attempt six quads on Friday night, after the short program. Relieved of expectation and feeling “just an anger,” he told himself, “I’ll just go for it.”

“I definitely did want to redeem myself after the two short programs that I did here,” Chen said in reference to his mistake-filled performances in the team and singles competition.

He added: “As much as I tried to deny it, I felt the pressure a lot before the short program, especially thinking about scores and placement and all that. And that was completely out of my control. That just tightened me up and made me really cautious on the ice. I just had to completely forget about expectations and allow myself to be myself.”

 

By contrast, Hanyu was every bit himself in both the Olympic short and long program — unhurried, resolute, staking a claim to be the greatest skater ever with his speed, artistry, coverage of the ice and technical skill.

 

Reached by telephone in New York, Button said of Hanyu, “I think he’s beautiful; he moves like a dream.”

 

Wearing a white tunic on Saturday, Hanyu performed as a character out of Japanese folklore: Abe no Seimei, a spiritual adviser and astrologer from the 11th century with Merlin-like mystical powers. He received one perfect score of 10 for musical interpretation and two 10s for the design of his program.

 

Hanyu can appear so relaxed on the ice that Julian Yee, a Malaysian skater, said he “looks like he wakes up from bed and goes and jumps.”

 

On Nov. 9, though, Hanyu’s Olympic chances grew uncertain, when he landed awkwardly while rehearsing a quad lutz before a competition in Japan. It is the most difficult of the four-revolution jumps currently being performed. Hanyu was trying to perfect the lutz, in part, to match Chen’s magnificent jumping ability.

 

But Hanyu’s legs pretzeled upon landing the jump. He would not be able to train again on the ice for about two months. As he recovered, he rehearsed the jumps on the floor of his training center in Toronto and used visualization techniques to imagine himself completing the maneuvers in competition.

 

“My strength is, I’m able to really analyze myself and have that image and try to match that with the physical skating,” Hanyu said Saturday.

 

He arrived at the Olympics, having been able to practice his triple axel for only about three weeks and his quad jumps for two weeks. He avoided the risky quad lutz at these Games, performing instead two quad salchows and two quad toeloops, which are considered easier and more reliable, in his long program.

 

In the end, the injury “could be the best thing that ever happened” for Hanyu, said Jackie Wong, a prominent blogger from New York who is a former skater and skating judge and who is covering the Olympics. “He wasn’t going for unnecessary difficulty.”

 

Hanyu disregarded any talk about being the greatest ever in his sport, saying, “I’m not the best skater.” But others were not so reluctant.

 

“If you want him to be, you wouldn’t be wrong,” said Kurt Browning of Canada, a four-time world champion in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “Why not. He’s everything. He’s the skater, he’s the jumper, but quintessentially, he’s the performer. He seems to have the superpower to take all the pressure, all the expectations and all the lights and all the cameras, and somehow he’s able to use it as a competitor.”

 

Thank you!!!! 

[WinForPooh]

Jack's piece is also really nice:

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2018/02/17/olympics/winter-olympics/olympics-figure-skating/majestic-yuzuru-hanyu-defends-olympic-figure-skating-title/#.WogV2JqgfIV

[bubbletea0712]

23 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

As long as it doesn't strain his ankle and he can wear his mask, I suppose...

I love to see that, of course if he's okay^^

[Sayu93]

just fiund this on twitter

 

[Xen]

1 minute ago, Sayu93 said:

just fiund this on twitter

 

The year of the dog, heralded in by victory of a person who was born year of the dog. =)

By the way, there was an app on Tao Bao that matches your photo with a dog. I used Yuzu's and got a siberian husky!

[Kagme]

I have been talking about figure skating to my Mom for more than one year, and she has always thought it was pretty from afar but nothing else.

But since she knew how important it was for me, she followed the Olympics with me, woke up at 5 am to watch Yuzuru even though we are in very different part of the country, she and I.

And since then, we have been talking non stop about figure skating, and she’s suddenly sooo passionate ! She looked up the performance of others she woke up too late to watch and compared all of them to Yuzuru, saying he has a unique presence, he is the ultimate performer, and she was crying in the end. I have never seen her like that. 

And right when I am typing that, I received a text from her telling me that her guilty pleasure was watching old programs from him and Helsinki fs and concluded : This guy is the absolute Rock Star of Figure Skating. 

He really has a power to draw people to him.

 

-edited to correct typo & grammar issues-

[cirelle]

Since we’re making confessions. What really scared me was when he said to PJ Kwong around January 20th (?) that he was ”better”, ’cause that’s what I’ve done when I was recovering but not really well enough to say everything is good. Then Brian started talking Yuzu up and I relaxed. Too much maybe, considering what he’s saying about his ankle now. 

[meoima]

I am not bitter, more like amused at the GOAT title but here we go lmao

Had Yuzuru been American... there would be like 28827364645 headlines in English describing him as the GOAT ever. But I don’t care.

 

[Xen]

Just now, meoima said:

I am not bitter, more like amused at the GOAT title but here we go lmao

Had Yuzuru been American... there would be like 28827364645 headlines in English describing him as the GOAT ever. But I don’t care.

 

Oh c'mon, the number of guys who win the Olys gold in their first attempt is 3 in the past 70 years. Dick Button, Yuzu, and Ilia Kulik. And only 2 of them managed to win twice in a row.  No one will beat his score in a long while (format changes, BV maybe being cut, even with the increase in GOEs factored in), unless he wants to beat his own score. Really, his WRs all still stand, and for SP he's the only one who got close to his own WR. 

 

What Daisuke Takahashi said about judges now valuing quality instead of just quantity is starting to ring true. If Yuzu went clean, he would have beaten Nate's LP score too, with less quads and easier quads. That's a fairly clear signal, and US better pay attention, else they'll go in the wrong direction, again. 

[Serafine]

2 minutes ago, meoima said:

I am not bitter, more like amused at the GOAT title but here we go lmao

Had Yuzuru been American... there would be like 28827364645 headlines in English describing him as the GOAT ever. But I don’t care.

 

Blergh 

Hope they dont get high blood pressure from too much  We have been patient enough when they downplay Yuzu and the other top guys. Now it's our time to 

[micaelis]

4 hours ago, Esopian said:

My predictions are that Sendai will give him a parade regardless of other gold medalists! It'll be another wild celebration!

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a parade in Tokyo.