General Yuzuru Chat

[MrPudding]

 

[dodobirdo]

 

So, I found myself watching some bits and pieces of 2015 Japan Nationals today, and a question suddenly popped up: did Yuzu ever compete in regional or sectional competitions in order to qualify for Nationals, whether on the novice, junior, or senior level? From my limited understanding, normally, skaters first compete in regionals to qualify for sectionals to then qualify for Nationals; however, I was under the impression that in Yuzu's case he had been invited to Junior Nats based on his Novice Nats placements, then was later invited to Senior Nats based on Junior Nats placements, and then as a 'seeded skater'(not sure of technical term, but basically 'skater who placed well enough') was able to advance directly to Nationals ever since. And that's how my question popped up, because if I understood things correctly then that means that Yuzu's never competed in any regional or sectional competitions... unless he did so as a novice (please do correct me if I'm mistaken)? If this is true, how often does this happen for top skaters in Japan? And, while I'm 100% confident in the assumption that Yuzu won't need to attend any qualifiers to go to 2018 Nationals, can anyone explain/direct me to the official rules that would enable this, especially as he's missed the last two Nationals?

 

Also, if anyone has a better understanding of domestic competitions in Japan (ex: which ones there are, if/how the results are used by JSF, what kinds of skaters might participate, etc.) and/or the qualification system for Novice/Junior/Senior Nationals in general, I would love to hear it! Or, please direct me to some sources, and I would love to read up on it! 

[lazuliblade]

4 hours ago, Whee1000 said:

Can someone tell me concisely or point me in the direction of something as to why 2015 was such a tough year? I get bits and pieces but I feel like I’m missing the whole picture.

(Am I being too demanding? If so I’ll just )

 

I'll do my best to give an idea of the atmosphere of the time. The 2014-15 season was just overall distressing. It wasn't just the injuries, but the wait in between them, the general unease that the entire season held, and the hope and re-injury that made it tough. It's like the unease that we had this past Olympic season, but worse in a sense, because we would get snippets of info on his healing, and then another setback. He was training long-distance with Orser through emails, and sent videos that he would receive notes on. I'll put the rest in a spoiler because it's somewhat long and some people probably don't want to relive it.

Spoiler

The COC warm-up incident had many conflicting reports immediately after it happened-- was he conscious? Did he have a concussion? Some streams weren't showing the group warm-ups, so you came back to confusion about what's going on, and the news that two skaters were in an on-ice collision: Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu and Han Yan of China. It's like a nightmare - literally like getting news that your loved one was in an accident. The British uncles were convinced he blacked out and had a concussion; Yuzu stated he didn't have a concussion, and was cleared by the American doctors (there were no on-site venue doctors). The final group of skaters got a second 6 minute warm-up due to this interruption, so Yuzu went back on and was a mess but very determined. After his heroic (or "reckless" depending on who you asked) performance, we see him in tears in the kiss and cry and it was a bunch of mixed emotions as he was helped off backstage. There was the storm about medical services at venues, re-looking at the rules on concussions, and all sorts of discourse. There was lots of hate thrown around for Yuzu's team, and lots of faith that Yuzu and his team know what they're doing, and even some uncouth speculation that this was all a stunt to sabotage Yuzuru. 

 

So then it's a while before we get news, we see the wheelchair pics, but we're hoping that his body will heal enough to go to NHK  - but that's only like 2 weeks away. We learned the extent of his injuries and the biggest injuries were muscle bruising and a sprain, so it's not horrible but it's also bad enough to where he needed bed rest for some time (muscle bruising takes time to heal, and it was his chronic ankle that was sprained). People were calculating the points for entering the GPF and seeing what placement Yuzu would need to get at NHK in order to go, based on how other skaters do. For the newly crowned Olympic Champion, it was pretty much the worst debut he could give.

 

NHK was very difficult to watch because his body would not listen to him at all -- he said it listened even less than at CoC where adrenaline+recent training helped him power through. Some media turned their back on him after NHK, people didn't know how he would be at the GPF. The 0.15 difference between Yuzu placing 4th and 5th at NHK allowed him to squeak into the GPF with the lowest placement points, and some unsavory news thought that it was rigged. How miraculous that he happened to get that score that was just enough to have him in 4th place. While some reports wrote him off, others called him a dark horse, a wild card, and "don't count him out because he is the Olympic Champion." Fans hoped that a couple of extra weeks would be enough to let him skate well-enough to be satisfied about his performance and maybe, maybe podium. Just like with this past Olympics, we would just be happy seeing him skate.

 

So then the GPF SP happens, and it's great! He's back! But will he have the stamina for the FS? And the GPF FS happens and we're like "YES!!!!!!" and "strike fear into the hearts of other skaters!" right? It's a celebration and there's hope for him to do well at All Japan.

But just as things are starting to brighten up, we learn about the urachnal remnant disease which is a pretty uncommon problem in adults, so it's a sense of "Really? It's not enough that he went through an on-ice collision? He has to have this uncommon birth defect thing too?" He gets surgery right after Nationals and there's concern about the effect this will have on his abdominal muscles and how that would affect the quality of his jumps.

He spends his New Year's in the hospital, then misses Seijin no Hi (coming of age day - which is a huge thing in Japan) because of complications (reaction to the alcohol used to disinfect), and just when we finally FINALLY hear that he's back on the ice ready to train for Worlds (he's got a few months! he'll be back with POTO fleshed out just like Shae-Lynn and Yuzu hoped for!).... he sprains his ankle and needs to be off the ice until about mid/late February. 

 

He showed up at Worlds with little training, having not seen Brian for a majority of that time leading up to it, and everyone having vague doubts about how well he could do. The valiant fight ending in a disappointing (to some) silver medal was just the icing on the cake for this season of ups-and-downs.

So it's not just the collision, the surgery, and the sprain, but also the lack of training, the separation of Yuzuru from his main training base, the updates creating a cycle of hope and despair, and the disappointing silver finish after such a hard struggle. All mixed in with the whirlwind of media following the new Olympic Champion's first season after earning the crown.

 

(Sorry this got so long-winded, but hopefully it helped piece things together?) 

[Noelle]

6 minutes ago, lazuliblade said:

I'll do my best to give an idea of the atmosphere of the time. The 2014-15 season was just overall distressing. It wasn't just the injuries, but the wait in between them, the general unease that the entire season held, and the hope and re-injury that made it tough. It's like the unease that we had this past Olympic season, but worse in a sense, because we would get snippets of info on his healing, and then another setback. He was training long-distance with Orser through emails, and sent videos that he would receive notes on. I'll put the rest in a spoiler because it's somewhat long and some people probably don't want to relive it.

  Hide contents

The COC warm-up incident had many conflicting reports immediately after it happened-- was he conscious? Did he have a concussion? Some streams weren't showing the group warm-ups, so you came back to confusion about what's going on, and the news that two skaters were in an on-ice collision: Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu and Han Yan of China. It's like a nightmare - literally like getting news that your loved one was in an accident. The British uncles were convinced he blacked out and had a concussion; Yuzu stated he didn't have a concussion, and was cleared by the American doctors (there were no on-site venue doctors). The final group of skaters got a second 6 minute warm-up due to this interruption, so Yuzu went back on and was a mess but very determined. After his heroic (or "reckless" depending on who you asked) performance, we see him in tears in the kiss and cry and it was a bunch of mixed emotions as he was helped off backstage. There was the storm about medical services at venues, re-looking at the rules on concussions, and all sorts of discourse. There was lots of hate thrown around for Yuzu's team, and lots of faith that Yuzu and his team know what they're doing, and even some uncouth speculation that this was all a stunt to sabotage Yuzuru. 

 

So then it's a while before we get news, we see the wheelchair pics, but we're hoping that his body will heal enough to go to NHK  - but that's only like 2 weeks away. We learned the extent of his injuries and the biggest injuries were muscle bruising and a sprain, so it's not horrible but it's also bad enough to where he needed bed rest for some time (muscle bruising takes time to heal, and it was his chronic ankle that was sprained). People were calculating the points for entering the GPF and seeing what placement Yuzu would need to get at NHK in order to go, based on how other skaters do. For the newly crowned Olympic Champion, it was pretty much the worst debut he could give.

 

NHK was very difficult to watch because his body would not listen to him at all -- he said it listened even less than at CoC where adrenaline+recent training helped him power through. Some media turned their back on him after NHK, people didn't know how he would be at the GPF. The 0.15 difference between Yuzu placing 4th and 5th at NHK allowed him to squeak into the GPF with the lowest placement points, and some unsavory news thought that it was rigged. How miraculous that he happened to get that score that was just enough to have him in 4th place. While some reports wrote him off, others called him a dark horse, a wild card, and "don't count him out because he is the Olympic Champion." Fans hoped that a couple of extra weeks would be enough to let him skate well-enough to be satisfied about his performance and maybe, maybe podium. Just like with this past Olympics, we would just be happy seeing him skate.

 

So then the GPF SP happens, and it's great! He's back! But will he have the stamina for the FS? And the GPF FS happens and we're like "YES!!!!!!" and "strike fear into the hearts of other skaters!" right? It's a celebration and there's hope for him to do well at All Japan.

But just as things are starting to brighten up, we learn about the urachnal remnant disease which is a pretty uncommon problem in adults, so it's a sense of "Really? It's not enough that he went through an on-ice collision? He has to have this uncommon birth defect thing too?" He gets surgery right after Nationals and there's concern about the effect this will have on his abdominal muscles and how that would affect the quality of his jumps.

He spends his New Year's in the hospital, then misses Seijin no Hi (coming of age day - which is a huge thing in Japan) because of complications (reaction to the alcohol used to disinfect), and just when we finally FINALLY hear that he's back on the ice ready to train for Worlds (he's got a few months! he'll be back with POTO fleshed out just like Shae-Lynn and Yuzu hoped for!).... he sprains his ankle and needs to be off the ice until about mid/late February. 

 

He showed up at Worlds with little training, having not seen Brian for a majority of that time leading up to it, and everyone having vague doubts about how well he could do. The valiant fight ending in a disappointing (to some) silver medal was just the icing on the cake for this season of ups-and-downs.

So it's not just the collision, the surgery, and the sprain, but also the lack of training, the separation of Yuzuru from his main training base, the updates creating a cycle of hope and despair, and the disappointing silver finish after such a hard struggle. All mixed in with the whirlwind of media following the new Olympic Champion's first season after earning the crown.

 

(Sorry this got so long-winded, but hopefully it helped piece things together?) 

 

Although I've been aware of the events of that season and read articles, etc, I wasn't following non-Olympics figure skating at the time, so it is interesting to hear your experience and perspective. Thanks for the detailed account.

 

Personally, I sometimes rewatch Yuzuru's difficult skates... I find it inspiring to see him fighting through, and I want to see all the struggles to understand where he has come from... but it is definitely painful.

 

[puterililin]

5 hours ago, Geo1 said:

 

I know this is off-topic for this thread, but since you are in Malaysia, have you seen this Olympic Channel video on Julian Yee?

 

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/far-from-home/core-branded-far-from-home/#

 

 

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for the link. You're an angel. I cried watching this because he really persevered and never gave up hope to go to the Olympics. 

 

Figure skating is such a new sport in Malaysia mostly because its a winter sport. I remember telling people that I was going to go to watch the SEA Games figure skating competition with my younger sister (who bless her was the one to introduce me to figure skating) and people around me were rather perplexed that Malaysia has a representative and even an ice skating stadium. The SEA Games were held during the school holidays and many Malaysians were able to attend the games. The Malaysia National Ice Skating Stadium was opened last year just in time. Its the only ice skating stadium in Malaysia and all the other ice rinks are in shopping malls. Access to these rinks are only available in and around the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, and in Johor Bahru, the southern city near Singapore. I'm from the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia so I drove for 2 hours and a half to Kuala Lumpur to watch Julian. It was wonderful that entrance for figure skating and ice hockey competitions were free as the organizers wanted to encourage people to come and watch the games. 

 

It was an incredible experience because for years after only watching the sport on the screen, finally you have tangible memories of experiencing the sport. You can feel the cold, hear the blades gliding on the ice and see the rotation speed that is driven solely by the human body with your own eyes. What an other-worldly experience. Many of the audience who came to the competition were introduced to the sport for the first time. I was chatting to one family who told me that they came to see what the fuss was about with figure skating (Malaysians were wondering why on earth were there ice sports competing in a South-East Asian Games as all the countries involved are tropical countries). That family actually drove five hours to watch ice hockey and figure skating. At the end of the day the son was begging his mom for ice skating lessons and his sister wanted to join Malaysia's ice hockey team.  

 

When Julian won the gold, Malaysia was so proud of him. He was in the news and was introduced for the first time in a nation wide coverage as a hopeful Winter Olympic athlete. Interest started to build among Malaysians on figure skating. 

 

When I went back to school to teach (I'm a teacher), I was so surprised that my students were excited about Julian's success. They were watching Youtube videos and going on social media to find out more about the sport and other skaters. Wanting to capitalize on their sudden interest, I did some lessons about the history of figure skating and gave them homework to write an essay on their favourite skaters. Most of them chose Julian (because he's the pioneer to Malaysian skating and won gold at the SEA Games) and Yuzu (because he is so awesome and dominated the sport with his records). They were also struck by how as an Asian athlete Yuzu was able to reach the pinnacle of the sport that is historically dominated by the West and his mannerism is a great ambassador of Asian culture to the world. Many of them also chose Shoma , Boyang, Nathan, Keegan, Jason, Evgenia and Kaori. The class clown chose Javi as his favourite because of his aerobic class exhibition (lol), and a Malaysian indigenous student chose Australian Harley Windsor as his hero. Many Muslim girls chose the Emirati skater Zahra Lari as an inspiration. I was floored by their response and realized that this is probably the first time that my students were able to find athletes from one sport who represent them. 

 

During the Winter Olympics my students went crazy. Sixteen were absent during the men's event and eleven were absent during the ladies' because they wanted to watch it live on TV (sorry NBC, I blame you for this). Had to have a 'heart-to-heart' talk with them about priorities. Now my kids are in a bad mood because of the off-season.  

 

Figure skating is really having a big impact on my life right now and honestly I'm having the most fun. Sorry for the rambling reply. Just want to share my experience with fellow figure skating lovers.  

[ralucutzagy]

 

[yuzuonice]

my favourite so far from the tag 

 

[Kizuna]

27 minutes ago, puterililin said:

 

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for the link. You're an angel. I cried watching this because he really persevered and never gave up hope to go to the Olympics. 

 

Figure skating is such a new sport in Malaysia mostly because its a winter sport. I remember telling people that I was going to go to watch the SEA Games figure skating competition with my younger sister (who bless her was the one to introduce me to figure skating) and people around me were rather perplexed that Malaysia has a representative and even an ice skating stadium. The SEA Games were held during the school holidays and many Malaysians were able to attend the games. The Malaysia National Ice Skating Stadium was opened last year just in time. Its the only ice skating stadium in Malaysia and all the other ice rinks are in shopping malls. Access to these rinks are only available in and around the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, and in Johor Bahru, the southern city near Singapore. I'm from the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia so I drove for 2 hours and a half to Kuala Lumpur to watch Julian. It was wonderful that entrance for figure skating and ice hockey competitions were free as the organizers wanted to encourage people to come and watch the games. 

 

It was an incredible experience because for years after only watching the sport on the screen, finally you have tangible memories of experiencing the sport. You can feel the cold, hear the blades gliding on the ice and see the rotation speed that is driven solely by the human body with your own eyes. What an other-worldly experience. Many of the audience who came to the competition were introduced to the sport for the first time. I was chatting to one family who told me that they came to see what the fuss was about with figure skating (Malaysians were wondering why on earth were there ice sports competing in a South-East Asian Games as all the countries involved are tropical countries). That family actually drove five hours to watch ice hockey and figure skating. At the end of the day the son was begging his mom for ice skating lessons and his sister wanted to join Malaysia's ice hockey team.  

 

When Julian won the gold, Malaysia was so proud of him. He was in the news and was introduced for the first time in a nation wide coverage as a hopeful Winter Olympic athlete. Interest started to build among Malaysians on figure skating. 

 

When I went back to school to teach (I'm a teacher), I was so surprised that my students were excited about Julian's success. They were watching Youtube videos and going on social media to find out more about the sport and other skaters. Wanting to capitalize on their sudden interest, I did some lessons about the history of figure skating and gave them homework to write an essay on their favourite skaters. Most of them chose Julian (because he's the pioneer to Malaysian skating and won gold at the SEA Games) and Yuzu (because he is so awesome and dominated the sport with his records). They were also struck by how as an Asian athlete Yuzu was able to reach the pinnacle of the sport that is historically dominated by the West and his mannerism is a great ambassador of Asian culture to the world. Many of them also chose Shoma , Boyang, Nathan, Keegan, Jason, Evgenia and Kaori. The class clown chose Javi as his favourite because of his aerobic class exhibition (lol), and a Malaysian indigenous student chose Australian Harley Windsor as his hero. Many Muslim girls chose the Emirati skater Zahra Lari as an inspiration. I was floored by their response and realized that this is probably the first time that my students were able to find athletes from one sport who represent them. 

 

During the Winter Olympics my students went crazy. Sixteen were absent during the men's event and eleven were absent during the ladies' because they wanted to watch it live on TV (sorry NBC, I blame you for this). Had to have a 'heart-to-heart' talk with them about priorities. Now my kids are in a bad mood because of the off-season.  

 

Figure skating is really having a big impact on my life right now and honestly I'm having the most fun. Sorry for the rambling reply. Just want to share my experience with fellow figure skating lovers.  

Hello fellow countryman! I guess this is a little OT here, but I totally understand everything you said about Malaysia not having many figure skating fans. In fact, I don't even personally know anyone who is following the sport like I am. I only know a friend who was following Yuzu during PC, but doesn't follow his other competitions even though she really likes him and thinks his skating is otherworldly and amazing. Even when I tried to hype my colleagues up for the Winter Olympics, only one of them bothered listening to me and tried checking Julian's and Yuzu's performances out 

 

I'm actually feeling happy that your class is excited about figure skating, up to the point that they miss classes  I never knew that a class of students in Malaysia could be so hyped about FS. I'm so proud of them (for all the wrong reasons ). I wish I had a teacher who gave me assignments about FS.

 

Welcome to PH, and have a lot of fun here! 

[tafattsbarn]

2 hours ago, puterililin said:

 

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for the link. You're an angel. I cried watching this because he really persevered and never gave up hope to go to the Olympics. 

 

Figure skating is such a new sport in Malaysia mostly because its a winter sport. I remember telling people that I was going to go to watch the SEA Games figure skating competition with my younger sister (who bless her was the one to introduce me to figure skating) and people around me were rather perplexed that Malaysia has a representative and even an ice skating stadium. The SEA Games were held during the school holidays and many Malaysians were able to attend the games. The Malaysia National Ice Skating Stadium was opened last year just in time. Its the only ice skating stadium in Malaysia and all the other ice rinks are in shopping malls. Access to these rinks are only available in and around the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, and in Johor Bahru, the southern city near Singapore. I'm from the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia so I drove for 2 hours and a half to Kuala Lumpur to watch Julian. It was wonderful that entrance for figure skating and ice hockey competitions were free as the organizers wanted to encourage people to come and watch the games. 

 

It was an incredible experience because for years after only watching the sport on the screen, finally you have tangible memories of experiencing the sport. You can feel the cold, hear the blades gliding on the ice and see the rotation speed that is driven solely by the human body with your own eyes. What an other-worldly experience. Many of the audience who came to the competition were introduced to the sport for the first time. I was chatting to one family who told me that they came to see what the fuss was about with figure skating (Malaysians were wondering why on earth were there ice sports competing in a South-East Asian Games as all the countries involved are tropical countries). That family actually drove five hours to watch ice hockey and figure skating. At the end of the day the son was begging his mom for ice skating lessons and his sister wanted to join Malaysia's ice hockey team.  

 

When Julian won the gold, Malaysia was so proud of him. He was in the news and was introduced for the first time in a nation wide coverage as a hopeful Winter Olympic athlete. Interest started to build among Malaysians on figure skating. 

 

When I went back to school to teach (I'm a teacher), I was so surprised that my students were excited about Julian's success. They were watching Youtube videos and going on social media to find out more about the sport and other skaters. Wanting to capitalize on their sudden interest, I did some lessons about the history of figure skating and gave them homework to write an essay on their favourite skaters. Most of them chose Julian (because he's the pioneer to Malaysian skating and won gold at the SEA Games) and Yuzu (because he is so awesome and dominated the sport with his records). They were also struck by how as an Asian athlete Yuzu was able to reach the pinnacle of the sport that is historically dominated by the West and his mannerism is a great ambassador of Asian culture to the world. Many of them also chose Shoma , Boyang, Nathan, Keegan, Jason, Evgenia and Kaori. The class clown chose Javi as his favourite because of his aerobic class exhibition (lol), and a Malaysian indigenous student chose Australian Harley Windsor as his hero. Many Muslim girls chose the Emirati skater Zahra Lari as an inspiration. I was floored by their response and realized that this is probably the first time that my students were able to find athletes from one sport who represent them. 

 

During the Winter Olympics my students went crazy. Sixteen were absent during the men's event and eleven were absent during the ladies' because they wanted to watch it live on TV (sorry NBC, I blame you for this). Had to have a 'heart-to-heart' talk with them about priorities. Now my kids are in a bad mood because of the off-season.  

 

Figure skating is really having a big impact on my life right now and honestly I'm having the most fun. Sorry for the rambling reply. Just want to share my experience with fellow figure skating lovers.  

 

This is wodnerful! Thank you for sharing, it made me smile like a fool 

[sweetwater]

4 hours ago, dodobirdo said:

 

So, I found myself watching some bits and pieces of 2015 Japan Nationals today, and a question suddenly popped up: did Yuzu ever compete in regional or sectional competitions in order to qualify for Nationals, whether on the novice, junior, or senior level? From my limited understanding, normally, skaters first compete in regionals to qualify for sectionals to then qualify for Nationals; however, I was under the impression that in Yuzu's case he had been invited to Junior Nats based on his Novice Nats placements, then was later invited to Senior Nats based on Junior Nats placements, and then as a 'seeded skater'(not sure of technical term, but basically 'skater who placed well enough') was able to advance directly to Nationals ever since. And that's how my question popped up, because if I understood things correctly then that means that Yuzu's never competed in any regional or sectional competitions... unless he did so as a novice (please do correct me if I'm mistaken)? If this is true, how often does this happen for top skaters in Japan? And, while I'm 100% confident in the assumption that Yuzu won't need to attend any qualifiers to go to 2018 Nationals, can anyone explain/direct me to the official rules that would enable this, especially as he's missed the last two Nationals?

 

Also, if anyone has a better understanding of domestic competitions in Japan (ex: which ones there are, if/how the results are used by JSF, what kinds of skaters might participate, etc.) and/or the qualification system for Novice/Junior/Senior Nationals in general, I would love to hear it! Or, please direct me to some sources, and I would love to read up on it! 

 

Actually, Yuzu has competed in regionals and sectionals when he was in the novice and junior circuit and even after he joined the senior circuit he took part in a few of them. He participated in Eastern Japan Sectionals in 2010 and Tohoku-Hokkaido Regional in 2011. (He did not participated in Eastern Japan Sectional this year because he was an exempt who was assigned to an international competition which was going to be held at the same time.) You can check the senior competition result on the first page of this thread.

 

As to the qualification to compete in Nationals, when you've finished on the podium in the previous year, you don't have to take part in Regionals and Sectionals (you are a "seeded" skater). When you are assigned to an international competition coincide with Regionals and Sectionals, you can also skip these domestic competitions and compete in Nationals. (JSF won't  assign you to an international competition when you haven't proved yourself)

 

In 2016, Yuzu could not compete in Nationals due to suffering influenza and pharyngitis but still qualified to Worlds because he has met a requirement as he was No.1 in ISU World Standing at that time and had won World medals in the past. And after becoming World champion in Helsinki he got exempted from competing in qualifiers as getting enough result in the previous season. This is why people think he will be qualified to Nationals this year without participating in qualifiers, though we have to wait until JFS confirms it.

 

These qualifying events are usually held in smaller venues with help by volunteers, so having a famous skater like him in such event would increase the cost and care to organize the event safely. It would also lessen the chances for skaters in eastern Japan to compete in Nationals because only a limited number of them can proceed to Nationals from Sectionals. So I think it's highly possible that he would be exempted from competing in these events this year too.

[Moria Polonius]

7 hours ago, skateIT said:

Oh yes, where to begin. Wikipedia covers it pretty well to be honest. He was injured pretty much the whole season. (I think GPF 14 might have been his only injury free comp?) Had to drop out of Finlandia due to back injury, so COC was his first comp as reigning Olympic and World champion. He had a devastating collision with Han Yan in the 6 min warm up for the free. Somewhat controversially, he skated anyway, fell 5 times, and finished second. Look up videos on youtube if you want to be horrified. He couldn't walk for a while after that, was in a wheelchair the next day, etc. So barely had any practice for NHK, two weeks later. NHK went badly since he wasn't recovered from COC injuries. He finished 4th and scraped by to the finals by .15. GPF was good I guess? Set a bunch of records and won. Later that month (Dec 14) he won Japanese Nationals. It was later revealed that he had an abdominal abcess that had burst at the time (infected urahcal cyst IIRC). After nationals he immediately had surgery and was hospitalized for 2 weeks. Then when he started training again in Japan, sprained his ankle and was out for 2 weeks. Went to 2015 Worlds having not seen Brian since December I think? and got second.

 

 

Addendum- -Re the cyst and surgery, yuzusorbet.tumblr has the translated part of his autobiography that talks about it, it was really awful.

                      -Also, to see more about his feelings on COC incident, he discussed it a lot on Kenji's room interview in 2015. The eng. subbed interview can be found int he media requests thread on PH. 

                      -Also, I read through the GS thread for that season and besides all the injuries, he seemed to rarely be in Toronto due to said injuries, so lost training time there. Also, in the summer of 2014 everyone seemed shocked by the number of shows he did in Japan, and he hasn't done that many any summer since. 

 

I wasn't a fan at the time, but I've read a lot since! It was a really rough season for him. Some very good results, but a lot of serious hardships too.

 

In hindsight, it almost serms like Yuzu was paying the price for his first Sochi gold. The great number of summer shows he did and other obligations were due to his being a new hottest commodity in the country. Yuzu either felt he couldn't say no or was just grateful for support and didn't want to say no, but either way it screwed up with his training schedule. He was behind, Orser reportedly had something to say to the JFS. When he came back to Toronto, he overtrained in order to make up, thus injuring his back. Then withdrawal from Finlandia, so at CoC he might have been undertrained as well. Then the accident, the results, the controversy, the NHK. Then the bright spot of GPF, then Nationals and the bad luck of some freak congenital condition and surgery. So after the surgery he lost training again and might have overtrained again, in order to make up for the lost time, thus twisting his ankle and skating injured at Worlds. It kinda all looks like a chain reaction. 

 

What's worse, I think, is that the situation after Sochi was a far cry from today's. He got a lot of critcism for winning Sochi with two-fall FS. Not nearly as much hate as Adelina, because he was considered the backup champion in case Patrick screwed up, but still. That year Yuzu was trying to prove that he was a worthy Olympic champion, and that's why he didn't withdraw from CoC or NHK. It must have been extremely hard to swallow the Worlds silver too. 

 

All in all it was a horror season from start to finish, but also a major learning curve. Who knows whether he would have defeated the odds of Pyeongchang without that experience. 

[kaeryth]

Shi-chan talking about Yuzu. Can anyone translate?

 

 

[Sammie]

57 minutes ago, kaeryth said:

Shi-chan talking about Yuzu. Can anyone translate?

 

 

 

[Huiqi]

5 hours ago, puterililin said:

 

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for the link. You're an angel. I cried watching this because he really persevered and never gave up hope to go to the Olympics. 

 

Figure skating is such a new sport in Malaysia mostly because its a winter sport. I remember telling people that I was going to go to watch the SEA Games figure skating competition with my younger sister (who bless her was the one to introduce me to figure skating) and people around me were rather perplexed that Malaysia has a representative and even an ice skating stadium. The SEA Games were held during the school holidays and many Malaysians were able to attend the games. The Malaysia National Ice Skating Stadium was opened last year just in time. Its the only ice skating stadium in Malaysia and all the other ice rinks are in shopping malls. Access to these rinks are only available in and around the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, and in Johor Bahru, the southern city near Singapore. I'm from the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia so I drove for 2 hours and a half to Kuala Lumpur to watch Julian. It was wonderful that entrance for figure skating and ice hockey competitions were free as the organizers wanted to encourage people to come and watch the games. 

 

It was an incredible experience because for years after only watching the sport on the screen, finally you have tangible memories of experiencing the sport. You can feel the cold, hear the blades gliding on the ice and see the rotation speed that is driven solely by the human body with your own eyes. What an other-worldly experience. Many of the audience who came to the competition were introduced to the sport for the first time. I was chatting to one family who told me that they came to see what the fuss was about with figure skating (Malaysians were wondering why on earth were there ice sports competing in a South-East Asian Games as all the countries involved are tropical countries). That family actually drove five hours to watch ice hockey and figure skating. At the end of the day the son was begging his mom for ice skating lessons and his sister wanted to join Malaysia's ice hockey team.  

 

When Julian won the gold, Malaysia was so proud of him. He was in the news and was introduced for the first time in a nation wide coverage as a hopeful Winter Olympic athlete. Interest started to build among Malaysians on figure skating. 

 

When I went back to school to teach (I'm a teacher), I was so surprised that my students were excited about Julian's success. They were watching Youtube videos and going on social media to find out more about the sport and other skaters. Wanting to capitalize on their sudden interest, I did some lessons about the history of figure skating and gave them homework to write an essay on their favourite skaters. Most of them chose Julian (because he's the pioneer to Malaysian skating and won gold at the SEA Games) and Yuzu (because he is so awesome and dominated the sport with his records). They were also struck by how as an Asian athlete Yuzu was able to reach the pinnacle of the sport that is historically dominated by the West and his mannerism is a great ambassador of Asian culture to the world. Many of them also chose Shoma , Boyang, Nathan, Keegan, Jason, Evgenia and Kaori. The class clown chose Javi as his favourite because of his aerobic class exhibition (lol), and a Malaysian indigenous student chose Australian Harley Windsor as his hero. Many Muslim girls chose the Emirati skater Zahra Lari as an inspiration. I was floored by their response and realized that this is probably the first time that my students were able to find athletes from one sport who represent them. 

 

During the Winter Olympics my students went crazy. Sixteen were absent during the men's event and eleven were absent during the ladies' because they wanted to watch it live on TV (sorry NBC, I blame you for this). Had to have a 'heart-to-heart' talk with them about priorities. Now my kids are in a bad mood because of the off-season.  

 

Figure skating is really having a big impact on my life right now and honestly I'm having the most fun. Sorry for the rambling reply. Just want to share my experience with fellow figure skating lovers.  

Wow.. I wish you were my teacher back then. If I'm not mistaken, the men's event occurred during the Chinese new year, right? Were there no holiday for your school?

[Sammie]