Team USA

[Pammi]

1 minute ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Surprised there's that many views, tbh

Its probably us listening to it repeatedly thinking we must have missed the "I'm so sorry" part!!

[KendallKlaire]

As sad as it is, a scripted video apology is as good as it gets for figure skating apologies...As was brought up either here or on Twitter, Evan L. just claimed his Twitter was hacked when he said that horribly homophobic thing about JW. 

 

What just makes the whole situation disappointing is that Nathan, the 3 TIME WORLD CHAMPION, is supposed to be the best of figure skating (and certainly the best for American skating). But the fact he rambled on all these things as a 23 year old is just such a let down. As a 23 year old Yuzu had his second gold medal and never had a media flub as far as I know.

 

I feel bad for the fans that were let down by Nathan. All hail the American icon Amber Glenn! 

[Veveco]

24 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Surprised there's that many views, tbh

The original tweet calling him out had over 500K views. So there's definitely interest.

[Melodie]

40 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Surprised there's that many views, tbh

I'm surprised too. Has any of his other stuff garnered that many likes and views? 

[Guest Mary_kyo]

PS: They are referring to Amber Glenn and she was dating Nathan in 2017 (?). I hope she wasn't a victim in the past. Yesterday, she praised Yuzu in a comment in Instagram as well... the timing lol

[yuzuangel]

4 hours ago, Mary_kyo said:

PS: They are referring to Amber Glenn and she was dating Nathan in 2017 (?). I hope she wasn't a victim in the past. Yesterday, she praised Yuzu in a comment in Instagram as well... the timing lol

interesting (yes they dated)

[Kadova]

I just discovered this issue tonight. I believe his answer was completely wrong and I also believe his apology was sincere, though it was obviously written by his agent so it did not sound very sincere. My 2 cents opinion is he suffered from being called gay when he was younger, every skater says it, the ones who are actually gay/LGBTQ+ as well as the ones who are actually straight, and he wants to prove these people wrong in avoiding everything that could label him gay, in music choice, performance or costume that are perceived as gayish by these ignorant people. This is the opposite of what I would do and say, but well, I'm not him and he's not me.

In addition, he chose the wrongest possible way to explain his opinion, and his repetitive use of "you know" sounds to me he did not expect this question and he had not prepared an answer beforehand.

An interesting point of view from a skater. I don't know her so I hope she's a decent lady.

 

[Kadova]

Does anyone knows fs.delight on twitter? I came through some "interesting" screenshots of his tweets but i cannot find his account ?

[Guest Mary_kyo]

1 hour ago, Kadova said:

I also believe his apology was sincere, though it was obviously written by his agent so it did not sound very sincere.

There is no need to play mental gymnastics to find a way to water down Nathan’s horrible words. You just contradicted yourself here. Yes, it was obviously written by his agency and no, him reciting other people’s words is not considered sincere lol wtf

 

1 hour ago, Kadova said:

My 2 cents opinion is he suffered from being called gay when he was younger,

The way you are trying to find excuses for him being homophobic lol Nope, all this shows that he is suffering from fragile masculinity, has no understanding and respect for artistic skating (this part was actually proven years ago in his past interviews tho, so his now disgusting comments should be of no surprise)

 

1 hour ago, Kadova said:

An interesting point of view from a skater.

it is not an interesting quote. Just a very poor attempt to justify Nathan. Read this thread carefully, think deeply and then if you subtly try again to excuse Nathan’s comments, then sorry, you are not a decent person as well:

 

Edit: also fs.delight is on instagram

[Fay]

To be honest, after his apology I’d give Nathan the benefit of the doubt, even though his apology sounded painfully rehearsed and not sincere. He might have been just thoughtless in what he blurted out to that pretty innocuous question. But he surely has to learn to be accountable for what he says in any public appearance. The fact it felt like a conversation between friends is no excuse for the word salad he produced which sounded like something pretty homophobic and bigoted. 
That said, I watch Russian Nathan Chen fans with a gleeful fascination. First they proved to themselves their idol said nothing wrong, then they had to swallow the fact he apologised for having said nothing wrong. Some of them are busy lashing out on vile Fanyus. Not so many Fanyus bother to engage, though - they’d rather listen to the soothing voice of Yuzu night tales about Sekkisei. 

[Figure_Frenzy]

Speaking of NC's "apology"...

 

 

 

 

(make sure to click through the links)

 

I'll just leave this here 👀👀👀

 

 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, Figure_Frenzy said:

Speaking of NC's "apology"...

 

 

 

 

(make sure to click through the links)

 

I'll just leave this here 👀👀👀

 

 

Well, if his agent wrote the apology as everyone seems to be assuming (and it is an assumption; we do not have proof that Nathan did not write it, no matter what way it sounds), they probably thought they had to reference the source material...

[Henni147]

You know what annoys me the most about this whole situation?

 

This is not the first time that Nathan said more than questionable stuff. I still remember vividly his quote:

"If something you really want to watch is artistry, go watch ice dancing. I think with what we're doing now, we're bringing such an athletic aspect to the sport."   Source

 

EDIT

He was not talking only about himself here. He used that "we" as a generalization of the whole men's field. Deliberately. This was not just a slip, not then and not now. He knows exactly what he said there and yes, he clearly wants to see men's figure skating change into an acrobatic direction. This is not just about his own style and decisions, but the sport as a whole. The problem with his recent interview is not just the choice of words, but especially message behind it, which is outrageous.

 

And what was the media's reaction? NOTHING. DEAD SILENCE. They conveniently sweep everything under the rug, as if nothing had happened. Some people even defend and support him.

 

Remember what happened to Javi in Sochi, when he joked that the "gays should behave in Russia"? He was torn apart by the press, publicly labelled as a homophobe by Spanish and also international journalists right before the men's Olympic short program. I still see Brian and Tracy how they tried everything to comfort him and begged him to compete, not to throw everything away what he's been working for years.   Source (segment starts around 11:18)

 

Guess how old he was there? Exactly, 23 like Nathan is now. Interestingly the media had no scruples to call Javi out and defend the LGBTQ society then. Now, when it's not just some silly joke, but a serious and very harmful agenda that has been systemically pushed for years... nothing happens.

 

Footnote: I do not mean to defend Javi. He should have known that the sharks in the media are always lurking for every crumb they can turn into a scandal and he served it on a silver platter.

[rockstaryuzu]

7 hours ago, Henni147 said:

He was not talking only about himself here. He used that "we" as a generalization of the whole men's field. Deliberately. This was not just a slip, not then and not now. He knows exactly what he said there and yes, he clearly wants to see men's figure skating change into an acrobatic direction. This is not just about his own style and decisions, but the sport as a whole. The problem with his recent interview is not just the choice of words, but especially message behind it, which is outrageous

I think we are all agreed on the fact that the underlying, general, idea here - the erroneous belief that figure skating somehow needs to be rescued from the prejudices of a judgmental society by means of making it more 'athletic' and 'manly' through the considered neglect of elements such as complex, technically challenging step sequences, beautiful edges,  etc and the addition of modern vocal music, to the detriment of the performance as a whole, is repugnant and comes from a place of misogyny and homophobia. 

 

 

On the other hand, what I see is that there's a mix of opinions on Nathan's words on the matter, and whether they were intentional or not. No one actually agrees with what he said; some want to pillory him, while others aren't so sure it's warranted. 

 

Either way, his words and actions are dubious, but I personally don't see what's to be gained from giving him the gears on social media.  If the goal is to enlighten him and  get him to evolve and change his mind, then harsh attacks aren't going to accomplish that. Reasoned debate might work though. Asking him if he really believes what he said in that interview, finding out why he believes it, and then using that to get him to reconsider his point of view would bring about more lasting change, IMO. I know this is hard to do, especially when it's a subject that hits emotionally close to home for people, but in the end its the best way to change hearts and minds. 

 

My 2c, fwiw. 

[Henni147]

42 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Either way, his words and actions are dubious, but I personally don't see what's to be gained from giving him the gears on social media. If the goal is to enlighten him and  get him to evolve and change his mind, then harsh attacks aren't going to accomplish that. Reasoned debate might work though. Asking him if he really believes what he said in that interview, finding out why he believes it, and then using that to get him to reconsider his point of view would bring about more lasting change, IMO. I know this is hard to do, especially when it's a subject that hits emotionally close to home for people, but in the end its the best way to change hearts and minds.

 

Honestly? I doubt that he will ever change his mind and attitude towards skating. Why should he, when most people in charge want to go the same direction as him? He would be stupid to change anything. And I don't think, it's that easy to change your general mindset, even if you wanted to. He would need to drop his questionable group of friends first and basically his entire social surrounding to move a step forward and I doubt that this will happen.

 

No. This is about two key issues:

a) We cannot change the fact that Nathan is one of the main ambassadors for figure skating heading to Beijing. Whatever he thinks about the sport innerly, he should finally learn to give proper interviews and represent the men's field in a way that he doesn't publicly slap his fellow skaters or tramples on the history and traditions of figure skating. This is the absolute bare minimum you expect from a three-time world champion and I hope he learned his lesson now.

 

b) I hope that the loud voicing in the fandom will be heard by some international journalists and critically reviewed before the Olympics. The German ARD (who also uploaded LMEY) is currently running a series of excellent sports documentaries with decent viewership and great feedback. Two of their best contributions are about the enormous mental stress and coaching terror in gymnastics and the big issue of athletes who were lured into doping scandals without their knowledge. I can imagine that they may create a documentary about our spicy gender topic in figure skating as well in the near future.