Yuzuru Hanyu and other figure skating talk part 15

Forgot to add the link to the previous thread.

tbh past of the plushenko issue is that he needs the russian press.

if you look at the russians who give interviews most it tends to be the ones who have shows to promote/want to make sure the press will report favourably on them. plushenko has two big shows coming up at the end of the year so he can't afford to annoy the press/turn down their interview requests. and right now if you are a journalist in russia (well moscow if we're being specific) what is the hot topic to talk about?

zagitova could be but i think everyone is being very cautious about talking/writing about her right now because of how toxic and vile her ubers are (they sents death threats to maxim trankov that threatened his two year old and said he should have to watch her die painfully).

the next option is hanyu who just competed in russia and who the russians REALLY REALLY like. add to that the fact he just set a new world record in the short and then unfortunately injured himself/competed injured and yuzu goes from a good option for getting clicks to a really great one. and if you want to talk about yuzu, who better to call than plush (hanyu's idol and the person who's music yuzu is using). they've also spammed people like Bobrin and Bestemianova (who worked with Hanyu when he was a junior) but they have less reason to pick up the phone/don't need to worry about keeping the journalists on side ....... and also tbh the twitter fandom seems keenest on translating and circulating the plushenko quotes.

Team France seems really cute

Maybe these journalists are doing that annoying thing where they turn one interview into 197584+ articles, because I just read about Plushenko bragging (more like reminding us) how he was the only one that had Zagitova's back/knew she'll win it, and how he won a lot of cash betting his wife and his manager that Zagitova will win gold. So he IS talking about her, and as much as he needs to promote his shows, I doubt he's giving that many interviews about the smallest things.

Trankov didn't say anything that wasn't said a thousand times (by a lot of people) before, something along the lines of how he and the entire Russian skating community were rooting for Medvedeva and how sad/upset they were for her, but Zagitova's gold was well deserved. I didn't know Zagitova had ubers now, but if that's the case, it must be a recent development because this mild interview versus everything TAT has said and done to her (including telling her dad how everyone would have preferred Medvedeva won instead, on national TV!), I don't see what could be so special this time to make them lose it.

Some stans are mentally unbalanced like that, I guess.

R5 TAT, Plushenko, Misha Ge, Medo, why does Yuzu surround himself with assholes or attention whores. Is he really that naive and pure like I think Kikuchi said he was. Yuzu pls. Choose your idols abd friends a bit better. Honestly I would prefer if he would associate with Daniil rather than the above 4.

r6 I know there's no way anybody would satisfy fans' overblown standards, but what has TAT done wrong regarding Hanyu? She's a new name on that 'assholes and attention whores' list to me. As far as associating with Daniil goes, I guess "associating" would be fine as long as Hanyu doesn't pick up any choreo ideas from him.

R7 She hasn't done anything to him although she did a 180 between Sochi and gpf 2015 but she is awful to a lot of skaters and especially poor Kolyada. She is very unprofessional in her comments because of how biased she is. Just because I'm a fanyu doesn't mean I give free pass to problematic people just because they are sweet and loving to him.

R6. I think Yuzuru has this huge heart and wants to believe everyone is sweet like candy. I believe many people just use him because well he is Yuzuru Hanyu. It makes me sad to think this and I wish I believed otherwise.

TAT is just Eteri: Grandma Edition.

Kovtun won the Cup of Russia stage and qualified for Nationals.

r11 Whew. Battle of Carmens at Russian Nats.

TAT goes too far once in awhile, but I like how she isn't afraid to call a spade a spade. Kolyada may be a good skater, but he's a horrible competitor. He skated one!!! clean program in the past 3 seasons. That's pathetic for a "top skater." He's overrated as fuck and it seems like his team and his fans coddle him like a baby. Look how savage TAT was with Max after he bombed yesterday, and how much better he was today. Sometimes you need a rude awakening. Kolyada does come across as extremely weak and passive to me. After all the fuckups he still doesn't have the balls to find a new coach? What is there to say about an adult who can't do anything to help himself? He's 23 for god's sake, not 16.

R13 Where was his mythical one clean program? I don't think I've seen it.

[quote]TAT, Plushenko, Misha Ge, Medo, why does Yuzu surround himself with assholes or attention whores. Is he really that naive and pure like I think Kikuchi said he was. Yuzu pls. Choose your idols abd friends a bit better. Honestly I would prefer if he would associate with Daniil rather than the above 4.

Who says he doesn't have friends who aren't attention whores? How would you know, since they aren't attention whores and he doesn't use social media? Why would he have any reason to dislike TAT - or even Plushenko - when he doesn't understand Russian or read internet forums? It seems to me he gets along with most everyone around him. And where would his path ever cross with Daniil's outside of competition (and even then, Daniil is usually with the ladies)? Besides, even Plushenko and Misha Ge are not comic book villains without any redeeming qualities. People are not that black and white. We only know what is shown to us on social media, not the 99% of the rest of their lives. How about if Yuzuru just lives his life without the intrusion of nosy fans who think they know what's best for him?

Does anyone know why Stephane Lambiel is in the background of this photo of Med with Brian and Tracy at practice?

Maybe it was a "mixed" practice? Or does Stephane coach a female skater?

Gonna bless this new thread with some ass.

R16 Matilda Algotsson. She's also Shimada's flatmate.

Hanyu's never named Ge (or Medvedeva) a friend when talking about him in interviews. Even Ge never described any kind of reciprocated behavior on Hanyu's part when he talked about their friendship in the past.

Thank you R17 the boy/girl who gets to tap that ass is indeed very lucky. I wonder if he gets some regularly.

R16 And that video is from the French stalker!

R18 He mentioned Ge in a recentish interview/appearance (on camera) but I couldn't for the life of me remember where. I just remember him saying his name because I thought "oh good, that's the pronunciation I thought it was." I don't think the context was especially deep though.

R21 Maybe you're thinking of Continues? He mentioned Ge when he was talking about his black blades because Ge is the go-between/rep for Wilson.

How is it pronounced? I heard a Russian commentator at Rostelecom say "Gee" (soft g like in gee wiz). Dave Lease thought it was "Gay".

I have forgotten what the French stalker has done! But I've been stalking her Twitter feed and she's there in Grenoble (ofc) and things she's said have happened:

Btw they gave some ice time this night to Boyang even if he was late; Bradie is skating on R&J and Zhenya screamed "JULIEEEET" at Brian and he laugh so so hard; Brian and Tracy are really supportive I just hear him said "that was so Great!" they are smiling proudly at her everytime she jumps;

and going back to Helsinki, at the gala, she said she thinks one of the guys who lifted him up at the end asked Yuzu, "Throw quad axel?" (while sort of mimicking a throwing gesture), and Yuzuru laughed and answered "Noooo"

Someone at GS said the kid handing flowers to Yuna Kim in this very short video is Boyang Jin. He's got long curls and the lace on his sleeves is worthy of Weir or Hanyu. I have no idea how old he was then or if the costume has anything to do with his taste, when given freedom to choose, but it's interesting. (caption in Korean - using Google translate: Morning afternoon, what kind of eyes are looking for 07 COC?)

R3 I was appreciating the amazing production on Lemonade. It was diplodocus.

I'm glad Brian and TCC seems so enamored with Evgenia and yet its uncanny how much PR and amorous attention Brian is giving her despite the short time span she's been there. Is he this way with most of his skaters? Or maybe it's just her winning personality that closed the gap so quickly. I mean, she was Eteri's favorite for a reason. In my experience, a teacher's pet knows how to move along and win at life.

You'll never guess who was skating at Plushenko's academy today...

Is that Yagudin?

Congrats!! I think you got it! Unless Google Translate is really really bad...

Here's the translation of the caption of R28:

Wow, what kind of news from the morning! What is the popularity of our Academy in just a year and a half) Yesterday we had a new angel in @angelofplushenko - Alexey Yagudin)

Did Yuzu really manage to reconcile the 2 arch rivals. That would be bloody funny.

Lol actually I checked and it seems Yags skated there without permission and the Plushenkos especially Yana the witch are pissed. So, no peace keeping managed by Yuzu yet it seems.

Lmao that's hilarious. Can't help but love Yagudin if he really did that.

R27 Brian has been looking for a Yuna Kim replacement for a long time.

Daniel G. has to be the cutest coach to date.

Men's SP has started with Nick Nadeau having a skate similar to Gracie Gold's.

Mariah Bell's French boyfriend just skated and he made Raf very happy--Raf even smiled! Such a gorgeous hunk--no wonder Mariah is always smiling.

R37 it's cuz he toss her salad like his name Romain(e)

Deniss is wearing yellow pants? Why Deniss? Why?!

Chen behind Samarin

Aliev bombed

Jason Brown now in the lead with over 90 points

*96

brown is fucking good, shame he has no quads

I LOVE THAT JASON IS AHEAD OF NATHAN. (Just had to get that off my chest.)

Brown 96.41

Samarina 90.86

Chen 86.94

Ponsart 84.97

Vasiljevs 82.30

Aymoz 81.00

Boyang 79.41

Tanaka 79.35

Aliev 75.15

Samohin 72.33

Nadeau 61.46

How did Jason get such a high score? Did he have a quad?

R47 No quad. But GOE high on all triples. And 9-9.5 in Components

Interview with Raf. He certainly does not sugar coat anything.

I'm really happy for Jason. I am so tired of the Yalie getting so much undeserved praise for his hunched over, sloppy skating.

Unfortunately for Jason, the Yalie is less likely to choke in the free and without quads his chances of winning are pretty much 0 unless everyone else ends up on their knees.

Just anyone but Samarin for the win. I can't bear his ugly skating, wretched programs or anything else.

This was the first time I've ever seen Mariah Bell's man not completely bomb out there, let alone skate clean. He's actually quite good when he lands his jumps.

Nathan Chen looked sloppy, and I'm not taking about the fall on the quad. He lost levels on stuff that should've been easy for him, like getting his step sequence called L2, and he lookeed rushed and unfinished. Did he arrive later than the others because of school? He looked badly jet lagged to me.

Jason Brown minus quads executed everything superbly and deserved to win the SP in today's field.

If Boyang keeps skating like this, I don't see Chinese Fed allowing him to stay with his current coaches.

R53 Nathan arrived a week early actually to train with Raf (it's his Thanksgiving break).

R53 I think Nathan was training in Russia with Raf prior to this event.

R51 I know that but it's still great to see Jason do so well in the SP at least. He's been working his ass off at TCC and it's nice to see that work rewarded. And his goal right now isn't to beat Nathan; it's to make the World team.

Nathan does look very sloppy live, but I will at least give him credit for having actual choreography while going for his quads. If you are just skating from one end of the rink to the other and landing jumps, it's boring af.

Most of the guys in this competition (apart from Samarin) are really enjoyable performance wise, what a change from last week.

R56 Why wouldn't you have actual choreography while going for quads? Especially if you're the current World Champion?

r57 because it's easier and he got away with it last year

I was talking about the difference between Chen and Samarin. I'm not a Chen fan, but I want him to beat Samarin because his programs are not as empty. And I'd like Jason to beat him as well so we don't have to suffer through Samarin at the GPF.

What a world where Samarin makes GPF and Mikhail doesn't.

Anyway, Chen's 4flip got called.

HOW GOOD IS UNO'S 4floop that it keeps on being ratified with huge GOE and a real 4flip gets called lol.

R58 Exactly.

Nothing against Jason and I actually like his skating but seeing one of his ubers spamming Yuzu's videos since ACI with "Yuzu is copying Jason", "You can see the influence of Jason's superior artistry in Hanyu's skating in the past year with how much Hanyu improved" etc. (let's disregard that Jason has only been in tcc for 7 months 3/4 out of which Yuzu was mostly in Japan or that Yuzu has always had a distinct artistry and musicality since he was junior even both inherent and influenced by Weir) has really tested my patience. That plus the friendship with Medo.

R60 It's not Shoma's floop which is good but the sweet sweet $$$ that not calling it gets you.

R62 WTF lol. Delusional. If anything, Jason is probably learning to stabilize his 3A from Hanyu. Especially since Ghislain seems to be the jump coach and is not shy to show Hanyu's jumps to other skaters training theirs, a la Rika + 4S.

Don't let that ruin Jason for you though. I think Hanyu ubers can be as bad but I would hope many don't let that ruin him for them.

R62 Do you have the name of that uber who's doing that crap? I have accounts at both GS and at FSU so if it's the name of someone who posts on those sites, I could post something about how doing that sort of thing just ends up hurting Jason.

And speaking of Yuzu, did everyone watching the men's SP today notice how many empty seats there were at this GP event? That would not be the case if Yuzu was skating there. Can you imagine what his retirement is going to do to ticket sales?

R65 Don't worry, Mr. Itsuki and Uno can sell out, as well as the balletic and hip Nathan with his fangirls. People bandwagon after champions, so with Hanyu out one of them will be the runaway winner and the fandom will rise.

This is my first time watching the QQ guy. Didn't realize he streamed and gave his own live commentary. I need Rika to win Idf and for her PCS to rise but I probably jinxed her.

R66 Goddamn you.

Judges don't like Honda even when she's relatively clean. Can't wait for Raf's interview. He seemed happy with his pikachu before the scores.

R67 T_T

Wow, Tennell got practically the same PCS as Honda.

A very animated Coach Lambiel:

Konstantinova also gets crazy PCS, ugh.

M24: Someone who had a nervous breakdown at skate Canada shouldn’t mock another skater’s music.

Even marin honda has better TES then our lovely medviedeva , hahaha.why judge had to notice her ugly jumps and UR or bad edges after leaving russia? HEr skating and jumps were always that bad

R72 That's how it came across to me too.

I wonder if Med really is a bitch. She certainly seemed liked one both during and after her SP today.

I wonder if Kihira will manage to pull out a free like 2 weeks ago. I hope so.

R75 I hope so too. I am so tired of the Japanese women getting screwed over by the judges.

Philippe Merriguet put Chen over Brown in PCS today

So he just likes Asians?

Skating Scores on Elements and PCS for ladies:

Enhanced protocol with judges nationality:

I would care more about the Japanese women if they weren't all practically clones with the same sugary sweet princess packaging...it's so bland and old fashioned. Marin's program was the "edgiest" thing (and still hardly at all) I've seen from a Japanese girl in ages. I feel like Wakaba and Kaori are the only ones who have something of a real personality on display. Rika seems like someone I could get behind, but only if they would let her be a badass instead trying to force her into the princess mold.

R73, IMO Medvedeva's jumps and technique have gotten noticeably worse, with even more muscled and cheated jumps, since she moved to Canada. The jazz program also doesn't suit her style or personality at all. Not surprised she'd getting lower marks.

Overall, a very disappointing women's short program with lots of sloppy performances. What happened to our Alexia Pagnini on the double axel?

R81 I find those muscled jumps so ugly. She also has this unfortunate tendency to look very angry when she's nervous and to me she looked rather homicidal on the ice today. She didn't even crack a smile for the audience when she was introduced. Watching her in the K&C afterward reminded me of the first time Tursy skated at the Autumn Classic and missed a 2A in the SP. She was so angry at herself in the K&C that it was frightening. And Brian foolishly tried to cheer her up which only made her more angry. Too bad that video disappeared from YouTube because it was the one of the most memorable K&C moments I've ever seen.

R80 It just so happens that all of the princessy programs you're referring to were choreographed by David Wilson.

R80 I feel like Marin could do flirty and modern programs, but she also and Mai matches princess programs to a tee with their skating styles. Removing preferences, they should be scoring higher. It's all the skaters that don't actually match the princess programs and should try finding programs that fit them instead of making it annoying.

Only the Japanese judge didn't put Med first in PCS...I was thinking "which Japanese lady has she put first?" and then I saw she put Maria Sotskova in the lead. LOL:

Russian judge didn't overscore Med and didn't under-score Kihira (only 1 point less than the average)

It's kind of subtle, but the Russian judges always over score (I'm talking about the average points they give, not if I think a skater is overscored or not) their own skaters and underscore their closest competitors, and it's no like it's 1 or 2 points expected from a national bias, but close to 10 points.... I normally scoff at most conspiracy theories, but the Russian judges make it hard to miss, even when I'm not actively looking, so it's not like the ISU doesn't know. Why do they keep allowing this behavior?

Caught up:

Jin's step sequence is amazing.

Tanaka's pretty great too.

Brown's spins are possibly the best in the business.

I'm the only Samarin fan.

Rihanna suits Miete.

Honda's cover song is great but that dress just doesn't go with it, neither does her light skating.

r80 Same on Japanese girls.

Med's dress is bad, she should go back to her Russian costumers. But I quite like the program.

Sotskova is still boring.

My fav in this competition was Tennel. Sue me. I feel like she could do Honda's music justice, there's sharpness to her skating.

Fell down the rabbit hole of overanlyzing Orser's body language. He's definitely more engaged with Hanyu, Cha and Med than Brown. Despite being really happy with him, both coaches seemed to keep a bit of distance, physically. Surprisingly, though, Orser was the one who showed more physical contact, but still Brown looked a tiny bit lonely in his joy, without Kori Ade to climb all over.

It was intersting to hear his pep talk to Med too.

And lastly, for fucks sake, Med jokes around about Cha's "JUUULIET" thing, which she must have heard a dozen times in training with him, and which attained a meme status, and she's "a bitch"? Now, that's hating her for literally nothing.

R87 Med's dress is exactly the sort of dress she wore when Eteri was her coach. Same sleeve length and colored gloves. Her fans talk about this constantly because her costume does not fit her program at all.

And I don't know if she's a bitch or not but you certainly are acting like one with your constant scolding of other posters. Stop trying to control what people post. If you enjoy doing that so much, Paula is looking for moderators over at GS.

r88 No, I'll call it whenever I see it.

So it's the same costumers she's always had? I don't know, in the past she always had some of the best costumes, always looking good her. This one, not so much.

The beauty of this thread here is that I don't have to pretend the shit others are saying are fine with me and I don't have to pussyfoot around it.

Wait, so the instance of Med making fun of other people's music was just the Julliettt thing? I agree, I don't think that was bitchy. There's even a banner dedicated to it, all in good fun. But she did look super angry before, during and after her program and it was supposed to be a fun, flirty program.

P/C vids are getting taken down so quickly. What's up with that? I feel like it's more than the usual copyright issues.

Since we have some downtime, I'll bring back the Plush v. Yags thing. Apparently, some company rented out Plush's rink, then invited Yags to skate. Now Yana (Plush's wife) has jumped in:

Starting order for Men's Free Skate

Random aside but I'm astounded at Hanyu's English in this video. In Helsinki he was pretty fluent when using technical language, and here he's leveled up all around. He self-corrects, he's less choppy and takes fewer pauses, his verb use is getting stronger (not everything ends in '-ing' anymore) and there were a few completely grammatically correct statements in there. Wonder if it's the painkillers.

R94

[quote]Wonder if it's the painkillers.

LOL

Anyone produced the mythical Nessie yet? I mean Kolyada's clean program.

r95 The only completely clean program I could find was 2018 worlds Sp - level 4 everything, completely clean jumps

If you disregard quality issues and level drops, then 2016 worlds looks clean but there were a few jumps where he puts his free skate down really quickly or seems wobbly on the landing. Interestingly enough, Kolyada has managed to do something that Nathan, Uno, and, arguably Javi, have never done - skate an entire competition clean.

Love Yagudin's trolling.

Cup of China 2017 SP was also clean in terms of jumps IIRC

R94 I think Hanyu's English upgrade in this season (at least at press conferences, don't know his English level in private) has been amazing, especially when in the previous years it's been improving just little by little. Speaking as a person indifferent to Jason, I wonder if it's Jason's influence as an English speaker who is learning Japanese. That could have been the big boost Hanyu needed, a language conversational partner.

r98 I was just about to mention that one! It looks like he lost balance on a twizzle and had a level 1 spin but jumps were perfect

If you're generous with your definition of "clean" you can probably count 2018 Ondrej Nepela trophy SP as well - he turned out of a 3 axel but didn't touch down and got positive GOE.

He actually has a higher clean program percentage than Chen, Uno, Fernandez, or Chan.

While watching Med skate, I wondered if she could even stand or walk erect. And her awkward body position is accentuated by those stupid black gloves on the end of her arms, which brings your attention to her muscling of the jumps with her arms. She desperately needs a stylist. Oh, and the kind of training they used to give models or just people in general - walking around with a book on her head, trying to keep it from falling, and maybe learning how to straighten her spine a bit.

Alina has a similar problem but she doesn't look as offputting to me - which might be the styling or the body shape.

I'm torn as to whether she's a funny, mischievous, adventurous girl (the pix/vids with Jason lead me in that direction) - and whether she's a mean girl (won't go into examples but there are rumors). In any case, it usually doesn't help with maturity if you're a child prodigy who's coddled while you watch other being treated harshly - it can lead to a sense of entitlement.

And WHY wasn't Tracy happy and excitedly hugging Jason??? I've seen her be extremely affectionate and comforting to Hanyu so I know she's got it in her. It's like they made a decision to cease and desist and the Kori behaviors - like grow up young man and develop a stiff upper lip ?? Jason ??? This was the biggest moment in QUITE a while - top of the leaderboard and ahead of Chen by 10 points (not that Nathan can't make that up with one quad but still...)

Someone said (hope I'm not repeating what was said in this thread!) that while talking to Rafael, Nathan said the ice was bad.

Has it always been this way? Finland, Russia, and now maybe France with terrible conditions - or is it that the quads make the conditions more perilous? oh and Rika's 3A - I had such high hopes for her. Here's to a great free skate. I want her to WIN!! Despite princessy Japanese style, which I suck at judging anyway. My favorite was that first girl, Serna, and judging from the score, I must be way off.

R102 I heard Nathan say that as well.

R101 I was surprised by the lack of connection with Jason too. Such a confidence booster for him. Who knew the warmest interaction we'd get today would be between Marin and my fav grouch, Raf. She gave him a pikachu. hahha.

And apparently he asked her what it was. Keep up, Raf.

And I thought I saw Benoit Richaud in the K&C with Bradie (with the hat) - but in his interview with Dave Lease, he said his wife was due to have a baby boy in 3 weeks time, which would be right about now - across the ocean in Canada. Oh well, hopefully it was someone else.

Richaud also said he was headed to China to teach a class in December. Hope Mrs. Benoit has a grandparent or nanny to help out.

nathan is so hot but his acne is back

Deniss has skin problems too. I'm waiting for that to clear up and him to grow up a bit more to see if he'll be handsome. His face is a bit wide or something - he's nowhere near as hot as his fawning coach, who seems giddy about his boytoy - in an Instastory that I don't know how to copy/save, I saw Lambiel at the rink during a practice, putting his hands on both sides of Deniss's hips - not his waist, but much lower! I was shocked, I tell you - what is figure skating coming to? (oh and it's ok when Hanyu does it - grope away Yuzu)

Someone needs to introduce the guys with acne to a good concealer.

And yes, that was Benoit in the K&C with Bradie and her coach Denise. They did not look at all happy.

Deniss's skin is not the problem. His eyes are so close together he's practically a cyclops. And that's the truth.

Holy shit! I found another clean Kolyada program - all the way back to 2015 Gardena Spring Trophy SP. I think it was his first senior international competition. Scratch what I said about him having a higher clean program percentage than those other skaters - looks like it's only higher than Uno's (divided Kolyada's percentage by the wrong number)

r49 That interview with raf makes it seem like Kolyada's problem is largely a training/discipline issue, though I'm sure poor training affects the mental strength as well

r101 I doubt it'll happen, but if Jason manages to skate clean with what I think his planned layout is and gets similar GOE's/PCS to his short and Nathan gets similar GOE's to what he's been getting, it will only take 1 fall on a quad for Nathan to lose this title.

r105 really? I was thinking he looked so much better at this competition. Maybe I was so relieved by his hair that it blinded me to the acne.

Acne? It's them midnight potato chips!

R101 Brian did give Jason an affectionate punch in the arm when his scores came up but he doesn't really seem very comfortable with him. I wonder how much time Brian actually spends actively coaching him? Was he thinking about Jason just then or about nervous Evgenia?

As for Tracy, who knows? Maybe she's worried about becoming the new Kori Ade. lol

"Jason Brown tops Nathan Chen"

"Nathan Chen hasn’t been in the position in nearly two years"

... no wonder Nathan had problems with his jumps and spins... I admit it... I'm 5

R112 Very good.

Jason has really grown into his features. He's actually kind of hot looking now.

Jason looks a bit like Ross Miner now

[R102] If the ice was bad for Chen, why wasn't it bad for Brown?

R115 sacre bleau! Ross Miner looks like a PTA dad who does coke up his ass. Jason actually looks handsome.

R116 Wanna bet that's exactly what Raf asked Nathan? Raf certainly doesn't hide his feelings when his skaters don't do well.

R116 Maybe Jason's skating skills are so much better that he can handle poor ice better. People vary - even at high levels. Also, I think being heavier or having different technique could make you handle imperfections in the surface - and then there's just bad luck. If there are good and bad patches all over, some skaters will luck out and jump on the good sections and some on the bad sections.

Those are just a bunch of reasons that jumped in my head - like with Yuzuru, his ankle may really not have been as stable as many other skaters' ankles are because of the horrible injury last year (and the many before) plus he's skinny, relative to his height. I remember that practice where he hurt his ankle in Finland a couple weeks ago - not long before that fall, he was skating from one end of the ice to the other, and he slipped and fell down. I thought WTH? But that would make sense if the ice was weird... Well just conjecture - I don't skate so I don't even know what ways ice can be "bad" for a skater.

* oops it was last week and Russia where Yuzuru hurt his ankle. I need to go to bed... Oh and the quads are probably more dicey to land than triples. BTW, I just read at GS that Jason is planning a quad sal in his free skate. Hope he can pull it off!

I think I remember in Moscow that there was one corner of the ice where Yuzuru kept popping or falling - the same corner where he planned his quad loop and ended up spraining his ankle yet again, in that particular place on the ice. It just makes me wanna cry....

R116, well for one, Jason wasn’t attempting any quads, Chen was also doing fine with his 3A. It’s great that Jason pulled out an amazing skate, but for someone who’s been skating the same layout since forever, I would also expect that to be the case.

R122 I think the challenge for Jason will be to skate well with higher tech difficulty. It's not just about landing a quad successfully; he also needs to not let the rest of his program suffer. He also had a quad planned at SC but then doubled it instead.

r122 ice also seemed okay for Samarin and Ponsart

R121. I didn't know this. Makes me want to cry too. And then I wonder if this accident could have been prevented? That upsets me.

So we will know what's up with Hanyu by next week? I really hope he decides to withdraw from gpf and Japan nationals.

R125 I will be shocked if he doesn't withdraw from both.

Wut?? I've never seen Hanyu cite Todd Eldredge as someone he looks up to. What he says about Patrick is funny too, but I've heard that before.

R123, and that’s exactly my point too. In the SP Jason is skating quite a simple layout for a men skater aiming to the at top tier, amazing quality as it was, it’s still missing the challenge to incorporate a difficult jump element. He is yet to prove he can skate a equally well balanced program while landing a quad, although I’m sure he has been working very hard to get there. However, it does get a bit annoying when some of his fans who think a quad is just another revolution and once Jason lands one he’s going to surpass all the top skaters because he is top notch in everything else. And it’s just ignorant and naive to think this way. I have nothing against Jason personally, I think he’s on the right track training at TCC and I have no doubt he will make it to the 2022 Olympics. But some of his delusional fans are really too much.

R125 And in Finland, at first he was falling and popping - and he said in some interview that he figured out if he slowed down, on that particular ice condition, that he could do his jumps - but the quality of his program suffered due to him having to be more cautious.

So there we go again in Moscow - I remember him saying something about "checking out the ice" after his first practice. But push comes to shove, the time grows short, and he has to try that quad, in practice, like in Moscow, or skate that program, and he's so dedicated to putting out the best, most competitive programs he possibly can - well, you can almost see that injury might be very likely for him (at the level he's at - 4 quads in a program! - there are, what, two other men doing that a lot - and both those men, Shoma and Nathan, fall on their quads too, probably because of the ice condition sometimes, like Nathan today. (and Yuzu in Moscow and maybe at NHK 2017)

Oh I keep forgetting Boyang - he's trying to do a whole lot of quads too - and he's doing a whole lot of falling, slipping, stepping out, etc. Dammit, Kurt Browning, why did you start this mess!! Or maybe I should blame Plushenko for making such an issue out of getting high rewards for the high risk jumps.

Do you guys think Boyang will come back later in the season or is he going to be another Denis Ten, injured more often than not, and never manage to peak again?I would be surprised if his team prioritized his health with him training all those quads so early. He could be just as fragile as Yuzuru.

R131 does boyang have a history of injuries?

I'll never forget reading an interview by Nathan - he said he had eight major injuries by the time he turned 18. And I think he had hip surgery? I'd be surprised if Boyang was relatively injury-free - I think injuries are probably the cause of his pretty extreme inconsistency. But they keep things pretty quiet over there in Harbin.

Shoma is the one with the different body type than the other quadsters (and I keep leaving out Vincent too but he's skinny like Yuzu, Nathan, Boyang). Shoma is very short and a bit stocky - he also has a notorious knee-torquing landing technique that 'may' protect his ankle somewhat? (though he had an ankle injury at Worlds, skated on it, and fell and fell and fell -- well, all the quadsters did except Nathan - I guess he'd done his quote of screwing up for that winter in the two short programs at Pyeonchang.

Nathan seems to have a more upright, less fluid landing, but maybe something about it has helped him save his knees/ankles? This is new territory they're in - 4+ quads in a program. Javi never really mastered 3 and he once said that third one almost always got him - it just hurt so much to land quads by the time he got to Pyeongchang, no wonder he doubled the intended quad sal.

* "quote" should be "quota" -- I wish DL had a 5 minute edit window or something! (or I could train myself to proofread before rather than after - there's a thought)

r108 How dare you! I'll have you know that Deniss is an excellent cook and housemaid!

Now would be an excellent time for Plushenko and Yagudin to unretire and battle it out again at Russian nationals.

Before the coaching change was off and just after Boyang visited TCC, Orser implied that Boyang was undisciplined and unfocused, like how Fernandez used to be in his early days, so it could be that he needs more structure in his training.

Someone had asked about Hanyu singing at past competitions several threads ago.I can't remember if this particular clip was posted, but here he is at Sochi 2014 maybe? lipsyncing to Pandalion's "Yume ni egaku kiseki":

LMAO gsk8 in the unpopular opinion thread at GS. Of course the mods locked the competition threads and imposed a discussion rule so for the first time a thread on the edge that isn't for the Russian Ladies ubers gets going, and someone is angry other things aren't being discussed during peak season. Posters can't even talk about the current competition or scores in the edge until its over! So what's the fuss if posters are dropping into GS for other reasons. I just don't get it.

Boyang missed morning practice. I guess he's done this before.

R136 lol, just saw that. Not sure what's funnier - the disapproving school marm lecture or the fact that she waited until it was 11 pages long. The thread subject is completely straightforward about the subject - is she really so uninvolved in her forum that she doesn't do a quick 2 minute scan of the topics? Maybe even she's become bored with the forum

R138 Likelier that the thread was fine until someone expressed an unpopular opinion about one of her favs.

At the Warsaw Cup (the other competition running this weekend) Andrew Dodds is doing both Men and Ice Dance. Tomorrow the Frees are basically one right after the other.

Nadeau has withdrawn from the FS. He injured his back during SP

Oh dear - hope he'll be ok. He had a rough outing today.

Nathan notes:

Someone overheard him and Raf after the skate: "Can’t quite hear what Nathan was saying to Raf in the KnC - but sounds like he has had something going on with his right leg for the past few days"

Nathan press conference: “The amount I practice per day changes depending on how much school work I have” - no set number of hours per day as there is a wide range “Very impressed with skating I saw in GP series - Hanyu was incredible, very pleased for Michal after we’ve trained together for a few years now and I’ve got to see his ups and downs”

Excerpts from Russian interview with Raf: "In general, he has a plan to take, after two years of study, academic leave to prepare for the Olympic Games. He thinks that's enough. It may happen, but it will be difficult… Medvedev grew in the system, when at every competition they were expected to win. Brian Orser in a recent interview with “SE” said that he would try to explain to her: victory at all starts, without exception, is not needed. Is it possible to rebuild the mind to the end? Chen is the same - he wants to win everything, even though he grew up in America. And because of this, he had injuries. This philosophy is in his family. Although I told him: 'You have to lead yourself precisely to important starts and win them.' Only he did not really listen to me, but now he is beginning to acknowledge my rightness."

LOL: "even though he grew up in America"

[quote] : "even though he grew up in America"

because Americans are so lazy. They just want to be told they are good. They don't practice hard. Showing up is enough for them. If they don't win they are happy anyway

Golden Skate shut down the unpopular opinions thread. Good thing we can express them here.

I have an unpopular opinion about Yuzuru Hanyu. Would y'all care to hear it?

R145 No. Fuck off.

He is childish with those poohs :P

What do we need to do to convince Daniel Samohin to change his coach? He could be brilliant if he wasn't such a hot mess.

Daniel seems to rush through his programs instead of methodically working his way through each difficult element. Does he consistently land his jumps in practice?

R147 Is not me.

Poor Keiji. Great haircut though.

R150 Yeah, because it is me. Chill out. Post your unpopular opinion, dont mind those boring ubers

R152 Yeah I know, don't worry. I just I wanted to make clear that wasn't my unpopular opinion because I like the poohs.

Boyang watched the other guys and said "hold my beer..."

lots of pops for Boyang. He is not going to beat Tanaka

Daniel looked like he was going to faint on the ice at the end of the program. He started off strong, so I suspect the issue is conditioning.

R154 Did you have to post that? Now I can't stop laughing.

R153 It is not a crime that you like poohs, but what do you do with them ;)

R158 Yuzu told us what you do with poohs: You take them back to the forest!

Finally Dima puts out a pretty good skate. Just popped his 2nd quad and stumbled on the step sequence. Could have been a rut in the ice, sucks for him. But I really love his skating.

R159 I think it's Yuzu diplomatic way of telling media and fans alike to fuck off with the poohs. It's one thing for him to have his good luck charm but fans throwing only this as gifts and reporters being dumb broken records and asking him for the 100th time what he is doing with them is probably getting on his nerves a bit. Or at least on mine.

Is Boyang injured?

Aliev cleanish. He did only 1 quad. He will take the lead and half of last group can easily fall below it

Aliev is very nice skater. Really

Ugh, another Carmen, and he could literally be skating to anything else with this costume and choreo. So why bother?

R161 You really believe that? That was Yuzu making a joke about Pooh in ENGLISH and I think he was delighted with the response he got to it at that press conference. I don't think he resents all those poohs at all; he knows it's the way fans show their love for him.

he is a grown man, jesus

So, was Ponsart's skate the least interpreted Carmen of the season? Threecquarters of the time choreo had nothing to do with music and he didn't even bother to wave his hands a bit like Kolyada, not to mention steps.

Anyway here's my unpopular opinion: Yuzuru's jump landings are ugly af because he curves his spine just as he lands and it looks just terrible. I hate it because everything he does on the ice is beautiful but then he goes and does that.

The 7.86 for Interpretation is very very generous.

Rohene Ward would love Deniss' costume.

R167 If you have a problem with stuffed animals being thrown on the ice, then figure skating is not the sport for you. lol

R169 His jump landings are textbook (unless he doesn't skate clean) and taught by coaches and feds to their skaters around the world but I'm sure Shoma's twisted knees and upper body landings are more to your taste so by all means keep going.

R172 Seriously? and who says that? You?

R196 And he cheats with his Toe loop . The same cheater as shoma with edges. Why you pretend he is amazing with everything? Noone is

R174 Thanks for making yourself obvious so that I can block you once more Dai troll.

R175 making yourself obvious??Thats because you are stupid enough to not know who you are tlaking with.. thats not my fault. I have to introduce myself every time I speak, you idiot? Live in your bubble, moron and realize that not everyone thinks hanyu farts roses and everything he does is perfect and without mistakes. Fuck off to planet hanyu if you dont like what i Say

Aymoz's program has a really fast pace, somehow he kept up with the music and rolled with it despite the pops. Surprisingly high tes for the nujmber of doubles.

r175 I'm amazed that so many people don't already have it blocked. Every time I see someone respond, I think, "are we really getting that many new people"? Even when it's not being completely nuts, it's so obvious that it knows nothing about skating so why bother?

Aymoz beats Ponsart in the French battle

R176 *talking with

R178 new people...haha I dont post here often as you think i do ..i think yo have too many people blocked , why? Yu block everyone who doesnt scream seeing hanyu with pooh?lol

Chens program is terrible

R178 You know that if you post from a different device or browser or just cleaned your history and did not bother to buy a pass you will need to reset things like muted people. Luckily the pest always makes it easy to be identified.

R179 Let's settle this once and for all. Aymoz or Ponsart? And I don't mean their skating.

Chen dominates. He will get the highest score fo the season.

R182 Aymoz can twirl my baton anytime.

*in the FS.

Nathan delivers, although like last season I find the FS pretty empty apart from the jumps. Of course he'll still get stupidly high PCS. Audience reaction was fairly restrained. Lots of empty seats there.

Aymoz looks more fun. Ponsart looks like a frozen doll

No, I was wrong. TES fall by 6 points

Chen's PCS are 3 points lower than at Skate America

R178 Dont make any conspiracies stupid uber. I use the same browser. I dont chage anything. You are stupid enough not to know that you re talking with me. When i post something you dont like, then it is "Oh thats Daitroll ! I have her blocked! Why i see her? She changed her browser for sure to pretend that she is someone else. What a troll! " OMG !hahahhaha

r182 Oh yeah. I forgot about that. I used to be better about letting everyone know since it's the only one I have blocked - I'll have to remember to do that again.

Nathan's quality in everything is pretty poor so I'm not surprised his score was that low. Though he at least rotated everything this time.

R189 And still too high for what he does on the ice. But tbh between him and the goblin at gpf I hope he wins again.

R173 I didn't say they weren't textbook landings or that his technique is bad. I said the spine curving is ugly to me, and it does not please me aesthetically.

Nathan got the job done but to me he looks like he does not want to be there.

R191 You are dumb enough answering to someoen about things I talked about first, just to let me know, not posting to me directly.. SO YOU DONT have me blocked. Dont pretend. You are stupid. Everyone see it. You cannot have me blocked because i always use the same browser and cookies. SO it is obvious that you are lying. Stop lying and making up things

Brown's big test.

Second placed Samarin will qualify for GPF

Third placed Samarin will be behind both Cha and Messing

Samarin's PCS higher than Aliev's . LOL

This should be enough for second place. TES is at same level of Samarin. Even if it falls, he has the lead and the PCS advantage

Audience liked Jason a lot more than Nathan, it's pretty obvious.

Hopefully his PCS will save us from Samarin in Vancouver. Praying even though I'm not religious. LOL

Looks like silver for Brown? Pity he chickened out at the quad.

Whew, that was close.

... Or not so close, I forgot Brown had a big lead from SP.

So, who's at GPF?

Jason, we thank you for hanging on to the silver so we don't have to suffer through The Greatest Showman again at the GPF.

PCS 89 LOLLL. How ?

GP standings

1) Hanyu 30 points (575.54 as sum of scores)

2) Uno 30 points (553.70 as sum of scores)

3) Chen 30 points (552.15 as some of scores)

4) Brezina 26 points

5) Voronov 24 points

6) Cha 22 points

Alternates:

7) Messing 20 points (second place at top result)

8) Samarin 20 points (third place as top result, 495.87 as sum of scores))

9) Rizzo 20 points (third place as top result, 450.52 as sum of total scores)

I literally just fell asleep watching Nathan. There goes my first attemp to watch men’s skating this year.

protocols

Chen 1 UR and 2 unclear edges

Lol, Jason is in second without even a 3-3, not to mention a quad.

So if Yuzu w/ds then it'll be Keegan and his tacky programs. At least he has decent SS though and I guess the Canadian audience will be happy.

Good for Jason, but the "Old Friends" part of the program goes on waaay too long & is just plain boring. Why not use more of the upbeat S&G music if you have to skate to them?

R205 Yikes. I just can't stand Messing's programs. R208 And almost 90PCS with 3 pops, (1) 2ft.

R210 HE didnt pop anything , you idiot

This was a really weak field. Jason wouldn't have medaled in the other GPs with that content.

R211 yes he popped lutz. But thats it. And why he cannot get 90 PCS without quads ? Get a life

R212 No, he wouldn't. I'm happy for Jason but I wish he had at least managed one 3-3.

Rostelecom was weaker.

It's really too bad about Boyang. He keeps finding himself in situations that don't help his performance at all but I get the vibe that he would have had issues anyway even if he'd gotten to France early. I love that kid but there's something going on, that he keeps struggling with things that used to be easy for him. Whether it's injury, his technical getting messed up from refocusing on performance, a demoralizing mental block.....I don't know.

R213 Popped one of 3Ts.

R212 at Skate America Voronov medaled with 226 points. At NHK Rizzo medalled with 224 points. Both got 70-71 TES just like Jason

I find it amazing how we are at the end of 2018 and Yuzu is still so dominant. 5 full years of being the guy to beat and if not for his multiple injuries he might have been even more dominant. Now it really made me sad that he most likely won't be at gpf.

And Satoko Miyahara manages to get 75 TES, R218. That should tell you something.

R216 I wonder if the pressure to go to Toronto really messed with his head. I like him too and I hope he can recover from whatever the problem is.

r215 On paper, Rostelecom should have been the 2nd strongest field after Helsinki - that field had 5 of the top 7 point getters this season. They just skated like shit.

Skate America was battling it out with NHK for the weakest field. As far as quality of entrants goes, I think France is 3rd weakest.

Boyang has improved a lot in other areas of his skating. Any time a skater improves their skating skills it temporarily messes up their jumps until they can get used to the new rhythm. He's also always been a slow starter.

I guess it's only 3 of the top 7. I was thinking of Helsinki. Still, it SHOUD have been a decent competition for the podium. You expect Kolyada to bomb but didn't realize that Messing was a choker too

Then you must never have heard of Messing before, R223.

R224 I admit I find his skating too corny to follow him closely. I just thought he didn't have great results before because he's not a very good skater

Messing's greatest skill as a skater is rising lightening-fast from his falls.

I have the feeling Hanyu will power through and go to GPF solely to save the competition from Messing's hydroblade. That shit probably offends him on a spiritual level.

"I do a hydroblade as the dramatic climax to my iconic free program about a mythical Japanese hero, and you do one during the slow part of a Michael Buble cover song? SIT YOUR ASS ON THE COUCH, FIRST ALTERNATE."

Theory about Nathan's PCS here: US fed is actually pushing both Nathan and Jason. Judges may have been holding back on Nathan to give room for giving points to Jason especially if he goes clean. I don't think Chen deserves higher PCS anyway but I thought they would throw even more candies at him, and maybe they will once GPF comes around.

Boyang has always been a slow starter, but has it ever been this bad? But R222 you make a very good point. I think when Yuzuru first went to TCC and improved his skating skills Brian also said it threw his jumps off.

R227 Yuzuru's hydroblade in his gala programs and Seimei is outstanding, but otherwise they haven't been placed very well in his other programs for the right dramatic flourish imo.

"SIT YOUR ASS ON THE COUCH, FIRST ALTERNATE."

Comments like this are why I love this place so much.

goddamn but Cizeron's hot.

I guess, if you are into otters, R230.

R227. Unless it's only a sprain he needs to withdraw. As a fan of his I would love to see him skate. But not if it may end his competitive career. Hopefully he puts his health first.

So pieces of plastic instead of medals.

So P/G are not in???????

I knew a 4Lz+3Lo was the next big thing in difficulty combinations, I just didn't expect to see it so soon. If she's throwing content like that around, the only one who can catch up to her is puberty......

And a strict panel, I guess.

Russians are mad right now. They can't figure out how jason is 2nd with no quad.

R236 Samarin's PCS relative to some of the other guys are a joke so they need to chill or they'll get served some tea.

I want to make it clear that I think this is amazing and way past the "but they're cheating their jumps" thing, she's obviously incredibly talented. I think I may have sounded a little derisive in my other post.

The GP finalists in Ice Dance

Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue (USA)

Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (Russia)

Victoria Sinistina/Nikita Katsalapov (Russia)

Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (Italy)

Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean Luc Baker (USA)

Tiffany Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (Russia

Not only “no quad”, R236, but only FOUR clean triples. It’s definitely mind-boggling.

R235 She is indeed talented even with the URs issue (not worse than many senior guys and among them the sweetheart of judges and technical panels around the world). I just hopr for her sake puberty won't hit her hard because right now she has the body of a prepubescent boy (which btw doesn't take away from her talent. Boys her age aren't jumping those). I don't see her keeping those jumps with a body like Alina though.

I like Jason, but I'm surprised by his silver as well. Pretty sure most top ladies can reach that tech level, and while some of them may not have Jason's interpretive ability or artistry, they more than make up for it with transitions/difficult entries-exits to jumps/better spins. So for him to get those PCs with such low TES (no quads, no 3-3's) AND some popped jumps seams odd to me. But like I said, I like Jason, so good for him. Hopefully this helps his confidence going forward.

Can't get over Jason Brown's "jazz" hands. They just ruined his performances for me. He should skate to Nijinsky, Plushenko will be satisfied.

the podium in all its 80s disco glory

Kori Ade's appearance in the K&C was interesting. Whenever she was at a major event with Jason she would make a point of having her hair and nails done and wear a lot more makeup. I wonder how her own mental state is these days. Has she publicly acknowledged Jason's victory today?

[quote] Has she publicly acknowledged Jason's victory today?

He hasn't won

[R245] Like any coach, I'm sure she's been focused on her own student. Have to note that her former student Romain also did well.

R244 I knew I could count on Didier and co to make the 'medals' even more unforgettable than the previous years. As for the podium, it was already the same when Candeloro was competing. When will ISU take away the grand prix from them and give it to Finland or Spain which actually give a shit about the sport and the athletes. It's high time their shitty organisation skills and blatant disrespect of the sport get them in trouble.

R248 they just gave them the GP Final 2019

what about euros in '20 and worlds?

R249 I know. It pisses me off so much. Why not give it to Spain. 2 GPFs organized there perfectly despite being such a small Fed. French Fed is a disgrace.

R250 World 2020 in Montreal and 2021 in Stockholm

Euros 2020 in Graz (Austria) and 2021 in Zagreb

Meite has been Lecavelier by almost 11 points

Kostantinova is gaining positions after a clean FS. 189 total score

I hate La La Land.

Serna beats Algottson. Exciting

Cizeron is such a delicious man.

Med was wearing her homicidal face again during the intros.

R256 Skaters always look better in front of the camera...Cizeron is perfect example, outside the rink , he doesnt look that good

that is Cizeron's boyfriend, I guess,

He got a car , he got a dog, are they living together?

I think so, R260. I think they have been together for two years or so based on the bf's Facebook, so it would makes sense. I really love that profile picture of them.

These 2 are really something special and I'm still bitter they didn' t get the gold in Pyeongchang because of that freaking snip snip incident. Virtue/Moir with their cheap tricks have nothing on them.

Medvedeva eliminated

Holy shit, Med.

R261 Being together for 2 years doesnt mean that they live together ;) But if they do , soon they will be like old marriage ;P

Medviedeva ....disaster

She saw Yuzu would likely not be at gpf so she crashed and burned on purpose. Jk. Or am I? Anyway I hope for her sake Orser's training pays off long term because at the moment it's really tragic.

I think it is

Zagitova

Kihira

Miyahara

Tuktamysheva

Sakamoto

Samoudorova

Who did Kihira's FS? If I didn't know better I'd say it was Daniil on his most uninspired.

Still received 68.80 PCS. But now she can focus on Russian nationals which are more important.

Haha, of course not, R265! I just meant it's long enough to make sense but certainly not necessary!

Med's FS was completely forgettable. At least the short had a few good moments. Do these people not know what a fucking tango looks like?

R268 I think Tom Dickson

Thanks to Medvedeva's meltdown, Bradie snags the bronze medal. It was almost the first time in the history of the Grand Prix that no US woman won a medal at any event.

Orser must be praying hard Yuzuru will compete at Jap Nationals so that he doesn't have to accompany Med to Rus Nationals. Or maybe he is gonna get a emergency surgery next month. LOLLL.

Happy for Bradie!

WTF with Med?! If she can’t handle GP, she needs to stay away from Russian Nats,

Well, Brian had better get to work with Med, he needs to deliver on that PR.

r273 Like yesterday, Tennel was my favorite today too. It's refreshing to actually be able to get behind an American girl.

R274 although it's been removed, my gallbladder is a recurring issue. I swear!!!!

Time to start researching that Armenian citizenship thingy

Brian and Tracy are probably in shock at just how high maintenance Med has turned out to be. She looks happy in practice and then looks like someone she loved just died when she has to compete. I don't think this is what they thought they were signing up for when they took her on.

And brava to Bradie. Great comeback for her.

Yuzu's combined GPF scores - even doing the second FS with that injury - are still 20 points above the two pretenders. So remind us again why he's supposed to be scared to face them?

r280 Because he's injured and they get overscored for nothing.

Just watched Med's performance. Horrifying. Reminded me of Daleman early season but much worse postures and SS. She looked like she was gonna die by drowning. Zagitova's horrible programs suddenly shined bright like a diamond in my eyes.

R280 People saying that are antis or retarded (likely both) Yuzu feeds of competition and usually does better when he is facing strong competitors. If he is healed he will go to gpf and if he doesn't it will be because he isn't healed yet, not because he is scared of Shoma's floop.

I'm personally offended about that performance getting more pcs than the rest of the top 6 girls, especially because that's the only reason she's above Honda. But, at this moment, it doesn't matter, and I feel like I'm kicking a dead horse. Never liked her skating, but it's not pretty to watch a top dog get humbled like this, She's better than that, so for her sake, I hope Orser handles her better.

Is anyone fearless enough to try watch SP from Warsaw Cup?

What are the rules about PCS when it comes to falls again? German, Canadian, and Russian judges gave Med 9.0-9.25 for some components.

Med's PCS are ridiculous. She got 8.61 and Bradie got 8.11 for interpretation. How exactly did Med "interpret" anything with that performance?

It's difficult for me to feel sympathy for someone who got all the glory for years because she was consistently overscored.

Bradie was underscored IMO, great effort and fight out there! Unlike the earlier competitions, she didn't look exhausted at the end of the skate. She'll peak at the right time.

Med seems like someone who benefits from a lot of structure and firmness, which is why she did well under Eteri. I wonder if she's getting too much freedom and coddling in Canada and not training as hard as she once did. Does Brian have an assistant coach who could help her with a schedule? She needs to be kept busy so she doesn't have time to turn into an emotional wreck.

R286

1 fall=no 10s

2 or more falls: no 9.0 or hight in Interpretation and Performance, nothing over 9.5

R287 I feel you. I am sad for her as a person and hopes she rises from her struggles, but as an athlete in a competitive judged sport she has past world records and gold medals to go home to at the end of the day and if she retires I wouldn't care all that much, and she and her reputation won't be missed by me. Oops I said it. There's a lot more where she came from. Alina is proof. Many other female skaters don't have the priviledge of Russia and Eteri and must actually depend on the judges to score their skills and goe correctly.

I'm not one to kick someone when they are down but there fans are delusional. Now it's the ice fault of she skated like shit. How about being grateful she got very generous and undeserved pcs and didn't end up lower.

R291 It is just one tweet- jesus, stop taking twitter so seriously

R266. LOL! I seriously can see her bombing because of Hanyu.

How will TCC spin the Med flop? Eteri’s fault for stressing points over skating. There’s no reason for this level of meltdown.

Did anyone notice that Brian did not dress up for Med's FS? At both of Yuzu's GP events he and Ghislain were wearing very dressy blue suits.

And yeah, if I were Brian I would be desperate for excuses to not have to go to Russian Nationals.

R289 Thank you.

Medvedeva didn't have to worry about her competition and calls on jumps until recently, and that probably kept her mind clear and consistent. She's also dealing with the stress of moving to a new country, fighting old jumping habits, and worrying about how long she will have the support of her federation. It's not that surprising. Plus, that muscled jump technique and hunched skating must be taking a toll on her body. Meanwhile, French stalker tried to get Brown to sit next to her. He probably doesn't know she tried to spill the beans on his friend's weight/nutrition.

R296 she tried to spill the beans on Hanyu's weight/nutrition?

Pairs qualified for GPF

Tarasova/Morozov (Russia)

James/Cipres (France)

Zabiako/Enbert (Russia)

Peng/Jin (China)

Della Monica/Guarise (Italy)

Pavliuchenkova/Khodykin (Russia)

I've read fans say that Med lost her confidence because of the coaching/environmental change, reworking her technique, and not having enough strict run-thru's. What a FARCE.

Not that any of that factor isn't true, but she now knows she isn't coddled by the judges anymore. She lost her confidence because the OSM showed her that she wasn't the no.1 sweetheart to judges. It's empowering to know you can skate ugly on the ice and still get gold. It kills your confidence and she'd probably cry like Mai at the end of skate when you know judges will actually score you harshly. At least she's still getting some of that candy.

Anyway, her mentality might also be affected by fear - like every other skater now she finally has to be afraid of the judge's illogical scoring.

I think Hanyu tucked his gloves into his waistband so we would notice his ass. What a slut!

Warsaw Cup SP

1) Daniel GRASSL 82.27 (does he have to compete weekly? I keep seeing him)

2) Chih-I TSAO 71.14

3) Nicky OBREYKOV 65.34

4) Andrew DODDS 63.03 (who was doing ice dance this afternoon)

5) Igor REZNICHENKO 62.17

I forgot about the last skater

Nurullah SAHAKA goes into third place with 65.85

Jesus. They gave the pairs green plastic tombstones.

R300 That sneaky little exhibitionist!

R299 I think your analysis is spot on. What I don't get though is why Brian was so eager to take her on. I know her stated goal is to win the OGM in 2022 but does he really think that's possible for her?

R304 I think at least a podium at 2020 is possible as long as she uses these 4 years wisely with Brian. Quads are coming to ladies seniors next year, but those quad jumpers will also be growing. Splats can happen and not all of those jumpers will make it to Olympics. Kostner got on the podium in Sochi despite Yulia, Yuna's return, and Mao. She didn't have to fight to get thru (but Italy only had one spot vs 3) so Med just has to make sure she continues to be among the Rus fed's faves when 2020 comes.

305: Med is done being the Russian gave. Do you see her skating for another country?

Medvedeva this season so far: 2nd at ACI --》 3rd at SC--》 4th at IdF. So she is going to finish 5th at Nats. LOL

R305 I guess anything is possible but I find it a highly unlikely scenario for Med. I just don't find her an extraordinary talent in a country that has an abundance of it when it comes to female singles skaters.

r300 I'm sorry did you need the gloves tucked away to notice that ass?

R300. What gloves? That ass is beautiful.

In the Gala Med thrown in the first half in between Boikova/Kozlovskiee and Lauriault/Legac

Strangely no French girl in the Gala but there is Alexia Paganini.

Men are the top 8. No Boyang, they kept Tanaka

R300 I lol'd at the way he stuffed the gloves all the way in there.

Ever classy, CBC included Keegan's name in the list of GPF qualifiers.

R297 Medvedeva's. You can read about it in the thread that covered ACI.

They used digital flags instead of real ones for the medal ceremony today?

R313 Classier than the video they made of Hanyu's fans. Even Chan is over Sochi.

Vladim Voronov (little flower boy) missed the Rostelecom FS because he had his own competition to attend. Watch out, Sasha P:

I think the music sounds very similar to the soundtrack from The Last Samurai, but I think it's from something else.

omg i love this thread yuzu is getting called a slut

I was reading comments from some Hanyu fans and it surprised me how much they seem to like Rika's LP, considering they express an intense dislike for russian (Alina's) programs, and Rika's are equally disjointed. Everyone is entitled to like/dislike whatever, but at this point (because of everything else they've said) I'm thinking if the russians were bad spinners or lacked difficult entries to jumps or never got level 4 on step sequences, THAT would be the worst crime on earth, and that the only reason they're not going as hard on Alina for her URs or Tuktamysheva for telegraphing is because of Satoko and Rika....

The Med fans over at GS are in serious meltdown over Med's meltdowns in the SP and FS. And they are putting much of the blame on other fans who are mean to her even though Med has said she has been staying away from social media for quite some time now.

Skating Scores for FS are out. Russian judge put Mihara in 5th, Konstantinova in 1st. Italian and Canadian judges loved Tennell more than her home country judge did.

R316. He is one lol. And I love slutty Hanyu.. :-)

R317 I don't get what you're trying to say in the second half.

Also I love Rika's LP and when she sold it cleanish at NHK it didn't seem disjointed or have distracting issues, not like Alina's. Rika's LP even if less busy than Alina's is many times more superior because it hides her flaws very well unlike Alina's. The program fits her.

Rika and Alina both need work of course but although she's a new senior Rika is on par with Alina in musicality imo. Rika has good polish and doesn't skate like a frantic junior and doesn't have final boss level bad posture. Also her skating doesn't actually look labored in comparison to the OGM with the highest PCS. Clean Rika LP > clean Alina LP.

I've seen people come at Rika for her jumps and spreading doubt or misinformation not much different from the recent trolls/commentators randomly concluding that Hanyu has bad technique or no transitions. Rika is scaring the ubers of other skaters, lol.

R318 LOL. Didn't she create a private IG acc which was followed by her official acc, Jason Brown, Misha Ge,...? Jason even tagged this acc under one of his posts.

She and her PR team created too much unnessesary drama when she left Eteri. She gave great many interviews after changing coach when she should have been silent. So did Orser. Look Eteri and Zagitova, they just shut their mouth and do their work. Ridiculous that she and her fans are publicly complaining about media and hatred.

Why can't Alina held this position for more than .35 secs? I'm sure it won't take away from her transitions-queen tittle and it'd make for a pretty striking moment in that odd SP of hers.

WHO IS YUZU SLUTTY WITH???

Vincent will compete in Tallin next week

During Pairs FS a board collapsed into the rink and a guy had to jump in to keep it

While Lu/Mitrofanov were skating

I want Worlds organized by France...

Jesus fucking christ, R235, excuse me while I flail a little bit, that was fucking awesome and I don't care what everyone thinks. I wish Sasha Trusova a long competitive life. Maybe she'll make it last, despite what the haters think

R300, like we don't already!

R324, with us, obviously, the little tease.

I think Medvedeva's miscalculation was to think that what worked for Javi or Yuzu/Yuna would work for her. Basically Brian's training works for a rare talent who would do well in any environment (btw people always use Yuzu to say that it's just a matter of time with Medo but Yuzu was already breaking world records in the sp 3 months after moving to Orser) or for a skater from a small fed without big pressure at home. It cannot work for a skater of average talent coming from the most competitive field in the world and who has so many replacements at home ready to take over because even if Brian says it's normal that it takes time to re-learn everything, she doesn't have the luxury of time when Russia is full of skaters many times more talented than her ready to move up. Moreover the way she went about it by cutting all bridges was stupid. It was different for Yulia at the time. The girl was battling her eating disorder and not thinking about making a skating comeback but Medo is aiming at Beijing and now she made an enemy of a very powerful person who clearly until then cared a lot more for her than for any of her other skaters. Anyway, now it's too late so she just needs to bear with it and keep going with Brian's training plan and hope for the best.

R238: Amen

R328 That is an excellent summary of Med's situation. It doesn't surprise me that Med miscalculated but I am surprised that Brian and Tracy did. That expression on Brian's face in the K&C yesterday reminded me of how he used to look when Nam Nguyen began his downward spiral after he grew several inches.

It makes me sick when I think it could be Boyang up there instead of Med. Kolyada's another one who even has well-rounded talent but a bit of a Javi type mental situation (I think). And Alina has a lot more raw talent and grace.

To me, it seems like a bigger miscalculation for Brian to make than for Med, not to mention she was 18 and why wouldn't she believe her own hype (and maybe: why wouldn't she want to get near her dream lover?), but he was 56, God' sake. Is he blind when it comes to realistically assessing someone's skating and what's needed and what he could accomplish? (he believes his own hype too, I guess, not understanding that Yuna and Yuzu were genuine un-propped phenoms, in their own right. It's not a surprise Raf wanted Yuzu's autograph. I actually think Nanami Abe would have given Yuzu better choreography, based on what she did with him, but we'll ever know...

Anyway, I wonder if he 'really' consulted with Tracy on this. If you look at her skating - just my god. I still don't understand how she got where she did - such ugly ugly skating. So Brian Orser couldn't see that she was propped way out of proportion to her talent?

Is it possible Brian Orser didn't watch Med's skating that closely before her took her on? At the time of the last Olympics, his main medal contenders were in the men's events

R331 Yes, it's also a matter of Brian believing in the overhype that he is the best coach in the world. And I feel so sorry for Boyang. Seems like he is a victim of Chinese fed internal politics.

I think her titles really did go to his head. All it takes is ONE evening with Youtube, and Tracy there assessing her flaws. And he just had the Tursy experience, not to mention Nam - his much exalted "method" isn't anything special - just good planning and the discipline to follow through - he's very workmanlike, not capable of innovative magic like a Benoit Richaud might be (or Uno's coach).

Boyang doesn't look like the same guy - I don't think it would ever leak out if it really was the Chinese fed nixing the move to Orser. He's the kind who has all the goods - like Yuzu or Javi, he just needs the structure and discipine (ditto Kolyada and maybe Alina). It's way too suspicious that it came at the exact same time that China threw a tantrum and reneged on having Cup of China in their own country, shooting themselves in the foot they were so furious.

Why is she saying she stayed out of sns when she created a new very visible 'private' account just a few weeks ago.

[quote]She and her PR team created too much unnessesary drama when she left Eteri. She gave great many interviews after changing coach when she should have been silent. So did Orser. Look Eteri and Zagitova, they just shut their mouth and do their work. Ridiculous that she and her fans are publicly complaining about media and hatred.

Nice rewriting of history. Did you forget that Eteri, who is in her 40s, went on Russian tv and opened her big mouth first and showed screenshots of their text messages? Good lord, I know some of you hate Evgenia but get your facts straight.

they must have changed the Gala order. Kostantinova did her EX in what was supposed to be Med's slot on yesterday's schedule. I guess Med has been moved to second half in Kostantinova's place

R336: Eteri had one outburst. She kept her mouth shut after that. She didn’t have trainers go on YouTube and speak with people on the street bashing TCC.

For the record, Eteri is one of the worst things to happen to skating.

Order and Med came out of the gate bashing Eteri. As much as I dislike the woman, she had a right to defend herself.

I think she is over it since her next group of crap skaters are coming up and she still has the OGM.

Rallying around Med against us, bitches

If you are on Twitter, please mention we are sipping Med’s diarrhea tea in support.

LOL 341 - while wearing Evgenia's signature shrinking support stockings - just look what they've done for her!

Warsaw- Men

1) Grassl 217.91

2) Tsao 192.96

2) Dodds 191.30

_________

next week is full of (shitty, erm, exciting) competitions

Tallin Trophy

Bosphorus Cup

Denkova-Staviski Cup

Open d'Andorra

Christmas Cup

Tallinn doesn't sound too bad - Vincent Zhou; Maxim Kovtun; Roman Savosin (18) and 15-year-old Daria Panenkova both from Sambo; Loena Hendrickx; Michin's Anastasia Gulyakova (age 16); Karen Chen and Ting Cui of USA; Nicole Schott; Emmi Peltonen; Viveca Lindfors. Some will probably WD but about 23 men and 31 women, as of now.

In ice dance, Morozov/Bagin of Russia, Carreira/Ponomarenko of US (10 teams) - I never heard of any of the six pairs - should that discipline just be eliminated?

R344: if you don’t know it, it doesn’t exist.

R334 "All it takes is ONE evening with Youtube, and Tracy there assessing her flaws."

This is what I find so hard to understand. I get clueless fans not understanding her serious flaws and limitations but Brian not seeing them??

LOL R345 - you're right - mea maxima culpa.

R347: No poop tea for you but bumpy legs for you.

R346: He did see them and talked about the limitations. My thought, this is about Eteri for him.

R344 Tallin is part of the Challenger Series. So yes, field is better. They have the Pair who finished second at French GP. And the Austrians. It isn't so bad. I've never seen 2 of the pairs entered though

Morozov/Bagin should beat the Estonians and the Swiss.

Denkova-Staviski Cup has Rizzo

Kvitalishivili is entered at Bosphurus Cup

Open Andorra Man field is....a guy from Andorra vs someone called Hector Alonso from Spain. And that's it

So how many of you here are in this video getting excited with Hanyu revealing his costume?

That's such a beautiful costume - maybe my all-time favorite of Yuzu's. It's so butch! (my second favorite is either his swan/Notte Stellata or the red one that he wore when he had that awful collision at CoC in 2014 - he looks so good in red, but I get why he probably doesn't want to wear red ever again.

I don't really like the fluffy blue Otonal and the frilly pink EX this season - but last year I liked all three. Eh, it's his business, but it's kinda gilding the lily. He's so damned pretty he doesn't need such vast decoration (and I imagine it fuels the negative comments from men, though hopefully he doesn't care)

R352 It's an exquisite costume and I get an "alien" vibe from it. I really like the blue Otonal too and also the blue costumes he wore for his Chopin SP.

He usually wears red and black for his Lotte commercials so that may be why he doesn't compete in those colors. Here's a nice Lotte video (with some great shots of his lovely little bottom).

It’s funny how some posters here bash Med, Zag, Tuk, whomever for not being graceful enough, polished enough, musical enough, not having the best choreo or interpretation, and then comes Tennel with all the gracefulness and musicality of a lumberjack, and they are all: OMG, finally an all-American girl-wonder I can get behind!

Did I miss the gushing about Bradie? Anyway, I was watching the hilarious medal ceremony for the women with those plastic pink pentagon and the girls juggling their pentagons, GPS watches, and flowers, and Mai having to help Rika get on that high disco ball pedestal, and the flags on video-demand - I mean the whole thing was so wacky. And Bradie looked about a foot taller than the other two. (link if you're bored and want to watch something silly)

Oh and poking around GS - apparently Orser said to Med in the K&C about Rika's score: "205 is nothing"

WTF? He's on my last nerve with his obsession with Med while putting down other females, like laughing off Trusova's quads because she won't keep them; meanwhile won't shut up about his little kid quadster. Honestly, he can be such a jerk sometimes.

R324 The Ice of course. He's kissed it and fingered it hard enough to break his pinky. Lord knows what else happens behind closed doors.

R353 Thanks! I've never seen this and indeed his ass is deliciously plump, probably from all the chocolates he eats during filming.

R354 are they the same posters though?

R355: Quadaster

Lol, r454, I was the finally-an-American-girl-I can-get-behind one. The only one, I believe. I'm also possibly the biggest Med apolgist in this thread, never said once anything against Tuk, admittedly hated on Zag's Carmen. So whatever your assumptions are, they're completely wrong. Don't quit your day job because armchair analysis is certainly not your forte.

R321 Rika's current LP is very similar to Medvedeva's LP from her senior debut season (2015-2016), so when they go from years of being very vocal about hating Medvedeva and Eteri's programs to LOVING a similar program, but performed by a Japanese skater, I call it bias and hypocrisy.

..........or maybe I'm just salty that the fandom and the fed seemed to have dropped Honda (she's getting a lot of flak lately) and just about every other skater not named Satoko, for Kihira, when I think just about every other japanese lady is a better performer than her.

Medvedeva looks like Andrew Garfield in drag...

Wow. Med is so skinny in that video. She's still tiny but I can see how the changes in her body would make her jumps look muscled and labored now--her arms can't get her up and around anymore without a struggle. Did you notice how similar her dress is to the one she is wearing now to her Natalie Cole SP?

R355 Thanks for posting that ceremony video. Are those pentagons fuschia colored?! What color did the men get? At least Bradie, who does not come from a well-to-do family, got a GPS watch out of it.

R361 blue for men

Ice Dance got yellow

Pairs were green

I love Jason's brief WTF look, after being handed his pentagon at about 3:43. Shouldn't Macron let them know that plastic is destroying the ocean and metal is much more recyclable? Didier is crazy though, I think - last year he was bragging that Yuzuru would be there. There's a video somewhere of Yuzuru playing with his plastic medal the last time he was there, and laughing about it. At least he could hang it around his neck - these things are a pain in the butt to handle with all that other crap.

Yuzuru also made the disco platform wobble and looked askance at the lack of flag.

Hanyu didn't even bother to try to hide his reaction at how hilariously low-rent the whole thing was. It was great.

R355 So Brian said "205 is nothing" to make Med feel better? He must have been desperate to placate her to say something that silly.

first pic of nathan chen's abs does anyone else have other ones

Medvedeva needs to get her anorexia under control or her jumps will never improve.

R368 Why would anyone want more pictures of that?

R359 Med's PCS for the skate was over 72. Her scores were high 8s and 9s. Rika's PCS at NHK was 67 and in the low to mid 8s. In France, they were lower. Rika's tech level is higher than Med was or will be and she doesn't have the same glaring issues with her technique. So no, it's not hypocritical to dislike a skater who has been overscored and coddled for years while rooting for a promising young skater who has the goods and plenty of room to grow, and isn't scored as if she's already the complete package. But for the record, I've never disliked Med. She's not my cup of tea so I stopped paying attention to her.

I agree with you that JSF needs to back all of the other ladies too - look at what happened to Mai. Had they been more strategic about GP assignments, she would have qualified for the final. Or better yet, look at Rika. She didn't even have two GP assignments at first (IIRC).

Are you kidding about Honda? She probably got more promotion than any of the JPN ladies previously - ads, commercials, tv appearances, her whole cute family. She's the one who's regressing and not getting her shit together. Her PCS were too low for France, but I don't see any reason to get salty right now on her behalf because she managed to hold it together for one competition.

r359 If you’re new to figure skating, you may not be aware that Honda has and continues to receive more attention from the media and fed than any other Japanese lady since Mao. Commercials (she starred in three for Yomiuri last month), huge sponsors (her contract with JAL was solidified over the summer), magazine covers (she was just on the cover of Fujin Kouron), a famous foreign coach, regular special interviews that require Japanese TV crews fly to California to film her or Raf… Not to mention, she has a very famous sister and comes from a very wealthy family. After Zagitova, Honda has received the most attention in Japan, the most financial backing, and is more recognizable than any competitive Japanese lady skater in her home country. Not only Miyahara, but Wakaba also had more airtime than Kihira until she withdrew from the GP, even though Kihira’s scoring potential has been known for a long time and she did well at Nepala. Even after the 1-2 podium with Kihira-Mihara, the news was focused on Honda’s 6th place finish first, and it happens every time Honda appears in competition despite not medaling. I do think she’s greatly underscored in PCS, but so are the other Japanese women, and her tech is lower, so she needs to be absolutely clean and do her program as planned to score high.

You’re also confusing criticism of Med’s programs with Zagitova’s programs. The complaints about Med’s choreography have always been that they relied too much on miming and acting. The complaint about Zagitova’s choreography this season is that it’s too busy, with few moments to breathe, and incoherent due too many random music cuts. “Beautiful Storm” may not be of your taste, but none of that really applies to Tom Dickson’s choreography or music. And the people who complained about Zagitova and Med’s programs aren’t necessarily the same people supporting Kihira, either. The biggest complainers about Med came from North American fans who backed their own skaters like Osmond and Gold, and oldies like Kostner.

Medvedeva’s old FS and Kihira’s Beautiful Storm are similar in that they both use piano and project a dark mood, but the content and musical interpretation are quite different. They’re also vastly different skaters stylistically in general. I’ve added Kihira’s NHK performance below so you can refresh your memory and compare. The video of Med’s FS you posted not only shows how much of a better jumper Kihira is, but highlights Kihira’s superior flow and skating skills at the same age. I do think Med is a good performer and good at showing emotion on her face when she commits to her choreography. Kihira’s performance is more internal and she could learn something from Med in that aspect.

Kihira FS:

Orser is only good with men. Especially someone he can fuck like Javi.

Mai Mihara is a fat and robotic skater.

R374 Mai Mihara is not fat I think she is a beautiful girl with courage ! If you would have her condition I don´t know if you would even skate because arthritis is no joke!

SHame on you

I'm not fat, just big boned!

I see the thread is going back to its distant DL roots.

r372 Snooze.

At this point the only Japanese girls that actually make me enjoy watching them are Higuchi and, can't believe I'm saying this given the field, Hongo. Miyahara has her moments too but the whole rest of them are so painfully cookie-cutter they make the rushed jerky underrotating Eteribots look exciting.

Sounds like it is time for another Yuzu ass picture. Anyone got one?

Mai needs repackaging but I'm not sure what they can do for her. Maybe she needs to sexify herself. Team Japan has a queen and several princesses, a fun one, a dynamo, and a powerhouse, but it doesn't seem to have a full-fledged ho yet (before you shout "but Yuzuru!!" I'm just talking about ladies, OK). Every generation needs its ho.

R378 Yet you love Tennell and Samarin.

r380 Miki Ando is a tough act to follow.

r381 Tenell's not boring this season. Even her warhorse R&J has a refreshing speed, spunk, and is very engaging to watch. Samarin... well, my enjoyment of Samarin has a lot to do with his music choices, I like his SP although I admit his latest outing of The Greatest Showman has me reconsidering my stance.

R379 Here's a boob shot to tide you over. Ninny knows what the people want.

r384 He's got three nipples.

R385 His power resides there. At his birth the wizened old nurse looked down at the squalling child and foretold that he would win three World Championships in men's singles skating, one for each nipple.

Here he is twenty-three years later being a ho.

Here's some ass, you dirty perverts.

I'm kind of new to following figure skating, so big question here. What's the deal with Tuktamysheva? Does she hate the Olympics? Maybe has inconsistency issues, or is she a casualty of the depth of Russian wonderkids? With a 3A at her disposal, she has a pretty big tech ceiling, not to mention apparently her tech used to be higher (I read she recently "got back" her 3F+3T). Next season would be the first time another Russian lady unquestionably suppresses her tech, so what's up with that? She could have realistically been the top dog among Russian ladies for 5+ years, only Alina with her backloaded programs and 3Lz+3Lo combos would have had a go at her. Yet she missed not one, but TWO Olympics and I doubt it's a PCs thing when they can just give her some dancing or pantomime lessons, and maybe spend some more time on those spins....

I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.

..............surpasses her tech (dammit)

r388 After her successful 2014/15 season she started having consistency issues. Couldn't land her 3A, and her problem was that she was perceived as a jumping phenomenon, she had few transitions, and her PCS suffered. Others beat her. Super-consistent Med with lots of transitions emerged, Pogo could still have a good skate, and so on.

R388 I'm not a big Tuktamysheva fan, but my impression of her is that injuries and growth spurts made her inconsistent at inopportune times. She was something of a prodigy and almost won Russian Nats when she was 13. She had a great senior debut and won both of her GP events. The season after that, she had a knee injury and growth spurt issues, but still managed to win Russian Nats. Unfortunately, the year of the 2014 Olys, she had a back injury and tanked (so Lipnitskaya and Sotnikova were sent to Sochi). Afterwards, she broke her foot which took some time to heal. She won worlds in 2015 and at some point after that, there was talk of her working on her artistry. However, Tuk's supposed breakthrough after the World title also coincided with Medvedeva's first two senior seasons where Med basically won everything and was considered both an "artistic" and consistent skater. There was also a lot of talk around this time of psychological blocks - like she kept saying in interviews that she felt fine and thought she was in shape and was past the puberty issues, but there was some psychological barrier. I don't really like her skating, but it was sad to see.

r362 It's a good thing that Nathan is so obviously straight. Because no gay guy would ever be caught dead with a trophy that fucking styleless.

Baby Shoma from 2011.

R393 Shoma who? Where's Itsuki's baby pic?

R393 I feel like 2011 was yesterday for me.......... I feel so old now.

r393 An open-back costume on a 13-yo boy? Only in Japan.

That was a pretty great performance though, even if music was meh.

r268 Does Nathan look buffer this year than last? I think the pic below is from 2017 Rostelecom and he looks cut but not as muscular - At first I thought he was holding back on the quads this year to work on other things but I'm finally convinced that he isn't actually able to do 4 quad free skate this year because of rotation problems. If nothing else, the rest of his skating isn't reflecting any extra effort - everything except the performance quality has actually regressed.

Can't remember if you guys have already seen this but don't want to forget the ass lovers. 2017 Rostelecom is a fount of juicy pics.

oops. I meant to refer to r368

All the Japanese girls are vanilla.

R400 Disagreed. But I'd rather watch vanilla than Eteri's prerotating robots, or the pantomiming queen that lost the ability to pantomime this season. For some people I guess Tennell, Wagner, Chen, and Nagasu are the height of interesting and artistry.

nathan abs > yuzu ass

Try watching Tennell’s program without the music. With a good program, even without the music you should be able to get the idea. With Tennell, you just sit there wondering why she’s wearing this dress while obviously driving a truck. And even when you turn the volume up, the issue doesn’t clear up. She’s just about the worst Juliette in the sport that has seen lots of abominations.

R403 Bradie's supposed to be Juliet? I thought she was Friar Laurence.

R398 Yeah, Rostelecom 2017 is the El Dorado of Hanyu ass pics. Here's one with a bonus Lambiel pretending to avert his eyes.

R397 I think Nathan is just doing what he can to stay upright and keep his PCS at a stable level. He knows this way he can still be competitive and go to school. Raf said that Nathan is planning to take a leave of absence after 2 years to train for the Olympics. I think this is a way of maintaining his skills/ reputation without going all out and killing himself while balancing school. At this point, even with the 3 quads he's doing better than Uno and sometimes Hanyu. I see it as a long term strategy rather than some sort of technical regression.

To clarify, I agree that even setting aside the number of quads, Nathan looks worse than last season. However US fed will continue to support him and he will continue to get PCS/GOE candies as long as he can appear to keep up tech wise. You might be right about the UR issues, but I noticed them last season; it's just they were never called.

Translated excerpt from Brian's new book. Besides this one, I've only seen translations of the part about Brian's father. Anyone come across other translated bits/details from Brian's book?

r406 I question how much better Nathan is doing than Uno. With only 1 mistake + home town inflation + dubious tech calls in his favor, his SkAm total score was only 3 points higher than Uno's Skate Canada score with 3 falls + an under rotation call + a serious mistake on his combo. Even if Nathan matches them in numbers of quads, he desperately needs the other two to make multiple serious errors to compete. Luckily, so far Shoma's been delivering the splats, but with the GOE's he's getting, Shoma doesn't even need to skate clean - if he stays on his feet, he'll completely trounce Nathan. A clean Shoma might even beat a somewhat off but mostly clean Hanyu.

I also question that long term plan. With his ankle, Hanyu will probably be out before Beijing but Nathan is essentially planning to regress for 2 years when everyone else is working to improve. If Nathan really follows through with that plan, I can see Boyang passing him. Jin is doing what Med and Brown SHOULD be doing, which is throwing away this season in exchange for pay off in the future. I personally think Brown falling while attempting a 4 salchow would have shown more growth than he and Brian getting that fucking excited to medal with a 4 triple program - how does that performance show any progress - pretty sure he managed 4 clean triples before. And Brian was stupid to announce how important he thought Med making the GPF was - the objective is supposed to be improving her long term technique not getting short term results. And who knows, maybe someone will finally figure out how to fix Kolyada's head - his high score was only 6 points behind Nathan's even with multiple mistakes.

r407 yea, I never realized how much I didn't pay attention to Nathan before until I started looking at all his tech issues this year and looked back at previous seasons. Did not anticipate that rule change fucking him over so much but now it seems like it should have been obvious. The only somewhat stable quad he has this year is the toe - he's only 8 for 13 on his quads, 5 of which are the toe, and that's counting the uncalled < lutz from SkAm

I sometimes forget Chen exits, he only came into the picture for me when he skated that whatever-is-choreography-fuck-it FS with the 844782 quads at the Olys, I thought it was hilarious, even if unintentionally. His plan is sure ambitious, especially because he won't be a teen anymore when that time comes, but I commend him for even trying. And it's not like the US currently has a bunch of male skaters that are loosing spots because of him, so I say go crash and burn Chen, or rise above this. Whatever.

(Japanese) Interview with Eteri and the quadsters, and a look into their daily 8-hour training routine:

R402 That's sacrilegious.

TSL on Rostelecom Part 1. It's me, the annoying Dave Lease troll again, and I was pissed after last week when the youtube picture and everything else teased Hanyu but delivered almost nothing substantive about him, just a gloss-over way at the end of a self-indulgent 1hr 40mins. Just fuck that! Didn't give a damn about his injury... Anyhow, a very brief overview because now I feel like I can't just walk away - at least not yet.... OCD I guess.

First 30 minutes is all Medvedeva. I can tell he wants to criticize her body but he manages to mostly hold back, other than a metaphor about the kid who goes away to college for a year, comes back, and his mom says, "Whoa you put on a few!!" OK, he thinks like taking an antibiotic, she shouldn't stop before completing the course, even though she and Orser are panicking. He thinks Sandra should come back in to tweak program and otherwise keep on trudging. Dave knows people who actually heard: Eteri really did tell Med she should retire after Pyeongchang. They said Eteri does what she intends and the girls get a pretty fair deal: "I'll make you a star, you'll win, and when the check comes due, in a couple years, you'll get out and do shows, commentaries, whatever, be a so-so continuing star." That's Eteri's plan - not to produce Carolinas. They mention Lipnitskaya, Sotskova, etc.

Other ladies: Mai is meh, just "nice" but dull. Honda/Kihira - exciting engaging prospects/where Japan's hopes lie/both much improved. Talked about figure skating being a game and Bradie ought to play it by working on her style - liked her better hair (lots more about what she 'could' do to rise on up there in the weak US field). Didn't much like: Sotskova or Konstantinova. Probably wrapped up for worlds for Japan: Rika Satoko Kaori - with Mai as backup and maybe sent to 4CC. But next year may be Honda’s year - Raf's doing well w/her. She and Eunsoo are like his real life nephews and he has a different fave at different times.

r397 It could be that his abs are engaged in the first picture, because he's in the middle of a spin. Like the difference between a bicep being flexed, and a bicep when you're just walking along.

TSL Part 2. Minute 53. MEN. Loving the oh-so-wacky French, Aymoz/Ponsart. Hating dull Samarin/cheesy Messing (who comes up because if Hanyu's out, Messing's at GPF.) They think Chen should POUNCE now that Hanyu's hurt -- leave Yale after Xmas and go full-throttle to be #1 because he's losing ground as expected and the time is ripe. He gossiped about Orser: Says he's been competing with Ghislain for Yuzu's love for a while now! Gogo's family are pissed with Orser's attention on Med, Cha, Hanyu, and he is no longer Brian's student!! He's now with Lee Barkell primarily (Russian parents and all). Jason - I can't remember - I think they talked about the new GOE system helping him....

1.17 pairs. 1.22 Dave said he'd made it to 9 months on the wagon woohoo! So Jonathan can drink at the party and Dave can wear the pretty dresses (something like that). 1.28 ice dance teams. Cizeron brings the beauty, Papadakis is the "soul" and energy of the pair. (I think that's right - are they pairs or ice dance? - couples are not my thing...) THE END

Lase has to salivating over each Artatunian's student? I mean Ponsart is not wacky, his Carmen is so boring that it makes even Kovtun's one almost better. It has almost less interpretation that the Carmen-splatfest from the Estonian guy at Sochi.

Oops at R413 I meant TSL on France, not Rostelecom - wonder why I have that on my brain 24/7 hmmm. Oh and he laughed at the Canadians being smug all those years with Chan Osmond etc. and NOW karma is biting them big time and they got nothing ha ha ha. He loved that.

But he adores Tracy Wilson and mimicked her cool unconcerned head-turns, stoic sound bites, in the K&C while Orser and Med melt down.

R402 I'll take both - Yuzu's my luscious sweet wind-and-a-nod treat - Nate's my dry savory aw-shucks treat. God help me but I'm all in for baby goo-goo-ga-ga Shomita too - must be the softcore incest porn pix with his hottie bro Itsuki. Why is the mainstream Japanese press shipping him with his little brother? Talk about wacky - the French wouldn't even do that!

* winK-and-a-nod

r418 Oh, I think that Shoma is insanely hot. Also, his butt is super cute. Yuzu has a more amazing body, and his butt is perfect, but I have to admit that I just happen to really like that kind of butt that Shoma happens to have. But personality-wise, Yuzu easily wins out, and what can I say? I guess that deep down, I'm a romantic at heart.

I don't think its Uno or Jin that Chen needs to worry about, but Cha for the next 2 years. With one or two more seasons in the right direction, Cha can very much beat Chen if our World Champion keeps on regressing and relying on reputation.

Anyway, I don't think Cha will ever get the same level of home country support and love like Yuna Kim, but he will get the girls and imo the Korean fans will be intense. If Cha ever becomes a gold medal contender, the other men gotta watch out.

R415 Thanks! I kind of get Gogo being mad and he's going to JGPF to boot but still Cha > Gogo (and Cha's main coach isn't even Brian last I knew). Also Orser is never going to let Gogo slip out of his grasp anyway or sizzle out, he's Canada's hope for Beijing.

Gogolev's parents sound like the kind of skating parents Brian probably doesn't feel like dealing with anyway. The kid is only 13 and look how much they push him already. I don't wish him him ill, but there is no guarantee he's going to make it as a senior.

r421 Yeah, Cha doesn't have Jin's injuries, or Uno's bad habits. Plus training right next to Yuzuru Hanyu has to be a plus.

Chen>>>> Cha. Chen doesn't have issue with jump technique ( wrong egde, UR, PR,...), Cha does ( flat egde on lutz, quite bad UR issue,...) Based on his body type and jump high and rotation speed, I can assure you, Cha can't jump many type of quads like Chen. His SS is better than Chen but judges won't give a fuck about that. They will throw PCS on quadsters no matter what. Of course, Cha has potential to podium at major competitions but to say he can surpass Chen is stupid.

I am always amazed at how ISU is so amateurish in organizational terms.

No wonder they are fine with Didier's glittery podium from the 80s and the plastic medals.

Today they released the application guidelines for a seminar....the applicants should send the application form to the Secretariat putting some key figures (Bianchetti, a council member and the Sports Director Figure Skating) in cc.

I would have thought these people would have a ISU email. Well, no...they use a gmail.com address, not even done in the same format. The council member is name.surname. Bianchetti is fbianchetti7 and the sport director is name initial+surname+81 (year of birth?)

r424 Fair enough. I don't actually skate, so I'm not that great at spotting bad technique (with a few exceptions ... even I can see how dependent Uno is on his knee to save him ... and how he underrotates).

And Cha has already started his injury adventure. He missed half of the last season due to injury.

Orser has never been Gogo's primary coach. Maybe that's the problem, I'm not seeing Lee Berkel studeents getting extraordinary results.

I wonder how reliable David Lease gossip is concerning TCC is, I tend to take everything he says with a grain of salt and just guesswork like we do here presented as facts for clicks.

R424 And to say Cha can never surpass Chen is also stupid, especially since I was referring to the next 2 years if Chen refuses to prioritise and upgrade his skating, and Beijing which is 4 years away. It's not just about the quads, it's about who has the goods that ISU wants and the judges are willing to push, see Uno who should only be having 2 consistent quads because his 4lo and 4f are a joke.

A+ Hanyu if he's healthy. Can skate well, can jump well, doesn't water down unless forced. Driven.

A Chen, Uno. Chen out-jumps, Uno out-skates. Chen waters down - Uno less so. Chen seems a bit more driven to be #1?

A- Kolyada (could be an all-rounder but something mental or physical thwarts him) -

B+ Jin (better jump arsenal but can't skate as well as Kolyada - also something blocking him - may be temporary)

B Cha, Aliev, Tomono - can do well on both fronts but it's too soon to tell.

B- Zhou. Technique flaws abound but still has a jump arsenal, though flawed, and can threaten? (see Pyeongchang)

C The still-relevant has-beens, the wannabe's, a few who knows?: Brezina, Brown, Gogo, Grassl, Messing, Pulkinen, Rizzo, Takahashi?, Voronov, who's that Japanese guy Lambiel coaches?

And who's hot? HANYU, UNO, Chen, Kolyada, Cha. I think that's it for me. Who else deserves to be in the rankings?

Oh and I'd add Takahashi to the hot list (but not in top two). I'm having trouble taking him seriously as a "real" current skater this season - Worlds could change that.

R413 Medvedeva did later say that Eteri never made that comment.

Med did another interview but I've only seen the Japanese translation from Sputnik News and I don't think they included the whole thing. She says she will never share why she didn't talk to Eteri and say goodbye/give her flowers. She never asked her to keep anyone in juniors. Zagitova practices harder than anyone she's seen.

Speaking of TSL, looks like they abruptly stopped selling the figure skating merch they were touting a few weeks ago. Guess they finally talked to a lawyer. I saw Jonathan trying to argue with someone (I think in response to a youtube comment) that TSL can sell skaters' images without their permission, just like you can take a picture of a bridge without getting a release from the architect. Good lord he is so fucking dumb I don't know how he found his way out of that bathroom in Grenoble.

R431 Oh dear, she's revisiting all of that again (or, in her defense, maybe she was asked)? Sounds like she's putting out feelers for a book deal.

R431 Full translation of that interview here. She sounds hysterical and very confused and what she said about whether she said that sentence about Alina is even more confusing. I think she really did say it. She also mentions staying away from sns which we know isn't true. All in all I don't think she will get back those Russian fans she lost with that interview.

R434 Thank you. That's very different from how it Sputnik News portrayed the interview, though not surprising because they seem to have some connection to Med's agent/agency like The Answer. Also, it looks like they had some misspellings typos or translation mistakes because the translation said "I went to Sambo for the millionth time," not " I'm saying for the millionth time. "

Ok, I'll add to the bonfire. Here's an interview with Orser at Rostelecom:

Just after the unsuccessfully performed short program in Canada, [Medvedeva] told me that she called you at night. How often do you get such night calls from your students?

– Yes, it happened, and more than once. There is nothing surprising about her night call after failed performance. Zhenya was depressed, but I told her that one day she would remember about this day and realize that she had learned something. Then it was impossible: she was a little crazy, angry and depressed. So I continued: be angry and upset, but you will get a lesson, and tomorrow there will be a new day. As a result, in the free program she skated just great. But this situation has taught me a lot. When I spoke to her day and night, I started to understand her better as a person. However, we still have much to learn about each other.

As a side note, can someone explain the interviews on this blog for me? Are they translations of interviews conducted elsewhere or actual interviews with the blog writer (I don't see any notes on sources or a byline). Who's behind the website?

Okay, I take back my bitchy comment. I guess Med was specifically asked about the flowers and all of that.

R434 Her denial re: keeping Zags in juniors did seem a little convoluted. She denies it but leaves the door open with "I don't remember." I honestly don't know how to feel about this girl. Sometimes I feel very sorry for her; other times I think much of this is of her own making.

R436 Wow, no wonder Orser has looked so tired and cranky lately. But she must have had that type of relationship with Eteri if she feels that comfortable calling him that often in the middle of the night. I wonder if Eteri actually coddled her emotionally while being very hard on the physical training.

Seems like the artist Elizabeth Peyton is completely obsessed with Yuzu. She did several paintings of him this year and now she put the picture of his bloodied face at CoC 2014 together with a famous German poem in her book.

The picture.

It isn't the right time to complain about haters, girl. No wonder she got so much hate.

R439 Not obsessed. She probably just likes the $$$.

I'm in the wait-and-see camp with Cha. He has boy band good looks, a fun, kitschy program that has a lot of buzz right now, good ss and a nice, casual way of recovering from falls and bad programs. I agree about the jumps though and that his body type isn't ideal for a varied arsenal of quads. The issues with his jumps are serious and hard to fix frankly. His programs aren't sophisticated or detailed (still very juniorish), but I have to admit I enjoy watching him skate. More so than Nathan, even though Nathan is more technically skilled. Don't look forward to the rabid fans though. I liked Yuna a lot, but her crazy fans made any discourse about her (or basically any skater in her way/orbit) a total turnoff.

Not arguing at all - but how is Cha's body type problematic? Too tall? Not skinny enough?

Some coach I remember, months ago, said men's singles will just be short guys eventually, due to quads. And shorter people have relatively stronger knees and ankles - and spines. So maybe a bit more resistant to injury, assuming they're not too heavy.

Hanyu's 5'8" - wonder if that's the upper limit or if he's even too tall (Uno's 5'3" - Chen 5'5" - Jin/Kolyada 5'7" - Zhou 5'8") - will we ever see a taller multi-quadster?

Again, I'd like to point out that compared to Jin, Chen, and Hanyu - Uno doesn't have the "ideal" body type for quads either. He gets ratified "quads" and GOE still. His performance ability blinds his fans and judges, among other things.

I don't think Cha is as much of a performer or as charismatic as Uno, nor a jumper like Chen, but he just needs the right amount of push and PR to get better scores. Chen isn't known for his "ballet" because everyone sees how ~balletic~ he is, but it's perpetuated by the media and his fans. Once Cha gets his shit together better (and matures, he's still a minor anyway) Orser just needs to start a campaign on Cha about how complete package he is a la Javi instead of coddling Medvedeva ot Gogo.

Look at the REAL quadster Yuzuru, Boyang, Nathan, they have almost same body type, for Nathan, not only "ideal" body for quad but also fast rotation speed, he can start rotating immediately after take off and doesn't lose rotation speed before landing.

I'm not discussing who can do better quads though, but whether Cha can eventually become a top skater who can challenge the quadsters without the ideal jumping body, and behold one of the quadsters aka Uno doesn't have the ideal jumping bean body and is a top man purely from performance ability, consistency, and lots of outside help.

R445 Nathan and Shoma both have big feds behind them. PR from your coach alone isn't going to work if you don't have the goods and/or the big fed. We all like to shit on Nathan and Shoma but they, despite their respective issues, are on a different level from Cha. Who knows whether he can eventually survive growth issues, injuries, fix his technique, etc.

But I guess your question is more a hypothetical - if Cha improves in performance and consistency (but isn't quite a technical powerhouse) can PR help push him over the edge? In the hypothetical, would he have fixed his jump issues as well? The tech panel isn't going to let him get away with URs without a big fed to lobby, no matter what his coach and twitter denizens are saying. How many quads short of a quadster are you talking about here? Two quads in the FS (what he kind of has now when he doesn't get a UR call)? Three?

[quote]His programs aren't sophisticated or detailed

Whose programs are sophisticated and detailed? Chen's SP is good but so is Cha's, choreo-wise. In the FS? Kolyada skates to Carmen, hardly height of sophistication, and relies more on posing than skating, Uno's consists of crossovers. Chen? I have difficulty remembering what's in his FS, but don't remember any particular complexity. Other than Hanyu's and Messing's FS, what else is out there? Brown maybe? Admittedly, I zoned off watching him, so I'm not sure, maybe it's detailed, and I'm guessing the subject matter whatever it may be is sophisticated. Brezina?

can someone please shoot TSL thanks

R450 Take back what you said about Hanyu's ass. Then, we can talk.

^ Ditto

R402 But Yuzu abs > Nathan abs.

I've been reading through comments, aand I have a question: did Kori Ade and Jason Brown part on bad terms?

Javi came from a small fed but was Europe's only hope. Hopefully in the next few years Cha if he improves gets a foothold or is thrown a bone in the politics.

R454 Jason implied in an interview (might have been the Phil Hersh article) that they didn't part on the best of terms, that there were hurt feelings. If you search for Kori Ade, we discussed it in one of the earlier Hanyu threads. Or you can search for the Hersh article - came out in October 2018 or so.

R453 there's not one bit of fat and/or floppy skin on that body.

Javi did an interview where the hosts were coming up with ideas for a biopic for him. The villain of the piece will be a half robot, half lizard Japanese figure skater who shall remain unnamed. Look at that little bitchface, I love it. Javi also wants a romantic subplot though whether it is with the half robot half lizard or not, he didn't say.

i think nathan has a hotter face than yuzu and abs are abs

Ugly hate-fucked his cousin As Sin and had Nathan.

Tallinn Trophy - Men's short, Wednesday at 5am Eastern (time in New York City): Vincent Zhou, Max Kovtun, Roman Savosin, etc. (link) Ladies short, same day at 8.25am Eastern: Karen Chen, Ting Cui, Panenkova/Schott/Lindfors (Loena withdrew).

Then overlapping a bit with GPF is Golden Spin of Zagreb (Dec 5-8) - currently signed up are: Jason Brown, Bychenko, Fentz, Grassl, Kovtun, Lazukin, Mazorov, Samohin, Vasiljevs - Mariah Bell, Bradie Tennell, Megan Wessenberg, Pogorilaya - Knierems, Gilles/Poirier

Linked is a site that lists live streams for figure skating - but I don't know if they'll have these challengers. They had good free live streams for all the GPs. The Russian ones worked best for me.

Tallin is livestreaming on their Youtube Chanell. They showed ice dance live yesterday

Last year Golden Spin didn't have a free livestream

Thanks R462! Sorry to hear that about Golden Spin - they've got quite a good lineup. Since the Canadians have no one in Vancouver, wonder if there will be a Canadian stream set up because of Gilles/Poirier?

Interesting Russian article about Med translated by someone using Google translate (page 793 of her thread at GS). This is just a small part of it - they blamed lack of time training on the ice and other things for Med's recent problems but this part especially caught my eye:

"...Orser asked Zhenya to be more feminine, to become a whole feminine kind. Under it was made a new, completely unusual for her cut dresses. Medvedeva said that a nutritionist works with her, and she can eat anything. But what we all saw in France ... It seems that a nutritionist does not cope with his work, and the cut of dresses only emphasizes this. This was especially noticeable in the short program. New music, new image, new dresses and a little bit of a new figure - 'wow effect' did not work. People are not blind, everyone sees it. This is not her.

- All her weaknesses began to show clearly?

- Exactly. Who would not say anything about Eteri Georgievna, but she knows how to hide some weaknesses of her wards. This is where the trainer's genius is manifested - to hide the little flaws that everyone has. Tutberidze didn’t just hide these flaws, but turned them into virtues. She always picked up the program, looking for images for her skaters so that they were perfect for them.

Little girls in programs do not look like little girls. That is Tutberidze’s talent, that’s her strength. Suffice it to recall Julia Lipnitskaya and her Schindler's List program. The same thing happened with Medvedeva. Her programs have always been organic and fit [her.] And now we see a Russian girl in the American style. And it does not look. For such a program, Ashley Wagner is needed, she performs this great, says Zhurankov"

R463 Last year Golden Spin was particularly lazy. They had a livestream that required payment. At one point they stopped to update the live results. We first got the Men final result guessing by Kvitalashvili's selfie from the podium

Maybe they were busy trying to placate the behind the scenes Ice Dance drama that hit the Golden Spin 2017. For those who don't follow ID, Golden Spin was used by 2 Feds as part of their Olympic qualifying process. The whole thing included the referee (and sometimes also team leader of his country's delegation) of the Men event filming from the stands the behavior of one of the judges; the coach of a team filming the referee filming the judge, said judge claiming to have a stroke between Short and Free dance and being replaced from the panel; another judge being caught by the referee during the ice resurface with a paper of PCS scores for all couples (including the reserves) and let to finish the competition because they had no other replacement on site.

Tallin livestream is here. They are showing Junior Free Dance. Eteri's daughter is skating right now

r464 I like Med and I root for her but I agree that traditionally feminine is not her forte. Or at least it hasn't been so far and the newest programs don't inspire confidence she could do this style. If it's indeed Orser's idea that she go in this direction, then he and Wilson fucked up.

OMG R465. That's ridiculous! But I'm glad they got caught - no that it would fix anything I guess... I should start following ID I guess - especially if Hanyu retires, it may be where the new action really is. Well, and the Russian and Japanese girls in a skater deathmatch.

I stole this from Fsu. Sounded fair enough.

《I understand that Medvedeva is more flattering now to the "Westerners"... But just as equal trolling and abuse is taking place against Zagitova by media and Med-fans, and on much higher level, by media, some Russian coaches, and some westerners with awful rumors are being spread against Eteri.

Zagitova has been trolled since the night she won Gold in Korea, one of the trolls is Tarasova, the others are Medvedeva's mother, agent, and few sponsors who were counting on her Gold, and then there were few "engaged" and personally interested journalists and TV personalities that helped them.

Medvedeva’s mother works in media and is well connected. Together with Tarasova, Med’s agent, and sponsors, they made sure of two things – a) that Zagitova is not called “Olympic champion” on TV and in the press, but just “Our Champion”, b) that she does not appear on the main central Russian TV Channel 1.

Two main TV shows “Pust Govoryat” and “Night Urgant” right after the Olympics invited Medvedeva, and not Zagitova, as if she did not exist. All praise was given to Medvedeva and Zagitova was put in the shadow.

Here is the clip from “Pust Govoryat” @ 14:00 min, where Medvedeva is there, and Alina’s father is invited instead of Alina. Tarasova (after giving her lip service to Alina) raves and raves about Medvedeva. The show host tries to mention Zagitova, but Tarasova interrupts him and starts saying to the audience and to Zagitova’s father “No, no… Dear Daddy, you must understand, most of us simply love Zhennya more, don’t be offended, that is how it is”… then the TV host who is now very embarrassed, tries to interject something positive about Zagitova, and TAT still wants to talk and then they cut TAT’s mice off… Medvedeva just sat there and had a coy smile the whole time. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_jMIP2oc5Q

For “Night Urgant” they made sure that Medvedeva is invited without Zagitova, instead she came with Bobrova, and the whole talk about Olympics Ladies Singles was based around Medvedeva, without mention of ONE WORD about Zagitova.

Announcement: "Here are our stars of Figure Skating – Medvedeva and Bobrova".. no Zagitova OLYMPIC CHAMP… //www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRKyDATdrmQ

Medvedeva and Bobrova asked questions about the Olympics.. no Zagitova OLYMPIC CHAMP… //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZULrfVJCbP0

Med’s team made sure that Zagitova “does not exist” and used every resource to do so.. Many people who were fans of both Zag and Med equally, noticed the game playing, and were not happy….

The whole Eteri's Team is undergoing very bad trolling, including the young skaters. Here is just one out of 1000's example, the NICER ones... :lol: //imgur.com/a/GFH15y3

Medvedeva IS EXAGGERATING the "nationalism" issues. She herself said that she became aware of it when some "40 year old troll guy posted something nasty on her IG". She also said that it has been a while since she used IG/social media, and she has PR Agents handling it for her. She could not have read "all this supposed negativity".

There are no "nationalism" issues in official sports publications and articles. There are some in the "comments" sections by some individuals, but they get attacked for it.

There is criticism of Medvedieva in the press and in blogs, but it is mainly about: a) decreased quality of skating, b) how she treated Eteri, c) disapproval of her "media games and over the top PR" some of which are "untruth" and "manipulation". But most is about "her skating issues" both good and bad.

And there are a lot of articles of support. Basically the more or less responsible sports-publications are addressing the Med's skating issues and are split if the "glass is half full" or "half empty".

Medvedeva is doing damage control, on several levels, by introducing the "nationalism and negativity" issues against her, to take attention off her skating, and to get sympathy.

She is a) not attacked any more than Zagitova, b) attacks against Zagitova started from Olympics, when "Medvedeva's side" could not accept her not winning Gold.

Proof, articles, videos, material is available to confirm practically everything i said.》 END.

Oh god, don't bring that crazy bitch Tinami's posts here. She is certifiable. Says that girls choose to get anorexia, loves Trump and Putin...just fuck off with that shit.

Medviedeva is a bitch . Thats obvious. She was too full of herself. Thats why she cannot handle the current situation.

Some of you hate Evgenia so much that you will swallow any BS you can find and repost it here. And of course Eteri is an angel who never does anything wrong. Y'all are psychotic. Evgenia isn't allowed to be upset about having antis yet I've read dozens of posts from the Fanyus here where people are worried about his mental health because of HIS antis. Get professional help, you freaks.

R472 I love Trump too. I can be friend with her.

R$74 Do i have to love Medviedeva? I dont like her, her attitude makes me sick from the beggining... "You freaks"And who says that ? People who looks at Hanyus ass and troll on Shoma or other skaters and thats good? Zagitova is ingored my some media constantly. Tarasova also helps. You have no idea.

R474 OK, Eteri isn't an angel. Medvedeva is.

R472 R475: Please don’t drag political bs in this thread.

I agree with TSL that Med’s skating was in decline, starting a year before the Olympics.

Eteri and her wards are being trolled because people are sick of watching the equivalent of dog tricks.

I don't think her body looks different than it did during Pyeongchang. She has relatively large waist, narrow hips, and very thin legs - just like last year. I mean, maybe slightly heavier but I would never really notice. Her face is just the same. I think the cut of the dress makes a very big difference with her. You need to play around with diagonals or something to disguise the lack of a waist - I think her free skate dress does that.

I agree the Doris Day watusi music sucks for her - and I think it would suck for Ashley or Gabby or anybody really. Somebody put David Wilson in a old folks home. And keep Orser away from styling altogether. Hasn't he got anything better to do than style ladies' dresses, which he sucks at? He has no taste.

I need to know why TSL said Orser was fighting with Briand for Yuzuru's love ? Did they also see what we saw, which is that Yuzuru seems to get closer and more comfortable with Orser since ACI ? At Olympics, he obviously was closer to Briand.

R474 LMAO.

You’re talking about TSL, ffs. I need to know why they once said Hanyu hated Uno, too. What’s their source for such revelations.

Med’s mom and media doing all that work and all they have is poop tea and leg slimmers

r480 They also said Ghislain Briand sitting close to Hanyu and patting him was trying to ingratiate himself and make himself known. They're just trying to create some drama gossip, I wouldn't believe a word they're saying. Their "insider" was sure Hanyu would quit post-Olys, it shows how much they know.

R468 The "stroke" judge resigned on health ground before the ISU investigation got into the details. So they dropped the investigation. The one with pre-pared marks has finished her 6 months suspension and is already back in action. Just that now she should learn by heart. The result was confirmed and one team went to Olympics based on these Golden Spin scores.

R465 OMG. This is amazing. Which were the 2 Feds?

R474 I'm not the person who brought this up and I don't hate Med, but as far as I'm aware, Hanyu's never used sns hate, antis, pressure from fans/country as excuses for poor performances.

What's up with the "this is all Orser's fault" narrative? I thought Med made a big deal out of being able to choose her own programs, make decisions about her career etc. at the beginning of the season? Did people think it would take just a few months to completely change the way an 18-year-old skater jumps?

Ditto r486, call me a hater but couldn’t help but feel the whole sns haters talk is just an excuse for poor performance. Not to mention miss moonbear has updated her private IG account right after IDF, so much for staying away from social media. At this point, the less she talk the better it is for her actual skating career. Don’t quite get her team’s obsession on all these over the top PR tricks.

R486. The Feds were Germany and Spain. But the main problem regarded Spain as Germany used more competitions (with the chance to get rid of your worst result) and the gap was larger. Spain Ice Dance spot was decided on the sum of Golden Spin + Nationals. One couple won Golden Spin and the other Nationals. Then it went down to 0.something difference on the sum of the scores.

This is the video taken from behind the judges' stands. The judge from Belarus seem to check the screen of the woman next to him (Russian judge) and then put his mark in (some suggested he was changing the marks he put on his own before checking)

The referee (from Canada) is at the left of the screen and it seems she is looking at what is happening on the end side (Belarus and Russia were at the end of the row).

Daniel Delfa, Spanish judge who was serving as referee on the Men event at Golden Spin, was sitting behind the judges and then complained about the the Belarus judge's behavior. A un-named coach was reported to have been pissed of by Delfa's behavior and so he started to film filming the Belarus judge.

Moreover, the Turkish judge was caught with the sheet with some PCS scores already written down during Free Dance. She claimed she took them during practices. But then they pointed out to her that she marked the reserves who were not on site....her testimony to ISU was quite hilarious....

Belarussian, Russian and Turkish judges favored Hurtado/Khaliavin (Khalivian is from Russia, and they train in Russia) over Smart/Diaz (who train in Canada. And they are usually the favorite of Spanish Fed). In the end Hurtado/Khaliavin went to Olympics.

I just watched Johnny Weir's commentary on Med's free skate and he said " when you're having a rough performance, you hope that the music will sort of lift up the audience and lift the judges up as well, but this music was so dark and dank that it's really hard to actually feel anything from this performance other than her frustration."

And that godawful short skate music - surely Med didn't pick Natalie Cole Orange Colored Sky from 1991, apparently, but it sounds like Doris Day circa 1960. And that's supposed to be "feminine"? That corny, snazzy jazzy Sinatra-style utter shite? You'd expect it from Messing or even Javi - so it sure seems right up the Canadian oldsters Wilson/Orser alley - blech blech blech - it's nasty. I thought her emo miming at Pyeongchang was more "feminine" actually - and many times better. It's sad when you're missing Danlil. Wouldn't Med be picking BTS or BLACKPINK?

I remember Orser saying you have to factor in what music the judges would like - are they all over 70?

R486 Even when he complained about haters, he did after winning his 2nd Olympic title, not after having poor performances and failing to qualify for the Final. Maybe the day Med and her PR team complain Orser coddles his golden boy Hanyu and ignore her isn't too far away.

R489 I thought she was into Exo, not bts or bp.

Anyway, any OST and a program tribute to Yuri on Ice that she loved so much would have been better.

Daniil has said he's rooting for her and wishes Medvedeva the best. The director?president? of Sambo also had kind words.

R487 She should also step away from her VK which is probably a bigger magnet for nationalist trolls. She was also engaging trolls on twitter during the off season. I think she's very stubborn and has trouble letting go after seeing how she handled the hotel incident and acted over the summer. But she was also recently accused of copying Osmond's ex, and that probably hurt more because she uses her friend's song for that exhibition. The IdF organizers shouldn't have changed her placement for the gala, however. That just reinforces the idea that she gets special treatment.

Her reaction after here scores were announced for the FS is interesting. Orser seems more helpless to me than cold. It's good that Tracy is there.

[quote] call me a hater but couldn’t help but feel the whole sns haters talk is just an excuse for poor performance. Not to mention miss moonbear has updated her private IG account right after IDF, so much for staying away from social media. At this point, the less she talk the better it is for her actual skating career. Don’t quite get her team’s obsession on all these over the top PR tricks.

I'm sure she meant staying away from public social media where anyone can post. Her private insta only has real friends who are only going to say positive things to her. Currently limited to some Russian skaters, Misha and Jason.

[R492] yeah what was up with that gala placement? Why the change? She ended up being put with the silver medalists.

I didn't see the gala but a short clip seemed to show Med and Jason together, just the two of them, on the ice - did they have a minute or two together during the solos and that's why she wanted it changed? (assuming she did but who else would care?) And didn't she swap with Konstantinova, who wasn't a silver medalist? (I really need to go track down the facts before posting but I'm too impatient - sorry)

R488 That's delicious stuff, but sad it was the deciding factor in sending Hurtado/Khaliavin over Smart/Diaz to Olys. I remember someone posting the details about the Turkish judge earlier - there was something about the tearing up of "yellow papers" and throwing them in the trash when the referee confronted the Turkish judge. I have to go track that down when I get a chance. That video seems to be from Phil Hersh's youtube account!

R495 Brown went after her but there was no performance together on the ice, so no reason for the change. They also didn't perform together at Skate Canada.

R492 What stands out to you about Med's reaction? She seems angry to me. Was she expecting better scores? They were still higher than she deserved. Despite her unfocused, lackluster programs, Med's PCS this grand prix series are still third highest after Zag and Miyahara, and just barely behind Miyahara.

The French stalker's observation on Twitter (she was there):

"When Zhenya came to Brian after the FP he hugged her and said directly "it's alright... It's alright!" and she said "I'm so mad at myself"

I think Med's rack got bigger. She needs better breast support, her costumes always look awkward around the chest area.

R496 yes, the video was sent to Hersh. He didn't disclose who sent it.

In the ISU congress when reporting on the cases they mentioned the referee of men event witnessing and complaining about the behavior of the Belarus judge.

yup, you remember well about the Turkish judge....she referred to herself in third place and came up with this: "Then after during the ice resurfacing, the Referee, with considerably threatening approach, took the folder; reviewed the folder page by page together with Ms. Esen. Upon such review and Mrs. Keen's request, Ms. Esen also took "yellow papers" out of the folder, teared them in front of her and threw them in to trash....."

the "yellow papers in the trash" sounds like an over-dramatic scene from a soap opera!

R501 Thanks for this. I forgot that she referred to herself in the third person! LOL.

In this video, Boyang says he was injured last season and is still having problems.

R492 Brian's reaction is likely him thinking: "How the hell did I get myself into this mess?"

r503 I wonder if this is still the same injury which knocked him out of GPF 2017. He should talk about his injuries more openly if he's got them, everybody would be more understanding like with Hanyu or even Zhou, and not condemn him as a has-been.

R505 Seriously, I want to know more about what's going on with Boyang. OC had an opportunity to ask him themselves and instead they ask, "Have you sent Hanyu words of encouragement." If he's just injured, his team should be more open about it so people would stop writing him off or criticizing him for not going to Orser.

R461 Pogorilaya WD from Golden Spin.

Kolyada is now signed up for Golden Spin!

And our quad axel trier Dmitriev is the first alternate, if one of the three Russians ahead of him drop out - don't know how that worked because he was a sub before Kolyada hit the list. So I guess if you're high ranked you get to waltz in ahead of all those on the waiting list ??

r507 I can't say it's a surprise but I was still quietly hoping she'd get better and be another Leonova. My absolute fav of the last few years, despite all her flaws. Or maybe because of them. I guess I have to let it go now.

R509 I'm disappointed too, but not surprised. I wonder if she's done.

Lazukin is the Russian who WD, so Kolyada got in. Or did the Russian fed force Lazukin to drop out so Kolyada could compete? I know so little about this stuff but it seems fishy, at this late date, to have lesser names drop out so biggies can get in. It's Sotskova who's replacing Pogo.

Boyang’s coach made a brief comment on his situation after GP Helsinki, it seemed he was in decent condition. Not sure if this injury is something new since the interview is clearly conducted after Rostelecom cup.

I meant to say Boyang’s olympic channel interview is clearly done after Rostelecom cup, just not to be confused with the one with his coach from my link above.

Nam, causing trouble.

R508 During the 16-17 season, Gracie Gold decided to go to Golden Spin after finishing 5th and 8th at her two GP events. Frank Carroll did not want her to go but she insisted. It was a disaster for her. Let's hope that doesn't happen to Kolyada.

R508 the subs are in alphabetical order

GS news, the Ladies Power ranking thread is temporarily locked down for maintenance because some Zagitova fans and some Osmond fans had a fest. I personally enjoy GS for the ego stroking fandoms that get into fights. Wink wink, Hanyu fans aren't the only ones.

I checked In the Loop out on youtube and now it keeps on getting recommended to me. I applaud the ladies for trying, but sadly they are a bore and should find a better way to host it. Too clean and scripted. Despite being as new Skate Talk Online with PJ Kwong is more interesting, more of like TSL but without the gossip ( Though I prefer the guy over PJ Kwong, who I don't dislike either).

Zagitova vs Osmond fans? No Med in the mix? What it was all about?

R488 Is Delfa the one who keeps posting photos of his crotch in sweatpants and swim briefs?

R498 I find it interesting because she's so angry that she either ignores or doesn't notice Orser, but she does seem to listen to Tracy at the beginning, and Tracy is very encouraging and takes control of the situation.

Eteri just received some kind of honor from Putin:

R517 I know what you mean about the In The Loop podcasts. I also appreciate their efforts but then stop listening because I get bored with them.

R518 Osmond/Canadian fans being their usual thin-skinned, bitchy selves most likely. So glad Patrick Chan finally retired.

Heartwarming story about Hanyu and the flower boy, Kihira's dress, and Kozuka's blades were covered on "Sonosaki." There are three videos. The figure skating portion starts at about 45:45 of Part 1.

wow eteri looks so hot in that outfit

R519 [quote] Is Delfa the one who keeps posting photos of his crotch in sweatpants and swim briefs?

lol, yes, the last time I checked his IG it was about swimwears, bulges, asses....and it is not the only judge with this habit....

R522 Did you see part 2 when Hanyu listened to the boy? At 3:20 guess who is peeking around the corner. It's Mr. BFF! I guess Hanyu was speaking to him as he passed before the boy got his attention so they might not be estranged after all, maybe just not besties.

Someone upthread quoted Tinami from FSU. Funny thing is, before the Olympics, she was posting endless stories about Med and Zag’s great friendship. When people pointed out that we won’t know how great their friendship really is until Zagitova starts winning, she said that they still be friends because Eteri is the best coach.

The link for Tallin Trophy livestream to follow Vincent's SP today

How did PJ Kwong get her job? Seems like she's Canadian nice... and that's pretty much it.

R521 R518 I was really surprised by their comments, I had no idea the Canadian fans were so intense. Some of them have been posting for weeks now on that thread, crying and demanding respect for Osmond's world gold medal and saying Zagitova's/Russian's fans can´t acknowledge someone's else success, and the failures of their skater. All the while kind of doing the thing they're accusing others of: undermining Zagitova's accomplishments (you know, Europe, GPF and Olympic gold). Other posters were actually uncharacteristically well behaved and trying to clarify they think Osmond won fair and square, but I guess their passive aggressive and/or outright dismissing comments about Zagitova were just too much and, well, it's not hard to go after Osmond. So they went from "we respect Osmond's achievements" to "she was the best from a weak (Canadian) field", "Olympic team medals are not even a thing", "she was the worst from her team anyway" and, of course, "Alina will always be the OGM". All of this, may I remind you, in a thread about ladies' power ranking THIS SEASON.......

I have no idea why the Canadian fans brought Osmond up when she's not even competing, but not including her was part of the reason they took offense in the first place (and the reason they say Zagitova's fans don't acknowledge Osmond). I've never read the Canadian threads, so their behavior caught me off ward, as well as how long it took the Russian fans to turn childish.

Those posters aren't Zagitova's fans. They just can't stand childish Canadian trolls.

Ekaterina Kurakova has officially announced her move to TCC and being coached by Orser.

R524 Don’t leave us hanging. Who are these other judges and where can we see their bulges?

R527 I read somewhere that Zhou has been visiting or looking into universities for next year.

R525 Oh, no! It is him! Although it’s not clear if Ge is the only one in the hall and the one being spoken to, but it sounds like Hanyu is trying to confirm something? The video has been deleted but a clip of that scene is still on twitter.

I’ve watched Kozuka’s part as well and he plays himself in the reenactment! I can’t recall any other figure skaters playing themselves before.

Can't remember if this was posted here - probably - but here's the little video of Ekaterina playing around with Yuzuru, of all things, during Skate Canada when some of the TCC regulars were away. It's a shame he has to be so careful who he gets photographed with. I'm not sure I've ever even seen a Jason/Yuzu pic since he started - maybe he's always hangin' with "her"

please i'd arather see skater buldges than judge ones theyre old and crinckled

Kovtun 80.91

Shulepov 80.86

Warm up of last group with Zhou is now on ice

computer system crashed down waiting for Zhou's score

17tVincent ZHOU USAt24.27t24.27t t0.00t0.00t0.00t0.00t0.00t0.00t0.00t#17

Everything seem blocked.

Dimitrescu (next skater) has been waiting on ice by some time

77.46 for Vincent

Wow, Kovtun and Zhou can't even break 90 at a low stakes competition.

R532. I think after everything that happened this past summer Yuzuru is more careful in who he takes photos with. I don't know for sure but I think he probably was a little hurt with what Misha Ge did. Probably not so much with Med since I don't believe they were really close friends to begin with.

Somebody remind me, was Zhou on the GP circuit last season? Did he underroate just as much but wasn't called? Looks like he got the American scoring at Nationals so he made the Olympic team where he was treated leniently. All the imperfections exacerbated by injuries seem to be coming back to bite him in the ass now.

Vincent got 3 URs out of 4 jumps

[quote] Looks like he got the American scoring at Nationals so he made the Olympic team where he was treated leniently.

in the FS at Nationals he got 3 URs and 1 downgraded. And 2 URs also in the SP

it is that Rippon had 2 single jumps. And Brown had 3 single jumps, + 2 URs

R540 Vincent was 4th at Cup of China 2017 – in his short program: UR on 3A; in the long long UR on both 4S and 4Lz.

He was 9th at GP France 2017 – in his short: UR on 4Lz and missed the combo + UR on his 4F; in the long, UR on 4Lz.

I really tech challenged but I was watching an Instagram "story" and didn't know how to stop it so I could copy and paste -- but Javi was asked why he retired while Yuzuru didn't - and Javi said something like, Yuzuru is continuing while I'm retiring, "If he wants to destroy himself..." (meaning Yuzu)

I think he was frustrated that the interviewer kept asking about Yuzuru, would he be at Javi's ice show Revolution "No, it's MY ice show..." If there was a villain (in his life? in a fantasy?) would it be a lizard, a Japanese skater, a robot?? And he said "A Japanese skater"

Oh something like that. Does anybody have a transcript? It looked odd, but I may have misunderstood.

R544 You can take a screen shot - Shift + Command + 4, drag the box to select the area you want to save, then release. I saw the translation on instastory and:

1) the Japanese archenemy thing was in jest.

2) Q. ah but [Hanyu] hasn't done a Revolution on ice, huh? /A. nono of course not! This is a Spanish thing

3) Q. when you announced that you retired, did he call you like maan Javi why we were having a great time!/A. (takes deep breath) No. I was like look if you want to destroy yourself (as in a casual physical way I'd say [this looks like a tn, not sure]) do so...

Rizzo 85.52 at Denkova-Staviski Cup

'(Takes deep breath)' lmao he's a step away from killing everybody and then himself.

Thank you R545!

I know Javi is frustrated being asked about Yuzu all the time but why doesn't he take it out on the cretin journalists telling them to stop asking him about his 'former' training mate instead of going full passive aggressive on Yuzu himself in his replies. It makes him look like a complete dickhead. And funny that his excuse for not inviting Yuzu to ROI is that it's a Spanish show: didn't know Plushenko, Yuna, Capellini etc. were Spanish. Just admit you don't want to be overshadowed in your ice show.

R541 Jesus those scores for Zhou are abysmal. I think his scores would be higher if he stuck to triples. Although, his 3A was UR too. Doubles then.

Javi confirmed he'll go to Euros and Nats and then retire. He hasn't properly trained for the better part of this year, but with the current lineup of Euro men, who needs proper training!

R519 Yes, I think you're right. Orser doesn't seem to know what to do and Med seems to completely ignore him. With Orser and Hanyu/Javi, at the KC, you can see Orser constantly looking at them to assess their mental state and both sides talking things through (especially Hanyu). I bet Orser was expecting to get a Russian Yuna or a female Hanyu and is now wondering what the hell he got himself into.

R549 ROI isn't feasible for most competitive skaters. In Hanyu's case, it's during GP and Nationals. I don't know why Fernandez didn't just say that although he's never been the best interviewee in his native language.

Itsuki Uno has announced another autograph session: December 23rd at the Osaka Chacott (Uno's costumemaker) during Nationals.

r553 Booking my tickets to Japan now. I'll tell Itsuki he's a DL fave and you all send him your love.

Good lord, Javi doesn't have an SP yet.

Just watched Karen Chen's short at Tallinn. 3Lz (UR)-1T, 2A, 3Lo (UR,fall), Score 52.93 8th.

Well, it was better than Gracie's. Would have been ok if the jumps were there - nice spins.

I have beated Chen

I would have beated her too.

So it looks like the reason for Zhou's high opinion of himself is the result of his Oly trip rather than any actual achievement? Geez, I thought his UR problem worsened because of injuries but it seems it's been bad all along.

r555 Wtf, how come Hanyu looks chubby in the face in this photo.

Tbh, the European field IS rather tragic right now, Headcase Kolyada, headcase Aliev, coaching-what-coaching Vasilijevs, bizarre-incidents Samohin. But if Fernandez loses to Brezina or Voronov or Samarin, won't that be a laugh.

[quote]But if Fernandez loses to Brezina or Voronov or Samarin, won't that be a laugh.

Given Javi's performance at JO, that's a real possibility.

[quote]Hanyu looks chubby in the face in this photo

He should try a Rivaland shake and drain all fluids from his face and body.

Javi is such a fucking slacker. I wonder if Javi's noticed how much closer Brian appears to be to Yuzu now that he's out of the picture?

Why didn't Javi work with Antonio Najarro again after Malaguena? I don't get why he stuck with David Wilson for so long.

R562 Probably because David Wilson demands so little of him.

R547 thinking about what you said about killing everybody and then himself... Two driven boys - Yuzu conquers both quads and skating skills to take Patrick (and everybody else) down - Nathan sees that the only way he has a chance is to do a ridiculous number of quads if it kills him (and it nearly takes out his hip) - at Japan Open, he said, "Yuzuru and Shoma will always be the best skaters..."

Speaking of... Shoma watches all this and thinks, shit, I've got to land four quads if it twists my knee into knots every time or I might as well give up -- Zhou adds every kind of quad even before being able to land one with a UR -- Boyang and Kolyada have nervous breakdowns and/or injuries, chasing the quads and the skating.... and Javi says fuck it, three quads and I'm done you maniacs (though I'll sulk about it and go all passive-aggressive on you and put on my show ads that "Plushenko is without a doubt the greatest skater that ever lived and every human being knows it....."

Meanwhile the ISU changes all the rules - and if Yuzuru retires, will everybody just say whew and go back to one quad and a 3A per program?

I made a new thread. I will be out the rest of the day / evening and was not sure how much longer this thread had left.

* before Zhou can land even one quad WITHOUT a UR...

Thanks for the new thread!

Brezina's taking Europeans. Javi's fundamental lassitude re: training might have been beaten out of him temporarily by Orser and Yuzu, but it's making a major comeback now that he can smell that sweet sweet retirement in the air.

2 minutes 50 ....Kovtun goes butt down and legs in the air

R568 Poor guy. What a bizarre fall. Too bad Tat wasn't around to give him words of encouragement.

Suspenders should be banned.

R560 What makes the Rivaland situation more awkward is that they were (well, still are) selling a Grand Prix Med-themed lucky bag likely thinking she was going to make it to the final. Now all of the products she's endorsed are 40-50% off.

R571 Those are some seriously unflattering bangs she has in those ads--sort of reminds me of Karen Carpenter but at least Karen had the sense to wear them longer. No wonder she's depressed.

R571 But I mean they can literally sell anything Hanyu at a competition he won't be competing in, like GPF even if he WD, and sell out. Med just isn't "in" currently because there is a new Russian queen.

Wow. Kovtun's program, movement, mannerism, and down to the haircut mimic Jeremy Abbott.

I mean he actually looks the hottest he has ever looked.

R571: What is that crap?

R575 it's how Brian Orser maintains his girlish figure.

Hanyu WD from GPF

Not surprising and it's obviously for the best, but that really sucks. Shoma will splat a bunch of times, get +5 GOE on his ugly 4F and win, blech.

With their current layouts and the GOE's they've been getting, Shoma has about a 2 fall cushion over Nathan, even if he < that 4s again. How much of a melt down will we see from the fans if that happens?

So Orser will going to Rus Nationals. I'm ready for drama.

R580 Does Orser have any non vital organs he may need emergency surgery for? Spleen perhaps?

If his ankle gets healed around early Janurary, I hope he will go to 4CCs, but I fucking know he won't. Sometimes, fans think he needs competitions to get ready for Worlds, but he won't waste time competing there even if he's healthy. I know him.

I saw it coming but didn't expect my level of interest for GPF to plummet this much with the confirmation. Well, sorry but with Hanyu's WD I have utterly lost all interest in the men's field at GPF. Last year even with Nathan on a high and Shoma riding the hype to Olympics, GPF didn't have that spark. With all men struggling this year and Nathan less than stellar, the field is going to be a bore.

The ladies discipline is where the hype will be no doubt. OGM. Two 3A jumpers. The rest are darkhorses for a bronze or even silver.

Juniors should be interesting too, I guess.

And potentially, female quadsters coming onboard the senior circuit.

I'm with you. I cringe when I think about Yuzuru continuing to train the 4A on that ankle. I wish he'd been able to give up the 4Lo and do the best 3-quad program he could do, but I guess that's just not who he is. I mean, even Nathan has been doing 3-quad free skates this season and he doesn't have the GOE/PCS that Yuzuru has to back up a very-slightly watered down content.

Just damn with the perfectionism. But then, I'm not him and he got where he is by being who he is. Still, maybe Javi had a point, if you're determined to destroy yourself, then just do it. But we could have had some beautiful stuff if he'd been willing to accept the reality of a fragile ankle and pare it down. And he also could have hurt himself on his more consistent jumps, but I don't think it's a coincidence that he's had these last two bad injuries happen on a 4Lz and a 4Lo.

I thought ISU/JSF would hold out until the Dec 3rd deadline to announce but they didn't. I wonder if they're fed up and truly ready now, after this latest WD and another injury, to replace Hanyu and give either Shoma or Nathan the edge or boost in scores at GPF. Although GPF will be a bore, the outcome and resulting scores will at least be interesting. How hard will ISU/the politics try to fix the results and for whom?

Will the current world record scores hold after this GPF, or won't they?

I'm 90% betting that new SP, FS, and combined records will be set in the ladies.

60% for the men in the FS and combined.

I finally really do see why they've been promoting the h-e-l-l out of Shoma. JSF won't know how to go on living without the mega-draw cash cow - I think I read NHK didn't live up to expectations with Prince Shoma instead of their king. Maybe the double-whammy of Miss Triple Axel Rika and Shoma hanging in with 4 quads to challenge if not finally overcome the now-self-coaching and uberbusy-Yalie Nathan. I do like his skating better. I'm not even sure I prefer Nathan's quads - at least Shoma puts those whooshes on the end to present his jumps - Nathan's just kinda sorta there, getting the job done. Ugh.

Come on Junhwan. Prove a tall boy can jump! (I'm pretty confident about his artistry.) But with a South Korean challenger, the JSP will be even more ridiculous promoting their heir apparent and his weird bro-in-tow.

Injuries are: right leg joint lateral ligament injury, triangular ligament injury and right peroneal muscle tendon injury.

3 weeks of rest, then 1 month of rehab.

I don't know what the JSP is either. I'm just gutted. Even expecting this - even thinking he HAD to WD, or just re-injure - those were his only options. Still... the horror of what happened at Rostelecom is now hitting. And they thought 6 weeks would cure him last time - and when it didn't, he said the doctors didn't understand what was wrong. I'm not confident of their 3 week/1 month estimate.

If you're in Vancouver, the upside is people are now practically giving their tickets away.

At least Canada will have a participant in the GPF. And Orser will just have Junhwan. Life happens while you're making other plans...

Oh hell, I just remembered Gogo got in! (I tend to ignore juniors)

He withdrew ! Thats good because he won´t aggravate the injury any further by competing with it ! If he would have competed I would have watched the GPF but now I can sleep and I do not have to wake up in the middle of the night to see him compete

r587 Free Skate will probably get broken but I don't think the total or SP will. Nathan needs to skate a 6 quad competition cleanly to break 297. Shoma has the ability to break the free and total even with a couple mistakes but he's been making multiple every competition.

r593 If we're counting juniors, Lajoie/Lagha actually earned their spot in ice dance. No idea if they're medal prospects.

r582 It's cutting it close even if things go as planned. Rehab ends 2 weeks before men's SP but seems reckless to go on only 2 weeks full training when it isn't an important competition. I feel conflicted about it - Of course I want to see Hanyu skate but don't want him to rush it and the organizers deserve to get some comeuppance for those ridiculous ticket prices.

R595 If his resting period started this week, then he would have a little over 3 weeks before men's SP, I think. Still cutting it close, given how long it took him to heal the last time. They say it's not as bad but who knows. I too want the 4CC organizers to get their comeuppance. All event tickets are in the $400-500 range. They also split single tickets into events, rather than days - e.g., even if men's and women's SPs are on the same day, you have to purchase separate tickets. Hope Nathan and Vincent carry the day for them.

More on Boyang's injury: "Boyang sprained his right ankle last season, and his left foot was diagnosed with cortical osteitis from doing toe jumps. They were treating this via injections to the damaged areas."

R597, these are old news from last season. He should be ok now, hopefully. Boyang is a late starter in the season and he is struggling with the coaching mess and with the new judging system. I don’t think the those are related to injury. His team also had pretty bad strategy heading into the season, he was initially training for 5 quads in the FP, including the introduction of a new quad for him, the 4lo. I think the lack of a structured plan for how Boyang should tackle this season led to this underwhelming results for this season. He should be better by 4cc and worlds. Some of his fans are desperate to blame his results on injury, I hope for Boyang’s sake they are wrong, it’s a much easier matter to overcome if he’s just not well prepared for the new season.

Here's Boyang himself saying "I'm not fully healed from last year" (this is since Rostelecom when Hanyu was re-injured)

Ting Cui is such a delight to watch. If she ever finds consistency (that's a big IF), I'd put her on the world team with Bradie.