Quote Originally Posted by museksk8r View Post
He's a dream, a rare, beautiful gem, but I hope the Japanese media gives him some space and allows him to breathe and live life and train comfortably and as normally as possible. I would really hate to see him endure what happened to Midori Ito in the leadup to the Albertville Olympics. The immense weight of overwhelming pressure and expectation was too burdensome for her to endure. Even though she should be nothing but proud of her Olympic silver, there is absolutely no question that she easily could have won the gold given the rather lackluster skating in the LP there.
The media loves his story of being a 'survivor of the earthquake'. However, Yuzuru doesn't want to let that be an excuse for his poor performances. And I admire that quality in a competitor - making no excuses for his/her mistakes. I don't think he'll be as big as a household name as Mao Asada, but he's definitely going to be one of Japan's media favourites.

As for Midori, she was the only dominant Japanese female skater at that time (please correct me if I am wrong), so all eyes were on her. At least for Yuzuru, there's Daisuke, Kozuka and possibly Oda to share the burden.