When will Fumie Suguri retire? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

When will Fumie Suguri retire?

Blades of Passion said:
The latter is called a critique; ...therefore use advice about what needs to be improved.
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There are many levels of "critique" and forgive me to say that IMO, subjectively pointing out negative aspects is the most easiest critique.
If your post #11 was meant to be of any advice to Fumie, you could have ended your words with "I wish Fumie will do that" instead of "I wish Fumie had done that" so that she won't take it as bashing (like I got the impression), but encouragement. She reads English perfectly well you know.
 
pangtongfan said:
Any of the men who competed in singles up to 30 were clearly past their best before date as amateur competitors by then too. Think of Eldredge and Stojko in SLC, Boitano in Lillehammer. And in the case of Boitano as a pro he was a phenom who had taken pro skating to a new level and almost unbeatable. As for how people viewed them I think many people said Stojko stayed far too long, and many have now said Boitano's comeback was pretty much a waste but atleast he was able to slide right back into his phenomenal pro career with ease. Eldredge people have been more kind towards, but that is probably because of his bronze at the 2001 Worlds and gold at the 2002 Nationals. He is a rare exception who achieved nearly similar success (considering he was never a frequent gold or dominant skater) at that age to his prime years, but he is just that, a rare exception. Butyrskaya is a women who didnt take so much heat competing up until 29 but that is since again she is a rare case of someone who was competitive still at that age. In most cases though singles skater of that age belong in the pros, if they want to continue skating that is, even the true greats such as Boitano with more talent than Fumie. Of course there could be those rare exceptions as I said, but it is clear by now Fumie is not one of them. She has tried for 5 years to see if she is one of them and she so clearly isnt.

She is well past her prime, has skating quality and reputation have gradually regressed since 2006. It is obvious by now she doesnt have even the tiniest chance of matching or bettering her top career achievements- 3 non gold World medals, 2 Olympic top 5s, and a Grand Prix final title. So what is the point of continuing and holding out false hope for something that isnt going to happen. How can a former mutli World medalist and contender be happy seeing herself continually drop in the ranks and not even be a contender of any sort anymore. I actually liked Fumie in the past, and would have liked to have seen her have a satisfying pro career or doing other things in the sport such as coaching, choreography, other avenues. If Jen Robinson can make a living as a pro skater so can Fumie. And if Sussie Wynne can make a career in skating so could Fumie.
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Closure. Perhaps closure for herself, even if she doesn't make it to Worlds.
 
pangtongfan said:
Does she realize her competitive prime ended almost 5 years ago now? I actually used to like her but her current plight is almost becoming embarassing.
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Do we realize it is not of our business to comment if the athletes want to continue to do what they like and have invested during most of their lives, while we are judging it from our sofa eating pizza?

Am I too old to start skating?? who will decide it for me? (rhetorical question)
 
seniorita said:
Do we realize it is not of our business to comment if the athletes want to continue to do what they like and have invested during most of their lives, while we are judging it from our sofa eating pizza?

Am I too old to start skating?? who will decide it for me? (rhetorical question)
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Whatever :rolleye: as fans of the sport we are entitled to have our opinions on things. Of course Suguri continuing to skate wont be dependent on what we think, but those of us who think it is ridiculous someone this washed up is insistent on staying amateur are still free to say so. And there are people who certainly can have control of whether she continues such as the Japanese federation and others who I suspect are going to run out of patience soon if they havent already. You will see.
 
I'm not sure what to think here. If Fumie skates because she wants to, that's great. If she skates because she has no other opportunities ......... well, that's rather sad and unfortunate. :disapp:
 
Trivia questions:

1. Rank these all-time great Japanese skaters in order of how many Japanese national Championships they won:

Miki Ando, Shizuka Arakawa, Mao Asada, Miwa Fukahara, Etsaka Inada, Midori Ito, Yukari Nakano, Akiko Suzuki, Yuka Sato, Emi Watanabe :rock: (Hint: Fumie has five. :) )

2. What Japanese male skater has more National Championships than any female? (Hint: his daughter has two as well -- I am not sure if his father also has one, in 1931-32?).
 
If the competing still makes Suguri happy, I have nothing against her continuing. I wonder though where she will be competing? Will she have a place in Grand Prix series as she was not competing in 2010 Worlds or Olympics? (ETA: Now I notice that she appears on the ladies GP list).

Another matter that worries me, will she be able to place on the forum in Japan Nationals?
 
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Jaana said:
If the competing still makes Suguri happy, I have nothing against her continuing. I wonder though where she will be competing? Will she have a place in Grand Prix series as she was not competing in 2010 Worlds or Olympics?
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Suguri received 2 GP assignments - Skate Canada (she's been invited there many times in the past) and TEB. She's ranked #24 in the ISU World standings and #35 in Season Best scores list.
 
Sylvia said:
Suguri received 2 GP assignments - Skate Canada (she's been invited there many times in the past) and TEB. She's ranked #24 in the ISU World standings and #35 in Season Best scores list.
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Thanks, I noticed that before your posting and corrected the matter one minute earlier than your posting above, LOL.
 
If the Japanese Federation is willing to send her to the GP, then why shouldn't Fumie Suguri continue her competitive career?
 
It would be cool if Fumie skated competitively into her 40s. I don't think that's ever happened before. Maybe Gizmo will join her.
 
I'm surprised she's continuing but I always say let them retire when they are ready. It doesn't matter how I feel about them. I rather them retire when they are ready rather than a injury force them to do so.
 
Mathman said:
Trivia questions:

1. Rank these all-time great Japanese skaters in order of how many Japanese national Championships they won:

Miki Ando, Shizuka Arakawa, Mao Asada, Miwa Fukahara, Etsaka Inada, Midori Ito, Yukari Nakano, Akiko Suzuki, Yuka Sato, Emi Watanabe :rock: (Hint: Fumie has five. :) )

2. What Japanese male skater has more National Championships than any female? (Hint: his daughter has two as well -- I am not sure if his father also has one, in 1931-32?).
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I had to look for the answers in Japanese Wikipedia, and yes some surprises! Thanks for the questions, especially #1!
 
Anyone have any predictions look at her grand prix events how she will fare? I see around a 6th place finish in both.
 
She'll start off this year with Tokyo regionals so we'll know how she does there and predict afterwards.
 
Blades of Passion said:
That's what I find troubling. This has honestly been her downfall throughout her entire career. She never pushed herself hard enough to get a Triple-Triple combination and she didn't work on her flexibility either to improve her Spirals (and Spins).
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You can fault her genetics for her lack of flexibility, but it's ridiculous to say she didn't push herself. She learned all those damn catchfoot spirals, I-spin, and donut spin to adapt to the CoP. She's gone for 2 flips and 2 lutzes since 2004. She's overcome multiple injuries since 2002. That doesn't sound like someone who "didn't push herself hard enough."

BTW, here's a recent interview of hers. Sheds some light on her desire to continue instead of retiring like others want her to: http://www.japanskates.com/blog/

JS: Is the Japan Skating Federation supportive of your decision to keep skating?

FS: Yes, they are. I think I have to offer them a lot, you know… When I was young, they helped me so much, so now it’s my turn to give back to them. So that’s what I’m thinking for the next few years.
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Fozzie Bear said:
You can fault her genetics for her lack of flexibility, but it's ridiculous to say she didn't push herself. She learned all those damn catchfoot spirals, I-spin, and donut spin to adapt to the CoP. She's gone for 2 flips and 2 lutzes since 2004. She's overcome multiple injuries since 2002. That doesn't sound like someone who "didn't push herself hard enough."

BTW, here's a recent interview of hers. Sheds some light on her desire to continue instead of retiring like others want her to: http://www.japanskates.com/blog/
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Fumie is great. She's medaled 3 times at worlds. She's a GPF champion. She's a 4CC champion. I'd say she's one of the most successful skaters right now.
 
Fozzie Bear said:
You can fault her genetics for her lack of flexibility, but it's ridiculous to say she didn't push herself. She learned all those damn catchfoot spirals, I-spin, and donut spin to adapt to the CoP. She's gone for 2 flips and 2 lutzes since 2004. She's overcome multiple injuries since 2002. That doesn't sound like someone who "didn't push herself hard enough."
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Catchfoot spirals aren't hard to learn. EVERY competitor had to do that. She didn't specifically focus on trying to improve her positions, though. Her genetics doesn't have much to do with it. Sure, she might never have an amazing Spiral Sequence, but it could have been better. Yu-Na Kim didn't have much flexibility 4 years ago, but look how much her stretch has improved since then. Yu-Na's genetics didn't suddenly change. ;)

2Flips and 2Lutzes is whatever. Fumie does that because she doesn't have a 3Loop and it's really the minimum for a top-level skater to be attempting, considering the lack of a 3-3 combination. In some competitions during recent years she hasn't even attempted a 3Sal...she only does toe-pick jumps and double axels. I've also only seen her attempt a 3-jump combination ONCE in her entire career and doing the 3-jump combination is very important with CoP.

So, again, she hasn't attempted to really improve her skating. She keeps dropping her level of skating, in fact.
 
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