Sota Yamamoto | Page 97 | Golden Skate

Sota Yamamoto

Thank you to everyone who's updated this thread recently! Gosh, it's been almost two months, and even the music in the OP has been edited by a mod instead of me... :palmf: Anyways, it's good to be back. I've missed Sota and my thread :)
There's been a lot of little tidbits of Sota news, and I'd just be cluttering the thread if I tried to repost them, so I'll share them from now on, and pass the old ones.

I'll start by posting this nice 1-minute video by Colantotte from a few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCDsheoUzY&ab_channel=ColantotteOfficial
Sota is answering a question he received - 'What do you do if your motivation is not increasing?' For Sota, when keeping his motivation during regular exercise or expression training is getting difficult, he likes to, say, listen to his favorite artists' music, or devote his full attention to things he can do while thinking what he can do on that day to achieve his goal.
He also has a really nice quote at the end of the interview, and I have to share it here:
'本当に今を大切に生きていけば将来えいい方向に繋がっていくんじゃないかなという風に思います' - per Google Translate, 'If you truly live your life cherishing the present, I think it will lead you in a good direction in the future'.
I like that!
 
Just a week until Kinoshita Trophy! Sota is being a busy boy these days, not only is he preparing for his competition, but his monthly Unlim chat with fans is coming up this Monday: https://x.com/so_ta0110/status/1816752994140250201
Translation:
"Next week, Monday, July 29th, from 8pm, we will have an online meetup! Dream on Ice, All Japan Training Camp, Prince Kagoshima, and heading into this season! There are also reviews of the SP costumes and footage of the FS choreography, so be sure to check it out! Looking forward to it."
Speaking of Sota's Twitter, he also posted some photos of the above-mentioned training camp, where skaters were taught by Kurt Browning and Alissa Czisny:

Nice to see Sota always having Kazuki by his side! ☺️
 
Sota showing off multiple necklaces by Colantotte during his online fan meeting this Monday:

I personally like the silver ones the best as I think Sota looks regal with bling on ☺️

And here he is showing his new SP costume -

... Not such a big fan, it looks too similar to his purple Rachmaninov FS. It doesn't strike me as very attention-grabbing or very interesting, either, though the color suits him. I wish he'd resurrect the black costume with the little cape/frill he originally had for Air On the G String. That one was cool.

And, a more or less confirmation that with him being a Nationals medalist plus in two GP (and hopefully a Challenger, too?), there won't be all that many domestic competitions for Sota this season:
 
I read that Sota WD from the Kinoshita Trophy, no reason given so far. Hope he's alright and just busy with preparations for the Italy training camp/beginning of the season :pray:
So do I. I hope we get a reassurance he is alright. I recall back when he broke his ankle for the second time in 2016, he WD from IIzuka Cup, a summer competition in early August, which doesn't help me feel more at ease. Some fans on Twitter are worried as well. Nothing seemed off in the Monday online talk, and although I haven't finished watching the archived video yet, if he'd announced it on Monday, people wouldn't be surprised by the WD today. It must have been a last-minute decision.
 
So do I. I hope we get a reassurance he is alright. I recall back when he broke his ankle for the second time in 2016, he WD from IIzuka Cup, a summer competition in early August, which doesn't help me feel more at ease. Some fans on Twitter are worried as well. Nothing seemed off in the Monday online talk, and although I haven't finished watching the archived video yet, if he'd announced it on Monday, people wouldn't be surprised by the WD today. It must have been a last-minute decision.
I agree it would be nice to have reassurance :pray:
Still, seeing Kazuki being a complete hot mess at Kinoshita, made me think that maybe Sota had the foresight to realise he's not competition-ready yet and preferred to abstain - that what was Kao did, too, and I think it's a smart move reputation-wise.
 
I agree it would be nice to have reassurance :pray:
Still, seeing Kazuki being a complete hot mess at Kinoshita, made me think that maybe Sota had the foresight to realise he's not competition-ready yet and preferred to abstain - that what was Kao did, too, and I think it's a smart move reputation-wise.

I hope you're right, or that Sota's shoes broke down, or something. The camp/show in Italy participation will tell us more (a week from now). The thing is, Rainbow says he was saying in the Monday video that he was looking forward to competing at Kinoshita, and hoped his fans would enjoy the stream. And unlike Kao, he hasn't posted any explanation on social media so far. Sota usually does that when he's depressed about something - he tends to take a few days before showing up on Twitter/IG after competitions where he did worse than he'd hoped for (like Cup of China last year). And there was total radio silence when he got injured in the past.

Knowing that he has been practicing the 4F, had some degree of success with it in training, and was planning to show it in his FS, is exactly why I'm worried now. In Chubu two years ago, he attempted the 4F, so it's not unthinkable he'd want to try it at Kinoshita Trophy.
I also wonder if something about the ice might have been off, since all of the boys underperformed?
Whatever happened, the WD came at the last minute, so I'm guessing it happened during the pre-SP practice.
I truly hope Sota is well, and especially so his legs and feet. :pray:
 
I also hope that Sota is okay. He's had so much bad luck with injuries in the past that it would be really unfair, if it happened to him again now. :frown: Sending him good vibes just in case, while hoping that the reason for his WD was/is nothing serious. :pray:
 
I think we'll know this weekend already, because that's most likely when skaters will be leaving for Italy. If Sota isn't among them, journalists will ask questions as early as at departure. I'm pretty sure journalists will also travel there to shoot footage for Japanese TV about how their Olympic hopefuls are doing at the camp. So, I dearly hope he is there :pray: .
Guys, I'm such a nervous wreck these days. I can only think of 3 reasons serious enough to make Sota go completely silent, and none of them is what I want to befall him - a serious injury to his leg/foot/back, or some sad event in the family, or one of the bolts snapping. I just thought of that third possibility yesterday - Plushenko in Sochi team event comes to mind, and although he was way older than Sota, his jump content wasn't as hard as Sota's. I am really hoping it's none of the above. 📿 :pray: 🍀
 
I think we'll know this weekend already, because that's most likely when skaters will be leaving for Italy. If Sota isn't among them, journalists will ask questions as early as at departure. I'm pretty sure journalists will also travel there to shoot footage for Japanese TV about how their Olympic hopefuls are doing at the camp. So, I dearly hope he is there :pray: .
Guys, I'm such a nervous wreck these days. I can only think of 3 reasons serious enough to make Sota go completely silent, and none of them is what I want to befall him - a serious injury to his leg/foot/back, or some sad event in the family, or one of the bolts snapping. I just thought of that third possibility yesterday - Plushenko in Sochi team event comes to mind, and although he was way older than Sota, his jump content wasn't as hard as Sota's. I am really hoping it's none of the above. 📿 :pray: 🍀
I really hope he's alright! Please keep us updated when you learn more. Fingers crossed it is going to be good news.
:ghug:
 
I think we'll know this weekend already, because that's most likely when skaters will be leaving for Italy. If Sota isn't among them, journalists will ask questions as early as at departure. I'm pretty sure journalists will also travel there to shoot footage for Japanese TV about how their Olympic hopefuls are doing at the camp. So, I dearly hope he is there :pray: .
Guys, I'm such a nervous wreck these days. I can only think of 3 reasons serious enough to make Sota go completely silent, and none of them is what I want to befall him - a serious injury to his leg/foot/back, or some sad event in the family, or one of the bolts snapping. I just thought of that third possibility yesterday - Plushenko in Sochi team event comes to mind, and although he was way older than Sota, his jump content wasn't as hard as Sota's. I am really hoping it's none of the above. 📿 :pray: 🍀
You know, another thing crossed my mind: what if the issue is not so much the seriousness of the injury, but the timing?
I can imagine all the skaters are really looking forwards to the olympic training camp. If he had an injury/illness that would get in the way of this opportunity, I think it would be enough for him to get very upset and go silent on social media, even if the injury/sickness itself is not that serious long-term 🤔
 
You know, another thing crossed my mind: what if the issue is not so much the seriousness of the injury, but the timing?
I can imagine all the skaters are really looking forwards to the olympic training camp. If he had an injury/illness that would get in the way of this opportunity, I think it would be enough for him to get very upset and go silent on social media, even if the injury/sickness itself is not that serious long-term 🤔
Hopefully. I don't think Sota would keep this silent about a minor issue, but I hope I am wrong and you are right!

I saw this when scrolling for any Sota news on Twitter. A junior West Japan skater, freshly out of Novice, Kaito Sano, likes Sota, and was skating to Dragon in the FS. 😊
 
No news so far, unfortunately. I guess I was wrong, and the public will learn of Sota's skating status when the show in Varese comes up. It shouldn't take a long time for a word to reach us, as the show is tomorrow. I hope Sota is there, and is well. :pray:
Good timing with the show, too, because incidentally, the GP Finland tickets go on sale tomorrow as well, IIRC. It will be good to know what the chances are of seeing Sota in Finland before I buy the tickets - if there are still any left by the time I make up my mind, lol... and if they're even in my price range. I've never been to a GP before, but heard they can be quite expensive. :shrug:
 
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