Mao Asada

Here is a preview of a travel show filmed in New Zealand starring Mao and Mai that will be aired on Sept 21st on TV Tokyo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGxZu4qKhIU

I wish I was having this much fun!

What I'd love to know is if Mao and Mai, in NZ, also did the Lord of the Rings tour. That would be trippy.

Triple Axel Revolution　-Mao- :yay:

gotoschool said:

Here is a preview of a travel show filmed in New Zealand starring Mao and Mai that will be aired on Sept 21st on TV Tokyo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGxZu4qKhIU

I wish I was having this much fun!

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Here is the links.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26cw2w_%E6%B5%85%E7%94%B0%E7%9C%9F%E5%A4%AE-%E6%B5%85%E7%94%B0%E8%88%9E-%E7%B4%A0%E9%A1%94%E3%81%AE%E3%83%97%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%99%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E6%97%85-%E5%89%8D%E7%AF%87_sport
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26cx97_%E6%B5%85%E7%94%B0%E7%9C%9F%E5%A4%AE-%E6%B5%85%E7%94%B0%E8%88%9E-%E7%B4%A0%E9%A1%94%E3%81%AE%E3%83%97%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%99%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E6%97%85-%E5%BE%8C%E7%B7%A8_sport
The show was so much fun to watch! Mao and Mai tried Bungee Jumping in New Zealand

Thanks to the uploader :thumbsup:

gotoschool said:

...

Male announcer: By chance.

Adelina: By chance: maybe. She was the kind who spent a long time preparing to become first place. Nobody in Japan hid that fact. You can't imagine what happened in Japan. Mao Asada, it is a name like only the president of the country can compare.

..

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Thanks for the translation! I really appreciate being able to understand reports about Mao in languages other than English. Do you happen to know what they meant by "by chance"?

P.S. I think the female announcer is actually Irina Slutskaya.

BounceAround said:

Thanks for the translation! I really appreciate being able to understand reports about Mao in languages other than English. Do you happen to know what they meant by "by chance"?

P.S. I think the female announcer is actually Irina Slutskaya.

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I think Irina means that Mao had spent so much time preparing for the Olympics that her comeback was not unexpected or "by chance," while the male announcer thinks that her great skate was perhaps unique. In this sense, they are both right to some extent. It was a rare skate for Mao or anyone, but with Mao's level of preparation, a comeback was likely especially considering her competitive history, Worlds 2007, Grand Prix Final 2007 and Worlds 2013, in which she placed low in the SP and came back strong in the LP. Of course, Mao's scores and placement in the Sochi LP didn't reflect her exceptional performance level unfortunately. Bouncearound you do a really good job of helping me out with the announcer's names considering that you don't speak Russian, first Maxim Tronkov now Irina Slutskaya . I can't believe how young Irina sounds or how old (relatively) Maxim sounds.

Here is a video link for Mao's travel show with Mai filmed in New Zealand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbtsOmDG_DM

You can find a translation at the following website: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...hread-starting-on-her-23rd-bd-3.89260/page-16

It looks like a beautiful and entertaining program.

Frankly, I think the bad SP was "by chance" while the LP was Mao's true ability/potential. Considering how prepared she was for this competition, and the three amazing performances she delivered afterward, I'd say the SP was more of a surprise. Yes, Mao has suffered from inconsistency over the years, but it's not like she's never delivered good LPs (hello, ill-rewarded two-triple-axel 2010 Worlds skate).

Sandpiper said:

Frankly, I think the bad SP was "by chance" while the LP was Mao's true ability/potential. Considering how prepared she was for this competition, and the three amazing performances she delivered afterward, I'd say the SP was more of a surprise. Yes, Mao has suffered from inconsistency over the years, but it's not like she's never delivered good LPs (hello, ill-rewarded two-triple-axel 2010 Worlds skate).

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If I didn't know better I would say you were the editor of my posts because I had written the same thing about the SP being the exception but unintentionally left it out in my final version. The cut and paste must have gone haywire. I think what is considered to be Mao's inconsistency is actually common for almost all skaters even most of those who are great, especially considering all the risks Mao takes with her triple axels and her other technical elements (level 4 spins and steps, 8 triples, etc) and the reworking of her jumps which I questioned for a couple of seasons, though she proved me wrong in the long run, and her skating skills improved even more than her jumps.

gotoschool said:

If I didn't know better I would say you were the editor of my posts because I had written the same thing about the SP being the exception but unintentionally left it out in my final version. The cut and paste must have gone haywire. I think what is considered to be Mao's inconsistency is actually common for almost all skaters even most of those who are great, especially considering all the risks Mao takes with her triple axels and her other technical elements (level 4 spins and steps, 8 triples, etc) and the reworking of her jumps which I questioned for a couple of seasons, though she proved me wrong in the long run, and her skating skills improved even more than her jumps.

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Lol, maybe you're the editor of my posts, because you just said the part I decided to leave out from my post: Mao's inconsistency is at least partially due to her technical difficulty (the triple axels, the eight triples, the 3Lo combos she sometimes goes for, ect.) as well as her reworking her technique. And there are other skaters who aren't as ambitious but are even more inconsistent.

One more day until Mao's Birthday!

yeees! ONE MORE DAY Precisely, nine more hours in Japan time

It's already September 25th in Japan so happy birthday Mao!!

I hope she has a wonderful day and makes all of her wishes come true! The season is barely starting and I already miss her a lot but I hope she rests well and does everything she wants to do!

Happy Birthday Mao!! You have given such beautiful and inspirational performances that have taught me how to overcome life's difficulties. In them, you have shown the full spectrum of human emotion like the majesty of a mountain range that traverses the deep valley of melancholy before ascending to the peak of jubilation with the levity of a light- hearted smile, then comes your tear jerking skates of redemption- the bittersweet offering in between, which leaves the deepest impression because it is a recipe that combines all life's contrasting ingredients. Thank you for the brave and resilient character you have displayed in the rink. And thank you for showing the lighter side of life in the travel and games shows you have hosted and for your charm and amusement acting as a skating coach for the four stooges and playing ping pong. May you have a long and happy life, with or without competitive skating, though I will miss you dearly if you retire.

Mao shares the same birthday with the great Noble prize winning writer, William Faulkner. I thought I would show how her quotes and skating relate to his.

Mao: April 2013 - I have suffered over the past two years for competitive and technical reasons as well as due to my psychological condition.

William Faulkner: The salvation of the world is through man's (or woman's) suffering.


Mao Asada: Jan, 2013- In order to reach my goal, I have come to accept as unavoidable not being able to turn in a good performance during the competition in front of me.

William Faulkner: All of us have failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.


Mao Asada: July 4, 2013- My unchanging objective has been to become a skater who can give small children a dream.

William Faulkner: The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.


Can't find the quote now, but Mao said that during her Sochi LP, she just concentrated on taking each jump one by one, until she had finally built a monumental performance.

William Faulkner: The man (or woman) who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.


When Mao was asked why she included the triple axel in her programs at the press conference in Japan after Sochi, she said that her dream to was to carry on the tradition of her triple axel hero Midori Ito and that it empowers her during her performances. Also, Tarasova said that she had overcome herself in the Sochi LP.

William Faulkner: Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.


Of course, Mao also broke down her jumping technique and built it from the ground up and finally succeeded in skating the record breaking 8 triple program with level 4 steps and spins.

Faulkner: You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Finally, Mao has held up a mirror to nature with her greatest performances in frozen moments of artistry and athleticism that are worth a gold medal for the soul.

William Faulkner: The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.


In addition to William Faulkner, Mao also shares a birthday with the Academy award winning actress and actor (ladies first): Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglass, who are also husband and wife, and the immensely popular African American actor and singer, Will Smith.. Maybe this another reason why Mao is so dramatic in her performances. Perhaps she inherited part of her Russian soul from the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who was also born on this day. The great classical pianist Glenn Gould, most famous for his performances of Bach, also shares Mao's birthday.

Mr. Gould is famous for the following quote about the role of the artist which reminds me of the personal effect Mao's performances have on me:

"The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity."[46] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould

Happy birthday, Mao!!!!

and oh wow, I did not know that Shostakovich and Gould shared birthdays with Mao. Thank you for the info, gotoschool. Shostakovich is one of my favorite composers and Gould one of my favorite pianists.

Happy Birthday you gorgeous woman.


Mao Asada SP Vancouver: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=681451661952529&set=vb.100002631052338&type=2&theater
Mao Asada FS Vancouver: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=681457651951930&set=vb.100002631052338&type=2&theater

Better if you download the videos on your computer, because the quality is much better.
Use this link to download them: http://en.savefrom.net/

Happy birthday, Mao!

@Alba
Thank you for the videos. For some reason, only the ladies' event is missing from the official Vancouver Youtube, and all of Mao's videos got deleted.

Happy 24th Birthday Mao!

Happy 24th Birthday Mao!

Happy Birthday, Mao!

Happy Birthday to Mao! May you always be surrounded by people and the food you love!