Javier Fernandez | Page 207 | Golden Skate

Javier Fernandez

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
Good heavens, why!? Is the Olympic Village lodging that unbearable? Take in a curling match and relax a bit!

I think that might be because of the Spanish media, they surely wish him to come home as the news still are fresh and not after more than a week. It is such a big thing for Spain, this was the second bronze medal they got from this Olympics.

Javi has looked so happy in pics, his dream came true as he won a medal at the Olympics. It surely must have bothered him that he so narrowly lost the one from the 2014 Olympics... On the other hand after that he won plenty of medals (e.g. 2 WC gold medals and lots of European titles), so the time has been well spent, I would say :laugh:.
 

Olibritt

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2016
Country
Spain
I think that might be because of the Spanish media, they surely wish him to come home as the news still are fresh and not after more than a week. It is such a big thing for Spain, this was the second bronze medal they got from this Olympics.

And the 4th spanish olympic medal ever in Olympic Winter Games History!

I think too that coming back to Spain for a few days, before the Olympic Gala, is the best decisión he could make. These are his third Olympic Games, enjoy his free time there is not a priority at this point and he is not going to resume his training until he comes back to Canada, so using a few days to leave behind the stressful race to the podium and let his family, the press and the Spanish fans take good care of him, could be the best motivation for him to go to Worlds.
He says that he is very tired but physically he’s ok, I guess, he is, probably, mentally and emotionally exhausted at this point. Lets hope that a few days of rest, diversion and love at home makes its magic and, by the time of the Gala, he may be ready to resume training and hungry again for a shinier medal.
I'm so happy I still can't believe it!!

PS It's a pity the arrival time, by the time he can arrive to the airport gates, it will be past midnight in a Sunday night. I like what Hielo Español is doing, inviting his fans to a "welcome party" but I'm not sure about how many people can really make it, apart from the press, of course. Any way, I really don't understand how can anyone enjoy fan's madness after a+10 hour flight! :confused2: That's just me, I know...
 

Tallorder

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2014
I can totally understand Javi capitalizing on this opportunity to celebrate his incredible and historic achievement, at home with his family in his home country. This is how legends are established, and how the next generation becomes inspired and sets out to dream. Nothing to the biggest congratulations to Javi!
 

rosacotton

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
P.S. Can we give :points: to Brian Orser, Proud Papa, Coach of the Year?! I am in awe of how he has coached two of the top men skaters in the world through two Olympics, ending with both Javi and Yuzu on the podium this time. Wow. I take my hat off to him (and Tracy, too!).
 

xibsuarz

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2015
And the media starts flowing in! A radio interview (sounds like Javi was still in Korea and this was on the phone in the gala dinner)
Interviewer: A pleasure to greet an Olympic medalist. Javier, good evening.
Javi: Hi, good evening
I: Congratulation
Thank you very much
How are you? I guess that a few hours later the feeling is different.
J: Yes, yes. The taste is much better, with all my family who has come to see me to the cold Pyeongchang. We are all very happy.
I: Javier tell us how your performance went, how did everything go? What were you feeling?
J: The truth is that we couldn't have asked for more this day. It's been a good day, though not a perfect day. The competition has been very interesting, all the skaters skated very well. And I am happy with the program I performed, the score, and specially getting another medal for our (Spain's) Olympic medal table.
I: Javier, you were feeling gutted (about Sochi), was this a burden on your during all these years?
J: It did bother me a bit, because it was a dream I had for a long time, ever since I saw I could get it, and I didn't. So achieving this has been accomplishing my dream with a lot of joy and excitement, I finally took that burden off.
I: Javier, I have here people more specialized on this matter but I want to go with the emotional part. There is a culture of success that sometimes only values the medals: first, second third. You have achieved it, thankfully. You know what winning is like, you know what it's like to be World champion, European Champion, win at the highest level. You know what the audience's ovation is like. But on this journey, from Sochi to this, I imagine that now what you remember the most is the moments you've been alone. You've worked many hours, you've had to work on the artistic part, the physical part, all those hours and it finally pays off.
J: Everything pays off, exactly. Everything I've done since I was little, practicing this sport, all the effort and sacrifices the people around me have done so I could achieve all my victories it's what it's the most important. The color of the medal doesn't matter, but the medal itself, it carries all that joint effort.
I: I have Pipe (?) here, who likes you a lot. He was very excited, he got here with tissues, snot and he said "I've been up since 6 am, I can't" (laugh). Pipe here is Javier.
Pipe: Javi, congratulations!
J: Thank you very much.
P: We all got very excited. We got very happy because of the medal, which I imagine that you value a lot more as the hours pass by. But in that moment, we felt like the silver slipped away. I don't know if you feel the same.
J: Well at one moment, yeah. Perhaps I felt like I could have gotten the silver. But as i said, the important thing is the Olympic medal itself that takes the weight off my shoulder and leaves me with a good aftertaste. We had never gotten an Olympic medal in figure skating, and now we do.
I: I have here someone who is also very special to me, I consider her a master in sports journalism, 14 Olympic Games. I am sure she experienced this differently, but she greatly appreciates you and has talked a lot about your career. And she talked about this one on social media, Paloma del Río. Paloma, good evening.
Paloma: Good evening, how is it going?
I: How are you, Paloma?
P: Very good now. I'm very happy to listen to Javier, I'm glad to know he's okay. I have seen how his face has changed from the moment he competed this morning to when he got his medal. I imagine it was a little bothersome finding out he wasn't getting the silver, but the bronze. But when you got your medal hanging on your neck, Javier, your life changes, your perspective changes, everything changes. And you see your life pass before your eyes, all that effort have paid off to be there. I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart.
J: Thank you very much, Paloma, really. You couldn't have said it better.
P: I can imagine that. Yesterday I was tweeting, well on Whatsapp with Laura, your sister and I know Antonio and Enriqueta, your parents are there. And I imagine they were very nervous until the moment you came out, until the 3 quads happened, but then there were only 2. But the suffering and sacrifice that, those parents, that family has done. The isolation that Javier has gone through in the last few months to get to this day, Feb 17. Today was the day. Starting from now on, I don't know, I hope he goes to Worlds in Milan. And that afterwards he focuses on living his life and doing whatever he wants. But this is a way of closing it all like the champion he is. Then he can set his life in order and we can enjoy him in Spain, since he's been 8-9 years overseas, he can show us everything he's learned and that he becomes an example to the kids. We see that now already.
I: Do you feel like a pioneer Javi?
J: (laughs) Well there's still a lot of work left to do in this sport. I think we stall have a lot to do to get to the level that I have today, but I have never thought of it to be impossible.
I: Paloma was wondering if you'll be at Worlds. Are you still undecided? Have you made up your mind? I understand that you said that if you got medal at the Games it was more likely you wouldn't go. But I don't know if your perspective has changed.
J: I need to sit down with my coaches, talk it through. And after that we will decide what we'll do, if we''l go to Worlds, if we won't. It's a decision we have to make together and I have to find the strength to go back to training for almost a month and get to Worlds. It's also a very important event and we have to be well prepared.
I: What Paloma said earlier I assume it's a reality for you. You want to live your life beyond all those months thinking about this day. But I don't know which desire will be stronger in you: the desire to break off from it and try your hand at other things that your artistic ability will allow you to do in the future, or if you still like competing.
J: I've spend 20 years dedicating myself solely to skating, it's been a long time doing just one thing. The past few years at the elite, focusing only in your competition, the nerves, the pressure, it makes it all harder and more complicated. But as Paloma said there will be time to enjoy, time that I'm looking forward to because after spending so much time focused on one thing I've missed things, spending time at home, with my people, my family and it's something I miss.
I: Paloma, anything else for Javi?
P: That he enjoys this. I am very happy for him. A shame I couldn't narrate it, it wasn't our turn this time. But as a sports commentator, narrating the success of Spanish athletes it's always satisfying. There is an unavoidable emotional plus, you have a hard time, you sweat, you get tachycardia, but we try to look at it a bit objectively and Javier's career has been impeccable. Vancouver was his first experience, in Sochi there was that mistake with the salchows, but he is so down to Earth, centered, the head set on his shoulders, he has an insurmountable family environment who always gives him the best advice. And now what he has to do enjoy it, regardless of what he does, he will always be recognized as one of the best Spanish athletes in recent times, there's ben 3 or 4 really good. And he's gotten what Spain had failed to achieve, in I don't know how many years we only had 2 medals from the Ochoa siblings and now in these Games we got 2 medals, go figure.
I: Pipe, something else for Javi?
P: (I want to) Congratulate him, of course. And I'm curious how did last night go, between the SP and FS, after seeing everything (the standings), were you able to sleep? Who was the last person you talked to? What did he/she say? How was last night before adding this achievement to your career?
J: Quite relaxed, I was in the village, in my room. And after having dinner I went to bed early because I had to get up at 6 am to practice so there wasn't much we could do. And the last person I talked to was my girl who is also here in Pyeongchang, I talked to her before going to sleep.
I: Very good. Did you see all the messages? All the people that were awake in Spain watching you? All your fellow athletes keeping track of the SP, that were congratulating you sending you their support? It was out of this world.
J: I'm not going to lie...I haven't even gotten to the Village yet. (laughs) But when I have the time I would love to take a look because that's special, too.
I: This is a tremendous success for Spanish sports and for you in particular. You're a centered guy, as Paloma said, transparent, tough on yourself.
P: A crack, he's a crack.
I: You're a phenomenon and you represent us incredibly well. I send you a big hug, enjoy your dinner and have a wonderful time, okay?
J: Thank you very much guys.

(They said goodbye)

They start talking about how they knew Javier would win a medal, it wasn't by chance. Paloma said he had to fight for it because the younger skaters do tons of quads, and score very high TES. But this is figure skating and the artistic part is not as developed in them and it's an important aspect that pays off because veterans like Yuzuru and Javi won the medals. Paloma says that these two made wonderful programs, they can retire at peace, they have done everything, left their mark and that the other skaters use these 4 years to grow and have the charisma these two have. She said that after the SP it was up to him to keep that medal, regardless of what the others did. She said she cried in the ceremony :ghug:
 

tureis

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
WOOW xibsuarz, you are amazing! Thank you so much for translating the whole interview! :eek: :thank:

I am so happy that if there was any disappointment over the medal not being silver but bronze, Javi has shaken it off so fast and is genuinely happy that he has a medal at all, and he can say with total honesty and joy that the color isn't important at all, only what it represents to him and to his country. What a great champion!!! :bow:

Reports are pouring in from last night. It seems there were about 200 people, on Sunday midnight(!) And the best part is, Javi apparently wasn't aware of it at all beforehand! What an experience that must have been! Definitely the first time anything like this happened to him. He even said he felt nervous, seeing all these people. It really was touching to see.

Video from Eurosport - Receiving a hero's welcome indeed! Love how the crowd walked with him all the way to the exit.

Not one but two articles from AS: #1 and #2

Report on Spanish national TV news

Marca's article also includes a video of Javi answering some questions for the media. Would one of our Spanish speakers come to the rescue and translate the important bits? For example where he speaks about contemplating the idea of maybe continuing to skate after this season? ;)
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I´m soo happy for Javi, he well deserved all that attention and it was wonderful to see so many happy people in the airport at midnight...

Isn´t that a marvellous coincidence that the name of the other bronze medalist for Spain is Regino Hernandez, LOL.
 

Olibritt

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2016
Country
Spain
Isn´t that a marvellous coincidence that the name of the other bronze medalist for Spain is Regino Hernandez, LOL.

It isn't really coincidence, those are two of the most common surnames in Spanish...
But you have a point. Do you remember Tintin, the belgian comic? There were two caracters, very funny twins, Dupond&Dupond... Guess how were they called in the spanish versión? Yeah, Hernández&Fernández:rofl:

EDIT: Here's one of those images that Tureis is mentioning below https://twitter.com/manuelpascua/status/964167334792515584
 

Ophelia

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 6, 2013
Judging from the interviews, I don't think the pressure was any less for Fernandez to bring home Spain's first skating medal. Everyone likes to focus on what pressure other skaters might've been under, but Fernandez was under tremendous pressure as well, with Sochi haunting him these past few years.
 

tureis

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
It isn't really coincidence, those are two of the most common surnames in Spanish...
But you have a point. Do you remember Tintin, the belgian comic? There were two caracters, very funny twins, Dupond&Dupond... Guess how were they called in the spanish versión? Yeah, Hernández&Fernández:rofl:

I wasn't aware of these characters or their Spanish names, but my friend eppen enlightened me over the weekend why I was seeing so many cartoons with two guys looking like the Blues Brothers, one with skates, the other with a snowboard, being tagged all over Javi's social media. :laugh:

Judging from the interviews, I don't think the pressure was any less for Fernandez to bring home Spain's first skating medal. Everyone likes to focus on what pressure other skaters might've been under, but Fernandez was under tremendous pressure as well, with Sochi haunting him these past few years.

I always thought that Javi would be going into these Olympics under tremendous pressure, for both of the reasons you mention. The expectations from Spain might have been lightened somewhat after Regino's bronze medal, that it would no longer be only on Javi's shoulders to bring Spain's first medal in 26 years. But he was still by far the biggest medal hope going into the Olympics, with many at home basically expecting him to deliver, which is a huge burden. And then of course the Sochi thing can't have been easy either, during the preparations and especially during the programs themselves. All evidenced by him saying repeatedly in interviews that finally he will be able to sleep now.
 

xibsuarz

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2015
Marca's article also includes a video of Javi answering some questions for the media. Would one of our Spanish speakers come to the rescue and translate the important bits? For example where he speaks about contemplating the idea of maybe continuing to skate after this season? ;)

He said he was very happy to be back, he didn't expect the welcoming at all, no one had told him :biggrin: They (jokingly) said, "well deserved, right?" and he agreed because it's been a matter of great effort to get the medal. They asked him for a message for the children, he told them to keep fighting, to keep working, that nothing's impossible and together they will be able to make figure skating and winter sports grow (in Spain). They asked him if he would consider going to the next Games and he said he would be too old by then, he wants to decide if he'll go to Worlds first and then the following season. They asked him what his body was asking for, he said it was asking for a few days of rest, afterwards he'll talk to his coaches and decide what's next. They asked if he thought the Games were his last competition, and he said he is considering on going to another event, surely not other Olympics, probably not another entire season but he will most likely compete again. They asked him if he will head back to Korea to carry the Spanish flag at the closing ceremony, he said he will go back for the Gala, then he will return to Madrid, and regarding the flag they haven't told him anything about it.

They asked him if he would like to do it and he said that of course he would (I hope he does!). They asked him what he would really like to do now, he said resting and sleeping because it's been many years since he's had a goodnight's sleep. :laugh: They asked if he would switch that medal for something else, he said nothing of course. They asked him how often he thought about that medal and taking off the burden (from Sochi), he said that he thought of it a lot and that the color doesn't matter, it's the value of the medal itself. It represents his effort and his family's and coaches' effort, that's why he wouldn't change it for the world. He is happy and satisfied with the fact that he got the first Olympic medal in figure skating for Spain, then he'll see what comes later.I didn't hear the next question (the cheering was too loud!) but he said he was happy but he didn't want it all to end in him, he wants skating to keep growing, that there can be another Javier Fernandez or any other skater training overseas, or even better. He talked about taking off the burden from Sochi at last, and they'll have to wait and see how the country reacts to Regino and him winning historic medals :)
 

tureis

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Thank you so much again!!! I can't decide whether Javi is saying this just to placate the media so they don't harass him about the retirement for the time being and allow these times to be about the celebration of this achievement, or he really may consider potentially continuing in some way. I can imagine either of these to be true. The latter especially depending on what changes will come about in the judging system.

I can't stop admiring his maturity about the medal. What a perfect attitude!

And I cannot even imagine Javi not being the flagbearer at the closing ceremony. This is the very least he deserves, for four years of carrying on his shoulder the burden of winning Spain's first Olympic medal pretty much since he was born, and actually delivering it. Not to mention that Regino is also back in Spain and doesn't have a gala to perform in. ;)
 

tureis

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Well now that eppen and two other Javi fan friends of mine are sadly no longer in my living room, screaming our heads off in delight or terror (looking at you, Dulcinea 4S), I wanted to take time to collect some of the Javi related things during the men's event before they fade into oblivion.

Javi apparently made quite an impact with his SP, which was also reported in US media. The Hollywood reporter published a piece about Javi skating to Modern Times which was picked up by several other sites. :eek: And while this one is nowhere near as respectable, Popsugar wrote about the internet buzz after Javi's SP. Some of the tweets they collected are absolutely hilarious. :laugh2:

And then there were all the congratulations. AS collected a lot of them coming from Spain, including the royal family, the prime minister, the Spanish Olympic Committee, politicians, and the manager of Spain's national football team.

But of course many others from Spain, by no means complete:
Antonio Banderas
Iker Casillas
Garbine Muguruza
Pau Gasol
Carolina Marin
Marca
Eurosport
LaLiga #1
LaLiga #2
Hielo Espanol

This one is special, from Sara Hurtado. Try reading it and not getting emotional... :cry:

And some from outside of Spain:
Dick Button "I have always been a great admirer of your skating" - Hmm really? This is new info to me! Or not... :laugh:
Sandra Bezic "Javi is a story teller. He captures the romance of skating & uses his formidable technique to make us feel." :love:
Jeffrey Buttle
Elvis Stojko
Kurt Browning "Javi - you carry the soul of the sport within" :love:
Mae Berenice Meite
Jeremy Abbott
Olympic Channel #1
Olympic Channel #2
Olympic Channel #3

Another special one, from Broadway legend Lea Salonga.

And because it seems Inside Skating has fallen in love with Javi, here's an entire series: #1, #2, #3, #4

Javi interviewed by NBC after the FS. Lovely words from Javi about Brian and Tracy!
Video of Javi being greeted by his family after the medal ceremony :love::cry:, meeting the president of COE, and then all having dinner together.

On to pics and articles later... ;)
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
So great to see Javi glowing of happiness and what a happy-looking family!!! He is such a genuine guy!!! Thanks so much for all links, WOW. Hollywood Reporter was amazing... About Dick Button I remember that this is not the first time he has mentioned about Javi favourably (Guys and Dolls, I think). He is so well-liked and people feeling happy for him all over the world.

I also feel that he can feel 100 % happy about the bronze which he 100 % earned, although I believe he was robbed of the silver because Uno´s downgrade was "not noticed" by the technical panel. Javi made one mistake in his free skate jumping, but if he had been 100 % perfect and would still have lost the gold, with that it would be harder to live, I´d imagine. Now he can just smile and feel totally happy with his bronze, which should have been silver, LOL.
 
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