Deniss Vasiljevs | Page 77 | Golden Skate

Deniss Vasiljevs

Yes, it's great, but life is life- at his age interests change quickly. Some months ago he was not so sure about it. I have always admired his intellect, the vast range of interests and fantastic abilities. It's a great gift of God and I'm convinced that he will make use of it in his life. Whatever he chooses, he will do it greatly!:thumbsup:
 
I was on a long way to a distant part in Latvia and to kill the time decided to watch something on the computer. This time I chose some figure skaters and also Deniss’ Tosca from the Euro champs. But it turned out to be a post from Italian TV channel Rai Sport but not Eurosport. I did not change and watched.
It was amazing- the commentators were so rapturous that they shed praising words like pearls especially during the slow motion. It was so nice that I couldn’t help watching once more to listen to them again. It’s unbelievable that in a few minutes somebody can say so many praising words - grandissimo, splendido, stupendo (marvelous), magico, brava (good), molto bene (many many times), fantastico, elegante, potente, grande qualita, magnifico, bellissimo, fluente, morbido (soft and smooth), unico etc. Of course, I couldn’t understand everything but hey praised attention given to every detail in the choreography and music interperetation. :clapper:

I only wish that they would say the same in Milan. :pray:
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZDWQx08F1c

Somehow, this video was never found by anyone before? (note to self: search his name in Russian from time to time :v) One of his Japanese fans was interviewed and Deniss translated Russian to English for her. We also get a glimpse of him taking pictures with two other guys. The blonde one is his friend from his time with Urmanov. Not sure about the other guy, though.

P.S Out of curiosity, does Deniss have an accent when he speaks Russian? I expect that he does, but I can be wrong since I don't speak Russian.
 
I hope Deniss takes that to heart and gives it everything he has at Worlds, because I think that approach works better for him. Just go out there all guns blazing, attack everything and don't hold anything back.
After Junior Worlds and a slighty surprising bronze medal for Mako Yamashita I've started to wonder what is a secret of Yamada-Higuchi coaching team as their students seems to be so strong mentally. Mako said after FS: "I wasn’t thinking about the result or the score, I just focused on what I had to do" and this apparently applies to Shoma as well. One week of this "switch distractions off" training in Japan could be a great benefit to Deniss... Just thinking :)

From my experience it's much easier to pass an exam taking it together with the whole group than later, as an only student. So I'm happy that Deniss decided to take his English exam now. The more the City Mayor was waiting for him ;)
And I'm quite confident of his high grade. At least of the oral part :laugh: (here is one of my most favourite Deniss' speeches)
 
It was amazing- the commentators were so rapturous that they shed praising words like pearls especially during the slow motion.
Watching it, I've been surprised I quite understand Italian :laugh:
There was a thread started during Olympics "Italian Eurosport explain the top Men's SP" and I watched a disscussion they had about jumps of top six skaters. Surprisingly, on one of two big screens they displayed mostly Deniss' performance in slow-mo :luv17:
 
I found some old videos from last year - Cup of Tyrol 2017, before Worlds in Helsinki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXXMkfEGiqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ljthQ5Usn0 I wonder what kind of exercise he is doing here at 4:56. Is he practicing centering the spin? :think:

Practice schedule for worlds is up http://www.isuresults.com/schedules/wc2018_PracticeGroupsAndMusicRotation.pdf
Because there aren't any other big names in his group, Jackie is probably going to miss his practices again :ohwell: Aww.
 
Because there aren't any other big names in his group, Jackie is probably going to miss his practices again :ohwell: Aww.
In fact, there are not so many big names at Worlds :laugh: And this time Deniss is not in the group to practice first, so if Jackie is going to watch US and Japanese teams he will be on time to see Deniss' as well ;) Hope so...
Have you noticed that Deniss is eight in world standings at Worlds? It means last but one flight again. Truly believe he won't move closer to start for FS :pray:
 
No, he doesn't :)
In fact he better speaks russian, than latvian.
It is quite curious. A Russian friend of mine told me that, despite the physical vastness of Russia, their language remained pretty uniform everywhere, perhaps because of the education system under the Soviet regime. But the same friend also pointed out Deniss's speech is a bit odd, compared to the standard Russian, when I asked her what he was saying in an interview. I was wondering some sort of a slight dialect/accent has developed after the nation became independent.
I also noticed however, he occasionally gets into a slight difficulty and becomes tentative when he speaks in Latvian, so I assumed his first language was Russian, like many Latvian residents.
 
I also noticed however, he occasionally gets into a slight difficulty and becomes tentative when he speaks in Latvian, so I assumed his first language was Russian, like many Latvian residents.


You are right. During Soviet times in all the territory there was one general Russian taught. Many small languages didn’t survive.

Deniss’ first lg in family is Russian and he certainly speaks it well. Yea, there might be a slight accent (he doesn’t palatalize sounds so much as Russians do) but it is because from the age of 9 he has lived so much outside Latvia and had to learn French and English. Maybe he has some Latvian roots as well (it’s only my guess) because he hasn’t got the typical Russian accent most of them have when speaking Latvian.

Deniss considers himself a Latvian. Still, he sometimes finds it difficult to express himself in Latvian but he always tries. That’s the reason why he often switches to English- then it goes quicker. It’s understandable as he actually doesn’t have any practice. But he has a good tongue for languages. If he lived 2-3 weeks in Latvia among native speakers, he would speak fluently.:)
 
You are right. During Soviet times in all the territory there was one general Russian taught. Many small languages didn’t survive.

Deniss’ first lg in family is Russian and he certainly speaks it well. Yea, there might be a slight accent (he doesn’t palatalize sounds so much as Russians do) but it is because from the age of 9 he has lived so much outside Latvia and had to learn French and English. Maybe he has some Latvian roots as well (it’s only my guess) because he hasn’t got the typical Russian accent most of them have when speaking Latvian.

Deniss considers himself a Latvian. Still, he sometimes finds it difficult to express himself in Latvian but he always tries. That’s the reason why he often switches to English- then it goes quicker. It’s understandable as he actually doesn’t have any practice. But he has a good tongue for languages. If he lived 2-3 weeks in Latvia among native speakers, he would speak fluently.:)

Yes I imagine that is the case, when he was born it was already quite a few years after their separation from the Soviet Union, and probably the Latvian was forming their own style of Russian language, plus he started living abroad and learned other languages at the age he was supposed to be still studying his native language at school. His linguistic skill is quite impressive, and perhaps it helped that he started dealing with more than one language at such an early stage.
Also appreciate the fact that he is trying to communicate also in Latvian, but unlike some major languages like English, Spanish or French, he has almost no opportunity to practice it while living abroad (plus he speaks Russian with his family members), I can understand it is quite difficult to maintain and improve the level of the language. But it is endearing to know that he tries, and is proud of being Latvian :luv17:
 
Deniss' twitter/instagram update :luv17:

He went back to Champery after his exam, going by the location tag. That drawing looks beautiful :luv17: I think it's a harbour.

Some more photos from Pyeongchang were put up today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgdzeRSgF-0/ ...those legs :love:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgdz0ncgRwo/ what are they doing here? Matching head tilts? :laugh: Reminds me of that scene in Karate Kid with the woman and the snake lol
https://twitter.com/imoimo_gu/status/975047005847240705
https://twitter.com/akagieee/status/975374962637791233
https://twitter.com/akagieee/status/975377260755673088
https://twitter.com/akagieee/status/975378621043941376
 
And this time Deniss is not in the group to practice first, so if Jackie is going to watch US and Japanese teams he will be on time to see Deniss' as well ;) Hope so...

Surprise surprise, Jackie missed his practice. :curse:

Eh, icetug, so old and still so naive :hslap: Of course practice group of top ladies is much more interesting, so Jackie just left to main rink :(
Maybe Arriba627 attended Deniss' practice...
 
Reposting because editing on mobile is back to eating my posts.

I had given up all hope of seeing him again today but at last!
From the evening practice
https://twitter.com/michlmint/status/976230602860060677
https://twitter.com/moooofyy/status/976183371536662529
https://twitter.com/arttravelmiffy/status/976184098824765440
https://twitter.com/arttravelmiffy/status/976186532586385408
looking snazzy with the new gloves and Latvian Olympic gear leggings :cool:
https://twitter.com/kote1102/status/976184107574099969
https://twitter.com/twizzlesandtano/status/976184452681379840
https://twitter.com/twizzlesandtano/status/976184081082806272
https://twitter.com/kote1102/status/976188492249292802 cute!
https://twitter.com/me_inthebigcity/status/976192177767251968
https://twitter.com/moooofyy/status/976207278444568577 SP runthrough. In case it doesn't play, he did 3Lz-3Tfall, 1A, 3F. Some issues, but it's late in the day, he's probably tired. I wouldn't be worried. Sure would be helpful if we had a proper report though :/
 
https://t.co/zjREJeYsAE

Some photos from yesterday's practice. I only notice it now, but he changed his blades???? The shape is different now. I hope he had enough time to break into the new blades. :o

Wow, ok! I hope it works out. He has had about a month to break them in, so fingers crossed it goes ok. He seems to be jumping alright.

From the SP draw
https://twitter.com/patinaggio/status/976468605813522438 :luv17:
https://twitter.com/ISU_Figure/status/976491455790419969

From practice
https://twitter.com/JingfangWU/status/976443954299375617 :love:
https://twitter.com/JingfangWU/status/976467998843207680
https://twitter.com/anjaheyheyhey/status/976424182467694595

And from Pyeongchang (still? lol)
https://twitter.com/bellmay_ruka/status/976424825324421121
https://twitter.com/bellmay_ruka/status/976428894919081984
 
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