Japanese Nationals 2005

[Doggygirl]

That was all extremely interesting. Still, IMO it was a bit silly of a selection process; tho it does explain the Ando over Nakano decision, it would seem to me that it would occur to someone at the Japanese federation that with the amount of depth they have in the Ladies category, there was a pretty good shot that one of the "underlings" was going to catch fire; and why on earth would you send someone whose best results were the season before last over someone who's on a hot streak? I can just see the arguement at the "Who are we gonna send?" meeting. "But Ando's won the Nats twice" "Ando? I am SO sure, she is SO last season......" (That being said, watch her win the OGM and shut ME up, tho I don't really see that happening....). Either way, must be really nice to have such an unbelievable amount of amazing talent to choose from, and to be in this kind of situation.

Actually, it occurs to me as I write this; I am sure the Japanese have an eye on sweeping the Ladies podium (tho I don't see that happening either), and from that perspective, Ando would make more sense than Nakano, since Ando has Worlds experience, at least. Perhaps they felt Nakano wasn't ready yet. I just hope the federation and Japanese media learned from what they put Ito through in '92 and back-peddle the expectations a little bit. However, if they're anything like the American media, they won't.

re. Mao: I seem to remember a couple of seasons ago her sister MAI being the designated Next Big Thing. I know she's still skating, but the main reason I bring her up, is, are her and Mao twins?? (Mao/Mai)

Mai has been assigned to 4CC from what I understand. Mai is age eligible, while Mao is not, so that leads me to a logical conclusion that they are NOT twins.

DG

 

[maruru]

Mai has been assigned to 4CC from what I understand. Mai is age eligible, while Mao is not, so that leads me to a logical conclusion that they are NOT twins.

DG

Right, they aren't twins. IIRC, Mai is two years older than Mao (I might be wrong, but at least Mai is age eligible).

Oh, and by "the last two seasons" I meant to say this season (2005/2006) and the last (2004/2005). Sorry, that was a confusing way to put it.

Anyway, from what I read, Fumie was in the lead at the beginning of the season (she had 700 points from the 2004/2005 season), and closely in the second place was Miki (665 points). Shizza had a rather bad season last year with 560 points to start this season, and Nakano had only 343 points. If they really weighed it by 0.7, those pre-season points sound a bit too high, so it may be either some of the info sources are not accurate or there was something else going on. Anyway, Fumie was ahead of the pack at the beginning of the race.

But due to the injury and associated poor performances, Fumie sank down to the bottom at one point. But she's come back strong--she was in the 2nd in the NHK cup, stayed in the game, and peaked in the right time at the right place in the Nats. I'm happy for her she's made the Oly team.

And I also am happy for Nakano--though she hasn't been selected (I'm sorry), it must have been an "I can do it if I try my best" kind of fulfilling season for her. That said, and aside from my own question about the selection by the fed, I too would prefer to see Miki, rather than Nakano. No, I'm not a Miki fan (actually not at all LOL), but I do like her programs (esp her SP) of this season. Those programs deserve to be skated perfectly, and I just wanna see that happen.

p.s., Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[jenaj]

Something kind of strange about Mao....

While I think it's very clever that people have dubbed her "Chairman Mao," I wonder if "Mao" has any significance in the Japanese language. If not, it is a little odd that Japanese parents would name a Japanese baby after a Chinese communist leader. It would be like an American naming their baby Fidel, or in this case Hugo Chavez, considering the history of animosity between China and Japan. Does anybody know if "Mao" has any meaning in Japanese?

Mao is a common family name in China. What we call first names are second in China. If Mao's parents had wanted to name her after Chairman Mao, they would have named her Zedong.

 

[miki_tan]

Something kind of strange about Mao....

While I think it's very clever that people have dubbed her "Chairman Mao," I wonder if "Mao" has any significance in the Japanese language. If not, it is a little odd that Japanese parents would name a Japanese baby after a Chinese communist leader. It would be like an American naming their baby Fidel, or in this case Hugo Chavez, considering the history of animosity between China and Japan. Does anybody know if "Mao" has any meaning in Japanese?

Her given name "mao" was taken from famous woman actor Mao Daichi
whom Asada's father was a fan, reportedly.

 

[Mathman]

Her given name "mao" was taken from famous woman actor Mao Daichi
whom Asada's father was a fan, reportedly.

Thanks for the true facts.

Here is Mao Daichi in the Audrey Hepburn rule in the Japanese remake of Roman Holiday (also starring Yuichiu Yamaguchi as Gregory Peck )

http://www.footlight.com/product.cfm?product_id=28444

MM

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

65 comments on a competition that will never be seen on TV.

Apparently, the GP Finals are as boring to posters as they are to skaters.

Joe

 

[Doggygirl]

65 comments on a competition that will never be seen on TV.

Apparently, the GP Finals are as boring to posters as they are to skaters.

Joe

I personally did not find the GPF boring at all. I didn't find the Japan Nats boring either.

There are over 200 posts (combining the multiple threads that seem specific to the performances) regarding the GPF. USA TV is not "all that and a bag of chips" in terms of information about performances, and it appears you may be comparing the TV only thread about GPF (which happened a couple weeks ago) to the JPF which happened last weekend. Times have changed.

Individuals have different ways of enjoying the season. Some rely on TV coverage only. Others (me included) look at scores on the internet as the events happen, live coverage on the internet via whatever sources (PPLive being a major one this season), and video downloads. I can only speak for people like me who use the internet as a front line source of info. And I still record whatever is shown on USA TV as the picture quality is better.

But by the time the actual event is aired in the US, I already know the results, and I've already seen lots of the performances (and often more performances than are shown on USA TV, although ESPN is doing better in that regard, IMO, these days).

I can't speak for everyone - only me. But to comparing the number of posts regarding an event that will never be aired in the US, to the number of posts in ONE thread about the GPF that was aired with delay in the US IMO, does not acknowledge the fact that many posters follow this stuff as it happens, and rely to varying degrees on internet coverage from text to video, in various forms. The majority of posts about the actual GPF event were made long before it aired on US TV.

That's why all this info is in the spoilers section, right?

DG

 

[alain707]

Japanese points system: Nakano was very close to going to the OG

I too, like many posters on this board and others, was a bit puzzled how things magically turned out so that Suguri, Arakawa and Ando formed the Japanese team for Torino. Those were the team at last year's World Champs, and are the best known, most respected by the skating world, skaters of today's japanese elite (somewhat this advantage must be included in the PCS, or even the way the technical elements are seen, just a side-effect of a devised-to-be-unviolable-system). At the national champs, Yukari Nakano was held back in fifth place, enabling Fumie (1st) and Shizuka (3rd) to go past her in the points rankings set up by the Japanese federation as a selection for the Olympics (I took my info on : http://www.japanskates.com/). Winner earned 600pts, runner-up 550,and then 500, 450, 400 for fifth place. Now looking at the rankings before the Nats, it appears that in order for Fumie and Shizuka to overtake Yukari, they each needed to be at least two spots above her. As for Mikki, having more than a 300pts lead on those two and also Yoshie, she could sleep on both ears before the comp because only a terrible most unlikely skate, ie finishing out of the first seven places, could have mathematically prevented her from being in the top three. But now my conclusion is this : Yukari was indeed very close to staying in the top three!! Just swap places between Shizuka and Yoshie and she becomes third in the rankings. Look at the scores : 187.36 for S and 186.06 for Y, this is almost a tie considering CoP accuracy and no pre-comp deal could have guaranteed the order to be what it turned out to be. Selection of judges, quality of the elements during the performances, could have easily changed the outcome the other way round ...

 

[Mathman]

65 comments on a competition that will never be seen on TV.

Apparently, the GP Finals are as boring to posters as they are to skaters.

I think what killed the GP series was the television coverage. No one -- not even a figure skating enthusiast like me -- has any interest in watching a sporting event two weeks after it is all over and done with.

As Doggygirl says, Japanese Nationals was exciting because we could follow along in (almost) real time on the Internet.

MM

 

[CDMM1991]

My newest montage is ready! It's about the depth and competitive level of the current Japanese ladies. It's set to the NBC Olympics Theme, and it's about four minutes long.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD IT, and tell me what you think!!

http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0...S2P72HBBB8WYES