Javier Fernandez | Page 155 | Golden Skate

Javier Fernandez

tureis said:
Here is the full video from the TV show Javi went on last week: El Hormiguero

Poor guy, I felt sorry for him when it was shoved into his face that his 5th European title only merited a tiny bottom strip on the front page of Marca. :ohwell: Being from a country where football is also ridiculously popular, I always scowl at the fact that virtually every other sport is suffering as a result, in terms of funding, recognition, everything. Still, I can't imagine a circumstance where anyone winning a 5th European title in whatever insignificant sport wouldn't get a decent front page coverage in sports papers. :rolleye:
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If he was mexican, he would probably have something bigger, since we like to make a big deal out of our athletes being recognized, even if football is the dominant sport here too.
I wish he was more recognized for what he does, i admire him tremendously because of all that he has accomplished coming from a country that no one thinks about when they hear figure skating...
 
El Hormiguero was great! Didn't realize he was on for the whole show! Very interesting stuff about being very careful about their skates, their water, etc. Good reminder for those of us fans who mean well but should never give skaters food items as a gift. I probably caught about 90% of what they talked about. Thx for posting.
 
What's interesting is that Spain - especially considering the size of the country - isn't historically that successful in sports outside of football, with the notable exception of tennis. They typically have one-off success stories in most other sports, like Alonso in Formula 1 or Carolina Marin in badminton. So one would expect that an athlete climbing to the pinnacle of their sport would generate tremendous interest, exactly because it isn't an everyday occurrence.

Great that Javi finally gets to appear in national TV shows like this one. Anything that helps raise his profile is welcome! :agree: And yeah, interesting about the water, but also very logical. There's so much at stake, especially at the Winter Olympics where figure skating is one of the highest profile sports. Better not to trust anyone even with a thing as simple as a bottle of water. You can never know what rivals or fans may be capable of. Just ask Nancy Kerrigan or Monica Seles. Although obviously those are the most extreme examples.
 
I think that maybe, we are making a big deal about something that is not really that big deal.
How many of us, ice skating fans, buy sports newspapers or visit general sports digital papers? The buyers of Spanish sport newspapers are football fans so the front page is almost always about football. Javier had mentions in all media about his 5th European title so I would say that’s a big success for him, in terms of recognition.
And the mention about Spain not being successful in other sports but football, I really don’t want to look like freak about Spanish sports but that is really not true. Basketball, handball, water polo, synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics are some of the team sports in which we have top teams in international competitions, and they have the same problems getting a front page when they have a big success, especially if it is a female team (even if it is a football team). I have to admit that lately, the media is taking into account the claims and they are trying.
I don’t know if the sport media is different in other countries. I take a look sometimes at British and French digital newspapers and I find them very similar to their Spanish colleagues. Is the press really that different in your countries? I’d really love to know your opinions, what do you think the press would have done if one of your nationals wins the European or the 4CC title.
 
It is VERY rare for us to see articles about skating in our newspapers. I would say, in general, the only exception might be the Olympics. I am thinking in particular about Jason Brown in 2014. Because he is one of our local athletes, there were newspaper and TV features about him. Evan Lysacek had similar publicity. In general I would say something extraordinary has to happen for skating news to make the newspapers.
 
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Sorry, I realize I didn't define what level of success I meant in various Spanish sports, because Spain is obviously at the highest international level in a number of them. I specifically meant winning the biggest championships. Arguably no matter what part of the world we are looking at, there is a different level of recognition and pride surrounding a gold medal vs. any other outstanding result. So my point was, the Spanish sports media doesn't get to report about European or World champions every day, and I would assume a little bit more "WOW, breaking news!" kind of hype ahead of the weekly La Liga reports.

But mind you, I'm from a country which has an unhealthy level of obsession with winning, to the extreme that I get the feeling a silver medal is sometimes considered a letdown. (I have heard people actually berating athletes/teams for losing Euros/Worlds/Olympics finals. I'm not kidding. It's ridiculous.) So when someone here wins gold, it's BIG, and it would be all over not just sports papers, but the news media in general - for however long it can grab headlines from football anyways...
 
tureis said:
But mind you, I'm from a country which has an unhealthy level of obsession with winning, to the extreme that I get the feeling a silver medal is sometimes considered a letdown. (I have heard people actually berating athletes/teams for losing Euros/Worlds/Olympics finals. I'm not kidding. It's ridiculous.) So when someone here wins gold, it's BIG, and it would be all over not just sports papers, but the news media in general - for however long it can grab headlines from football anyways...
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I still remember when people expected Michelle Kwan to win the Olympic gold and instead she won silver. It was heartbreaking when she said, "I didn't LOSE the gold. I WON the silver", which of course is such an amazing achivement in itself.
 
Arriba627 said:
I still remember when people expected Michelle Kwan to win the Olympic gold and instead she won silver. It was heartbreaking when she said, "I didn't LOSE the gold. I WON the silver", which of course is such an amazing achivement in itself.
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Yeah everyone expected the gold, probably including herself to be honest, with all the crazy hype leading up to Nagano. Which is why it's so great that she chose to look at it this way afterwards. I'm sure otherwise it would have been very difficult to maintain the right mindset to continue with her career on the level she did.

By the way, remember how Brian said he claimed full responsibility for the zayaked 3S in Javi's Sochi FS? I always wondered whether he deliberately took "losing" that bronze on himself so that Javi wouldn't have to, and prevent derailing his career over it. I don't know how much that situation might influence his mindset today, but I always like how Javi talks about his own expectations for PyeongChang - that he is training for the gold medal, but his aim is to be on the podium. I think that's the perfect attitude, to avoid putting so much pressure on himself that he wouldn't be able to handle, but also to make sure he wouldn't feel disappointed by a silver or bronze, because either of those would be amazing to achieve.
 
tureis said:
Yeah everyone expected the gold, probably including herself to be honest, with all the crazy hype leading up to Nagano. Which is why it's so great that she chose to look at it this way afterwards. I'm sure otherwise it would have been very difficult to maintain the right mindset to continue with her career on the level she did.

By the way, remember how Brian said he claimed full responsibility for the zayaked 3S in Javi's Sochi FS? I always wondered whether he deliberately took "losing" that bronze on himself so that Javi wouldn't have to, and prevent derailing his career over it. I don't know how much that situation might influence his mindset today, but I always like how Javi talks about his own expectations for PyeongChang - that he is training for the gold medal, but his aim is to be on the podium. I think that's the perfect attitude, to avoid putting so much pressure on himself that he wouldn't be able to handle, but also to make sure he wouldn't feel disappointed by a silver or bronze, because either of those would be amazing to achieve.
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Pretty sure she expected gold, and I think she had a gold costume for her EX program. Maybe she even had a song that had the word "gold" in it? I remember being in tears watching her skate.

I do remember that Zayaked 3S. Javi has been at this a long time now, and his mindset sounds good. Hard to believe it's just a year from now, and so much can happen in a year. It's gonna be exciting, that's for sure.
 
Arriba627 said:
Pretty sure she expected gold, and I think she had a gold costume for her EX program. Maybe she even had a song that had the word "gold" in it? I remember being in tears watching her skate.

I do remember that Zayaked 3S. Javi has been at this a long time now, and his mindset sounds good. Hard to believe it's just a year from now, and so much can happen in a year. It's gonna be exciting, that's for sure.
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That was Michelle's EX 4 years later in Salt Lake City, but yeah, heartbreaking, probably even more so than after Nagano. :sad21: But she is the prime example that legends aren't necessarily measured in Olympic gold. Whatever the result a year from now, I think Javi will be remembered as one of the greatest performers in the history of figure skating, and his Boston FS as one of the very best programs of all time, which is not a bad legacy to leave behind whenever he chooses to retire after the Olympics. :)
 
tureis said:
Javi will be featured in Informe Robinson, which as I understand is a Spanish sports program. Here is a teaser: https://twitter.com/InformeRobinson/status/831535192208715779 It will be aired tomorrow night on Movistar+ (and hopefully available afterwards on youtube).

Also, a 4 min feature on Javi (recorded last December) from American Latino TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm2Cmp_coXI
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Thanks a lot!!
Informe Robinson will be worth watching, for sure. It's a very special program made by an Irish ex football player, who decided to stay in Spain when he retired a lot of years ago. The program is always about athletes, sometimes famous, sometimes unknown, from a human perspective, always interesting and very touching.
All the programs he has made for movistar are in Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSXGfg6XHVB7GxEnIPY-marNKk1R6QZ72). I don’t know how long we will have to wait until we can see the program there, I hope no more than a few days. I’m sure we’ll talk about it as soon as we can watch it!
 
Olibritt said:
Thanks a lot!!
Informe Robinson will be worth watching, for sure. It's a very special program made by an Irish ex football player, who decided to stay in Spain when he retired a lot of years ago. The program is always about athletes, sometimes famous, sometimes unknown, from a human perspective, always interesting and very touching.
All the programs he has made for movistar are in Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSXGfg6XHVB7GxEnIPY-marNKk1R6QZ72). I don’t know how long we will have to wait until we can see the program there, I hope no more than a few days. I’m sure we’ll talk about it as soon as we can watch it!
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Sounds like a great program, really looking forward to it! And counting on you, dear Spanish GS Javi fans to give a brief summary to those of us with sadly limited knowledge of the language. ;)

With the number of Spanish interviews I've listened to, my rusty Spanish is coming back quite nicely, but Javi can still lose me completely with a longwinded answer. :laugh:
 
Olibritt said:
Count on it!!
Oh my God! I just agreed to translate it! They talk so much in these programs... :laugh:
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That's super nice of you, thank you so much! But I really did just mean a brief summary. Translating an entire interview would be waaaay too much to even think about! :eek:
 
If I'm not mistaken, on this day exactly one year from now we will be after the men's Olympic SP already, and basically just hours away from the FS. Which is super exciting of course, and what a year ahead it will be! At the same time I can't help feeling melancholy at the thought that we may very well see the last ever competitive skate from Javi. :( All these comments he's been making about him being old (the most recent one in response to Misha Ge's Twitter report on his injured ankles) sound like as much as he wants that Olympic medal and will keep working really hard for, part of him also can't wait for this year to pass.

I hate having to see athletes retire. I found the Olympic men's FS in Sochi rather depressing, not just because it wasn't a particularly high quality event to say the least, but because so many skaters were on the ice for the last time. So I'm hoping PyeongChang will at least be an exceptional event, Javi included of course. ;)
 
Also, I'm super grateful to the PC organizers for scheduling the men's event on back-to-back days. An extra day in between Olympic programs is just too nerve-racking! :)
 
Well, here is the program about Javi!!
It is shorter than I thought it would be and it looks like there is a second part missing, but I am not sure that’s the case. I think there is nothing really new in it, maybe some unknown details of old stories that we know, but the good news is that the program is mostly in English, because Orser, Tracy and Hanyu do most of the talking.
Let me know if I can help with translations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x-Ky_iWUVE&index=2&list=PLSXGfg6XHVB7GxEnIPY-marNKk1R6QZ72

Possible retirement after the Olympics? He doesn't say anything new, just that he will think about it after the games. In my opinion, that’s the point, one year competing is a long time, he doesn´t know what he is going to want or feel and, right now, the pressure is on, Olympics is a big mountain he is got ahead of him, who knows what is in the other side?
 
It was only half an hour, the second part was on another athlete. So much of it is in English (thankfully not dubbed in Spanish but with subtitles) that there is relatively little to translate, I guess. A summary of Javi's bits (and his dad and Jorge?) might help those who have no or very little Spanish? (And to make sure us with a little more Spanish get all the relevant details right ;) ) But it was altogether quite interesting with Brian and Tracy talking a lot and Yuzu's comments etc. Loved the stories on how he began working in Toronto :laugh: :laugh:

A partial lineup for Fantasy on Ice was announced just: http://www.fantasy-on-ice.com/ Javi with Stephane, Jeffrey and Nobunari Oda in men, Miki and Akiko in ladies.

A few days ago, an interview came out on Revista Elite Sport, which is a free online mag. There's an mobile app for it, but it can be easily accessed with a computer as well. Here's the magview link http://www.magview.es/visor.php?url=medios/elite/elite.php (and the mag in general http://www.revistaelitesport.com/la-revista) Don't miss the quiz on Javi after the interview - a chance for you to test both your Spanish skills and knowledge on Javi ;)

E
 
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