Javier Fernandez

[xibsuarz]

Won't SA be too early for him? As far as I know, the top three of the worlds get the chance to pick their GP events and they are not going to compete head to head until GPF, if all of them can make it. Of course, the world champion has the first priority, and Javi selected Cup of China and COR last year, China is where he got his first world title and the timing fit him, and he always goes to Russia, since he has a strong fan base there. Actually, I am thinking about the Worlds next year which is to be hold in Finland, a country close to Russia, where he also has tons of fans. In a recent interview he gave to a Japanese magazine, he made it clear that he wants to defend his title next year.

Yeah it might be a bit too early, but idk which other event he could go to. COC and NHK are out of the question as the Chinese and Japanese Feds will obviously want Boyang and Yuzu to compete at home. TEB is back to back with COR, so he won't pick it. He could pick SC, but perhaps he might not want to go against Patrick so early in the season or Skate Canada (the Fed) itself might not want it. Oh and I just checked, SC and COR are also consecutive, so that's another factor against it.
And I also followed last year's logic of 'well, he won in China, he did COC. Now he won in the US, he might go to SA." Him going to SA could be interesting as he would very likely go against Nathan.

 

[evergreen]

Yeah it might be a bit too early, but idk which other event he could go to. COC and NHK are out of the question as the Chinese and Japanese Feds will obviously want Boyang and Yuzu to compete at home. TEB is back to back with COR, so he won't pick it. He could pick SC, but perhaps he might not want to go against Patrick so early in the season or Skate Canada (the Fed) itself might not want it.
And I also followed last year's logic of 'well, he won in China, he did COC. Now he won in the US, he might go to SA." Him going to SA could be interesting as he would very likely go against Nathan.

It is logical to return to the country where he won the title, except it was too early to be prepared, especially if he would not resume training until September:noshake:

Will Nathan be well enough to compete by then, the injury he sustained sounds serious, even he is very young, would it be prudent to give him more time to rehab than rush back to the training. It seems ever since Yuzuru won OGM at 19, these youngsters cannot wait showing their heavy weapons. Jason Brown may be there too. I like him but not a fan of Rohene's work, too OTT for my taste.

USFSA rejected him several times, but probably cannot do so this time according to ISU rules.

Daisuki Takahashi review Yuzu & Javi's free skate 2016 worlds
The video is in Japanese, containing short clips of Javi in practice prior to the free skate, dealing with his injury/skates.

 

[xibsuarz]

It is logical to return to the country where he won the title, except it was too early to be prepared, especially if he would not resume training until September:noshake:

Will Nathan be well enough to compete by then, the injury he sustained sounds serious, even he is very young, would it be prudent to give him more time to rehab than rush back to the training. It seems ever since Yuzuru won OGM at 19, these youngsters cannot wait showing their heavy weapons. Jason Brown may be there too. I like him but not a fan of Rohene's work, too OTT for my taste.

USFSA rejected him several times, but probably cannot do so this time according to ISU rules.

Daisuki Takahashi review Yuzu & Javi's free skate 2016 worlds
The video is in Japanese, containing short clips of Javi in practice prior to the free skate, dealing with his injury/skates.

Well, I don't know if Nathan's granted two spots. If he's not, and only has one, USFSA might want to host pick him to give him a second one. I guess they are eager to have a skater of their own to play on the big guns level. Making the GPF would make a statement and he needs two events for that. But yeah, it should all depend on his injury.
Adam will obviously be there too as the National Champion. And at COR, I guess Kolyada could be Javi's stiffest competition, unless Daniel or Shoma get picked for it

 

[honghe]

It is logical to return to the country where he won the title, except it was too early to be prepared, especially if he would not resume training until September:noshake:

Assuming that Javi is not going to do SC this year (as going against Patrick so early in the season does not seem to make too much sense), there might be a decent chance he will have to do SA. Of the three possible events (SA, CoR, and TEB), CoR and TEB are back to back, so probably doing SA and one of CoR and TEB actually is the most logical choice, despite SA being early.
I think it will most likely be one of SA and SC + one of CoR and TEB. Either way he won't have to deal with jet lag at one of the GP events.

 

[eppen]

The Fantasy on Ice pic was from a greeting posted on their FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/Fantasy-on-Ice-1581188472096896/?fref=ts

David Wilson was in Spain last summer, probably in July about the time when he was also working on the SP with Najarro. He had the FS already under work in August during the summer camp.

Loved the opinions on classical vs other styles of music! And I agree - the fairly abstract interpretation of difficult classical music is regarded as the height of artistry in figure skating, but usually it is done in a very formulaic and conventional manner without any real interpretation or content. Many dance or music styles are used to give a program a superficial "character" without really understanding or exploiting the full possibilities of them - re the endless tango, flamenco etc programs. And I think we have seen enough not very funny comedic stuff to know that it is not that easy to be genuinely funny...

I'm a pop, rock and jazz listener, but am not always best pleased with how the cuts for skating programmes are made. I was a bit put off when Malaguena was announced - it's such a war horse... And it combined two different arrangements of the same piece which is usually a huge NO-NO-NO for me. However, that was acceptable because you can imagine that the guitar part is a longish intro to the orchestra and sung section ;-) And the choreo was just blindingly good, truly combining the flamenco movement with figure skating and keeping up the theme from the first second the last. And Javi sold it just perfectly! He has an ability to modify his movement to suit different styles which is not something that very many skaters can do (usually it is the other way round).

Guys and Dolls was also an excellent music cut, it took up one element from the musical, the gambling, used the lyrics of the song in a very clever and funny manner, borrowed movements from the movie choreography (in the first part, before Sinatra) and in general combined another dance style with skating in an amazing way. Javi has a good feelng for the rhythm and timing - in Boston just about every accent timed to music actually worked perfectly...

The same applies also to 2014-5 programs - the Black Betty cut was very good and kept the energetic parts as well as dropped the somewhat dubious first verse from the content. The same with The Barber of Seville - it was more bits and pieces, but the long aria was cut in such a way that the lyrics still made sense and worked together with the choreo.

Expectations are high for next season! The Ina Bauer has cropped up now in both Danny Boy and what he did in Sofia at Kings on Ice so I'm almost expecting something where it fits ;-)

I would expect him to try and get the later GPs especially if he starts to work on the new programs very late in the summer? They had a couple of days during CSOI before Toronto which could theoretically have fitted in making of a SP, but I guess we will have to wait and see. Last year the whole process was documented almost as it happened in the social media.

E

 

[honghe]

David Wilson was in Spain last summer, probably in July about the time when he was also working on the SP with Najarro. He had the FS already under work in August during the summer camp.

I wasn't aware that they started working on the FS while he was still in Spain. David Wilson mentioned being in Madrid with Javi in an interview but since he didn't say what time it was I just didn't make the connection. My bad.

I'm a pop, rock and jazz listener, but am not always best pleased with how the cuts for skating programmes are made. I was a bit put off when Malaguena was announced - it's such a war horse... And it combined two different arrangements of the same piece which is usually a huge NO-NO-NO for me. However, that was acceptable because you can imagine that the guitar part is a longish intro to the orchestra and sung section ;-) And the choreo was just blindingly good, truly combining the flamenco movement with figure skating and keeping up the theme from the first second the last. And Javi sold it just perfectly! He has an ability to modify his movement to suit different styles which is not something that very many skaters can do (usually it is the other way round).

Guys and Dolls was also an excellent music cut, it took up one element from the musical, the gambling, used the lyrics of the song in a very clever and funny manner, borrowed movements from the movie choreography (in the first part, before Sinatra) and in general combined another dance style with skating in an amazing way. Javi has a good feelng for the rhythm and timing - in Boston just about every accent timed to music actually worked perfectly...

The same applies also to 2014-5 programs - the Black Betty cut was very good and kept the energetic parts as well as dropped the somewhat dubious first verse from the content. The same with The Barber of Seville - it was more bits and pieces, but the long aria was cut in such a way that the lyrics still made sense and worked together with the choreo.

I think one of the reasons that Malagueña turned out great was that the vocal was put at the right time. Antonio Najarro did a superb job with the choreography. I have no complain about this SP except that I'm still not used to seeing the beard. But I appreciate that Javi would grow one for each competition and then shave it before the FS I'm still a little sad that Javi didn't get to do a really clean SP this past season, as I would really really want to save that. And since the Olympics is less than two years away now, he can't keep the SP for next season, and I don't know if we'll ever see this program again. Oh well...

I've loved Black Betty since the first time I saw it, while I eventually came to love Guys and Dolls much more than at first. The Barber of Seville was an interesting program itself, but I feel that execution wise Javi didn't realize the program's full potential as much as he did with Black Betty and Guys and Dolls.

I forgot whether it's Javi himself or someone else that mentioned that to get the movements right for Malagueña wasn't an easy task. He started learning the moves off ice but once he got on ice it didn't work at first.

I would expect him to try and get the later GPs especially if he starts to work on the new programs very late in the summer? They had a couple of days during CSOI before Toronto which could theoretically have fitted in making of a SP, but I guess we will have to wait and see. Last year the whole process was documented almost as it happened in the social media.

E

Later GPs would make sense but the two latest GPs are CoC and NHK, which Javi probably won't get assigned to, as CoC will likely have Boyang and NHK Yuzuru. So Javi probably will have to do two of the first four GPs.
I am looking forward to him sharing any information about new programs, and I hope the new program are going to be great!

 

[eppen]

I started wondering about the GP assignments and last year the top six from the Worlds get assigned their GPs by draw...

From the GP announcement for last year:
(http://static.isu.org/media/209550/gp-general-announcement-2015_16_final.pdf)

"2. DESIGNATION OF THE SKATERS
2.1 Seeded Skaters/Couples
a) Skaters/Couples who have placed 1 –6 in each of the 4 disciplines (Men, Ladies, Pair Skating, Ice Dance) at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships
2015 will be considered to be Seeded Skaters/Couples and will be assigned, by draw, to skate in two events."

There's a long list of other rules, but this would be the most important for our guy.

This makes me wonder a bit though about how much the organizing federation can influence even these assignments by draw, because at least one of the top Japanese men has been assigned to NHK regularly (Hanyu and/or Takahashi). Skate Canada seems to have featured Patrick Chan every year in 2010-3 and again in 2015 - good luck in his draw, eh? There have been changes in the process it seems, so not always necessarily the same system.

e

 

[Arriba627]

Assuming that Javi is not going to do SC this year (as going against Patrick so early in the season does not seem to make too much sense), there might be a decent chance he will have to do SA. Of the three possible events (SA, CoR, and TEB), CoR and TEB are back to back, so probably doing SA and one of CoR and TEB actually is the most logical choice, despite SA being early.
I think it will most likely be one of SA and SC + one of CoR and TEB. Either way he won't have to deal with jet lag at one of the GP events.

Would love to see Javi at Skate America! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Krunchii]

Patrick is #5 so it's possible to see him and Javier at Skate Canada, at least one of Javier/Yuzuru is at Skate Canada every year because it's close to their training base. This year Skate Canada is literally about a 30 minute drive away from TCC so I don't think it would be so far fetched for Javier to choose Skate Canada.

 

[xibsuarz]

Patrick is #5 so it's possible to see him and Javier at Skate Canada, at least one of Javier/Yuzuru is at Skate Canada every year because it's close to their training base. This year Skate Canada is literally about a 30 minute drive away from TCC so I don't think it would be so far fetched for Javier to choose Skate Canada.

But if he does go to SC he won't be able to go to COR. So I guess it's either SA/COR or SC/TEB?

 

[Krunchii]

But if he does go to SC he won't be able to go to COR. So I guess it's either SA/COR or SC/TEB?

Yeah those are the most logical combinations but this season Skate America and Skate Canada are pretty close together so I suspect some North American based skaters might be willing to do them back to back.

Either way I'm so inherently biased because I'm attending Skate Canada in the fall and I want everyone I like to be there: I saw Javi at SOI already and while he's a total charmer I wanna see the competitive him

 

[honghe]

Patrick is #5 so it's possible to see him and Javier at Skate Canada, at least one of Javier/Yuzuru is at Skate Canada every year because it's close to their training base. This year Skate Canada is literally about a 30 minute drive away from TCC so I don't think it would be so far fetched for Javier to choose Skate Canada.

I guess there is indeed a possibility that Javi and Patrick will both do Skate Canada but I kind of hope not... They are of course very different skaters but they happen to be the two skaters I enjoy watching the most, and I'm not sure that I would want them to go against each other unless necessary, especially since for both of them the next two seasons will probably be their last competitive seasons... But then again, what I want does not matter
And if they get assigned by draw, maybe what they want does not matter that much either...

 

[evergreen]

I guess there is indeed a possibility that Javi and Patrick will both do Skate Canada but I kind of hope not... They are of course very different skaters but they happen to be the two skaters I enjoy watching the most, and I'm not sure that I would want them to go against each other unless necessary, especially since for both of them the next two seasons will probably be their last competitive seasons... But then again, what I want does not matter
And if they get assigned by draw, maybe what they want does not matter that much either...

This reminds me that all my 3 favorite skaters, Javi, Dai & Patrick competed in 2011 SC , all of them made the podium :luv17:

Since Patrick always goes to SC/TEB, if Javi & Patrick will compete against each other in both GP series this coming season, I am seriously considering going to both of the competitions.

 

[honghe]

This reminds me that all my 3 favorite skaters, Javi, Dai & Patrick competed in 2011 SC , all of them made the podium :luv17:

Since Patrick always goes to SC/TEB, if Javi & Patrick will compete against each other in both GP series this coming season, I am seriously considering going to both of the competitions.

The three of them also made the GPF podium that year right?

Oh and by the way if I'm not mistaken SC this year will be in the same place as SC 2011

 

[evergreen]

The three of them also made the GPF podium that year right?

Oh and by the way if I'm not mistaken SC this year will be in the same place as SC 2011

That is correct, my dream podium Brian recalled in his book when Javi made to the podium at 2011 GPF, he was simply thrilled to win the bronze medal and smiled with such innocent look, "wow, me, the 3rd of Grand Prix Final? the 3rd best in the world? That is not so hard!

Don't forget he won Skate Canada the following year, which is his first title of GP competition.

Javi's training base is almost annexed to the venue of SC 2016, much closer than Patrick, who has recently moved to Vancouver, does it make more sense that he is going to SC this year?

I love the way Canadian media follow the CSOI tour
Spaniard Javier Fernandez shines on the ice

 

[cathlen]

I would actually liked more if Javi went to SA and then maybe France (it's not TEB anymore, it's Trophee de France). I have bad feeling about competing against Patrick so soon and even if Javi is honorary Canadian, Patrick is an actual Canadian, so the crowd will always support him more. But of course the closeness of the arena would be a big advantage... Is there any option that Patrick won't be at SC?

 

[pherx4]

I would actually liked more if Javi went to SA and then maybe France (it's not TEB anymore, it's Trophee de France). I have bad feeling about competing against Patrick so soon and even if Javi is honorary Canadian, Patrick is an actual Canadian, so the crowd will always support him more. But of course the closeness of the arena would be a big advantage... Is there any option that Patrick won't be at SC?

I think host get first pick, so SC will most definitely choose Chan, NHK for Hanyu & COC for Jin. That means that Chan will probably be at SC. I think Javi could possible do SA since he won his recent title in the US & it might be an easier field like COC last year, but the USFSA probably prefer to invite Jin the weaker of the top 3 seeds.

 

[honghe]

That is correct, my dream podium Brian recalled in his book when Javi made to the podium at 2011 GPF, he was simply thrilled to win the bronze medal and smiled with such innocent look, "wow, me, the 3rd of Grand Prix Final? the 3rd best in the world? That is not so hard!

Lol Javi's reaction

I would actually liked more if Javi went to SA and then maybe France (it's not TEB anymore, it's Trophee de France). I have bad feeling about competing against Patrick so soon and even if Javi is honorary Canadian, Patrick is an actual Canadian, so the crowd will always support him more. But of course the closeness of the arena would be a big advantage... Is there any option that Patrick won't be at SC?

I don't want Javi to go against Patrick early in the season because only one can win gold, but I think SC audience are usually amazing and they cheer for Patrick as well as skaters from other countries, too. The crowd treated Javi well when he competed against Patrick at SC 2011 (Patrick won) and SC 2012 (Javi won), and Javi probably wasn't even considered an honorary Canadian back then as he is now.

I didn't know they changed the name of TEB:shocked:

 

[eppen]

Supporting the UCAM Murcia CF from Japan: https://twitter.com/UCAMMurciaCF/status/735873557071298560

e

 

[Jaana]

I think that Cup of China and Cup of Russia could be good choices for Javi, again. Skate America and Skate Canada could be too soon for him?