Javier Fernandez | Page 208 | Golden Skate

Javier Fernandez

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? ;)

The Eurosport video is geoblocked...oh well...thanks.
 
During Javi's free skate, like everyone in this thread, I was watching with my heart in my throat. I don't think I've ever been so nervous during a figure skating program in my whole life. Now multiply whatever I was feeling by 25 quadrillion, and that's how nervous his parents and sister must have been feeling. With nerves like that, I'd have a heart attack, or at the very least pass out. It's a small miracle that they were able to make it through his free skate and remain conscious. In their celebrations now, the joy and relief must be beyond words. I couldn't be happier for Javi and his family :yahoo:
 
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.

To be honest, the judges didn't give him a real shot here. If they had, Javi wouldn't have been more than a point behind Yuzu in the SP. But that 4 point difference was already writing on the wall that he wouldn't have gotten the sort of scores here to win. So in that way I'm glad he made the mistake on the 4S because had he landed it and still been 2nd, I think that would have really gutted him. This way he can remain at peace with the thought that he made the mistake that took the chance of anything higher away from himself.

As for Shoma's 4Lo, yes, it should have been called UR and that would have been just enough for Javi to stay ahead of Shoma, and it's not fair that it didn't happen. But here's the thing. This is figure skating. You just can't afford to rely on the tech panel to make calls for others one way or the other. You have to do well enough for yourself so that such calls can't make a difference for you. Javi knows this better than anyone after so many years in this sport, and especially this season where they put everything on one card with the lower BV but clean skate strategy.

So yes, while I'm personally angry with the panel, I do think Javi will be perfectly content and happy with the bronze, and that's all that matters. :yes: In my heart he will always be the gold medalist anyways.
 
During Javi's free skate, like everyone in this thread, I was watching with my heart in my throat. I don't think I've ever been so nervous during a figure skating program in my whole life. Now multiply whatever I was feeling by 25 quadrillion, and that's how nervous his parents and sister must have been feeling. With nerves like that, I'd have a heart attack, or at the very least pass out. It's a small miracle that they were able to make it through his free skate and remain conscious. In their celebrations now, the joy and relief must be beyond words. I couldn't be happier for Javi and his family :yahoo:

Well I vaguely remember either Javi's papa or mama saying that while it is nerve racking, they actually have a worse time watching him from home on TV than live. And they've had plenty of experience, they are at so many of Javi's competitions! Especially his mama is one gutsy woman, as evidenced by Javi's book and what she's been through in all of this. But I've seen plenty of tears from her in the stands over the years. And you know what I always feel spotting them after competitions? That they can't believe they are so lucky to be this boy's parents. There's just that look of disbelief and wonder from both of them. I find that so endearing. :love:
 
So yes, while I'm personally angry with the panel, I do think Javi will be perfectly content and happy with the bronze, and that's all that matters. :yes: In my heart he will always be the gold medalist anyways.

That's the attitude! We know the rules, the written and the unwritten ones, complain about the results its not cool. As much as I admire Plusy, when I listen to him still complaining about "his stolen gold" at 2010 Olympics, it makes me feel unconfortable. I may agree with his arguments but he's not cool, he's disrespecting his rival... I would be very disappointed if I had listen something similar from Javi or anyone around him. The judges say bronze, let's welcome that bronze!!

I'm gonna take a look at those links and I'll see what I can do...
 
The media appearances in Madrid have begun!

Javi and Regino joined for a press conference held by LaLiga. Here is a video of the two of them answering questions, wearing their bronze medals. I guess one of them didn't get the memo about the dress code. :rofl:

And Javi giving a radio interview to Cope. Starts at 11:30 in the recording.

Can someone come to the rescue with a summary? :biggrin:
 
The media appearances in Madrid have begun!

Javi and Regino joined for a press conference held by LaLiga. Here is a video of the two of them answering questions, wearing their bronze medals. I guess one of them didn't get the memo about the dress code. :rofl:

And Javi giving a radio interview to Cope. Starts at 11:30 in the recording.

Can someone come to the rescue with a summary? :biggrin:

I see that Xibsuarz posted a translation of Marca’s video so here comes COPE’s interview. Here is a better link for the same interview.
www.cope.es/noticias/herrera-cope/j...s-oros-siente-una-manera-muy-diferente_172127
Javi says that this bronze feels better that the other golds or silvers he won in other competitions, it feels like a victory. He talks about his mistake in the quad, the moment that your body recognize that something is not going ok and what was supposed to be a quad, in a microsecond turns into a double, without possibility of make corrections.
He explains the process to create a new program, first they chose the music, then, on the ice, they create the choreo (it takes around 7 to 10 days) and when the first competition comes close, they send the music to a tailor and they put ideas together to design an outfit for the program.
There is no time to improvisations, they revise and adapt the choreo through the season to improve it as much as possible. He explains his training on the ice, the daily run-throughs, what he does off ice, how affects the skaters the quality of the ice.
He answers questions about the judges, the journalist asks about the controversy about the Chinese one. First of all Javi says that in a competition like the Olympics, where all the skaters skated so well, it’s very difficult for the judges to choose who was better, then Javi goes directly to talk about the second one in the competition, saying that there were some elements not absolutely clean that the judges didn’t penalized but that the skaters did an excellent performance and no one can take that away from them.
Then, the interview goes to easier routes again, and they ask him that if he had received a euro (they say “cuarenta duros”, a Spanish old expression about money) every time he had fall on the ice, would he be millionaire by now? He says that probably he would be millionaire, yeah, they fall on the ice every single day training.
A few bits more, unconnected, really:
He practiced hockey on ice when he was younger, he likes it a lot.
He plans, in the midterm, to be coach.

Note: I hope my translation doesn´t distort what he says about the judges and the scores, he sounds really cool with it, he’s just trying to explain what happened with the scores.
 
He answers questions about the judges, the journalist asks about the controversy about the Chinese one. First of all Javi says that in a competition like the Olympics, where all the skaters skated so well, it’s very difficult for the judges to choose who was better, then Javi goes directly to talk about the second one in the competition, saying that there were some elements not absolutely clean that the judges didn’t penalized but that the skaters did an excellent performance and no one can take that away from them.

Well I think we can conclude that Javi knows about Shoma's 4Lo then. Well done boy! That's a very diplomatic response. :clap: And in this case even better that he can ignore it and be genuinely happy about the bronze. :bow:

Then, the interview goes to easier routes again, and they ask him that if he had received a euro (they say “cuarenta duros”, a Spanish old expression about money) every time he had fall on the ice, would he be millionaire by now? He says that probably he would be millionaire, yeah, they fall on the ice every single day training.

The toughness of figure skaters! They are such gutsy athletes, subjecting their bodies to these falls all the time. Maybe coaches should start a piggy bank! One euro for every fall! :laugh:
 
And the poor guy only wanted to sleep! :laugh:

Right? And he's done two more things since then!

Visit to EFE headquarters where he gave another interview. All of its 15 minutes are on video: https://twitter.com/EFEdeportes/status/965960636717875201 Here he spoke about Worlds again and said something like he personally doesn't think he will go, he will speak with his coaches, but he is satisfied with the Olympics result and something about being very tired mentally.

And right now he is sitting in the Radio Marca studio. https://twitter.com/RadioMARCA/status/965989967532036098
 
That's the attitude! We know the rules, the written and the unwritten ones, complain about the results its not cool. As much as I admire Plusy, when I listen to him still complaining about "his stolen gold" at 2010 Olympics, it makes me feel unconfortable. I may agree with his arguments but he's not cool, he's disrespecting his rival... I would be very disappointed if I had listen something similar from Javi or anyone around him. The judges say bronze, let's welcome that bronze!!

I'm gonna take a look at those links and I'll see what I can do...

Yes, I agree totally, complaining to the media is definetely not the right way to do complaining about scores....

He sure has been busy in Spain... I totally understand that he will not go to Worlds, he concentrated so hard on the Olympics and there is no point now after he medalled. Of course he is tired now! Although the competition is in Milano and I would think he had a better chance to have a fair judging there. Maybe we will see him at the GP? Or maybe he will start coaching in Toronto, which would be a good idea, IMO. He could do a summer camps in Spain for the Spanish skaters again.
 
Here comes the translation of the other link provided by Tureis, LaLiga’s interview of the two Spanish medallists: Regino Hernández and Javier Fernández.
https://www.facebook.com/laliga4sports/videos/1775670289405512/

Question: How does it feel waking up every day and seeing what’s hanging around your necks?
Regino: I’m still trying to digest it, we both made history, in one year we’ve got the same medals than in all Spanish history, it’s overwhelming.
Javier: I feel the same, I wake up and think about what I’ve just got, what we’ve got in this OG. It takes a lot of work, not only for this one, but for all the competitions we make and we see how people recognise it, it’s something we can be proud of.

Question: You haven´t seen each other for eight years. How is it possible with some many competitions?
Javier: Our competitions are not in the same places. In Sochi Regino was in a different villa.
Regino: In Vancouver there was an only villa for all the athletes, Sonia, Javi and himself were always together, but in Spain it’s difficult to see each other, Regino is from Málaga and the other two are from Madrid. In Sochi they were at different villas and in Korea it was the same, they meet in the internet sometimes, with the play station, but without the opportunity of meeting in person again until now.

Question: In Korea, did you have the opportunity to visit the country or you weren’t able to go out of the villa?
Regino: I couldn’t.
Javi: Just a little. He was lucky because his family and his friends rented an apartment in a fishermen village near there and he went to visit them, it was beautiful, but that area is the only one he could see. He didn’t had time for more really, he arrived after the opening ceremony and, as soon as he finished competing, he came back.

Question: You are now icons of your sports, well you were before… There’s a man who were disguised as you in carnivals…
Regino: Yes, I was surprised, my family lives in Ceuta and my cousin sent me a photo of him. At the beginning I thought he was a friend of her making a joke but no, she told him that in Ceuta’s carnival she saw a couple in the street disguised as Regino Hernández and Blanca Fernández Ochoa (our last Olympic medallist).

Question: Any congratulation message that made you especially happy?
Javier: We had a lot of them, Royal Family, Government, other athletes, very impressed for all of them
Regino: I feel the same, a lot of authorities and famous athletes. For me was especial that Harvey Davison Spain send me his congrats and, as I am a biker, I liked it a lot.

Question: Both of you practice a sport with risks, if you fall, the competition is over. How do go manage the stress?
Javier: In my sort program I was not nervous at all and that is strange, because it was the Olympics and there is a lot of pressure. In the free program I was more nervous, after the first day and a good performance, knowing that I was risking everything at one shot, the FP that is more complex, I was more nervous, not for doing it badly that is usually the fear, but because I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to skate again at an OG. I wanted to do a good job to show everyone that I could get that medal.
Regino: I was super relaxed, calmed, two Olympic experiences made me realise that, if you think in the competition its real importance, it could give you a beaten, if you are nervous and you fall dawn, everything is over. He had problems the first competition but they fixed the problem and everything went well.

Question: What about the promises you made before the competition began? Regino and his skiiman promised to tattoo each other’s faces if he could medal…
Regino: Well I proposed it to him several times but he always declined it but, just before the semi-final I proposed it again and he was so nervous that he agreed without realising what he was agreeing to. I hope we can do it. It’s gonna be a strange tattoo, I’m gonna have his face and he in gonna have mine but it’s gonna be a beautiful tattoo because it will represent an Olympic medal. I’m gonna love it.
Javier: Not really a promise, I said something about letting my hair grow and have a ponytail but my girlfriend… (it’s a no). I still don’t know, as I said nothing before the competition… we’ll see.

Question: And now, after the Olympics, what?
Javier: A lot of things to do but I want to rest too. I still need to sit down with my coaches and see what will happen next season, if we compete or not. Once the decision is made, we will take the next step. By now we have earned the vacation.
Regino: I will continue in World Cup circuit in a couple of weeks, he will try to climb in the ranking. First a deserved vacation but then back to work. Next year is the World Championship and that is his next important event.

Question: Any message for the people that have been following them?
Regino: Thanks to everyone, the support was incredible in the social media. He is very thankful for the recognition of their years of work to get this result.
Javier: Nothing more to add. Thanks to the people watching them at home and at the competition. Their work is hard but with the support they receive is easier.

PS. Tureis, Did you just posted a new video? You are insatiable...:laugh:
I can' do anymore today. If tomorrow is still waiting for a translation, I'll try to do it then.

Sorry for my english, I suspect that today is worst than ever, but I can't review it now...
 
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