Javier Fernandez | Page 235 | Golden Skate

Javier Fernandez

In the spirit of the current craze for the 10 years challenge - Javi in 2017, the Worlds SP. It is almost hard to understand it is the same person skating!

The costume(s) in 2007 Euros and Worlds were seemingly going with the themes in music - the Euros costume was referring to ancient Egypt rather than Armenia, but the music sort of allows it and he even has a few "Egyptian" arm moves. The Worlds SP was on Bruce Lee and the martial arts kit comes naturally from that.

He has never worn overtly blingy or frilly costumes, they have always been part of what he was doing on the ice, on the character etc. His hair got cut to a shorter style when he moved to Toronto and it has been like that ever since. I suspect that they have access to better designers, more money was maybe put into his costumes particularly after he started to win and get regular show gigs. But I also think that the costuming and hairstyle has been influenced very strongly by Brian Orser's sense of aesthetics, probably more than Javi himself or even David Wilson (as a choreographer he might have ideas about costumes as well). They probably agree on what fits and gets used, but Brian is maybe the lead. Look at how Jason Brown got overhauled stylistically and what he said eg about his ponytail - that it was Brian who wanted it gone.

Mid-December he gave in interview for Locas por vivir conference (or community or whatever) and they posted it in YT today. I did not have much time with it today, but discussion was on how to deal with pressure, stress, success, fans etc. The ladies are about lifestyles and well-being etc.

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If you want to continue with nostalgic feelings here is an excellent playlist on YT encompassing Javi's whole career, 286 videos so far - and starting right with the video eppen posted, 2007 EC SP... There are two amazing things about the playlist: it's in chronological order, (if available) every competition SP - FP - Gala + some interviews and ice show programs in between. What's even more important, the person who put the playlist together regularly updates it after every round of taking down the channels and deleting videos takes place (SBS,:devil:) and replaces the deleted ones with a lesser known videos or fancams of the same event. :pray:

(re: costumes, in his interview with Jackie Wong for Icetalk Javi said that they chose the costumes together - Brian, David, Tracy and him. And that he (Javi) had the last word because he's "the one who has to go in it on the ice" ;) I think it's the first interview, from 2016. And he also said he had two costume designers who send their ideas and Brian/Tracy/David/Javi then decide. One of the designers specializes more in theatre / opera costumes, so he works with materials that are not so often used in figure skating. He did the first Charlie and also Elvis iirc...) Javi's "TCC" costumes are always great (I still haven't acknowledged the existence of Peter Gunn as you know, so the horrible spider-like shirt does not exist) and his all-black Danny Boy costume is :love:
 
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Indeed, season 2013-4 is just about best forgotten, programs, costumes, hairdos, results... But weirdly I am also always happy that he did so bad that season, because had he won the medal in Sochi, he might have finished his competetive career there and then and we would have not had the 4 best years of Javier Fernández! (As conspiracy theories go, 2013-4 must have been a diabolical plan cooked up by Brian and Tracy. :dev2:)

This article in Russian came out yesterday - just a recap of his career, nothing new (very sympathetic, though), but I had almost forgotten the kind-of-mohawk hairdo he had in the spring of 2011. There is a picture in the middle part of the story. You cannot unsee it if you look.

Graf posted this little clip with the Olympic boots - he has been using the same ones since August 2017... I hope they can take one more competition!

And he is on his way to become Madrileno del Ano 2018 in the Madrid Actual vote - but please go and make sure he wins!

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Indeed, season 2013-4 is just about best forgotten, programs, costumes, hairdos, results... But weirdly I am also always happy that he did so bad that season, because had he won the medal in Sochi, he might have finished his competetive career there and then and we would have not had the 4 best years of Javier Fernández!

That's a thought, had Javi gotten bronze at Sochi, he might never have gone on to be 2 time World champion and one of the all time greats... it was crushing at the time, but (like his agreeing to Brian's question about Yuzu all those years ago) it worked out so much for the best.

Now Javi, one more Euro gold, just to add luster to your brilliant record... please? :pray:
 
There is a new Ice Talk podcast, featuring Javi & Michal Brezina. Jackie Wong interviews Javi about his new projects and plans for the future, the Olympics and his impending retirement, but the most interesting tidbit is about his programs for the Europeans. Javi confirms Man of La Mancha for the FP and for the SP, he talks about an old program, from 3 years ago: I think that he means Black Betty, but it could be Malagueña too.
 
Malaguena and Black Betty are both a good choice. Let's see. And if it's Malaguena let's see what costume it is.
He has really thought a lot about ROI, you can see how much it means to him.
But maybe if you don't have nerves of steel don't listen to the part when Javi says he jumped his last quad in July :palmf: To be fair the interview was done almost three weeks ago so I hope it changed :biggrin:
 
There is a new Ice Talk podcast, featuring Javi & Michal Brezina. Jackie Wong interviews Javi about his new projects and plans for the future, the Olympics and his impending retirement, but the most interesting tidbit is about his programs for the Europeans. Javi confirms Man of La Mancha for the FP and for the SP, he talks about an old program, from 3 years ago: I think that he means Black Betty, but it could be Malagueña too.

Either Black Betty or Malaguena would be wonderful - new costumes, Javi please?
 
But maybe if you don't have nerves of steel don't listen to the part when Javi says he jumped his last quad in July :palmf: To be fair the interview was done almost three weeks ago so I hope it changed :biggrin:

This guy!!

I guess you could say is he keeps our expections low so we can only be surprised in a positive way :)
 
His excitement when talking about ROI is tangible even on airwaves :luv17: I am always so amazed that he is able to express himself so well in a foreign language with apparently very little formal education on the said language... It is not easy!

Loved the part about the Olympics and how Sochi made him try so much harder to become better. It was visible already in the fall of 2014 and he has become really a whole different skater after Sochi.

I would love the SP to be Black Betty (Malaguena is no problem either, but it would be a pity to do it something below the Helsinki perfection). Black Betty was first of his programs (indeed) that made me take notice for real and I have sometimes thought that it would be cool to see him do it now when he is so much better as a performer!

And it is seemingly true that he forgets easily (this is something he said in an interview some time ago), but he actually jumped a 4T in a competition in early October, in Japan Open. He probably jumped a few more in practices also. It seems that many other people have also forgotten about that. :think:

Hope to see him at the practices in Minsk on Monday evening to get an idea of what his current form really is :eeking:

E
 
His excitement when talking about ROI is tangible even on airwaves :luv17: I am always so amazed that he is able to express himself so well in a foreign language with apparently very little formal education on the said language... It is not easy!

Loved the part about the Olympics and how Sochi made him try so much harder to become better. It was visible already in the fall of 2014 and he has become really a whole different skater after Sochi.

I would love the SP to be Black Betty (Malaguena is no problem either, but it would be a pity to do it something below the Helsinki perfection). Black Betty was first of his programs (indeed) that made me take notice for real and I have sometimes thought that it would be cool to see him do it now when he is so much better as a performer!

And it is seemingly true that he forgets easily (this is something he said in an interview some time ago), but he actually jumped a 4T in a competition in early October, in Japan Open. He probably jumped a few more in practices also. It seems that many other people have also forgotten about that. :think:

Hope to see him at the practices in Minsk on Monday evening to get an idea of what his current form really is :eeking:

E

Black Betty would just just so cooool (I adore that program )
 
It's Malaguena. Confirmed by the track being played to an empty ice tonight. No Javi at practice, which is hardly surprising since he arrived to Minsk very shortly before the evening session, but hopefully we'll see him tomorrow.

So Javi is going all Spanish for his last competition. Even though I share eppen's slight trepidation after the utter perfection that was Helsinki, it is a very appropriate choice for his farewell indeed. :)
 
Oh, and... I may as well share my tweet here about our banners finding their places around the arena. https://twitter.com/DianaDobak/status/1087305050765119488?s=19 :o: Even though Javi was nowhere to be seen, we met some amazing people during our adventures trying to secure banner space. From a lovely local girl who not only helped us fix the banners but accompanied us all day to help with language and logistics around the arena, to the absolutely amazing volunteer girls who worked with us tirelessly to get approvals and make arrangements in order to get the banners up to the very very limited suitable spaces, to Javi fans from China(!) and Japan(!!!), I'm just in love with the figure skating community! :luv17:
 
It's Malaguena. Confirmed by the track being played to an empty ice tonight. No Javi at practice, which is hardly surprising since he arrived to Minsk very shortly before the evening session, but hopefully we'll see him tomorrow.

So Javi is going all Spanish for his last competition. Even though I share eppen's slight trepidation after the utter perfection that was Helsinki, it is a very appropriate choice for his farewell indeed. :)

The welcome he gets from the crowd should be epic.....
 
It's Malaguena. Confirmed by the track being played to an empty ice tonight. No Javi at practice, which is hardly surprising since he arrived to Minsk very shortly before the evening session, but hopefully we'll see him tomorrow.

So Javi is going all Spanish for his last competition. Even though I share eppen's slight trepidation after the utter perfection that was Helsinki, it is a very appropriate choice for his farewell indeed. :)

I was reading your posts trying to find out the SP and my expectations were rising. If there's a program I would love to see again, performed by a grown up Javi is I love Paris. This was the first competition ever for Javi-Brian-TCC team and, probably, the best versión of that program.


But it seems it's Malagueña... I'll be fine but... :(
 
It was a long day, but also so much fun as tureis wrote earlier! Very little skating, but a lot of talk about it. 😂

And the banners!!!! I think I got all tearyeyed when I saw our old friend #WeMissYouJavi in action again. And the new red hot #ThankYouJavi 😍😍 So beautiful! We were also deliriously delighted to see the Chinese fan banner and hope to see more appear when more people arrive later in the week. If the stands are not all yellow and red when he takes the ice for Malagueña on Thursday, I will be seriously disappointed!

And yes, Malagueña. We had already gotten up to do one final banner adjustment when it was clear that Javi was not going to skate at practice. Then his turn for the runthrough was announced and Malagueña started. Instant recognition, but a second later the realization that this is the SP. A mixed bag of feelings next. I admit I was hoping for Black Betty, but I also hope for the best with this beauty and that the original red and black costume will re-emerge!

E
 
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