- Joined
- Aug 29, 2016
Javi is confirmed for 3 stops of FaOI: Makuhari, Sendai and Toyama!
https://twitter.com/Fantasy_on_Ice/status/1102494831589224449
https://twitter.com/Fantasy_on_Ice/status/1102494831589224449
Javier Fernandez
- Thread starter matmuh
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
Great collection of quotes, Clairecz! Although, somehow overall it gives me a feeling that Javi has passed away - which probably reflects the recent deaths of various popular figures accompanied by very similar rhetoric for commemorating them. So, don’t mind me and my morbid feelings…
Luckily, he is alive and well, though! They say that pensioners have often busier schedules than working people, and at least Javi seems to have been again pretty busy. Not as many TV performances, but public appearances anyway. On Sunday (February 25), Javi received the “Personaje del Año” award at the Premios Alfonso Ussía organized by the magazine La Razón. Lots of reports etc., just as an example these from La Razón itself and Europa Press. The entire event can be watched on YT – Javi around after 40 min. A shorter clip also available with a few words from him.
On Monday, he was talking at an event organized by Inverco, a Spanish association for investment and pension funds (!). From these pics, you can see some of it was recorded - it would be interesting to see what was talked about, so I hope it comes out! This tweet also explains that the topic was how an athlete can prepare his/her retirement.
On Thursday, he went out to Valladolid to appear in CampusRio event at a local shopping center, Rio Shopping. He talked about his professional and personal development. Plus did a bit of publicity at least for this wine shop.
Sometime during the week, he also recorded a radio show Oido Cocina for Cope talking about food. His part as a clip here. Wish I could understand more!
Have no idea what this tweet is part of - maybe just him getting recognized somewhere.
On Saturday (March 2), he received a special honor getting to be the “adopted son” of Navalacruz, his father’s home town (elsewhere, the term might be honorary citizen?). His parents and grandparents present, of course. The whole event can be watched on Facebook in 3 parts: presentation, receiving the plaque made of painted tiles and the diploma, and addressing the citizens of Navalacruz quite like the royalty he is. Another version of the event in YT. On the balcony in two other clips in YT, first and second. Lots of news stories, just a couple here: ÁvilaRed and Diario de Ávila.
And today, the awards season continues. He received a medal for his sports achievements from the Huelva University in honor of their annual celebrations of March 3. Some pics on Twitter here and here. An entire thread from the university itself. A picture gallery from Huelva Información. News stories here and here. And of course, the whole event on YT (Javi on after 57 min). Academic robes and hats around the world are very interesting to see! Plus I can imagine that the presence of Javier Fernández would brighten any dusty academic celebration… Even I would attend!
Later on today, on TV, La Resistencia on Movistar.
On Wednesday, you could have a chance to play FIFA19 with him (should you be in Madrid).
On Thursday (March 7) he will receive another honor from a university, at Granada. I want him to get an honorary doctorate one day!
In addition, a couple of clips for various things: a campaign for healthy body image, wishing LaLiga happy 90th anniversary, and from Valladolid, a greeting to the local skating club.
Spain is certainly remembering and honoring him in every possible way, it seems! I like the way even institutions that seem to have absolutely no connection to him before, commemorate his career and achievements. Cannot remember such things happening in my country...
E
Luckily, he is alive and well, though! They say that pensioners have often busier schedules than working people, and at least Javi seems to have been again pretty busy. Not as many TV performances, but public appearances anyway. On Sunday (February 25), Javi received the “Personaje del Año” award at the Premios Alfonso Ussía organized by the magazine La Razón. Lots of reports etc., just as an example these from La Razón itself and Europa Press. The entire event can be watched on YT – Javi around after 40 min. A shorter clip also available with a few words from him.
On Monday, he was talking at an event organized by Inverco, a Spanish association for investment and pension funds (!). From these pics, you can see some of it was recorded - it would be interesting to see what was talked about, so I hope it comes out! This tweet also explains that the topic was how an athlete can prepare his/her retirement.
On Thursday, he went out to Valladolid to appear in CampusRio event at a local shopping center, Rio Shopping. He talked about his professional and personal development. Plus did a bit of publicity at least for this wine shop.
Sometime during the week, he also recorded a radio show Oido Cocina for Cope talking about food. His part as a clip here. Wish I could understand more!
Have no idea what this tweet is part of - maybe just him getting recognized somewhere.
On Saturday (March 2), he received a special honor getting to be the “adopted son” of Navalacruz, his father’s home town (elsewhere, the term might be honorary citizen?). His parents and grandparents present, of course. The whole event can be watched on Facebook in 3 parts: presentation, receiving the plaque made of painted tiles and the diploma, and addressing the citizens of Navalacruz quite like the royalty he is. Another version of the event in YT. On the balcony in two other clips in YT, first and second. Lots of news stories, just a couple here: ÁvilaRed and Diario de Ávila.
And today, the awards season continues. He received a medal for his sports achievements from the Huelva University in honor of their annual celebrations of March 3. Some pics on Twitter here and here. An entire thread from the university itself. A picture gallery from Huelva Información. News stories here and here. And of course, the whole event on YT (Javi on after 57 min). Academic robes and hats around the world are very interesting to see! Plus I can imagine that the presence of Javier Fernández would brighten any dusty academic celebration… Even I would attend!
Later on today, on TV, La Resistencia on Movistar.
On Wednesday, you could have a chance to play FIFA19 with him (should you be in Madrid).
On Thursday (March 7) he will receive another honor from a university, at Granada. I want him to get an honorary doctorate one day!
In addition, a couple of clips for various things: a campaign for healthy body image, wishing LaLiga happy 90th anniversary, and from Valladolid, a greeting to the local skating club.
Spain is certainly remembering and honoring him in every possible way, it seems! I like the way even institutions that seem to have absolutely no connection to him before, commemorate his career and achievements. Cannot remember such things happening in my country...
E
Javi is working with Antonio Najarro in his new show, Flamenco on ice, that will premiere in Japan. Photos and videos from Najarro's instagram and instastories and Javier Raya's.
Thanks so much for all this wonderful info!!! WOW, he sure has been busy...
Yes, it´s really totally amazing how much he has been honored and also by institutions without any connection to figure skating. I´d suppose that quite a lot Spanish people got interested in his career & figure skating gradually as he started to medal or to win at competitions. He was always mentioned as the first Spanish skater to do this or that, LOL...
Here is a video of Javi teaching two journalists from La Sexta Noche how to skate. As far as I can understand (which is very little) they don't say anything new. They talk about how he began skating, about choosing music and then comes the obligatory astonishment of Spanish journalists that he retired soo young 
But the video is very funny and worth to watch. You can also see glimpses of Antonio Najarro training with Javi R, Sonia, Celia and Laura something for Flamenco on Ice. Javi was supposed to appear live on the program but it was cancelled shortly before it...
There's also this information that Javi will commentate Yuzuru's programs from WC for a Japanese TV station... Don't know how they are going to do it. I was actually hoping that he might co-commentate with Paloma (and Susana) the whole Worlds (at least singles) in Spanish... Let's see.
The first date of ROI 2019 has been announced: 2nd November 2019 in Malaga. I'm soo happy
If they keep the same schedule as last year - i.e. first part in November, second part around Christmas, then I think, it will be Malaga 2 Nov, Fire on Ice 6th and 7th November (Wednesday + Thursday) and maybe another ROI on 9th November??? That would be awesome because I might be able to merge Fire on ICe and ROI together for one long week full of Javi
But the video is very funny and worth to watch. You can also see glimpses of Antonio Najarro training with Javi R, Sonia, Celia and Laura something for Flamenco on Ice. Javi was supposed to appear live on the program but it was cancelled shortly before it...There's also this information that Javi will commentate Yuzuru's programs from WC for a Japanese TV station... Don't know how they are going to do it. I was actually hoping that he might co-commentate with Paloma (and Susana) the whole Worlds (at least singles) in Spanish... Let's see.
The first date of ROI 2019 has been announced: 2nd November 2019 in Malaga. I'm soo happy
If they keep the same schedule as last year - i.e. first part in November, second part around Christmas, then I think, it will be Malaga 2 Nov, Fire on Ice 6th and 7th November (Wednesday + Thursday) and maybe another ROI on 9th November??? That would be awesome because I might be able to merge Fire on ICe and ROI together for one long week full of Javi
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
Apparently Javi will at at Worlds to comment...
https://twitter.com/javifanarg/status/1107342476287926272
Maybe if we're lucky they will invite him to skate at the gala as a special sendoff to their 2 times champion :luv17:
https://twitter.com/javifanarg/status/1107342476287926272
Maybe if we're lucky they will invite him to skate at the gala as a special sendoff to their 2 times champion :luv17:
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
Two weeks just flew by, have to say… But to add bits and pieces to what has been posted above.
Monday March 4, La Resistencia TV show was pretty awful when it comes to “funny” hosts and jokes. Watch it on YT if you really feel like you need to get irritated. Javi maintained his good humor admirably. It seems to be a very popular show with 750k views for Javi alone on YT!
On March 6, he was checking out the LaLiga Corner in El Corte Ingles department store in Madrid – two happy fans got to play FIFA19 against him. Pics from LaLigaSports and later they also gave us a video.
Then Javi headed out to the south, first in the morning of March 7 Malaga where he was inscribed in to the list of Marca Leyendas (full list in Spanish Wikipedia), puff piece on it in Marca and a report in text. Not a small thing at all, apparently, and the story was for a while the most read article in Marca online that day!! He got to skate a little bit, delivered a speech in which the ROI first date in Malaga on November 2 was revealed. And also that they will be having a charity cause this year as well – disabled athletes and people. He tried penalty kicks with blindfold and using sounds to direct the kicks. Watch this event on YT. The next day he was on the Marca cover, fairly small, but at least above the fold!
Then he dashed off to Granada for the evening to receive the gold medal from the Faculty of Sports Sciences – compared to the event at Huelva on Monday much more low-key (a news piece here and here. He appeared in a Q&A there, part of which was posted on YT (ends when it starts to get interesting with audience questions). Two clips on IG have him talk a bit about the summer camp, again in Granada and receive a chocolate playstation control panel as part of his gold medal gift package.
Then he also appeared as an interviewee (I think) for two events of a large insurance company. The first one was on March 7 and the second on March 12. Think the first one was in Malaga (he could have not managed to do Malaga–Madrid–Granada in one day), the second maybe in Madrid. A group pic of the participants on March 12 in Twitter.
A story in Marca explains one of the slightly mysterious events in February for Inverco – it was directed to athletes and discussed how to handle their lives and finances during and after their sports careers so that they do not end up with nothing to live on once their active careers finish. Javi was there to talk about what he has been doing. Today another article on it came out as well.
A new story on an old event, Ice Chips in Boston a couple of years ago with the eyes of the person managing the spotlight.
On March 13, they did the on ice interview bit for the La Sexta Noche broadcast on Saturday – the lady host posted a pic on Twitter. Now we also know that they were working on something to do with flamenco with Antonio Najarro, Laura F., Sonia Lafuente, Celia Robeldo and Javier Raya who flew in especially from Toronto. Now, this might be choreo for the show or then possibly also a pitch to present to possible sponsors/organizers in Asia. Watching the 15 seconds with Javi and Najarro together makes me have goosebumbs every time – he looks and feels like a flamenco dancer as much as Najarro… They might have been at it also on the 14th, but this remains uncertain.
On March 14th, Javi participated in a master class of journalism for Universidad Europea’s foreign students program on sports journalism – students came from Beijing Sports University! Several tweets, one by UEuropea, by the persons involved and by Real Madrid UE and on IG, one of the students.
Then on Saturday, March 16, he was supposed to participate in the live part of the La Sexta Noche, but had to cancel last minute for “personal reasons” as tweeted by the host of the program. I don’t think you cancel a live TV appearance for a very light reason, so hopefully it was not anything truly terrible… They did air the ice skating clip posted above.
Then to this week and today. LaLiga inscribed Iker Casillas as part of their LaLiga Icons and Javi was there as part of the ceremonies. A Twitter thread on it to start with - there will surely be more.
On Wednesday, all the ROI dates and cities will be revealed at an event organized by the COE midday. Tickets will be on sale soon after that!
So, on Saturday he is commenting on Hanyu’s skate (and others??) in the Worlds at Saitama. I was kind of thinking that he might do it from Madrid – many TV companies don’t send their commentators to the actual competitions (too expensive), but have them sit in the studio instead. Easy enough to do. But considering that he has to go to Japan for the SOI mini-tour by the end of next week, I would not be surprised to see him there in person.
To round off this compilation, some good and some even better interviews from the past weeks. I think the Marca ones were done in February at the Inverco event, Diario Vasco is from CampusRio day. But finally some good stuff instead of the endless career recaps!
First off, Marca Javier Fernández: "El patinaje tiene más de arte que de deporte"
Q: If you were to be born again, would you be a skater?
A: [Doubt] I think so, because it has given me a lot. But it’s a good question. If I had not arrived where I had arrived and had had to live the same circumstances, I would say no. It is a very difficult question to answer because I would not know for sure if yes or no.
Q: Is ice skating more sport or more art?
A: I think it’s more art than sport, but it has a great sports base after all. It is still a combination of the two most important things that encompass this sport and you cannot forget either of them. This is the reason why we have had many conversations in recent years, because we are forgetting the art part, which if it is not 50 percent of ice skating, is even more so.
But read all of it, google translate will do a passable job at least into English! Worth the trouble.
Then another Marca story “Shows, cursos y más entrenamientos, así es la nueva vida de Javi Fernández”
(There is also a video there.) The most interesting part is in the middle with Jorge Serradilla talking about the first ROI in 2016. They actually put all their and their families’ savings in it and it was almost not happening, but a big sponsor appeared at the last minute. No wonder 2016-2017 he was just about unhealthily thin (especially in the fall!) and that the whole season was a bit off… ROI actually employs 15 persons around the year and 150 during the tour!
Lastly, Diario Vasco Javier Fernández: “Aprender a desconectar es mi nuevo desafío”
He talks a little bit about how the new life without constant training feels like – every day is different, sometimes full of events, sometimes nothing planned. He is free to do things that were forbidden during his active career like going skiing or staying up until 4 am midweek. Some days his body aches all over without any reason, other days he feels just fine. He gets asked about what makes him upset or unhappy about what happens in the world these days and he then talks about violence against women and how he simply cannot understand that! And a little bit about politics in Spain (there will be an election in April), but is not interested in turning into a politician. Remains happy to be a “freelancer with projects” who is a boss to quite a few people and likes to treat his employees well. That he has seen and experienced much more than a normal 27-year-old and feels older than his years, mentally in his mid-30s. That he would like to retire from working life early (preferably from the top of coaching with medalists as his students), maybe even in his 50s to spend time with his family and travel and enjoy life.
This serious and adult side of him coming out in the past couple of months in every way is just brilliant… You get glimpses of the real person behind the public face...
I will end this with Brian Orser talking about Javi after the FS in Minsk. The first minute on Medvedeva, but the second is on Javi and how he seemed to Orser at that time – Brian just let Javi take the lead and do what he needed to do…
E
Monday March 4, La Resistencia TV show was pretty awful when it comes to “funny” hosts and jokes. Watch it on YT if you really feel like you need to get irritated. Javi maintained his good humor admirably. It seems to be a very popular show with 750k views for Javi alone on YT!
On March 6, he was checking out the LaLiga Corner in El Corte Ingles department store in Madrid – two happy fans got to play FIFA19 against him. Pics from LaLigaSports and later they also gave us a video.
Then Javi headed out to the south, first in the morning of March 7 Malaga where he was inscribed in to the list of Marca Leyendas (full list in Spanish Wikipedia), puff piece on it in Marca and a report in text. Not a small thing at all, apparently, and the story was for a while the most read article in Marca online that day!! He got to skate a little bit, delivered a speech in which the ROI first date in Malaga on November 2 was revealed. And also that they will be having a charity cause this year as well – disabled athletes and people. He tried penalty kicks with blindfold and using sounds to direct the kicks. Watch this event on YT. The next day he was on the Marca cover, fairly small, but at least above the fold!
Then he dashed off to Granada for the evening to receive the gold medal from the Faculty of Sports Sciences – compared to the event at Huelva on Monday much more low-key (a news piece here and here. He appeared in a Q&A there, part of which was posted on YT (ends when it starts to get interesting with audience questions). Two clips on IG have him talk a bit about the summer camp, again in Granada and receive a chocolate playstation control panel as part of his gold medal gift package.
Then he also appeared as an interviewee (I think) for two events of a large insurance company. The first one was on March 7 and the second on March 12. Think the first one was in Malaga (he could have not managed to do Malaga–Madrid–Granada in one day), the second maybe in Madrid. A group pic of the participants on March 12 in Twitter.
A story in Marca explains one of the slightly mysterious events in February for Inverco – it was directed to athletes and discussed how to handle their lives and finances during and after their sports careers so that they do not end up with nothing to live on once their active careers finish. Javi was there to talk about what he has been doing. Today another article on it came out as well.
A new story on an old event, Ice Chips in Boston a couple of years ago with the eyes of the person managing the spotlight.
On March 13, they did the on ice interview bit for the La Sexta Noche broadcast on Saturday – the lady host posted a pic on Twitter. Now we also know that they were working on something to do with flamenco with Antonio Najarro, Laura F., Sonia Lafuente, Celia Robeldo and Javier Raya who flew in especially from Toronto. Now, this might be choreo for the show or then possibly also a pitch to present to possible sponsors/organizers in Asia. Watching the 15 seconds with Javi and Najarro together makes me have goosebumbs every time – he looks and feels like a flamenco dancer as much as Najarro… They might have been at it also on the 14th, but this remains uncertain.
On March 14th, Javi participated in a master class of journalism for Universidad Europea’s foreign students program on sports journalism – students came from Beijing Sports University! Several tweets, one by UEuropea, by the persons involved and by Real Madrid UE and on IG, one of the students.
Then on Saturday, March 16, he was supposed to participate in the live part of the La Sexta Noche, but had to cancel last minute for “personal reasons” as tweeted by the host of the program. I don’t think you cancel a live TV appearance for a very light reason, so hopefully it was not anything truly terrible… They did air the ice skating clip posted above.
Then to this week and today. LaLiga inscribed Iker Casillas as part of their LaLiga Icons and Javi was there as part of the ceremonies. A Twitter thread on it to start with - there will surely be more.
On Wednesday, all the ROI dates and cities will be revealed at an event organized by the COE midday. Tickets will be on sale soon after that!
So, on Saturday he is commenting on Hanyu’s skate (and others??) in the Worlds at Saitama. I was kind of thinking that he might do it from Madrid – many TV companies don’t send their commentators to the actual competitions (too expensive), but have them sit in the studio instead. Easy enough to do. But considering that he has to go to Japan for the SOI mini-tour by the end of next week, I would not be surprised to see him there in person.
To round off this compilation, some good and some even better interviews from the past weeks. I think the Marca ones were done in February at the Inverco event, Diario Vasco is from CampusRio day. But finally some good stuff instead of the endless career recaps!
First off, Marca Javier Fernández: "El patinaje tiene más de arte que de deporte"
Q: If you were to be born again, would you be a skater?
A: [Doubt] I think so, because it has given me a lot. But it’s a good question. If I had not arrived where I had arrived and had had to live the same circumstances, I would say no. It is a very difficult question to answer because I would not know for sure if yes or no.
Q: Is ice skating more sport or more art?
A: I think it’s more art than sport, but it has a great sports base after all. It is still a combination of the two most important things that encompass this sport and you cannot forget either of them. This is the reason why we have had many conversations in recent years, because we are forgetting the art part, which if it is not 50 percent of ice skating, is even more so.
But read all of it, google translate will do a passable job at least into English! Worth the trouble.
Then another Marca story “Shows, cursos y más entrenamientos, así es la nueva vida de Javi Fernández”
(There is also a video there.) The most interesting part is in the middle with Jorge Serradilla talking about the first ROI in 2016. They actually put all their and their families’ savings in it and it was almost not happening, but a big sponsor appeared at the last minute. No wonder 2016-2017 he was just about unhealthily thin (especially in the fall!) and that the whole season was a bit off… ROI actually employs 15 persons around the year and 150 during the tour!
Lastly, Diario Vasco Javier Fernández: “Aprender a desconectar es mi nuevo desafío”
He talks a little bit about how the new life without constant training feels like – every day is different, sometimes full of events, sometimes nothing planned. He is free to do things that were forbidden during his active career like going skiing or staying up until 4 am midweek. Some days his body aches all over without any reason, other days he feels just fine. He gets asked about what makes him upset or unhappy about what happens in the world these days and he then talks about violence against women and how he simply cannot understand that! And a little bit about politics in Spain (there will be an election in April), but is not interested in turning into a politician. Remains happy to be a “freelancer with projects” who is a boss to quite a few people and likes to treat his employees well. That he has seen and experienced much more than a normal 27-year-old and feels older than his years, mentally in his mid-30s. That he would like to retire from working life early (preferably from the top of coaching with medalists as his students), maybe even in his 50s to spend time with his family and travel and enjoy life.
This serious and adult side of him coming out in the past couple of months in every way is just brilliant… You get glimpses of the real person behind the public face...
I will end this with Brian Orser talking about Javi after the FS in Minsk. The first minute on Medvedeva, but the second is on Javi and how he seemed to Orser at that time – Brian just let Javi take the lead and do what he needed to do…
E
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2014
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
Thanks, COE, we did not even have to wait until midday for the ROI dates and cities: https://twitter.com/COE_es/status/1108285158099177472
Look carefully in the top left part... Someone did not think this through!
E
Look carefully in the top left part... Someone did not think this through!
E
Thanks, COE, we did not even have to wait until midday for the ROI dates and cities: https://twitter.com/COE_es/status/1108285158099177472
Look carefully in the top left part... Someone did not think this through!
E
Here is a related article:
https://www.practicodeporte.com/javier-fernandez-competir/
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2012
There are a couple of Javi guest appearances in the ShibSibs 2018 Olympics Vlog (44:51, 48:25, 49:51, 51:47, 54:36) - https://youtu.be/TLfHD7PryHo 
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2011
I wish he were active in an American ice show near me! :sad46:
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2012
Javier at Worlds with the TCC family! https://twitter.com/jasonbskates/status/1109836228268945408 :luv17:
https://twitter.com/olympicchannel/status/1109640604143620102?s=21 Meryl interviewing Javi for the Olympic Channel, the talk about Worlds 2019, what’s it like to come as a commentator rather than a competitor, ROI and what had he been up to in the last few months.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZKuzfFvoP/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=aa4u2tzlo43z the original Cricket Brothers reunited!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZKuzfFvoP/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=aa4u2tzlo43z the original Cricket Brothers reunited!
I usually don't want to post about only one individual thing because eppen summarizes everything so brilliantly and it's like taking only the cherries and leaving the hard work to eppen... but this cannot be postponed 
you have to see it (I mean the EYES) now
Javi performing Pirates of the Caribbean in SOI Osaka.
And Javi's retirement ceremony.
Oh, and the penguins.
you have to see it (I mean the EYES) now Javi performing Pirates of the Caribbean in SOI Osaka.
And Javi's retirement ceremony.
Oh, and the penguins.
There's a new interview with Brian. He talks a lot about Javi.
(...) "You know what? The best moment of this whole season was when Javi won Europeans!"
"But that was great because we've had 8 Europeans together, and he's won 7. We did 7 in a row and I looked back at, I was watching on YouTube, the very first one where he came 5th or 6th or something. Then he won the next year, but he was a baby, he was only 19 or so. And then I'm looking at him now as a young man who's organized - so organized that he was able to go out and win. We had a part in that, he was like our child and it was really cool, actually. His family was there for his last one and [his] parents are so thankful to us. Not for teaching him skating, but for teaching him life skills. He came here on his own, he was kind of a loose cannon, he was all over the place and he was a bit irresponsible but that's a 19-year-old. But he had no direction, and so now he's very gracious and respectful and he thanks people and he has time for the fans. He got himself prepared [for Euros] in 3 weeks, and I don't know how he did that. (Laughter) That was a great moment, I have to say. That was maybe one of the best moments of my coaching career."
And also "This is what you're going to do, and I don't want you sitting around on Playstation all day long like Javier Fernandez did." (Laughter)
But really Tracy and Brian (both in Intheloop interviews) seemed to be completely in awe that Javi really did it, that he won Euros with only a 3 weeks training. (They are not the only ones ) Javi's development and his whole career are so inspiring and so unique. I sometimes really can't wrap my mind around it how complex it is.
(...) "You know what? The best moment of this whole season was when Javi won Europeans!"
"But that was great because we've had 8 Europeans together, and he's won 7. We did 7 in a row and I looked back at, I was watching on YouTube, the very first one where he came 5th or 6th or something. Then he won the next year, but he was a baby, he was only 19 or so. And then I'm looking at him now as a young man who's organized - so organized that he was able to go out and win. We had a part in that, he was like our child and it was really cool, actually. His family was there for his last one and [his] parents are so thankful to us. Not for teaching him skating, but for teaching him life skills. He came here on his own, he was kind of a loose cannon, he was all over the place and he was a bit irresponsible but that's a 19-year-old. But he had no direction, and so now he's very gracious and respectful and he thanks people and he has time for the fans. He got himself prepared [for Euros] in 3 weeks, and I don't know how he did that. (Laughter) That was a great moment, I have to say. That was maybe one of the best moments of my coaching career."
And also "This is what you're going to do, and I don't want you sitting around on Playstation all day long like Javier Fernandez did." (Laughter)
But really Tracy and Brian (both in Intheloop interviews) seemed to be completely in awe that Javi really did it, that he won Euros with only a 3 weeks training. (They are not the only ones
) Javi's development and his whole career are so inspiring and so unique. I sometimes really can't wrap my mind around it how complex it is.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2006
An article (in Spanish) about Javi in "El Mundo" newspaper entitled "Nerves are my weakest point"
https://www.elmundo.es/vida-sana/bienestar/2019/04/13/5ca7317f21efa0e01d8b479c.html
What I found most interesting is that he mentions Evgeni Plushenko and Tomas Verner as the skaters with whom he had the closest relation. After retiring he now has time to do other sports, such as football, paddle tennis, raquetball or skiing as well as playing the PlayStation, his biggest vice. He organizes seminars and camps and his greatest dream is to become a coach so that no Spanish skater has to leave the country to train abroad.
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