Shibutanis to sit out 2018-19 Season

[Skater Boy]

I wish them well. I am not surprised they are taking a year off. They have skated so many years despite their youthfulness at the top level andthey want to test the waters as to opportunities. Technicall always one of the best. Always a pleasure to watch. I am not sure they have that extra IT quality that some teams just have. I wonder though on the stage of ice dance if H/D and even Chock and Bates "pass" them and if the Shibs come back might ffind themselves slotted as the no 2 or 3 American team

They will never say it but can you imagine working hard and sort of hoping by waiting your turn you would move up but after Davis and White retired and the temporary retirement of Virtue and Moir and becoming the no. 1 Zueva team It just seemed they couldn't capture that same enthusiasm for them as the two Oly gold teams. They are such likeable people and vlogs /blogs are wonderful But nice doesn't always mean you capture the audience - they certainly do have a large following but not as much as we might expect or others. I am afraid they might not come back to competitive skating Skaters will never say their real fears or concerns. They are taught to say such things we love the competition and we like the challenge of new teams, returning teams whatever.

I wonder what opportunities they will have; so far Adam with no medal seems to have the most - though I assume Nathan is doing well too.

 

[Skater Boy]

I was thinking about the Shibsibs. They are a very nice, photogenic, happy sibling. Skating and well the Shibsibs are not super popular other than on this website and in Asia. I guess there is some interest I should say but it certainly is no longer the hot commodity it once was and the Shibs are well received but just don't have the popularity of a professional athlete in say basketball, tennis, hockey. Still they would be wonderful to promote (even if people don't know who they are) Skechers or KEDS and what about Twizzlers or Dairy Queen or some frozen food like pizza, Disneyland?

 

[Ladskater]

It's not like Gabriella and Guillaume rely on sexual tension in their programs, and the judges love what they do.

Yes, for now they do, but as Kurt Browning and Carol Lane have pointed out if the French team - P/C don't change their style and add more variety of themes they might get boring and the judges might not love what they do. Virtue and Moir had a wide range of emotions and themes they could portray. Just sticking to one style - P/C might as well be a brother and sister team like the Shibutanis.

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

I was thinking about the Shibsibs. They are a very nice, photogenic, happy sibling. Skating and well the Shibsibs are not super popular other than on this website and in Asia. I guess there is some interest I should say but it certainly is no longer the hot commodity it once was and the Shibs are well received but just don't have the popularity of a professional athlete in say basketball, tennis, hockey. Still they would be wonderful to promote (even if people don't know who they are) Skechers or KEDS and what about Twizzlers or Dairy Queen or some frozen food like pizza, Disneyland?

I think your posts show you don’t know much about the Shibs’ career nor their popularity to make educated projections about their success on and off the ice.

 

[Skater Boy]

I think your posts show you don’t know much about the Shibs’ career nor their popularity to make educated projections about their success on and off the ice.

I think some people don't realize the interest in figure skating and skaters while real high on GS is not as big elsewhere. Sure some sports companies or a lot like to diversify their reps but having a nice smile, cute videos and politically proper well spoken doesn't really set you apart. I certainly wish them well but I am afraid unless the drastically find a vehiclethat is earth shattering they may find themselves for lack of words not so welcome to competitive skating. In short, one or two American teams will be ahead of them. But it would be awesome to see two nice people have a great life outside of competitive skating. sometimes you could tell as nice as this team is they were hurt by the judging and marks as other posters have suggested. Maybe this will give them times to do some schooling and other projects.

 

[MRani]

I think some people don't realize the interest in figure skating and skaters while real high on GS is not as big elsewhere. Sure some sports companies or a lot like to diversify their reps but having a nice smile, cute videos and politically proper well spoken doesn't really set you apart. I certainly wish them well but I am afraid unless the drastically find a vehiclethat is earth shattering they may find themselves for lack of words not so welcome to competitive skating. In short, one or two American teams will be ahead of them. But it would be awesome to see two nice people have a great life outside of competitive skating. sometimes you could tell as nice as this team is they were hurt by the judging and marks as other posters have suggested. Maybe this will give them times to do some schooling and other projects.

They have a lot more going for them than nice smiles and cute videos. You clearly haven’t been following their career very closely if you think that’s all they have going for them. You seem to be arguing that they don’t have a future in skating or even outside of skating either, which is baffling, and I disagree strongly on both counts.

 

[Mathman]

Maybe this will give them times to do some schooling and other projects.

I hope so. You can't just skate your life away.

Does anyone know if the Shibs have graduated from college yet? This article from Cosmopolitan says they both have (item #3_), but i don't know whether that's true or not.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entert...1/maia-alex-shibutani-figure-skater-olympics/

Alex has always had an interest in the production end of making videos. Maybe he will move to LA and, with the help of his new agents, get a foothold in that industry.

 

[ice coverage]

... Does anyone know if the Shibs have graduated from college yet? This article from Cosmopolitan says they both have (item #3_), but i don't know whether that's true or not.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entert...1/maia-alex-shibutani-figure-skater-olympics/ ...

FWIW, from a Q & A on a UMich site:

... U-M students and ice dance team Maia and Alex Shibutani became the first U.S. siblings to win an Olympic ice dance medal. ...

What’s the status of your U-M career right now?
Neither of us is currently attending U-M. After our first Olympics in 2014, we prepared for Pyeongchang and our training has been our full-time priority.

alumnus.alumni.umich.edu/shibsibs-qa/ (Apr 2018)​

I imagine if they already had graduated, it would have been reflected (one way or another) in this Q & A?

(Either in the intro, or in how the question was asked, or in the answer from the Shibs.)

ETA:

LOL ... OTOH, the same article refers to "U-M alumni Meryl Davis and Charlie White" (which I doubt is a direct quote from the Shibs).

AFAIK, Meryl and Charlie have not graduated yet???

So maybe the UMich article is not reliable on the subject of graduation or not???​

---

... "... we have exciting projects that we have the opportunity to work on both together and individually.” ...

The part of the Shibs announcement that I like most is the prospect that they will be working on projects individually -- as well as together.

They obviously have accomplished so much by collaborating with each other (off ice and on ice), but taking the opportunity to spread their wings and fly in separate directions for some projects sounds great too .

 

[Crossover]

Haven't read anything from the thread, but their break from competition is expected and even their retirement is not far from now as they achieved almost everything that they can reach in their abilities. As they explore other things in their lives away from figure skating, they can get a success as well or may want to return to competition. They are very young, so trying different things can be fun or be an opportunity for them to find their other hidden talents.

 

[heyang]

Perhaps they are taking a break from competition to finish their degrees and see how their competition grows. Both Chock and Bates and Hubbell/Donahue have gotten closer to them in competitions. If they see a possibility of being back on the podium and decide they want to re-dedicate their energies towards skating, they certainly could get back into competitive mode like V//m

 

[MRani]

Pretty sure their decision has nothing to do with their competition. The know how to compete and they love it. Tough competition doesn’t scare or intimidate them. This break is about what they want to do and the opportunities they want to explore outside of skating.

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Exactly! What's all this talk about the Shibs being scared of competition? As if they haven't had to overcome and beat back these very teams people are assuming are going to easily displace them for the past six or so seasons. Their whole career has been facing competition and proving themselves that they are good enough to be up there with the best of them as they've acknowledged how often people doubted their ability to be competitive. For the most part, you see how they rise to the occasion in competition and put it together when it counts. They have nerves of steel and a competitor's spirit that they've exhibited for many seasons now.

Anyway, I see some are using this thread to talk about what they WANT to see happen to the Shibs' competitive career going forward. Are people forgetting HOW the Shibs became the U.S. no. 1 team? They had to overtake C/B who were still getting high international scores and were seen as a medal-worthy team internationally and it was never a walk in the park and all three teams were always trading spots in the hierarchy. The Shibs were just successful staving off the tough competition for two and a half seasons only losing slightly to H/D at Nationals but winning internationally amongst the three American teams. People act like if the Shibs some how lost a competition to C/B and H/D that their career would be over and they'd stay in that position in the pecking order. If we learned anything is that the international judges don't care about pecking order from the U.S. (if there is one) and that they'll mark the teams based on how they perform so long as they are seen as on a similar level.

Also, my point still stands, Skater Boy. No they aren't the most famous or popular people out there but they have a huge following on social media, were cited as one of the most spoken about athletes from the Olympics, and garnered a built-in a big dedicated fan base just from ice dancing since 2012. They have also appeared in a lot of media, shows, etc. and connected and built relationships with brands and with behind-the-scenes and on-screen people. You also do not understand how big they are in the Asian-American community. They have a lot of tools at their disposal to expand their opportunities. You don't think they have "it" or whatever, but they have consistently built themselves up and the fact they were able to get UTA to sign them up is a big sign that their efforts and results have been noteworthy. Again, I'm not saying they'll be the biggest thing ever, but you really are downplaying everything they've accomplished and it evident that it's coming from a place of ignorance of their career. I don't even use GS as a gauge of their popularity because I never thought they were that popular here to begin with.

 

[draqq]

Good on them for retiring on a high note with that Olympic bronze. I won't rule out them returning later down the road. I'm glad they found their style with the help of Coldplay and were among the first ice dancers of Asian descent to be among the top teams in their discipline.

 

[Seren]

I will miss seeing them but I can understand why they want a break. It can't have been an easy 4 years. When you think about their growth and the teams they had to overtake it is really impressive.

The only positive for me is I won't have to spend next season grumbling about how underscored they are. The Olympic short dance results were a joke.

 

[rnois13]

I'm gonna miss their skating videos. I don't really have interest in the non-skating content that they(or just Alex) put out in social media. I hope they graduate and enter the corporate USFS.

 

[Spirals for Miles]

Exactly! What's all this talk about the Shibs being scared of competition? As if they haven't had to overcome and beat back these very teams people are assuming are going to easily displace them for the past six or so seasons. Their whole career has been facing competition and proving themselves that they are good enough to be up there with the best of them as they've acknowledged how often people doubted their ability to be competitive. For the most part, you see how they rise to the occasion in competition and put it together when it counts. They have nerves of steel and a competitor's spirit that they've exhibited for many seasons now.

Anyway, I see some are using this thread to talk about what they WANT to see happen to the Shibs' competitive career going forward. Are people forgetting HOW the Shibs became the U.S. no. 1 team? They had to overtake C/B who were still getting high international scores and were seen as a medal-worthy team internationally and it was never a walk in the park and all three teams were always trading spots in the hierarchy. The Shibs were just successful staving off the tough competition for two and a half seasons only losing slightly to H/D at Nationals but winning internationally amongst the three American teams. People act like if the Shibs some how lost a competition to C/B and H/D that their career would be over and they'd stay in that position in the pecking order. If we learned anything is that the international judges don't care about pecking order from the U.S. (if there is one) and that they'll mark the teams based on how they perform so long as they are seen as on a similar level.

Also, my point still stands, Skater Boy. No they aren't the most famous or popular people out there but they have a huge following on social media, were cited as one of the most spoken about athletes from the Olympics, and garnered a built-in a big dedicated fan base just from ice dancing since 2012. They have also appeared in a lot of media, shows, etc. and connected and built relationships with brands and with behind-the-scenes and on-screen people. You also do not understand how big they are in the Asian-American community. They have a lot of tools at their disposal to expand their opportunities. You don't think they have "it" or whatever, but they have consistently built themselves up and the fact they were able to get UTA to sign them up is a big sign that their efforts and results have been noteworthy. Again, I'm not saying they'll be the biggest thing ever, but you really are downplaying everything they've accomplished and it evident that it's coming from a place of ignorance of their career. I don't even use GS as a gauge of their popularity because I never thought they were that popular here to begin with.

If I could like this post ten times, I would, and then some

It's also interesting -- one of my acquaintance/friends, upon finding out that I liked to watch figure skating, got all excited and asked me what I thought of the Shibs because she'd seen them during the Olympics and loved them. So, maybe she's not like everybody, but there's still people who love the Shibs who aren't diehard figure skating fans like us on GS

 

[Barb]

I'm gonna miss their skating videos. I don't really have interest in the non-skating content that they(or just Alex) put out in social media. I hope they graduate and enter the corporate USFS.

I hope they will be never related to the USFS or the ISU. As Mao is doing, it seems to me that the best thing is to distance oneself from those institutions.

 

[rnois13]

I hope they will be never related to the USFS or the ISU. As Mao is doing, it seems to me that the best thing is to distance oneself from those institutions.

I am desparate for USFS reorganization, I really am

 

[Barb]

I am desparate for USFS reorganization, I really am

What about D/W?, they would be great!.

 

[DSQ]

I hope they will be never related to the USFS or the ISU. As Mao is doing, it seems to me that the best thing is to distance oneself from those institutions.

I didn't realise Mao was distancing herself from the ISU other than the fact she retired from skating.

I wish the Shibutani's well, they certainty seemed the most media savvy of all the skaters at the Olympics. They're Insta especially had that professional gloss to it.

It's a smart move as well since they are young enough to return if they wish but it'll let them get a foothold in whatever careers they want outside of skating since the money within the sport isn't as much as it used to be.