Shoma comes into this season with questions about what competitions means for him, and what he is seeking from competitions since he doesn't want to focus on the points. My take on it is that he is currently in a different point of skating career compared to other skaters currently competing, and is in the process of taking in this experience to figure out what he feels and thinks about competitions.
Ah... I'm not going so far as to say that Shoma would "at least" have a farewell tour of sorts. It can be that he will say he will have one last competition and that's it. Japan has a lot of ice shows opportunity so for Shoma it can be that things will not change much regarding skating after he retires (he can even be busier) and it's likely that he wouldn't consider his competitive retirement as some big event.
It’ll be exciting to see what he chooses to share with fans in the future.
He did really well in that production in the summer and based on the extremely successful run and all the fun he had with his collaborators, he definitely has options. Plus, he has all the endorsements and modeling them.
He was also dinged for time. I have to go back to the protocols but, really......He did get a deduction for time. His GPF is going to be so clean even Mr. Clean can't fault him.
Arriba, your post really energized meI've been following this amazing person / magician / skater for 9 years and decided early on that I wanted to stay out of the "wuzrobbed" discussions. Heck, it's a judged sport -- you'll win some, you'll lose some. Takes a strong stomach? heart? to follow a judged sport. Sometimes it's your day, sometimes it isn't. In 9 years, I can honestly say there were only two times when Sho was egregiously and blatantly robbed, and it was ridiculously obvious. Ah, maybe there was something borderline here and there. I can't torture myself over it all...Fast forward to last night when I watched the NBC coverage that I had previously DVR'd. Saw all the jumps in slow motion. All I had to watch was the 4Lo. There is no way that was on the quarter. Tara and Johnny are better judges than I am, and they said the same. Ok, so they took away 3.30 in GOE points from him. Add in the 3.30 they dinged him for, and now look at the total scores. Hmmm. Who won? I didn't even focus on the rest of the jumps. I didn't want to know. Taking 11 points away from someone is pretty strict. Maybe they looked at the BV of the top two guys and realized Sho's was 10 points (?) higher and ....? Also, I think 4everchan said it's a -2 GOE when the jump is on the quarter. Why take away 3.30, which is what they had originally given him?...Time violation -1. Ok, is that because he threw in the emergency 4T-2T, knowing he would risk running over? No disrespect meant to Camden Pulkinen - Camden finished after his music. No time deduction. Was Sho 5 seconds over and Camden was only 4 seconds over?...So on and on and on, you can make yourself crazy.
As far as the puppy channel -- I loved that from Day 1. I'm not able to have a dog, so I was vicariously a dog owner through those entertaining videos. I know some people hated them and said "Enough with the dogs. I'm not following him to follow the dogs." I looked at them as so much more!!! First of all, how many skaters and their families have welcomed us into their homes and lives like that? I loved seeing their home, going for walks around Nagoya, visiting restaurants, seeing how many pairs of pjs Sho has, watching cooking, etc. I'll never forget the day Sho brought tiny little Emma home and began to learn the unconditional love of a dog. I agree with Bcath regarding Switzerland. Those videos were brilliant!...Brother Tree is going to live in Tokyo now, and I think for that reason it would be hard for him to continue with the channel. He thanked everyone, because through having so many subscribers, it was like a little part-time job for him. I don't know how all that works, but you can definitely earn money through You Tube, and he did. He thanked his followers.
The retirement talk isn't for me. It'll get here, and I'm sure he'll handle it gracefully. I would not count on sponsors after retirement. I think some companies want to sponsor athletes, not entertainers. Just my humble opinion.
Interesting that neither Stephane, nor Deniss, nor Sho went to the closing banquet. Well, Sho doesn't go to those anymore, but I wondered if there was a little bit of a statement being made there.
I can't wait for the GPF!!!! I may even have to get up in the middle of the night for it! In the meantime, I'm in it for the long haul. Welcome to the Sho
I agree with you on the "was robbed" discussions and I also stay out (still staying out!) of it. This is a judged sport, I just think that I have to prepare that one day, things like this will happen and I just have to think of it as balancing out the "good" days I have had before... and believe that Shoma will find a way to handle this situation the best he can. He's been doing this sport for 20 years, I leave all of this to him ahahha.
Arriba, your post really energized me
There will always be haters, but the good thing is there is more love and support. I don’t think Shoma lets any negativity from fans or the media get to him. He is a once in a lifetime talent in figure skating. I would say he is GOAT.Late to the party but wow... I was moved to tears by his skating this weekend.
I try not to care about the scores too much, but I have to admit I was furious when the free skate score was announced. Even if result is not Shoma's driving force this season I just want him to get rewarded for his skating - it is sublime and in a league of its own (even if there of course are many amazing skaters out there, who I also enjoy a lot. Just not in the same way)
But yeah, he really doesn't have anything to prove. There might be haters out there or people who just don't get it (I don't get them!), but for ones who do get it, I dare to say it is deeply meaningful. I could ramble on for several pages, but let me just end with the words of Stéphane: Shoma is very precious for figure skating
