Yes, there were some great programs during that period. Including by skaters you have named there.
If we're talking about this, then I don't feel we need to judge the steps and turns to a higher degree, because IMO, we were already getting skaters like Hanyu until 2022 who were doing rather nice transitions into various elements. We also had skaters like Jeremy Abbott who skated until 2014 (I'll ignore Savoie who stopped in 2006).
I don't know about bitter, but she stated quite clearly in an interview that she would never have a child of her own take up figure skating.
I take it you flew from Canada (tell us, how much are the plane tickets and hotel fees?) to do so, and you spoke to those hundreds of Ilia's American fans and Yuma's Japanese ones - and the equal hundreds of Canadian and other international skating supporters of course - who stumped up the international travel costs in the rink with you? That would be the only justification for such a sweeping condemnation of other people for not spending thousands on the trip to Europe. Skate Canada actually noted the economic benefits to them and to the local economies of the competitions Yuzuru attended, he brought a heap of money to Finlandia the year he and Alina were there. Now, he and his fans are acknowledged as having brought staggering amounts into the Japanese economy as a whole and to local areas there. It's the turn of all those 'Malinin/Fa/Kagiyama' fans to fly all over the world now.
What I remember most from Yuna Kim's early career was how homesick she was when she was transplanted to Canada at age 15, especially since her English was imperfect.
I remeber back in the 1990s when touring skating shows and made for TV extravaganzas were big in the U.S. There was always a special session after the finale for each of the skaters to do a dp-over to be spliced in replacing the falls.
Oh, way to deflect. It's not about my fandom - I'm talking about fans who just show up for a skater and nothing else. There's fans of skaters and fans of skating.
Pot, meet deflecting kettle. "had I been able to afford the time and funds to show up to Lombardia Trophy, I totally would have." Yet you expect other people from other countries, who have far less interest in the competitors in question, to somehow come up with it? They worked and saved and hoarded vacation time... because their own moment of magic was worth it. If 'real' fans - by your definition - begrudged them the full pass tickets (the only ones available thanks to TPTB doing the maths and I note that the Japanese fans who it is claimed always got up and left were at the same time lauded on competition threads and by commentators for being welcoming and cheering on all skaters, which would be hard to do simultaneously, hmmm?), 'real' fans could have gotten in and bought them first. But they didn't, did they? And they haven't since, have they? Most of Ilia's and Yuma's fans passed on that expense, whether they could afford it or not (and again, no reason why they shouldn't, but it's goose and gander). Maybe they will start spending up when the former becomes the celebrity he wants to be. We don't know, wait and see.
That she did. And I can't blame her - I would never send any children of my own to this sport either.
People spend their money in ways they like. I used to not like this, but a rather fresh perspective to me when I spoke to people who did this was that they were in a new country they'd never been to before - and they'd like to explore that than stay stuck in an ice rink.
I was at Autumn classic when hanyu was there. There is nothing around the rink to explore. It is about 90/120 minutes away from anything interesting to visit in Montreal. And yes, they came in only when he was skating but left their blankets and banners on the seats which were not assigned so basically blocking fans who wanted to stay for the whole time. At one point. It got so bad that I took part in moving their stuff away so the family of other skaters (world medal winners and Olympic medal winners) were able to sit down. So yeah, people are allowed to spend their money the way they want but some people just have no respect. This being said, I met other Japanese fans who sat there for the whole time and cheered for everyone, not only their favorite. This thread is drifting dangerously. For those interested in quads I saw Hanyu land his first quad loop in a competition. He was able to balance quads and choreography. I think he did four quads in Seimei. It's a long time ago. In his case, the balance was still there. But for most skaters, too many quads is a tragedy for figure skating.
These other Japanese fans were also Yuzuru fans, I assume, as you have brought this story a couple of times already before and you have mentioned this detail then
Autumn Classic was set up in a rink with no seats but benches. The organizers cannot control people and they usually do not have to. I have been to many competitions there because that's often where they hold CQÉ. Never, has there been a problem unless it was went Hanyu fans were misbehaving. And yes, as I said, some of his fans were nice too... but it wasn't the majority.... and yes, I have told that story before because it's extremely upsetting when people hold seats for the entire competition to watch ONE skater and then go.. but leave their blankets on the benches and block the way for everyone else. So no, I am not going to apologize for telling that frustrating story once more.These other Japanese fans were also Yuzuru fans, I assume, as you have brought this story a couple of times already before and you have mentioned this detail then
It is not about Yuzuru fans as such, it is about people coming to see a great star, and Yuzuru is just the greatest star of this sport.
I was to the Warsaw Cup once where Jason was the star. A big number of people arrived just for penultimate group to see him skating in the last group. They were not interested in anyone else, just wanted to see the great Jason Brown. They were made to wait until a break between groups and asked to take a seat without making too much fuss. Otherwise, no one was making a big deal about it. Volunteers were sent to distribute coffee and tea among the crowd until they were allowed to enter. After the skate, almost everyone was queueing for Jason's autograph, which lasted well into the Pairs event leaving most of the seats empty for them while Jason was giving autographs in the top corridor and talked to fans.
Shall we now pick up on Jason fans and Jason himself, lol?
You see, this is all on organizers.
In tennis, they just shut the door during games, and open them for breaks only. Nobody cares if seats are left empty when paid for, they care only for seats unsold (which I guess is true for any event organizers, really). Especially when it all lasts for so many hours, everyone needs to be cut some slack. They just make sure people don't disturb the players and the games by coming in and out and moving around when the game is on. If they do, they are called out by the umpire and asked to take a seat. The game does not start until they do. Otherwise, no one cares.
I also guess people are much less disturbed by this moving around when they actually do like the skater these unorderly crowds arrived for so they are kind of sympathetic to their cause. When you do not like the skater it all is happening for, I guess you get double disturbed and ready to complain.
I don't expect you to apologize. I just don't share your point of view.
I really couldn't go physically but there was a paid streaming and I actually took my bank card to buy it. Before the buying process, on the site, there was an introduction of each discipline in this competition. In Women, Pairs and Ice Dance, they highlighted the Italian skaters in. Fine. In Men, where they had three Italian, including Matteo Rizzo and Nikolaj Memola which I was eager to watch, they chose instead to promote two overscored pets, those which are a sore to watch precisely because of this overscoring, and which presence had needed an internal struggle before deciding to buy tickets. Well, I left the site rather incensed and put back my bank card in my wallet.
I'm sorry, it seems that we didn't have the same definition of underscoring. By underscoring, I mean that the skate receives a lower score than what the rules say (also taking into account how a given panel scores); I don't mean, a day where a skater has one of his skates a tad less overscored than what they usually are. To add to this, you started with Nathan Chen who, in addition not to be deserving anything near 8, let alone the actual Components he received, and to have had his underrotations ignored among uncalled errors, had already been that egregiously overscored in the Short Program (chiefly by ignoring his underrotations and overscoring his Components) which artificially put him in the Free Skate where he didn't belong. He's 26th here.
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Talking about Sochi, these were not specifically Plushenko fans, these were Russsian skating fans who just wanted Russia to win. They were not screaming Plushy Plushy but Russia Russia, and just left when no Russian was left to compete so they lost interest.
