Yuzuru Hanyu: 2017-2018

[WineHerUp]

The "Olympic Channel" (American?) is pushing a Yuzuru versus Nathan narrative in this ad on their website:

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/he-has-the-most-raw-talent-of-any-athlete-ive-ever-seen/

I don't know quite what to think about it - but they sure seem confident that the two will go head to head when the next season starts.

American media is the worst. I hate how they give so little credit to skaters who aren't skating with an American flag next to their names. Nathan has a high base value but he rarely ever executes everything cleanly and he cracks under pressure. Guys like Shoma and Boyang are more solid competitors and definitely deserve more recognition. I also find it a bit amusing when people compare a total package skater like Yuzuru, to someone like Nathan who needs soo much more development.

 

[Enero]

That's been going on for a while. Maybe it's because I'm from the US that I saw it more here. They were already kind of pushing that prior to the Olympics thinking it would be a battle between those two for the gold. Didn't work out that way, but that was the assumption being made in the media.

Just my opinion of course. And he has beaten Yuzu in competition before. If Yuzu is off his game and Nathan is on, it's possible for Nathan to beat him. But when Yuzu is on his game, Nathan doesn't stand a chance. If Yuzu competes in this next season, and that's a big if, the two may go head to head, but we'll have to see. I wouldn't discount Shoma either. He's usually at the top of the pack as well.

See I didn’t get this at all. If I’m remembering correctly Yuzuru was kind of presented as a non factor here in the U.S. due to his injury and thus the uncertainty about how he would compete. It was pretty much Nathan and his 5 quads until he bombed in the short. The U.S. media was really pumping him up to be favorite for the gold. I guess due to his GPF win and of course him being an American skater. Btw, their figure skating coverage on TV was HORRENDOUS. The app was significantly better. They just really didn’t care about the athletes IMO unless they were American, which sucked for me being as my favorites are from Japan, China, Spain and other countries across the pond. Guess I’m a traitor too. Though I do really enjoy Vincent Zhou.

But I digress, I think that video on the Olympic Channel is very misleading. It starts off saying watch out Yuzuru, but then goes on to talk about Nathan going to Yale in the fall and a bit about his talent, but it fails to do a comparison of their skills, doesn’t even mention the times Nathan has beaten Yuzuru in competition or his latest big win at Worlds. Honestly I’m not sure what they were hoping to accomplish with that video except to say Nathan would be balancing Yale and skating in the fall, but they could’ve done that without including Yuzuru.

All that said, I think Nathan is very talented. I don’t think he’s a phenom like Yuzuru, but if he polish up the landings of his jumps and gets consistent, he will be a real threat to a clean Yuzuru. IMHO. And the latter knows this which is one reason why he has been upping his technical content each season. The judges sometimes seem to forget about artistry when the jumps are landed as evidenced by worlds when some were getting PCS comparable to Yuzuru, Javi and other top artists in the sport even though they are not even close to being on that level.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the new rules though. That may be a game changer for all.

 

[yude]

So is "Olympic Channel" an American channel? They seem to like Yuzuru, I like their Yuzuru's posts

The media likes creating "rivalry" just because it can collect people's attention IMO. Nathan is the World Champion and Yuzuru is the Olympic Champion, and it is the easiest way to make "rivalry and drama" for them I've read Nathan's interview by Canon which was given at the Worlds this year, I thought he understood his weakness well and also cared about the rule change. So I agree with Ashley, balancing the school and figure skating is the key for the next season for him.

 

[myself]

The US coverage was very biased. I kept wanting to suggest that the good folks at NBC take just five seconds out of their day to google the highest recorded scores. Like it was Yuzu, Shoma, Javi, Boyang. (Nathan's up there now, but he wasn't at the time). They discounted Yuzu because of the injury and ignored everyone else.

IIRC they didn't even say Shoma's name until he was taking the ice for the team SP. And he was number two in the world???

 

[Farnaz]

OMG, this is hilarious, LOL

https://mobile.twitter.com/yuzuruloop/status/978956352029691904

 

[yude]

It's around noon of April 8 here, the project of tweeting with #CiONTU質問募集 will be closed tonight. I added three more questions 1) The time schedule of the competition was different from previous Olympics, which did you prefer Sochi's or PyeongChang's? Do you have particular period of time in a day you feel your body moves well? 2) You said in one of the interviews at the studio that you were incapable of riding bicycle, is it really true? 3) Some athletes made the comments for you before the Olympics. Uchimura-senshu said "It is going to be the coolest thing if he wins. The person with the most strong mentality wins in the Olympics." Did this reach you before the game?"

 

[yude]

Sendai is getting excited and ready for the parade :dance:

hotels: almost full

restaurants: call more staff than usual shifts, a worker in a cafe says they will start preparing the food before the dawn.

call center: 694 calls have been received by April 5.

T-shirts: prepared 80,000, 40,000 for on line sale and the rest are sold in the parade. 30,000 have been sold on line by April.5 and it is likely to be sold out in the next week.

At this point, I only wish the best weather on April 22

https://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201804/20180408_14023.html

 

[cruzceleste]

Sendai is getting excited and ready for the parade :dance:

hotels: almost full

restaurants: call more staff than usual shifts, a worker in a cafe says they will start preparing the food before the dawn.

call center: 694 calls have been received by April 5.

T-shirts: prepared 80,000, 40,000 for on line sale and the rest are sold in the parade. 30,000 have been sold on line by April.5 and it is likely to be sold out in the next week.

At this point, I only wish the best weather on April 22

https://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201804/20180408_14023.html

Sounds great, hope everything works out the way is planned and this serve to help Sendai as Yuzuru wanted

 

[Danibellerika]

It's possible I'm remembering wrong. I thought there was more media coverage favoring the two for gold. I have a young daughter who is also a figure skater. She's a huge Yuzuru fan and she's a fan of Nathan as well. So we were watching them closely at the Olympics. That may be where I got it in my head that there was an assumption that they would go head to head. But thinking back, you all are right. They did discount Yuzu due to injury. Boy were they wrong, lol.

I do agree with those of you that said American media is very biased though. We don't get the coverage here of skaters overseas. I actively seek it out because I follow Yuzuru, but if I didn't, you wouldn't hear much about them here.

Here's my take on the Nathan situation, but I may be off base. We watched him pretty closely prior to the Olympics because my daughter is a fan. He had SO much media pressure on him. So much. And when he didn't perform as expected they were seeking out a redemption story. What bigger redemption than to defeat a two time Olympic gold medalist. That's American media for you. Go big or go home. Then Yuzuru pulled out of Worlds, so now they are pushing for them to go head to head at the Grand Prix. They really want that big redemption story for Nathan in my opinion, and that's why they are pushing this drama for the Grand Prix.

Now I agree that Nathan is talented, but he's not on Yuzu's level in my opinion. The American media would have you think otherwise, but they are biased in favor of Nathan. He can surpass Yuzuru if Yuzuru is not on his game and he has, but, Nathan needs some refinement. And if Yuzuru keeps competing, he will also likely keep pushing boundaries, like with the 4A if he can land it, so he's going to be hard to catch since he has the artistry and is pushing those boundaries for more difficult elements. Like you said, I will be interested to see what happens with the rule changes.

I feel unpatriotic all the time because I usually prefer skaters that aren't Americans. Yuzuru to me now is what Sasha Cohen was to me then, so she was the only American I was ever really invested in. But during her time Kwan was there so even still I didn't feel like I was being properly patriotic enough since Kwan was the #1. I do like some American skaters, but they aren't always at the "for the win" level for me. Even Nate, I like him, I've met him (he's a friendly kid), and I was rooting for him to podium in PC, but I would not have been satisfied with anyone wearing that gold that wasn't Yuzuru. Just being honest. The heart wants what it wants... But he's got a bright future ahead so I'm not worried about him. And on the ladies side, I like the Japanese and the Russian juniors.

I hear ESPN Magazine is actually working on a feature for Yuzu in English. I am looking forward to it but not holding my breath. Still, it's nice that they want to do something. Hard to ignore his star power in a high profile olympic sport. And then he won it so...

People magazine had a figure skating edition that had one page of Yuzu in it saying that he could get in Nathan's way for gold. I'm going to copy what I wrote elsewhere: I nabbed a premium seat for the Olys Men's SPs which put me in the media section right behind the judges. There were these american journalists in front of me. They had no idea who Hanyu was. They had no idea why I had a Pooh bear and was wearing yellow ears. Hearing "who is Yuzuru Hanyu?" with the rink and Olympic rings right there in front of me was a kind of a :shocked::shocked::shocked: moment. Of course, soon they would learn who he is and they'll never forget it, especially since they were busy capturing the Pooh rain on their phones in wonder. But yeah, I was a bit irritated that they got such good seats while some who actually know the sport and the rest of the contenders had to settle for worse. And as journalists I expected them to have done a little bit of research to know who could possibly round out the podium. It really wouldn't have taken much.

So yeah, it's sort of hard to expect general public to know all of the players if even some of the media doesn't either.

Shoma's my second favorite and always a threat for the top of the podium as well so I don't like that he is often discounted here too. I actually think this season being a mixed bag for him is going to really fire him up for next season.

As for magazine quality in general. When I was in Japan they had so many skating and Yuzu magazines. It was wonderful. That was during the olys but pre men's event. I was back home post-olys but I know there was an explosion then too. I ordered several magazines from Japan (you can order on Amazon Japan and they deliver to the states). They are so wonderful with beautiful pictures. I ordered the english IFS Magazine with Yuzu on the cover and it arrived this week, but the quality is so poor in comparison to the good Japanese ones. Also, if you are ever in New York City, their Kinokuniya has a lot of magazines and a dedicated skating section. There's a lot of Yuzu there.

As for the olympic channel, they like to use Yuzu for attention. They know he gets them clicks. That's why they tweet about him weeks later when the olympics are over and that's why they have a million different videos about him. That's why even with no real relation to Nate and Yale, they'll try to shoe-horn in a way to mention him. They want a rivalry for people to get excited about. Though really it makes no sense to me considering that they are in two different places in their careers. Yuzuru has nothing else to really prove. What he's doing now is a bonus. Most retire after 1 OGM, but he still plans to continue for a bit after 2. Whereas Nathan has a whole quad ahead of him until 2022 which is his main goal. Yuzu's sights are the 4A. Nate's sights are 2022. I would think they would want to focus on some others who are looking toward 2022. Of course Yuzu could be there too, but he is understandably non-committal about it.

 

[Imov]

What was Yuzu being so animated about here? Lmao.
And Javi just kept blowing away kisses.
https://twitter.com/aoyama56789/status/965516396686852096

 

[eaglehelang]

What was Yuzu being so animated about here? Lmao.
And Javi just kept blowing away kisses.
https://twitter.com/aoyama56789/status/965516396686852096

should be the mistake with the 3 Lutz. Then Shoma responded with his own almost falling pose.
There are other fancams right above where the 3 were standing. One of them :

https://youtu.be/wwh413Vyr4U

 

[yude]

People magazine had a figure skating edition that had one page of Yuzu in it saying that he could get in Nathan's way for gold. I'm going to copy what I wrote elsewhere: I nabbed a premium seat for the Olys Men's SPs which put me in the media section right behind the judges. There were these american journalists in front of me. They had no idea who Hanyu was. They had no idea why I had a Pooh bear and was wearing yellow ears. Hearing "who is Yuzuru Hanyu?" with the rink and Olympic rings right there in front of me was a kind of a :shocked::shocked::shocked: moment. Of course, soon they would learn who he is and they'll never forget it, especially since they were busy capturing the Pooh rain on their phones in wonder. But yeah, I was a bit irritated that they got such good seats while some who actually know the sport and the rest of the contenders had to settle for worse. And as journalists I expected them to have done a little bit of research to know who could possibly round out the podium. It really wouldn't have taken much.

This is the saddest for me among the reports of USA media so far honestly because it shows how they were not interested in the sport itself. And as you said, if you were a journalist, you would have to study the subject as a part of your job.

Japanese magazines have high quality of paper, doesn't it? I guess that is one of the reasons why they are expensive. I remember there were only a few figure skating magazines before Yuzuru had won in Sochi Olympics, but now I gave up counting how many they exist :giveup:

What was Yuzu being so animated about here? Lmao.
And Javi just kept blowing away kisses.
https://twitter.com/aoyama56789/status/965516396686852096

Looks like he is trying to explain to Shoma how he fought for saving the last Lutz

 

[Danibellerika]

This is the saddest for me among the reports of USA media so far honestly because it shows how they were not interested in the sport itself. And as you said, if you were a journalist, you would have to study the subject as a part of your job.

Japanese magazines have high quality of paper, doesn't it? I guess that is one of the reasons why they are expensive. I remember there were only a few figure skating magazines before Yuzuru had won in Sochi Olympics, but now I gave up counting how many they exist :giveup:



Looks like he is trying to explain to Shoma how he fought for saving the last Lutz

Not just the quality of the paper, but the size of the magazines, the size of the photos, the attractive page layouts, and the shots they use. All of this is far superior. I'm glad Yuzu being so popular has led to so many magazines. It's expensive to print these days so that means it's a very healthy market.

 

[Henni147]

Just my opinion of course. And he has beaten Yuzu in competition before. If Yuzu is off his game and Nathan is on, it's possible for Nathan to beat him. But when Yuzu is on his game, Nathan doesn't stand a chance. If Yuzu competes in this next season, and that's a big if, the two may go head to head, but we'll have to see. I wouldn't discount Shoma either. He's usually at the top of the pack as well.

I've been watching figure skating for about twenty years now and I've never been a fan of any skater in specific. There were many memorable performances, but even the big names had their weaknesses.

I became Yuzu fan, because I've never seen any skater with a total package like him. Effortless jumps without any preparation, complex entries and exits right on the music in any half of the programme. Dynamic spins in difficult positions, iconic sequences and countless signature moves.
And then there's Yuzu's aura and uniqueness. You can't look away when 'his majesty' enters the ice. Yuzu's choreographies are memorable, the music is not exchangeable unlike many programmes of other skaters. AND he's flying. Not skating. You can't teach all these things. Nathan is technically outstanding, but he'll never fly like Yuzu is flying. Nathan's skating is edgy and it will be edgy. He's an athlete, not a swan.

It doesn't matter which judging system you take. The old 6,0 system, the current cumulative or any other one. When Yuzu is on, he wins in any system. When he's off, he still finishes on the podium, because there's enough other content to be rewarded. Yuzu won't drop to 17th place. Nathan needs the quads to be competitive (we remember his SP's in PyeongChang) and he could be in trouble next season, if he's not working on his overall skating.

This all may sound very subjective, but this is what I see

 

[Imov]

Saw this on my feeds when was this?
I wonder how much body fat does yuzu have lol
https://twitter.com/hueber_sydney/status/982741433718370304

 

[Interspectator]

https://youtu.be/8eo9T80eRSU Some new and some different angles of the EX practice at the Olympics that I hadn't seen before! Thanks to the uploader (who also filmed this).
More Yuzu/Boyang, and Yuzu/Eric etc interaction.

 

[Enero]

I hear ESPN Magazine is actually working on a feature for Yuzu in English. I am looking forward to it but not holding my breath.


I nabbed a premium seat for the Olys Men's SPs which put me in the media section right behind the judges. There were these american journalists in front of me. They had no idea who Hanyu was. They had no idea why I had a Pooh bear and was wearing yellow ears. Hearing "who is Yuzuru Hanyu?" with the rink and Olympic rings right there in front of me was a kind of a :shocked::shocked::shocked: moment. Of course, soon they would learn who he is and they'll never forget it, especially since they were busy capturing the Pooh rain on their phones in wonder. But yeah, I was a bit irritated that they got such good seats while some who actually know the sport and the rest of the contenders had to settle for worse. And as journalists I expected them to have done a little bit of research to know who could possibly round out the podium. It really wouldn't have taken much.

So yeah, it's sort of hard to expect general public to know all of the players if even some of the media doesn't either.

Really? This is exciting. I hope they follow through and that it’s a good feature

Unfortunately figure skating is just not popular at all here in the US. If this was football, basketball or baseball you’d find numerous magazines and an abundance of reports on the stars of the sport and their progress. The golden age of figure skating for the US was probably the 80s and 90s when there were numerous Olympic medalists and of course there was the Tonya/Nancy debacle that drew more attention to the sport. I think during that time there was a lot of coverage everywhere, lots of televised skating shows too. The interest waned significantly at the turn of the millinium.

Those reporters at the SP were probably sent to cover the sport for their respective magazines/newspapers etc. because it is an Olympic sport but weren’t expected to provide any expertise just a sound bite at best from the Americans competing.

What was Yuzu being so animated about here? Lmao.
And Javi just kept blowing away kisses.
https://twitter.com/aoyama56789/status/965516396686852096

I’m very appreciative of all the behind the scenes footage fans captured at the Games. Its invaluable. I think this might’ve been right before the bro hug.

 

[Danibellerika]

I've been watching figure skating for about twenty years now and I've never been a fan of any skater in specific. There were many memorable performances, but even the big names had their weaknesses.

I became Yuzu fan, because I've never seen any skater with a total package like him. Effortless jumps without any preparation, complex entries and exits right on the music in any half of the programme. Dynamic spins in difficult positions, iconic sequences and countless signature moves.
And then there's Yuzu's aura and uniqueness. You can't look away when 'his majesty' enters the ice. Yuzu's choreographies are memorable, the music is not exchangeable unlike many programmes of other skaters. AND he's flying. Not skating. You can't teach all these things. Nathan is technically outstanding, but he'll never fly like Yuzu is flying. Nathan's skating is edgy and it will be edgy. He's an athlete, not a swan.

It doesn't matter which judging system you take. The old 6,0 system, the current cumulative or any other one. When Yuzu is on, he wins in any system. When he's off, he still finishes on the podium, because there's enough other content to be rewarded. Yuzu won't drop to 17th place. Nathan needs the quads to be competitive (we remember his SP's in PyeongChang) and he could be in trouble next season, if he's not working on his overall skating.

This all may sound very subjective, but this is what I see

I think Nate will be okay since he's a reigning world champ. He has that reputation now and we all know you'll get those marks no matter what. I became a Yuzu fan for the same reason you did. I guess I don't know who else will be around that will give us Yuzu's style of jumps with complex entries, beautiful air position, and beautiful flow out of the jumps. When I think about it, Yuzu was doing this for a long time so I don't know if that's easy to develop now if you are the rest of the field. The only ones I see remotely going there are Eteri's junior Russian girls, who admittedly watch Yuzu's jumps to help achieve this.

Really? This is exciting. I hope they follow through and that it’s a good feature

Unfortunately figure skating is just not popular at all here in the US. If this was football, basketball or baseball you’d find numerous magazines and an abundance of reports on the stars of the sport and their progress. The golden age of figure skating for the US was probably the 80s and 90s when there were numerous Olympic medalists and of course there was the Tonya/Nancy debacle that drew more attention to the sport. I think during that time there was a lot of coverage everywhere, lots of televised skating shows too. The interest waned significantly at the turn of the millinium.

Those reporters at the SP were probably sent to cover the sport for their respective magazines/newspapers etc. because it is an Olympic sport but weren’t expected to provide any expertise just a sound bite at best from the Americans competing.

I’m very appreciative of all the behind the scenes footage fans captured at the Games. Its invaluable. I think this might’ve been right before the bro hug.

I think skating fizzled out here after Kwan, so I'd go as far as to say the early to mid 2000s. And there was still the pro circuit around then, but after that there was a sharp decline in popularity when the Olympics isn't happening. And for this games it wasn't even that popular compared to previous games in terms of ratings I hear. I doubt it was ever as popular here as it is in Japan now.

And as for those reporters, I'm sure you're right about their purpose there, but I still didn't find it acceptable to know absolutely nothing about anyone that wasn't American. All it showed me was that the sport really is in the toilet here and this is why we get faulty reporting.

 

[jnic]

Have fun all. Time for me to move on. It was nice speaking with you and reading some interesting posts.

 

[Farnaz]

Good news for Yuzu, the third season of Tokyo Ghoul is running now:
http://kissanime.ru/Anime/Tokyo-Ghoul-re