#2018 world figure skating championships

[yuzu-all-the-way]

Yuzuru Hanyu Through the Years MasterPost (senior)

Yuzuru Hanyu's first and last* senior competition figure skating costumes, White Legend (SP) & Ten to Chi to (FS)

*Technically the last costume is the Haru Yo Koi gala costume, but I'm focusing on the competition itself

1) Olympics Through the Years (2014; 2018; 2022)

2) Grand Prix Series Through the Years (2010-2019)

3) Japanese Nationals Through the Years (2010-2015; 2019-2021)

4) Four Continents Through the Years (2011; 2013; 2017; 2020)

5) World Championships Through the Years (2012-2017; 2019; 2021)

6) World Team Trophy Through the Years (2015; 2017; 2021)

7) World record-breaking reactions Through the Years

___________________________________________________________

This concludes the summary of Yuzuru Hanyu's senior competitive years.

After turning pro on 19th July 2022, Yuzu has continued breaking "world records", this time related to what ice shows look like and what can be done within an ice show.

[triptychgrip]

Chronology of events for my post-canon 200k+ Yuri!!! on Ice fic series

One inevitability of writing such a massive post-canon Yuri!!! on Ice fic series that spans 5 years -- including 2 different Olympic Games (2018 PyeongChang Games and the 2022 Beijing Games) -- is that I've found myself at times struggling with second-guessing the continuity of events that I've built into my fic-verse ('Gold's On The Inside, Elevated My Feet'). This is especially the case b/c in my series, the 2018 Winter Olympics were marked by a scandal (note: not doping) that catalyzed a ton of events that followed in the realm of Yuuri and Viktor's relationship, and in the world of elite/competitive figure skating in general.

It got me thinking recently that it might be helpful to post the chronology of events (both personal, as well as the sports politics-related) that I've been working from, beginning from the time Viktor was born. My hope is to post this soon as part 6 of the series, and prior to uploading Chapter 15 (which, if you're new to my work, will detail the Men's Singles Short Program at the 2022 Beijing Games).

Other authors that have worked on stories spanning multiple big events or time periods: how do you manage to keep everything consistent and ensure that your continuity remains throughout? And, have you found it helpful to share your timeline of events in some kind of listed chronology for your readers?

I think I've been doing a decent job so far, but every so often I'm like "Oh wait, damnit, who did I write as the silver medalist as the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships, again?" or, "Hmmm...I originally noted that Yuuri and Viktor would move to Fukuoka, Japan in 'summer 2019', but when, specifically did I mean???"

And then I panic, worried that I've somehow contradicted myself somewhere LOL

[virtchandmoir]

Considered one of the greatest skating pairs of all time, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir spent nearly a decade at the top of their sport to become the most decorated ice dancers in the world. Over more than two decades of extraordinary athletic partnership, Tessa and Scott became the first and only ice dance team to win every major international junior and senior skating competition. At the height of their success between 2008 and 2019 they took home a record-setting five Olympic medals, three World Championships, eight Canadian National Championships and won the Four Continents Championship three times. The pair first skated into the hearts of Canadians at the Olympic Winter Games in 2010, thrilling crowds in Vancouver as they became the youngest athletes and first North Americans to win Olympic Gold in ice dancing. Nearly a decade later Tessa and Scott secured their iconic status with a beguiling Gold medal performance that smashed the world record for overall score in free dance at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Growing up in London, Ontario, Tessa took to the ice at the age of six after deciding she didn’t want to be the only student in her class who couldn’t skate during a school field trip. Raised in a figure skating family in nearby Ilderton, Ontario, Scott had been skating since he was three years old, coached by his mother Alma and his aunt Carol. First collaborating in 1997 when Tessa was seven years old and Scott was nine, the pair were initially so shy they could barely talk to each other. Building confidence while developing undeniable on-ice chemistry, Tessa and Scott shared a commitment to excellence that continually helped them overcome adversity. The two made enormous sacrifices to hone their craft, embracing success and failure as equal opportunities for growth and turning vulnerability into compelling artistry. Training rigorously to perfect innovative choreography, they pushed boundaries by approaching ice dancing as both creative expression and high performance sport, skating with an emotional sincerity that captivated audiences around the world.

After raising the profile of ice dancing to breathtaking new heights, Tessa and Scott retired from competitive skating in 2019. Since then, Scott has served as head coach and managing director of the Ice Academy of Montreal’s satellite program in London, Ontario. He has also been a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusivity in skating. Tessa completed both an MBA from the Smith School of Business, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Tessa is an executive advisor at Deloitte, where she helps to unlock the potential of the Canadian workforce in the realm of high performance and wellbeing. She also serves on the board for Her Mark, a charity that empowers young girls through the power of sport, and Motionball, an organization that fundraises for Special Olympics athletes.  

Considérés comme l’un des plus grands couples de patinage artistique de tous les temps, Tessa Virtue et Scott Moir ont passé près d’une décennie au sommet de leur sport pour devenir les danseurs sur glace les plus primés du monde. Au cours de leur partenariat sportif extraordinaire qui a duré plus de deux décennies, Tessa et Scott sont devenus la première et la seule équipe de danse sur glace à remporter toutes les compétitions majeures internationales de patinage artistique junior et senior. À l’apogée de leur succès, soit entre 2008 et 2019, ils remportent un nombre record de cinq médailles olympiques, trois Championnats du monde, huit Championnats nationaux canadiens et ils remportent également le Four Continents Championship à trois reprises. Le couple a conquis les cœurs des Canadiens lors des Jeux olympiques d’hiver de 2010, enthousiasmant les foules à Vancouver en devenant les plus jeunes athlètes et les premiers Nord-Américains à remporter l’or olympique en danse sur glace. Près d’une décennie plus tard, aux Jeux olympiques de 2018 à Pyeongchang, Tessa et Scott consolident leur statut emblématique en donnant une performance enlevante qui leur vaudra la médaille d’or et qui pulvérise alors le record du monde pour la note globale obtenue en danse libre.

Tessa a grandi à London, en Ontario et a commencé à patiner à l’âge de six ans après avoir décidé lors d’une sortie scolaire qu’elle ne serait pas la seule élève de sa classe incapable de patiner. Élevé dans une famille de patineurs artistiques, non loin de là, à Ilderton, en Ontario, Scott a commencé à patiner dès l’âge de trois ans. Sa mère Alma et sa tante Carol ont été ses premières entraîneures. La première collaboration du couple survient en 1997 alors que Tessa a sept ans et Scott neuf ans. Ils sont alors si timides qu’ils arrivent à peine à se parler. Gagnant en confiance au fur et à mesure qu’ils développent leur complicité indéniable sur la glace, Tessa et Scott partagent un engagement envers l’excellence qui les a constamment aidés à surmonter l’adversité. Ils ont tous deux fait d’énormes sacrifices pour perfectionner leur art, en embrassant les succès et les échecs comme des opportunités égales de croissance et en transformant la vulnérabilité en un style artistique saisissant. S’entraînant rigoureusement pour perfectionner des chorégraphies innovantes, ils ont repoussé les limites en abordant la danse sur glace à la fois comme une expression créative et un sport de haute performance, patinant avec une sincérité émotionnelle qui a captivé les publics du monde entier.

Après avoir élevé le profil de la danse sur glace à de nouveaux sommets époustouflants, Tessa et Scott ont pris leur retraite de la compétition en 2019. Depuis lors, Scott occupe le poste d’entraîneur en chef et de directeur général du programme satellite de l’Académie de glace de Montréal à London, en Ontario. Il a également été un ardent défenseur de la diversité et de l’inclusivité dans le patinage. Tessa a obtenu un MBA de la Smith School of Business ainsi qu’une maîtrise en psychologie positive appliquée de l’Université de Pennsylvanie. Tessa est conseillère exécutive chez Deloitte, où elle contribue à libérer le potentiel de la main-d’œuvre canadienne dans le domaine de la haute performance et du bien-être. Elle siège également au conseil d’administration de Her Mark, une association caritative qui autonomise les jeunes filles par le biais du sport, et de Motionball, un organisme qui recueille des fonds pour les athlètes d’Olympiques spéciaux.

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame is honoured to be presenting Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir with the prestigious Order of Sport award on Thursday, October 19, 2023 as a member of the incredible Class of 2023.

—Order of Sport

[gogogogolev]

Stephen’s interview at 2023 Skate America, published in World Figure Skating Magazine No. 99.

Stephen Gogolev 11th place men

I want to prove it to myself as well

WFSM: Reflecting on Skate America, how was it?

SG: It’s a disappointing result, but it’s a sport so sometimes there are bad times. I want to work harder in practice. The American audience gave me a boost; I think it gave me energy in terms of expression.

WFSM: This season’s free skate is choreographed by Benoît Richaud.

SG: He showed me several pieces of music; I chose three pieces from them that we joined together to create this program. It was very interesting to create a program with him that felt completely different from anything I had ever done before. I couldn’t get used to the music at first but it became fun while practising it, and I started to think I wanted to do my best to skate this free skate.

WFSM: What kind of preparation have you done for this season?

SG: Right now I’m training in California but this summer I went to Toronto and took part in the Canadian National Team Camp.¹ At the camp you skate your short and free in the style of a competition. It’s a way of getting feedback from the judges – there I got advice from the judges about spin positions, choreography, and step sequences.

WFSM: With Mr. Keegan Messing’s² retirement it’s time for a generational change for the Canadian men, isn’t it?

SG: Of course my goal is to become Canadian champion within a few years. But there are still competitions until then, and I want to do my best regardless of the competition.

WFSM: Have you met any of Canada’s retired star skaters?

SG: I see them on various occasions such as at the Canadian Championships. For example: recently when I went to Granite Club in Toronto I met Kurt Browning who congratulated me on my 3rd place finish at Autumn Classic International.

WFSM: Are medals an incentive?

SG: Of course, this is my first medal in senior international competition; I think it gave me confidence that I can do more.

WFSM: Are you currently a university student?

SG: I go to University of California Irvine. My major is political science. I decided on it because it was a field I was interested in.

WFSM: When do you think you are the happiest?

SG: I’m not sure. I think it’s probably when I’m busy. Of course I’m happy spending time with family or playing tennis, but I’m the type of person who feels fulfilled when I’m busy.

WFSM: Your goals for this season are?

SG: I want to fight so that I can properly show what I am capable of. I want to prove to myself that I can do it, prove that I can go beyond my limits. I think it will be good if I can gain experience in international competitions.³

WFSM: Do you enjoy competitions?

SG: I have come to enjoy them over the last few years. I can meet friends as well as new people. It’s nice to cheer on my friends.

(October 22, 2023 interview on the final day of Skate America)

Interview, text: Editorial department Text by World Figure Skating

Photo caption, top: FS “Time Lapse” (Choreographed by Richaud) © Nobuaki Tanaka / Shutterz

Photo caption, left: Born December 22, 2004 in Toronto. At the age of 13 he landed a variety of quads, winning the 2018 Junior Grand Prix Final. After that he went through a period of injury; presently he is training with Arutiunian. 13th place at the 2023 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

Notes:

High Performance Camp, held at the end of August in Mississauga, ON.

Keegan was named politely with the -san suffix.

This is stated as - he hopes to get more experience competing internationally. Literally translating to ‘pile up experience’.

----

Despite how sad he looks in that photo Stephen answered the questions clearly. That’s good to see.

Stephen never goes in much detail about what is going on with him. But occasionally we get small amounts of info. Here we see that he is addressing his belief in himself. It's never been about a lack or loss of talent for him, he just needs to get his self-confidence back.

Kurt’s continued support of Stephen is invaluable. Kurt mentioned he’s known Stephen since he was 8 years old, before he moved to North America, and he hasn’t forgotten him since. You just have to love Kurt and all that he does for this sport.

Also it's nice to finally hear about what Stephen’s studying. It would be interesting to get his thoughts on current international affairs, but he would not share anything with strangers. I am wondering now what he plans to do after undergrad. Perhaps studying law? Public service, or public office? We got one answer, but more questions have now popped up. He’s a smart guy so I am sure he will succeed no matter what he plans to do.

This interview was over two pages which I have just stitched together in the image above. Here is a bonus image from 2023 Grand Prix de France which was shared as part of a collage from that event on another page. The caption states Stephen was 7th in the men's event. Photo credit: Manabu Takahashi/Shutterz

Thank you to World Figure Skating Magazine for interviewing Stephen. This was an insightful and considerate interview.

---

Disclosure: The content of this interview went from English to Japanese and now back to English. I may have lost something in translation. Though I try to ensure the nuance of the conversation has been captured in the translation, I welcome any corrections. Please link back to this interview if you share it as I may edit it.

If you would like to purchase this magazine with international shipping you may do so through Amazon Japan, CD Japan, HMV & Books, or Honto.

Happy new year to you all, and may 2024 be a fantastic year for all of us.

[greenghostlyjekyll]

hi i've realized that ur really into starlight express but im having trouble actually figuring out what that is, is it fine if like you explain? is it from a play/musical..?

Totally fine!

Starlight Express is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about Trains (the characters are all trains, hence the roller skates), first opening in 1984 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Since then its had several productions: tours in the US, UK, Japan/Australia, some Non-Replica, etc. Presently, the show continues to run in Bochum, Germany at the Starlight Express Theatre (special made for the production's Race events.) Fun Fact: The Bochum production is Germany's longest running musical (opening in 1988 and still being performed today) and was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most visitors to a musical in a single theatre (13,044,148) on March 8th, 2010.

Over the years its had changes to the costumes, songs used, and plot points. However the story and characters have largely stayed the same!

(copy/pasted from this earlier post i made) The general story -- Which in the show's context takes place in a child's, referred to as Control, dream-- of it is an underdog steam shunter, Rusty, wanting to race in and win the championship race to prove his worth, steam-power worth, and impress this girl he likes. However, things aren’t that simple, having to not only race against the reigning champion diesel engine and five national engines, but also an unexpected superstar electric engine. Along with a few other twists.

I personally adore the music and costumes (though those have had Issues in the past.) and highly suggest giving the Original London Cast recording album a listen! Like I said the story events change a bit from each production, so I would recommend reading the wiki synopsis of it for more details.

Here are three mega mixes (show ending song) from the bochum productions (in English, 2017) (In German, 2018) (In German, 2021)

here's some gif sets i've made of various productions (link) (link) (link)

[chock-bates]

Madison Chock and Evan Bates Partnership for Clean Competition Keynote Transcript

Moderator: Our keynote speakers have a very relevant story to tell that demonstrates how athletes at every level can be impacted by doping. Antidoping programs are in place to help protect athletes, protect the integrity of sport, and to help ensure clean sport. That is why the Partnership for Clean Competition supports some of the world's top scientists and innovators in high quality antidoping research and development. Olympians and World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are joining us directly from events in Japan where they recently won their first World Championship. Together they've competed in three Olympic games, including silver medalists in the team event in 2022. They competed in 2018 and 2014. They have competed together in ten world championships, again winning the world championships this year, twelve US championships, winning it in 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2015, and seven Four Continents championships. They also just arrived, as I said, from Japan, where they helped Team USA secure the first place win at the ISU World Team Trophy in figure skating, and they're not done yet. So we're excited to have them share their story, and I'd like to invite Madison and Evan up to the stage.

Evan: Hello, hello everybody. Thank you so much to everybody for having us today. Super honored to be here and share a little bit about our story. So Madi and I just flew in from Japan last night, we're a little bit jet lagged, so please bear with us a little bit. We just had an incredible time in Japan, we were doing some touring as well as some competing. It's so cool to be here at the MLB headquarters, I'd like to say thank you to everybody here for hosting us. Our time in Japan, we got an opportunity to see some parts of Japan we would have never otherwise seen. We were up in the north in a province called Iwate. There's a really famous baseball player named Shohei Ohtani who's from Iwate. We were actually in Iwate during the World Baseball Classic. To see the way that this global game brought everyone together was so incredible and it was such a beautiful example of the power of sport. The way that it brings us together, people from different backgrounds, different ages. To fly from Japan, to come straight to the MLB headquarters, a little ironic, but thanks so much for having us today.

Madi: We've had two competitions and also performed in the Japanese Stars on Ice Tour while we were there, so it was a wonderful week of skating for us. We won our very first ever World Championships, a gold medal in our total career, which has been a long career, so that was an incredible experience. At World Team Trophy, we helped the US secure the gold medal. That again was incredible. The team event is such a unique and special event, it only comes around every two years or four years. Four years for the Olympics, two years for the World Team Trophy specifically in Japan.

Evan: This is a photo from last weekend. This is our team, team USA. My caption kinda shifted a little bit, but that's ok. A little bit about the team event, cause it's really unique in figure skating. Figure skating is a very individual sport. It's rare that we get to come together and compete as one. It's like the Rider Cup for golf. Like Madi said, it only comes every two years, or four years, in the case of the Olympics. Our most recent Olympic experience was in Beijing last February. The games in Beijing were a little different than we had experienced before for a couple reasons. One, they happened in the midst of the global pandemic. Two, it happened at the origin site of the global pandemic. Three, no fans were allowed to come. So we were skating in these massive venues for thousands of people but they were virtually empty. So it was just some kind of bizarre experience, but regardless we were extremely grateful for the opportunity to compete at the Olympics. There was a certain amount of uncertainty on whether we'd even have the opportunity considering the Tokyo games were postponed. Needless to say, when the games came around, we were super excited and we were selected to be in the team event for the first time in our careers.

Madi: We were incredibly excited but also incredibly nervous. Full of adrenaline, it was the first time for us to have the privilege to compete in the team event. For our Olympic season, we wanted to stand out. We've always prided ourselves on being creative and pushing skating to different levels and really thinking out of the box. For our Olympic performance, we decided to skate to Daft Punk, which is EDM music, very unusual for figure skating, especially during an Olympic season. In this performance, I play an alien, and Evan plays an astronaut. We meet each other and tell a story on another planet which we named Planet Ice, so it was very fun for us to do this very unique program and we'd like to play it for you.

Evan: There are our teammates, those are the people you can hear cause the rest of the venue is completely empty. We're so proud of that performance for many reasons. In a field of Rachmaninoffs and Beethovens, we were out there skating to Daft Punk and being aliens and astronauts. Watching that immediately brings me back to Beijing. I'm surprised at how emotional I was watching it in front of a group of people.

Madi: I'm surprised at how nervous I felt.

Evan: I'm sure many of you know where the story goes from there, and we're going to get into it, but before we do, we'd like to step back and talk a little bit about what goes in to getting to that point. What does it take to get to the Olympics. I'll share my story first, I'm 34, I started skating at 4. In my 30 years I've spent on the ice, I've spent more time on the ice than I could even imagine or count. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I was 9 years old, a Russian couple who had defected from the Soviet Union took jobs at the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club as ice dance coaches. I'm going to show my childhood photos here. The young Russian couple took my sister and I as their first students. My aunt, who was a skater herself, and went on to become an immigration lawyer, she offered her legal services to the Russian couple in exchange for one year of free ice dance lessons fro her niece and nephew. So that's how I got my start in ice dance, with a quid pro quo.

I didn't start with Madi right away, wasn't that lucky, but I had a wonderful partner named Emily. We started together as kids and we grew up on the ice together. We skated together for 11 years in Ann Arbor with those Russian coaches. It started off just a couple days a week, but the Russian coaches were very demanding, they were great, but they were very intense, and the time commitment grew pretty quickly. By 7th grade, I was leaving school at 11am to go to the rink. I was skating 6 days a week, spending probably thirty to forty hours a week at the rink. Extracurriculars and time spent hanging out with friends and family vacations were sacrificed. Obviously there was a lot of hard work, but there were also some incredible payoffs quickly. Emily and I started to travel internationally. We started to represent team USA, I got hooked immediately. We were traveling to faraway countries I would have never otherwise seen, places like Tallinn, Estonia, Bulgaria, Taipei. For a 12-13 year old boy, the life experience was incredible.

We had some great success. We became Junior World Champions, and we qualified for the Olympics in 2010 despite having a stress fracture that year and being pushed further than I wanted to be pushed, spending the year in one of those plaster casts. Somehow we made our first Olympics, we had an incredible experience there, but at that point, I was 21 years old, I wasn't the 9 year old boy in the photo anymore, and it was time for a new chapter. We decided to change coaches. Luckily at that time, Michigan was the hotbed for ice dance. We didn't have to go far, we didn't have to relocate at all. The Olympic champions and the Olympic silver medalists were training in Canton, Michigan, which was 20 minutes away from Ann Arbor, Michigan. We decided to change coaches and we started training alongside the Olympic champions and the Olympic silver medalist, and it was so inspiring to see how up-close the way the best skaters in the world worked and lived and treated their work. The rink was full of amazing skaters, including one Miss Madison Chock, who was there skating with her partner, Greg, at the time. That's how Madi and I came under one roof, under one coaches, with different partners, competing against each other for a while.

About six months into our training in Canton, Emily and I had an accident training. I was picking her up, and as I brought her down, her skate came down on the back of my leg, and it ended up severing my achilles tendon fully. I remember putting her down and taking my first step, and I turned to Emily and asked if my skate had broken. It just felt like the blade had fallen off the heel. I looked down at the skate, the skate was totally fine. Months later, I realized that feeling was what was happening on the inside of my leg. Needless to say, it was a terrible injury, needed surgery, our for the whole season. When I came back to skating, it was just really difficult to get back into it. I felt like I needed a fresh start, so I started looking for a new partner in the summer of 2011. Fortunately for me, there was a very good skater at the rink who was also looking for a new partner at the time.

Madi: Spoiler alert, it was me. Yes, we both teamed up in Canton at that time, but I'll go back and take you to the start of my journey. I began skating when I was 5 years old in Redondo Beach, California. My idol was Michelle Kwan. She was phenomenal, as you well know, and we had grown up skating in some of the same rinks, not at the same time, but to just see her and know her story, growing up in California, being an Asian American athlete, it was so inspiring to see someone who looked like me achieving her goals, becoming an Olympian, multiple time World Champion, was just incredible. That really sparked my love for skating and sparked my dream of becoming an Olympian.

As a young skater, I also did gymnastics, I did dance, I did many different types of dance, you can see my ballet, that was early, I wasn't very good then, I was figuring it out. I loved performing on the ice, and my coaches took note of that. They saw my joy that I had when I skated and my love of footworks in particular. Not so much jumping, that wasn't really for me. They suggested that I try ice dance. Unfortunately, at that time, there weren't very many ice dance coaches in California. They suggested to my parents that we move to Michigan where some of the best ice dance coaches in the world at the time were located. My parents, being the wonderful people that they are and supporting me no matter what, through think and thin, they were like, "Yeah, let's give it a try." So I'm very grateful for that, cause they put a lot of faith, I was twelve years old at the time, they put a lot of faith in me, and in my dreams. That belief has really inspired me since the beginning of my career as an ice dancer. When I was thirteen, we picked up our lives, they got job transfers, and we moved across the country to Michigan so I could be an ice dancer.

Shortly after that move, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was an incredibly difficult time for our family, definitely the most difficult time we faced, ever. Her and my dad began traveling from Michigan to Dallas where she was receiving treatment from a specialist. I would stay in Michigan, with friends of the family, or family would come to stay with me, so I could continue going to school and continue skating. Obviously, it was very difficult, I was distracted worrying about my mom. Through it all, she was an incredible force and so strong, and always encouraged me to enjoy my time on the ice and with my friends, and relish in the fact that I get to train as a figure skater, somewhere special with all these incredible athletes. Fortunately, she made it through her breast cancer, she beat it, and she's been in remission ever since. It was her strength that really inspired me. I knew that if she could go through that, I could go through anything I needed to go through on the ice. That was a huge inspiration. They are the main reason that I'm here. They've supported me in my Olympic dream my entire life. I'm very lucky and very very grateful.

When I was in Michigan, I found one of my first partners, Greg. We had a lot of success at the junior level and moved up to senior for a couple years before he decided to retire, which was a bit surprising to me because we were so young. Typically in ice dance, you have a long career. Some teams skate together for decades. I still had a huge fiery passion for skating and I wanted to go to the Olympics, we hadn't accomplished that goal yet. I began looking for a partner, and who should I find but Evan Bates?

At the start of our partnership, even before we had our tryout, I had witnessed him through his injury and his perseverance and the way he battled back and fought for his time on the ice and to come back to full strength. It was really remarkable, when you have a severed achilles, that's not something you fully recover from, let alone return to full sport and figure skating where your foot is in a boot all the time. That was an incredible testament to who Evan is as a person, his determination, his work ethic. That's really what struck me, among other things, his personality is really great. That was one of the main reasons I was really drawn to Evan and thought we would be a great fit.

Evan: We started skating together in 2011 and honestly the first year we didn't really have great results right away. What we did have was a ton of fun together on the ice, a lot of chemistry, we were constantly laughing through our training sessions, despite lackluster results. The joy that we shared on the ice together became the foundation for our partnership. I feel like that's the reason we're still competing together today, almost two decades later. With the joy, the results started to come. We qualified for the Olympics in Sochi, 2014. We had an amazing experience. We skated great, we didn't win a medal, but we accomplished all the goals we set for ourselves that year. We felt like the future was very bright. Only later did we realize that one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in the history of sport was happening right under our noses.

Madi: When that information came out in Sochi, it was incredibly frustrating as clean athletes to know that such a concerted effort was made to cheat. We have always had to work very hard for our successes and it was incredibly difficult to reconcile the fact that that was happening. But still, we weren't deterred. We had a goal, we wanted to win an Olympic medal and we didn't let that stop us. We continued our career together and the following year we won our first World medal together in 2015, and then we won another World medal the following year in 2016. We felt like we had this nice momentum building up for the 2018 games in Pyeongchang.

But then, as luck would have it, we faced some adversity yet again. As we were beginning our preparations for the Olympic season, the summer of 2017, I sustained an injury to my ankle during training. We were preparing for our preseason camp. We were being pushed, probably much harder than we needed to be pushed at that point in the season. But we continued, and we loved skating, and we loved working hard, so we thought that that was just what we needed to do. I ended up getting injured, my blade got jammed into the ice as I was coming down from a lift, I fractured fragments of my talus bone. When I went to the doctor, he said that I would need surgery to remove the debris in my ankle, and that I would absolutely need surgery. I was like, "Well, that's not going to work for me, I have an Olympic games to go to."

He was very cooperative with my hardheadedness and I was like, "Is there any way we could postpone this and push through it." He was like, "Okay, maybe, just try it, see how you feel." And so we did, I was taping my ankle everyday to make sure the movement was limited. We limited our ice time and did the best we could with what we had, since we knew it was better than not going and not fulfilling all of the work we had put in the last four years since Sochi. We decided to just make it happen and do the best we could.

Evan: We ended up making the Olympic team, but the experience was not the Olympic dream that we had envisioned. That's Sochi, sorry I missed a slide, and this is Pyeongchang. In the middle of our free dance, we bellyflopped right on center ice. It was not choreographed. It was so devastating after working for so many years. This was our second games, my third, and this was kinda our time, we felt like, to medal. As soon as you do that, you're not medaling. We were mad, we were angry at the situation. We felt like we were going backwards. At this point in our careers, we aren't young. You don't know how many Olympic experiences you get as an athlete. If you're going to compete for another four years. We were kinda at our wit's end. We decided to change coaches, and at this point, the mecca of ice dance had shifted to Montreal. We decided to leave Michigan, leave our families, move to another country.

We started a new chapter with French and Canadian coaches in 2018, and these guys have completely changed our lives. There are many coaches there, but our main coaches are Marie-France and Patrice Lauzon who are a husband-wife team who were an ice dance couple themselves and have really lived a very similar life to the one we're living now. They competed in the Olympics, even had a very dramatic fall at the Olympics which caused them to withdraw as they were hoping to medal. They were World silver medalists, and just good people.

When we moved to Canada and we started to see and be treated with this compassion from our coaches and our team, and be empowered as athletes, it completely changed everything for us. We started to fall in love with skating again. A love that we knew we had, but had waned through the difficult times. We loved the process of coming to the rink and getting better and working on our craft and soon the results started to come back. We won a US title again in 2020, it had been 5 years since we won our first. Afterwards, we were in the press conference and the media told us, that's the longest anyone's gone between national titles, great record! The next year we won a world medal for the first time in 6 years, and the press conference media said that's the longest time anyone's gone between world medals! Great, these aren't the records that we really want, but we'll take them! Things started to go great, leading into Beijing Olympics, we felt like this was finally the time we were going to accomplish our Olympic dream of winning an Olympic medal.

Madi: Back to Beijing, the performance we showed you was one of the best and most gratifying performances that we've had in our careers so far. It was an incredible feeling to deliver that performance for our team when we were under pressure because the last four years, the Pyeongchang games were kinda looming over us a little bit. Even as we got to the spin in our free program of this performance, we talked to each other after the performance, oh wow, glad that the spin went well, since that's what we fell on the previous year. Making it through that mental hurdle was a big accomplishment, not only to deliver that performance, was relly special to us. On that day, we helped solidify team USA's spot as Olympic silver medalists and it was really special to celebrate that with our team, some of whom we've trained alongside for years. It was the best result the US figure skating team has had in history. It was incredible to be a little part of that Olympic history.

The next 24 hours were a bit bizarre. We were all just blissfully going about our day, excited we had just won a medal. Later that evening, we would be going to our medal ceremony to be awarded an Olympic medal. We got dressed in our gear, a special outfit Nike that provides specifically for the podium and we're instructed to not wear it until the opportunity of the podium is there. So, we all got dressed, we felt excited, we had our fresh gear on. We met up, we were taking photos, then someone said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, the ceremony has been canceled."

And we're like, canceled, not postponed? Maybe an hour? They were like, "No, it's been canceled." We had very little information to go off of. We all just kinda sat in the room for a while waiting to hear more. When eventually we did start to hear more of the news that there was a skater in the event who had been caught in a doping violation, and so we didn't know what that would mean for our moment and our medals, but as the story unfolded, we slowly learned more. We kind of knew that we wouldn't be taking home that medal.

Evan: Right, but I don't think we recognized in the moment the kind of impact Beijing would have on our lives. We still haven't gotten closure on this event that happened fifteen months ago. We have the video that we proudly show that is evidence that we lived our Olympic dream and that we won an Olympic medal after years and years of hard work. But what we don't have is the actual medal and what we'll never have is the moment on the podium in Beijing, nor will we have the opportunities that come after winning an Olympic medal, the press tour, the opportunity to capitalize that many medal winning athletes have. Now it's been fifteen months and still no medal of any color, which is difficult, but we did leave Beijing with empty medal boxes, which you can see team USA has up there in the photo on the right. We actually brought them with us today, and if it's ok, we'd like to pass them around, if people want to see them. After today, these are going to go on display at the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, please return them afterwards.

Madi: So we left Beijing with these boxes that you see and no medal. And eventually the story after we left the Olympics wasn't being covered anymore, until the one year anniversary, things had been relatively quiet. As we came up on the one year, US Figure Skating launched a campaign called "More Than Medals". The purpose of the campaign was to shed light on the situation that it was the first time in Olympic history where a team who had earned a medal had left without their medal. This whole thing is so much more than a medal at this point. It's about integrity and accountability and the values that we uphold as athletes and as sport organizations.

Evan: And that's why we're so honored to be here today, honestly, is to recognize the work that is being done in the antidoping movement. As athletes, we are the ones who reap the benefits of all the hard work that the researchers do and the policymakers do. Without your work and your dedication, there would be no fair play. There would be no level playing field because the fact of the matter is there will be people who are trying to get ahead, who will cut corners at the expense of their competitors. For those people, I think the ends justify the means, and that's the sad reality, but to be here today and to see all of you and to thank you personally is a big honor for us and we just want to say thanks.

Madi: And we also love the tagline of this conference, "World class research for world class play." That really resonates with us, it's so powerful, it's so true. Without you being the best at the world and what you do, we could not be the best in the world at what we do. We are incredibly grateful for everything you do and continue to do in your research to help protect the integrity of sport and uphold the values that are so important to all the athletes around the world. So thank you from the two of us and thank you from team USA and thank you from all the teams and all the clean athletes who compete all around the world. We really appreciate the work you do and we couldn't do what we do without you doing what you do, so thank you so much.

Moderator: So next we're going to go on to question and answer. At each of the desks, you have a microphone. You can push the on button if you have a question. I'll get it kicked off. I know there's hopefully some great questions in the audience. But, obviously from the Partnership for Clean Competition, what we do is we try to ensure clean play and fair sport through antidoping science and research that we fund, and it's great to have so many amazing partners, including USOPC, Major League Baseball, the NFL, and USADA. Just looking at the picture of you and the team with the empty medal boxes, on that one year anniversary, what are some of the feelings and emotions that you all have, just standing there, reunited as a team, still waiting for a decision on what medal you are going to get.

Evan: So I felt very surprised at how emotional the one year anniversary was. I think as athletes we develop a skill of compartmentalization, and for us in particular, we decided to continue competing, and just having this unresolved massive thing with this Olympic medal was looming over us, we just wouldn't function well if we just thought about it everyday. So, we just buried it. Honestly, like Madi said, we didn't feel like it was talked about much in the media. When one year came around and US Figure Skating put out a statement, so many people were like, "You guys don't have your medals still? Where are your medals?" And we just don't have our medals still. And this photo was taken at Beijing. We have not been reunited as a team since we left Beijing. I'd say more than half the team has moved on, gone to college, gotten married. The life of an Olympic athlete, the career of an Olympic athlete is short, and the opportunities are so few and far between. They only come once every four years. So to leave without the ceremony, without the medal, was a huge deal, and I know it will come, I know we will get our medal eventually, but the moment has passed, and that's the part that is maybe just still a little bit bitter.

Moderator: On the positive side, it looks like you channeled it into your competition this year, world championship, ISU first place as well in team competition, and some personal news between the two of you.

Madi: Yes, we're engaged! We got engaged last summer after our touring had come to an end and we just went on vacation and, it was very romantic, but since then we've been really enjoying getting back to training and we still have big goals and lots of passion for our sport and we want to continue to inspire future skaters and just show that if you have the passion and the drive you can accomplish anything. That's, for us, what's really important, and it's something we've grown to love is the longevity and the aspect of how much you can learn as you continue to mature as athletes.

Evan: I would add, we've been at this a long time, and now we're starting to really enjoy some success, like a world title a few weeks ago, but it's more like, the journey is the destination. The people that we've become and the things that we overcame together and the way that it has bonded us and contributed to our relationship today is the most meaningful thing. The medal is important, but it's the most important thing. I feel like this is just an unprecedented event in Olympic history. As athletes growing up, there's an unspoken promise that we come the competition and if we do well, we leave with a medal. That is something we always took for granted. Never in a million years could we have guessed that this scenario would take place This isn't the type of Olympic history we wanted to be a part of. I know it will be resolved, but we've learned to hold on to the intangible things more than the medals.

Madi: In a way, maybe it will end up being more impactful cause people will be inspired to have clean performances and be rewarded for them. I think it's a real tragedy when that becomes overshadowed by other things.

Question: Obviously this is a tragedy and the sort of thing we worry about here. Were you aware of or concerned about doping in your sport prior to your personal experience? And if so, what types of doping substances were being used in your sport at the time and perhaps now?

Evan: I think it wasn't the first instance of doping in figure skating dating back to Sochi, we had another competitor have a positive test in I think 2016 or 17 for meldonium. Heading into the Games and not thinking about them, not necessarily concerned about that, I think there is a part of the culture of figure skating that there is doping happening, and I think it's not something that's expected from the casual fan. I'll tell a story quickly, we were drug tested right before we left for our US Championships this January. We were having dinner and our doorbell rang and a couple from Quebec came and drug tested us. We had just gone to the bathroom so we had to wait a while. So we started chatting and they said, what sport are you? We said figure skating and they said, lucky there's not much doping in your sport. And I said, "Funny you should say that, because we are waiting for our Olympic medals because of doping."

I just think that speaks to the fact that doping is not what we all think, well you al know, but to the layperson out there, doping is not something you would associate with figure skating. But in Sochi, the curler tested positive for doping. It's unfortunately happening in all sports and I think that's why we appreciate so much the thoroughness of your work because most people wouldn't look under every rock and stone and we know that you are.

Question: If you think back at the time before you started to win, I guess you were also tested a lot. How was the perception of the antidopng movement back then? Was it something positively viewed on? Was it annoying? If you could back to that time, what could be done to motivate the athletes who aren't necessarily winning the medals but are still subjected to antidoping testing.

Madi: Well, I think in part it's an honor to be part of the doping test pool because you know that you're reaching a level in your sport that's being now looked at and investigated, and it's kinda like the elite get tested. For us, for me personally, I was excited to be include din that pool of elite athletes. And now, being very familiar with the doping protocal and getting doped randomly, and after competition. I appreciate the process even more. It's certainly not a burden and one I'm hapy to take part in because I know how important it is and how much it impacts the clean athletes all around the world.

Evan: Yeah, I think, maybe as athletes, we can speak more positively publicly about the antidoping system because as now, we're mature athletes, we recognize now the significance of having a robust antidoping process, and how that is the foundation for the entire system the athlete needs to have absolute faith in. When there is just a modicum of doubt about the integrity of the system, then everything staarts to fall apart. I think now that we've been kind of entwined in this doping scandal, I think, obviously, our storeis have changed, but I would love to be part of that voice of an athlete who says that the antidoping system is a great thing. They're not trying to get you. They're just trying to preserve the integrity of the sport so we all have an equal chance at a gold medal.

Question: Do you think this situation in Beijing is going to be an eye-opener in your discipline about doping or it seems to be an isolated situation and life moves on with the same perception of doping in ice skating.

Evan: I think the outcome will determine some of that. It's certainly been, in the moment, it felt like a huge story. When we were in Beijing, it felt like it was plastered across every outlet around the world. I would say, I would have thought that about Sochi, I thought that what happened in Sochi was so big that that would have been the tipping point. We have said that we hope this is the tipping point that will change the perception of organized doping, but I don't know.

Question: One of the things that has come up with this situation is the influence of coaches, and obviously you guys have been through different coaches, because we often blame the athlete, but it's often the support system around them. Can you comment on the influence that coaches have, especially in your sport.

Madi: Coaches have a tremendous effect on the athletes. They're really the role models and mentors we look up to, especially if you're a young athlete, up and coming in your sport. The coaches are huge aspects of how you become molded as an athlete, what's ingrained in your values, your mentality. So having knowledgeable coaches and supportive coaches is life changing. Coming from many different coaches and experiencing the different styles and techniques and tactics, I can say that the more you can support the athlete and nature them as a person and not just an athlete, the more success that has seen, in my experience.

Evan: And I think, this particular case is unique, because a minor is the athlete involved. In that instance, we have to look at the people around that athlete and we have a certain amount of empathy for the athlete in question, because a fifteen year old minor, and we know what the culture of sport is, and being a young athlete. You want to be a people pleaser and a star student, and I think, very often, maybe not very often, occasionally, athletes can be put in very compromising situations. We're all for athlete empowerment and protection of athletes, and certainly, minors.

Question: It's shown that the antidoping system is kinda working. You have Sochi, which ended up exposing institutionalized doping. Valieva, who tested positive, but no one knew about it, it was delayed. So the system itself is working from a research perspective, but from an athlete perspective, where do you think the human capital and frailty has failed you, including the bureaucracy. What message would you send to sport leaders across the world, including in this room, what needs to be improved in terms of human capital and bureaucracy and doping.

Evan: I think it goes beyond the lab and the testing. As athletes, now with the experience we've been through, we see the need for robust legal processes that are going to ensure that fairplay is upheld in the court of law. That is something we didn't expect when we left Beijing. The timetable that has passed, deadlines that haven't been meant, and it's difficult because we go to these competitions, and we have press conferences, and all year, we're being asked about our team medal. We just shrug our shoulders and say, we don't know. I think the transparency, Madi said, good governance, accountability, the pillars of the Olympic movement that they speak about, should be upheld.

[shomagravity]

“He works hard for the sake of other people” || Bits from the interview with Uno Shoma’s ex-coach, Higuchi Mihoko

"I've known Shoma ever since he started skating casually at the rink when he was small." "I asked my assistant at the time to ask his mom if he was in any classes anywhere. It turned out that he was just coming to the skating rink for fun, and didn't  decide what to do yet.” About why she asked if he was taking any classes: "He was just so cute!" "Also there was a sparkle. He had something that caught my eye." Which seems to be 'sense'. "You can call it sensitivity. A sense for skating, for jumping, having everything that you need for figure skating. That's what I mean." "Honestly I didn't know what would happen until he made it to Seniors. He couldn't land jumps, and he couldn't make it to the podium although he was a top skater among the other athletes who couldn't land jumps." "But he really loved skating, and he practiced to the point I would wonder how he could skate this much." About Shoma leaving them; "It seems that Yamada Machiko sensei recommended it to him for a while but rather than saying 'It's better if you go', I used to say ‘Why not ask various choreographers to work with you?’, 'Should we learn jumps from a different coach?'” "That's because I wanted him to broaden his horizons even more. However he didn't have any interest in that. Even about working with another choreographer, he would only say ‘maybe if it's an Exhibition program'. " About the time Shoma didn't have any coach and started getting bad results: "I couldn't watch it."  "I didn't think about asking him to come back. Because there'd be no point of it if he just came back. I wanted to watch over him, while cheering him on." After Shoma began working with Stephane; "I thought he picked a good place. I thought Stephane would work well with Shoma. He was really teaching with utmost effort in Team Japan Training Camp, and you can be at ease around him." "Besides he can dance and skate, aside from jumps. Isn't he one of the best, even now? That's how good he is." About Shoma's bronze medal in Olympics and gold medal in Worlds; "I watched Worlds in real time on TV. Without realizing, I was sitting up straight and shouting 'Do your best!'" "He had a great expression on his face and since his body looked even in better shape than it was in Olympics, so I thought he could actually do it. I thought "Finally!" when he became the champion." About the factors of Shoma's success this season; "When he was with me, he'd never say things like 'I want to aim for the gold medal' or 'I want to be the champion'. Because he's the type who just wants to make the performance his own." "However, winning the silver medal at Pyeongchang changed his perspective and I think without realizing, he began to push himself further." "I think Kagiyama Yuma had a big presence in that. I think he realized he needed to figure out what he wanted to do, with Hanyu Yuzuru at the top and his juniors coming up, he knew he had no choice but to do his best." Shoma's personality also played a part in his success; "Back when he was with me, if he made a mistake, he'd apologize after he came back by saying "I'm sorry, I couldn't show a good performance. I apologize. On the contrary, if I felt happy, he'd say he's happy because I was." "He was the type who wouldn't really be pleased because he's so strict with himself, but he'd say he's glad if his coach his happy. During the World Championship in 2018, he was hurt in his leg and honestly he was in a condition where he should have withdrawn."  "However he was worried about the spots for Japan (for the next year's Worlds) and after his performance was over, he asked 'The spots are okay, right?'" "Shoma works hard for other people's sake. He cares about his surroundings. Oh that's right, he's considerate to the point where he'd intentionally lose to younger kids at the rink in fake playful competitions." "He probably had a strong desire to perform in a way that would make Stephane happy, because he's really grateful to him." Source: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/69889 Tweets: https://twitter.com/shomagravity/status/1519567613713657857

[khianat]

chwe dongmin / 1991 / forcefully retired professional figure skater now running his own personal coaching agency for business & finances & posting figure skating routines on youtube / fc: kim kibu/m (1991)

dongmin's mother raised the two half-siblings on her own, running a three-table street restaurant that barely paid for anything until she was discovered by a TV producer and became one of the early 2000s' popular housewife TV cooks. Her oldest child always held a passion for figure skating, something he could only do thanks to an organization that helped children to join sports clubs their families couldn't afford until his parent could pay for it. Passion, hard work, and maybe a little bit of madness led Dongmin to be considered one of his country's rising stars of the figure skating scene, crowned by bringing home the silver medal in the junior championship of the country, qualifying for several contests across the globe.

At 21, Dongmin finally made it on the big stages of the world, narrowly missing the top 3 more than once, and what was supposed to be "his year" would be his very last after his younger sister was caught in a drunk and drive accident, leading to him being forced to retire following the pressure of the public and sponsors. Dongmin disappeared from the surface for the following years, and when some wondered if he and his mother were both examples of failed celebrities, both used the time wisely. His mother saved the money from her 5-year long TV career and now runs a successful restaurant, while Dongmin completed his college degree and carefully planned the rest of his life.

Instead of following the public's idea of eternal punishment for the mistakes of his sibling, he decided to do the very opposite and began to work as a personal coach for business and finances, focusing on people starting their first business but also offering advice on a low to non-profit basis for those who just need a second chance. In 2018, he surprised everyone by opening the YouTube channel "So Jump Idiot" where he shows that even though all that happened, he's still actively skating. In 2023, more than 1.2 million viewers watch his videos and participate in a monthly poll of which pop song or ballad he should turn into a figure skating routine next. They told him to step down from professional skating, so what?

in collaboration with @eunoiac

[freifraufischer]

Let’s talk about what some national federations took away from the success of Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas... 

The enduring myth of the superiority of black athletes and it’s harmful effects have been written about more intelligently and eloquently than I ever could.  I want to talk a little about what some of the people in power in national federations around the world took away from the success of amazing black women.

In 2013 after the first World Championship of Simone Biles, Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito had... thoughts ... about black gymnasts.

It should be noted that while Ferlito made this statement to Ferrari, Ferrari did not say anything in this vain herself.  The Italian Federation’s spokesperson David Ciaralli decided to defend Ferlito on facebook.

Eventually the Italian Federation president apologized for the “misunderstanding” and condemned the sentiments behind both remarks.  Before I move on I want to address one element of Ciaralli’s comments.  Swimming isn’t a sport that doesn’t suit black bodies.  In the countries where swimming is a popular sport black bodies weren’t even allowed in the pool.  

The above is a picture of hotel manager James Brock in St. Augustine, Florida pouring acid into the water to force black protesters out.  Like many sports where black athletes are rare it is not because of some physiological difference but because of racism.

Gymnastics as a aesthetic sport has to be especially careful about pronouncements about race and the bodies of gymnasts.  ‘Black women are power and muscle and therefore their form must be bad’ (and judges are not trained to understand that the color difference on the bottom of black gymnasts feet may mean they perceive them to be flexed when they are not).  This isn’t limited to black women’s bodies.  Many in the gymnastics world have “opinions” about what Asian bodies are good at or not good at in the sport.  Meanwhile white gymnasts of a certain body type are often described as classy or classical.  I know I find myself wanting to reach for the word classical to describe one of my favorite athletes competing right now and I really need to figure out what I mean by that word.  I haven’t yet and that bothers me a great deal.

In 2019 Valeri Liukin managed a casual racism in an interview with a Russian news outlet (in Russian).  People familiar with Russian gymnastics and figure skating officials are used people like Liukin saying things in Russian that they don’t expect to be seen by an English speaking audience.

Worth noting both that the interviewer wasn’t even asking for this answer.  He asked Liukin about the popularity of gymnastics in the black community and Valeri just decided to do a racism.

When you are watching the decisions made by national federations around the world it’s worth at least being aware that some of them may be making decisions based on ideas of one race being better at certain things.  There are some reports out of Japan that people within the federation think that Asian women can’t compete with black women in the All Around.  Despite the fact that Hurd winning the 2017 AA and Lee winning the 2020(ne) Olympic AA (not to mention Murakami winning the 2018 AA silver and Tang winning the 2019 AA silver) put a lie to that.  

It’s very much worth watching the way federations talk about black athletes (both foreign and their own).  The sketchy racism runs not even below the surface.  

[goodbye-yellowbrickroad]

Chapters: 2/5

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, Katsuki Yuuri & Victor Nikiforov & Yuri Plisetsky, Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Mila Babicheva & Yuri Plisetsky, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Characters: Yuri Plisetsky, Otabek Altin, Victor Nikiforov, Katsuki Yuuri, Mila Babicheva, Jean-Jacques Leroy, Yakov Feltsman, Minor Characters

Additional Tags: Getting Together, Alcohol, Drunken Kissing, Jealousy, Sort Of, Miscommunication, Arguing, Light Angst, Some Humor, Eventual Smut, Spin the Bottle, ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, World Figure Skating Championships, Future Fic, Author Is A Real Life Figure Skating Fan And It Shows, Anxiety Attacks, Slow Burn

Summary: “Do you want to?” Otabek’s lips barely move. The words are barely audible.

Somewhere, deep in Yuri’s stomach, there is some warm blossom of gratitude for Otabek. For how he doesn’t make Yuri feel like a child even though he’s a couple years older and acts like an old man sometimes; for how he is really, genuinely, so good. But on the surface, he is still angry. “What?” Yuri trains his face into a glare. “Are you scared?”

Or, Yuri is trying to stay focused on winning the Olympics and a game of spin the bottle upends his entire life.

[triptychgrip]

Rivalry and "chasing" in Yuuri and Phichit's relationship

I love Yuuri and Phichit's canon friendship, but I also find it fascinating to think about the concept of rivalry and "chasing" when it comes to their dynamic...especially in an end-of-canon and post-canon context.

While I imagine that Yuuri is a skater that Phichi looked up to even while they trained together in Detroit, I think that the element of "chasing" his best friend's level of success might come into play in full-force once he sees Yuuri break Viktor's World Record at the Barcelona Grand Prix Final.

Once Viktor announces his comeback (and it becomes clear that Yuuri will move to St. Petersburg to train under him), I wonder: might these big changes stir up some jealousy? I have no doubt that Phichit would be absolutely thrilled/supportive of Yuuri, but he's also human, and I wouldn't be surprised if he found himself harboring some negative (and surprising) feelings alongside the initial positive ones. When Yuuri parted ways with Celestino and then began training under Viktor, did Phichit ever feel like he'd been "left behind"? And if so, how might this feeling amplify if Yuuri began training at an elite skating facility like Yubileyny in St. Petersburg (and continued to achieve big successes throughout Viktor's comeback period?)

Especially with Phichit being represented by a much smaller federation, I can't help but wonder if the politics of figure skating -- specifically, when it comes to acquiring funding and sponsorships, and achieving notoriety on par with someone like Viktor -- might become a potential point of contention as their careers continue.

In my 2018/2022 Olympic Games fic series, Yuuri goes on to break Viktor's 5-year World Figure Skating Championships winning streak by winning his first World title in March 2017 (just 3 months after moving to St. Petersburg). From there, he continues to achieve major successes, to the point that by the time he is competing in Beijing at his last ever competition -- the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics -- SPOILER:

...Yuuri has amassed 3 World titles, 3 Grand Prix Final titles, and is the reigning Olympic Champion in Men's Singles.

While Phichit also garnered very impressive wins over the years (such as taking silver at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships), I thought it'd be interesting to create a fic-verse where Phichit begins to look to Yuuri as someone to "chase", much like how I imagine Christophe might have related to Viktor prior to Viktor's coming to Hasetsu.

I think that element of "chasing" is a very natural emotion when it comes to friendships that span time, and, particularly, friendships rooted in something like competitive sport.

It's a concept that I really enjoyed playing up in part 7 of the earlier mentioned fic series, which details the day of the Men's Singles Short Program at the Beijing Games.

Though I covered the Short Program in part 1 of the series, that particular chapter (Ch. 15) was from Yurio's POV, so my most recent upload provides a different angle on the event. Among other things, this story includes Phichit successfully pulling off an ambitious jump goal he'd set for himself, as well as his watching Yuuri go on to pull off his own ambitious jump.

Below is an excerpt that I hope piques your interest (though it should be noted, it's probably best to check out the main fic before reading part 7):

-----

If a friend or a foe, or least someone that you’ve known Disappears from the soil of this sphere Then only then will you know that a version of yourself Will fade away and never re-appear

The yearning that the lyrics conveyed – and not even in the romantic sense – was something Phichit could deeply relate to, and indeed, believed that any athlete who’d ever “chased” after a fellow competitor could relate to. As he knew all too well from Viktor’s retirement in March 2018, whenever a hero/rival exits the field… well, a part of you truly does disappear.

His subsequent explanation to Celestino around just why he’d been so drawn to a song called ‘Friend or Foe’ had been pretty clumsy; he’d uncharacteristically tripped and stumbled over his words while making sure his coach was very clear on the fact that he obviously didn’t think of Yuuri as a “foe”.

He was his very best friend!

Even still…

Phichit wasn’t so poetically-inclined as to say that Yuuri’s command of the field in the last few years defined him; their friendly rivalry bore no traces of the hero worship that Yuuri and Viktor’s early beginnings had.

However, once the reigning Olympic Champion and 3-time World Champion retired, it was an unalterable truth that his own career would be deeply affected. It’s not as if he’d no longer be motivated to “fight” – his own fiance made sure of that – but he’d sometimes wondered if his drive to best Seung-Gil would ever compare to the fire that burned inside of him when he thought of what it’d feel like to win gold, outright, over his best friend.

(And incidentally, he’d been so consumed by rumination at times that Celestino had urged him to reach out to Christophe. The numerous conversations in which he’d picked the ex-skater’s brain about his mindset before and after Viktor’s retirement had helped a lot.)

[dreamsburntdown]

Yuzuru has announced his decision to end his amateur career and turn professional on 19 July. It's been truly a honour to have the opportunity to follow his senior career. Everything has been said about him in the past days (and months and years before) but I'd like to share something personal - my memories of him and write a bit about my experiences of the six figure skating competitions Yuzuru has competed at and I attended as a fan - including Worlds 2017 and the PyeongChang Olympics 2018.

It's my first such post on tumblr and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Let's begin!

The first time I saw Yuzuru....I don't know which competition it was actually, perhaps his 2010 Junior World title or after he finished on the second place at Four Continents 2011. I was living in Vienna in 2010/11, studying for a school year at the university so I followed skating but not as intensely as before. Since the late 1990s when I was in elementary school I've been following skating, mostly only the big competitions on TV, Europeans or Worlds, and the Olympics. I even asked my mother once to let me go to Europeans in 2000 when we were visiting family members in Vienna. And she allowed me to go even though I was not even 14 at that time. It was really nice of her, because tickets weren't cheap at all.

So back to 2010...I remembered there was this young and very promising Japanese skater and I also remember the horrible day when the Great East Japanese Earthquake happenned on 11 March 2011. I read that Yuzuru was training on the ice rink in his home city, in Sendai when it happenned and that he was evacuated because his home was damaged. I was relieved when I read he was doing fine, considering all the circumstances and I hoped he could continue his career.

I moved back to my country in the fall of 2011 and started my last year at the university (I've studied as a lawyer). I was very busy with school, studying all the time, commuting for 3 hours a day to university and back home. It was around the time the GP events started to become my guilty please - taking a break from studying it was relaxing to watch the Grand Prix competitions for 1-2 hours on the weekends. It was the season where I started to really root for Yuzuru, who skated to the wonderful Étude in D-Sharp minor by Scriabin in his SP and Romeo + Juliet in his FS. He was completely unique, a breath of fresh air, a whirlwind who skated with so much passion, energy, with such great musical interpretation for his young age that I was completely blown away by him. The years before I was more into the ladies' skating, because the men's field was quite weak: after the IJS was introduced, and Plushenko took a pause after 2006, somehow men's skating became more boring to me, there were barely anyone who could jump a quad, and I wasn't at all a fan of some skaters, like Evan Lysacek, for example. I liked Johnny Weir's uniqueness and still cheered for Plushenko in 2010 alone for his charisma (even if his skating wasn't really my cup of tea either). So Yuzuru arrived to the senior's in the best time. It was 2010, a beginning of a new quad until Sochi, and even if the Japanese field was really strong at the time, with Yuzuru's talent, only the sky was the limit.

Yuzuru's first World Championships in Nice 2012 took place days before my first two state exams, which are closing exams of 6 years of university studies. I was studying even more than before...literally 16 hours a day and even if I wanted to I couldn't watch the whole competition. I still allowed myself to watch the last group of the men's free skate, and since Yuzuru wasn't in the Top 6 in the last group, I missed his free skate. I watched his free program later, after it was uploaded on YouTube, and I was amazed by his sheer passion, fighting spirit in that performance. It was one unforgettable performance, one of the bests in the decade. I still managed to watch the medal ceremony and I was very happy for Yuzuru, his infectious happiness, how he jumped on the ice up and down like a little bunny.

There were big changes after Worlds 2012 because Yuzuru has moved to Toronto to train with Brian Orser in the Cricket Club.

Stay tuned for part 2.

[virtchandmoir]

Sports Notes: Tessa Virtue-Scott Moir reunited

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be at the Ilderton Skating Club’s 50th anniversary ice show Saturday evening (5:30 p.m. start time) at Ilderton Arena.

March 31, 2023

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir celebrate their gold medal win in the ice dance free program at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Feb. 20, 2018. 

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be at the Ilderton Skating Club’s 50th anniversary ice show Saturday evening (5:30 p.m. start time) at Ilderton Arena.

The 2010 and ‘18 Olympic champs, considered the greatest ice dance team in history, were first paired at the Ilderton club by Scott’s aunt Carol Moir when Tessa was seven and Scott was nine. Their partnership is one of the most successful and longest-running in figure skating annals.

The club also will hold two more shows at the rink Sunday (1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.).

Moir, now a successful local skating coach with the Ice Academy of Montreal’s Ontario campus in Komoka, was at the recently completed world figure skating championships in Saitama, Japan. Two of his pupils, Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, finished in 10th place in the ice dance category.

—The London Free Press

[fa-cat]

Figure skating: 2-time Olympic medalist, ex-world champ Shoma Uno to retire

Japan's Shoma Uno, a two-time figure skating Olympic medalist and back-to-back world champion, announced his retirement from competition via social media on Thursday.

After finishing fourth at March's world championships in Montreal, where he was bidding for a third straight title, the 26-year-old revealed he had been struggling to find motivation over the past two seasons.

The Nagoya native took up the sport at age 5 after visiting a rink in the city and receiving encouragement from former women's world champion and local heroine Mao Asada.

Uno is a six-time Japanese national champion and won the individual men's silver at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and bronze in Beijing in 2022.

皆様、こんにちは 宇野昌磨です。 この度、現役選手を引退する決断を致しまし���。 今日まで競技者としての僕を応援してくださった皆様、支えてくださった皆様 本当にありがとうございました。 5歳の時にスケートと出会い、21年間続ける事ができ、素晴らしい競技生活を 送れたことにとても感謝しております。 5月14日に引退の記者会見を行い、僕の想いや、今後の活動については その場でお話しさせていただきます。 会見はトヨタイムズでLIVE配信されますので、ご覧いただければ幸いです。 引き続き、宜しくお願いいたします。 宇野昌磨

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6uuxBUvxdb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[laresearchette]

Friday, March 22, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: DAVEY & JONESIE'S LOCKER (Amazon Prime Canada) DREAM SCENARIO (Paramount+ Canada) YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME (Shudder)

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT?

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA DAVEY & JONESIE’S LOCKER DEMON WITHIN THE KUJUS AGAIN MR. AND MRS. CHAPTER 2

CBC GEM DONKEYHEAD

CRAVE TV THE AMERICANS (Seasons 1-6) ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH (Canadian title) CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT A DOG’S WAY HOME THE EXPEND4BLES KING OF KILLERS PETER RABBIT (2018) PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE SAW X THE TRADES (two-episode series premiere)

NETFLIX CANADA BUYING BEVERLY HILLS (Season 2) THE CASAGRANDES MOVIE EL PASEO 7 THE MARTIAN ON THE LINE SHIRLEY

MLB SPRING TRAINING (SN) 1:00pm: Red Sox vs. Jays

CURLING (TSN) 1:00pm: BKT Tires World Women's Curling Championship: Canada vs. Scotland (TSN) 6:00pm: BKT Tires World Women's Curling Championship: Canada vs. South Korea

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:00pm: Hurricanes vs. Capitals (TSN3) 8:00pm: Ducks vs. Jets (SN) 10:00pm: Kraken vs. Coyotes

NBA BASKETBALL (SN1) 7:00pm: Thunder vs. Raptors (SN Now) 8:00pm: Cavaliers vs. Timberwolves (TSN4/TSN5) 7:30pm: Magic vs. Raptors (SN1) 10:00pm: Pacers vs. Warriors

FIGURE SKATING (CBC) 8:00pm

MILLION DOLLAR ISLAND (Discovery Canada) 8:00pm/9:30pm (SEASON FINALE): The wheel winner has to choose whether to play it safe or risk it all; one player faces making the ultimate sacrifice to save their friend from elimination. In Episode Two, 100 players started, only 7 remain. A last brutal challenge stands between the players and the dramatic Million Dollar endgame before the island delivers a grand final twist no-one was expecting.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF CHESHIRE (Slice) 8:00pm: The ladies land in Lisbon, Portugal, with their favorite girl, Tanya, but when one housewife cancels at the last minute, tensions build as the group speculates who's to blame.

RESTORING GALVESTON: THE INN (Magnolia Canada) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Michael and Ashley start construction on their 1912 inn, focusing on the exterior of the building to get it watertight and restored to its former glory; renovations include new paint, a custom front door and an awning wrapped in copper.

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT (Crave) 9:00pm: Two cops fall under the scrutiny of a suspicious internal affairs agent when one involves an informant in a deadly scheme.

KING OF KILLERS (Crave) 10:30pm: Offered $10 million to eliminate the world's greatest assassin, a hit man travels to Tokyo to meet the client but soon discovers other professional killers have been invited as well.

[rockislandadultreads]

Nonfiction Thursday: Sports Biographies & Memoirs

One Jump at a Time by Nathan Chen

When three-year-old Nathan Chen tried on his first pair of figure skates, magic happened. But the odds of this young boy--one of five children born to Chinese immigrants--competing and making it into the top echelons of figure skating were daunting. Chen's family didn't have the resources or access to pay for expensive coaches, rink time, and equipment. But Nathan's mother, Hetty Wang, refused to fail her child. Recognizing his tremendous talent and passion, she stepped up as his coach, making enormous sacrifices to give Nathan the opportunity to compete in this exclusive world.

That dedication eventually paid off at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, where Chen--reverently known as the Quad King--won gold, becoming the first Asian-American man to stand at the highest podium in figure skating. In this moving and inspiring memoir Chen opens up for the first time, chronicling everything it took to pursue his dreams. Bolstered by his unwavering passion and his family's unconditional support, Chen reveals the most difficult times he endured, and how he overcame each obstacle-from his disappointment at the 2018 Olympic Games, to competing during a global pandemic, to the extreme physical and mental toll the sport demands.

Pulling back the curtain on the figure skating world and the Olympics, Chen reveals what it was really like at the Beijing Games and competing on the US team in the same city his parents had left--and his grandmother still lived. Poignant and unfiltered, told in his own words, One Jump at a Time is the story of one extraordinary young man--and a testament to the love of a family and the power of persistence, grit, and passion.

The Rise by Mike Sielski

Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.

In The Rise , readers will travel from the neighborhood streets of Southwest Philadelphia―where Kobe’s father, Joe, became a local basketball standout―to the Bryant family’s isolation in Italy, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe’s legend was born. The story will trace his career and life at Lower Merion―he led the Aces to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship, a dramatic underdog run for a team with just one star player―and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe’s dream of playing pro basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.

This is more than a basketball book. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him―the essence of the man before he truly became a man.

The Last Folk Hero by Jeff Pearlman

From the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, the greatest athlete of all time streaked across American sports and popular culture. Stadiums struggled to contain him. Clocks failed to capture his speed. His strength was legendary. His power unmatched. Video game makers turned him into an invincible character—and they were dead-on. He climbed (and walked across) walls, splintered baseball bats over his knee, turned oncoming tacklers into ground meat. He became the first person to simultaneously star in two major professional sports, and overtook Michael Jordan as America’s most recognizable pitchman. He was on our televisions, in our magazines, plastered across billboards. He was half man, half myth.

Then, almost overnight, he was gone.

He was Bo Jackson.

Drawing on an astonishing 720 original interviews, New York Times bestselling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman captures as never before the elusive truth about Jackson, Auburn University’s transcendent Heisman Trophy winner, superstar of both the NFL and Major League Baseball and ubiquitous “Bo Knows” Nike pitchman. Did Bo really jump over a parked Volkswagen? (Yes.) Did he actually run a 4.13 40? (Yes.) During the 1991 flight that nearly killed every member of the Chicago White Sox, was he in the cockpit trying to help? (Oddly, yes. Or no. Or … maybe.)

Path Lit by Lightning by David Maraniss

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.

But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth.