#Ayaka Hosoda

[austerlitzborodinoleipzig]

Every year you there's one beautiful skater that's stuck into the limbo that's Japan domestic women's field and that has the skate of her life at Junior Nationals

Ayaka Hosoda, Rinka Watanabe, Yuna Aoki...

This year it's Saki Miyake. Big jumps. Flying 3T-3T combo. Performance level through the roof. Excellent step sequence on the music.

And that's why JNats are the highlight of the season

[kittyprincessofcats]

So a bit of skating happened in Japan...

... and I don’t want to make a separate post for everything, so I’ll dump all of my thoughts in one place.

Japan Open

- So, I was an idiot and completely frogot to watch JO when it happened, even though there was a livestream 🤦. But I watched bits of it on Youtube later, so it’s okay.

- Hell yes for Wakaba’s 3A! Still with a turn-out, but she landed it this time!

- I really like Mako’s “A Thousand Years” free skate! (Good call not to go for the downgraded 4S this time. It looked far from ready last time and I don’t think skaters should go for these elements when they’re not even close to landing them.)

- I still think Yuhana’s “Tom & Jerry” FS is really original. Not completely sure if I like it yet, but generally I approve of more creative program ideas.

Kanto Regionals - Senior Men

- I still really like both of Shun’s programs, especially the free skate. This wasn’t his best competition and I felt bad for him during the free skate, but the program is great and I’d really love to see him skate it cleanly on a better day.

- Yuma blew me away here. Both his SP and FS are amazing programs, he’s in amazing shape for the beginning of the season (especially considering what an unusual off-season it has been), the quads are there, and his landings are so incredibly soft. He just makes it all look so easy - I’m a fan!

Kinki Regionals - Junior Ladies

I only watched Azusa Tanaka and wanted to remark how much she’s grown! I still remember how tiny she was one year ago - I’d have never recognized her here. Also, I like both of her programs - shame the free skate didn’t go well here, but there’ll be other competitions.

Kinki Regionals - Senior Ladies

- Mai is still so thin 😢. Unpopular opinion time, but I’m really not sure if she should already be skating right now. You can tell she really wants to and I missed her as much as the next fan, but she looks unhealthily thin. Right now I find it scary and worrying to watch her skate, and I keep thinking she’ll fall and break something any second. I really hope her team knows what they’re doing and that they’re not just risking her health in favour of results. (But sadly, skaters risking their health for results happens far too often, so I can’t help being worried.) I’m glad to see her so happy after both of her skates (congrats on the bronze!), I like her new FS and agree the dress is beautiful, and if she has the strength to jump triples then that’s a good sign at least - but I really hope she knows what she’s doing. And I’m annoyed that some fans are so quick to praise her for competing in this state instead of “giving up”. I love her skating and I’ve missed her a lot, but I’d honestly much rather not see her skate but know that she’s safe and healthy.

- Kaori was amazing! I love her new SP; and what a great skate, too! The exit curve on that 2A was huge! This was the kind of performance that mad me wish the video quality on Youtube was better so I could enjoy it fully. And the FS was clean, too (still love Kaorix!). I love how fast she is on the ice, how big her jumps are, how soft her landings are - I just love her. And after how rocky last season was for her, it’s really nice to see her fully back in the game now. I really hope this victory motivates her to keep doing well this season (in whichever form this ‘season’ will exist). I also think it’s good that she dropped the quad attempts for now and focused on skating clean instead.

- I’m also really happy for Mana! Though the 3A was still wobbly, her FS was great (I love the music). It looks like she has a lot of speed going into some of those jumps!

- Ayaka Hosoda’s 3A is as good as ever. She seems to be in good shape, and I’m really glad she did well here and qualified for Western Sectionals. I really hope she can make it to Nationals this year and do well there. (I’d normally say “please give her an international assignment already”, but... well, Covid and all.)

- Yuna Shiraiwa is really enjoyable to watch. Her movements are very fluid and she’s a good performer. That said, I wish she’d get a new free skate.

- I feel a bit bad for Moa Iwano for missing out on qualifiying for Western Sectionals by not even 2 points... but well, it happens.

Not in Japan, but important:

Shame on all the people who have been bodyshaming Alysa Liu in the last few days - What the hell is wrong with you? Bodyshaming a 15-year-old girl for going through puberty? And you wonder why people get eating disorders in this sport? STOP.

[flapper-dai]

KANKU ICE ARENA Opening Exhibition 2019.12.25

[woodwind-sensei]

The 2019-20 Grand Prix: Ladies Singles

 The 2019-20 ISU Grand Prix assignments have been issued as of last week . The preliminary lists include a wealth of talented skaters who will for sure make excellent competitions for athletes and audiences alike. I’d like to take this time to assess the rosters and give my thoughts about the skaters who got assignments.

Anna Scherbakova, Alexandra Trusova, and Alena Kostornaia (RUS) are going to be under the microscope this season, as the three Eteri Tutberidze skaters will make their senior Grand Prix debuts this year. Each of these skaters are paired with an older Russian competitor, almost as if the Russian Skating Federation is trying to create internal competition during the 1st half of the season. Scherbakova was given the same assignments as Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Kostornaia will go up against Alina Zagitova, and Trusova is paired with Evgenia Medvedeva. Out of these three match-ups, Trusova/Medvedeva will be the most interesting. 

Sofia Samodurova and Stanislava Konstantinova are the other two Russians with two assignments. Sofia had a great season last year, making the Grand Prix Final. It’ll be difficult to predict if she will do just as well, as the ladies field is very deep.

Japan is well represented in the Grand Prix this season, with nine skaters receiving at least one assignment. This group will be spearheaded by Rika Kihira, who won the Final last season. She will face tough competition from Trusova at Skate Canada, but her superior skating skills and excellent attention to detail can potentially upset the World Junior champ for the win here. 

Kaori Sakamoto, Satoko Miyahara, Wakaba Higuchi, Mai Mihara, Mako Yamashita, and Yuna Shiraiwa all have two assignments this season. Besides Shiraiwa, they’ve all medaled on the Grand Prix in the past against pretty hefty fields, so expect some great competition from the Japanese skaters. Kaori and Satoko made the final last season, finishing 4th and 6th, respectively. Mai was an alternate, and Wakaba has made the final in a previous season. Mako surprised everyone with a silver at Skate Canada last season. They all have Grand Prix Final potential, so they’ll have to compete their best against the Russians to get there.

Marin Honda and Yuhana Yokoi have one assignment this season, with Marin at Cup of China, and Yuhana going to Rostelecom Cup. Marin has been struggling since her move to Rafael Artunyan. But her performances at ice shows this past month have been promising. Her La La Land skate is adorable and has some interesting moments. Yuhana is untested, relatively speaking. She’s been on the junior circuit for (it seems like) an eternity.

The empty host spot for NHK Trophy is very interesting, as there could be a number of skaters with either one or no assignment that could fill it. I would personally put Tomoe Kawabata in that place, as her excellent skating skills and beautiful jumping technique need to be shown to a wider audience. She’s turning 17 this year, so it’s critical that the JSF shows interest in her development. Marin could also take this spot if she shows she’s ready to compete in the pre-season. There’s also Ayaka Hosoda, who rose to national prominence after landing two triple axels seemingly out of nowhere at Japanese Nationals. 

South Korea will have a stronger presence on the circuit this season, with Kim Ye-lim and You Young making their debuts at Skate Canada. It’s a bummer that they currently don’t have a second assignment, but they’re sure to be pretty high up on the alternate list if a skater withdraws. Lim Eun-soo will be at Skate America and NHK Trophy this year. Though she didn’t have the most stellar season, she’s bound to make a mark with her striking balance of beauty and power.

The US has four skaters with two assignments this year. Bradie Tennell will be at back-to-back events at Skate America and Skate Canada. Mariah Bell is appearing at GP France and Rostelecom. Ting Cui will also be in France, and will close her Grand Prix season at NHK. And Karen Chen will [allegedly] compete at Skate America and Cup of China. Bradie has been actively pursuing getting better, working with Alexei Mishin at his camp in France. Mariah had a pretty good season last year, with a Top 10 finish at Worlds. I really hope she does just as well this year. Ting was a surprise medalist at Junior Worlds, so it’ll be interesting to see how she’ll do this season after that momentum. She is currently injured, but only time will tell how things become. And then there’s Karen. I would be SHOCKED if she competes at all this Grand Prix. She’s going to be a freshman at Cornell this fall, and given its isolated location in Ithaca, NY, USA, it’ll be hard for her to get top level training while juggling one of the more difficult Ivy League programs around. She recently competed at an open competition in Colorado, and her short program looked pretty good, but it’s way too early in the pre-season to make any sense of it.

Starr Andrews rounds out the list of American skaters currently slated to do the Grand Prix. Starr’s inconsistencies and tendencies of underrotations caught up to her last season. It might be an uphill climb for her to return to a major competition like Worlds or 4CC.

There’s an open spot at Skate America, and there are a couple of skaters who the USFSA could pick to go for it. Megan Wessenberg had this position last year, and she did pretty well. The US doesn’t have a massive amount of depth in the ladies field, so they have to make a pretty careful decision on who they send. I would think Hannah Harrell has a pretty good shot of getting this spot, as she finished 7th at Junior Worlds at 4th at U.S. nationals last season. 

Gabrielle Daleman (CAN), Alexia Paganini (SUI), Loena Hendrickx (BEL), Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ), Laurine Lecavelier (FRA), Mae Berenice Meite (FRA), Viveca Lindfors (FIN), and Chen Hongyi (CHN) round out the list of skaters with two assignments. Tursynbaeva will be the the most interesting to watch in this pool, as she ended her season with a slew of medals at Worlds, 4CC, and Universiade. I’m not sure how she’ll fare with the increased level of competition, and she isn’t known as the most consistent of competitors herself. Alexia Paganini turned some heads with some pretty good performances at Rostelecom Cup and the European Championships last season. The Swiss-American is slowly building credibility on the international circuit, and I think she could be making some major moves in the next few years. Loena is my personal favorite, but she’s been dealing with some injuries this past season. I hope she can overcome some of her physical issues and pull out all the stops for this year.

As we inch ever so closer to Beijing, the ladies singles field will be one to watch for all Olympic sports. The standard of the sport has increased exponentially since Pyeongchang, and I’ll be sure to stay as updated as I can!

[eggplantgifs]

2018 Japanese National Championships: Top 10 Ladies

Kaori Sakamoto 228.01

Rika Kihira 223.76

Satoko Miyahara 223.34

Mai Mihara 220.80

Wakaba Higuchi 197.63

Mako Yamashita 197.14

Yuhana Yokoi 196.37

Ayaka Hosoda 185.74

Yuna Shiraiwa 183.16

Tomoe Kawabata 183.11

[rika-kihira]

Rika update from Colorado! Dance class with Yuna, Ayaka and Tomoki ✨

[figure-skating-confessions]

“The story about how Rika & Ayaka trained for 3A together has watered my crops“

[tsukihoshi14]

Story of Ayaka Hosoda's Triple Axel (ft. Satoko & Rika) - JPN Nats 2018

Alternative links: DM | Drive (please click on the original post for the most updated links)

I know Ayaka is not really well known as she never competed outside of Japan, but her journey training 3A with Rika and landing triple axels in her 20s, plus the warm friendship of these three (including Satoko) are all so cute and heartwarming to me. She was such a nice surprise at Nats last December so I wanted to translate something about her. Hope some of you will be interested in this! And thank you all so much for watching and helping me share my videos :3

You can watch her performances at Nats here: SP | FS

[secondlinekitty]

【フジテレビ公式】紀平梨花･白岩優奈･細田采花 海外合宿＜2019-2020新シーズンの挑戦＞

【 Fuji TV Official 】 Rika Kihira, Yuna Shiraiwa, and Ayaka Hosoda at Summer Training Camp in America <Challenge for the new 2019-2020 season>

*some parts are muted due to copyright issues.

[tinyqueensatoko]

Rika Kihira, Ayaka Hosoda & Satoko Miyahara at open practice day (x)

[figureskatingcostumes]

Ayaka Hosoda's free skate costume at the 2018 Japanese Championships.

(Sources: nikkansports.com and mainichi.jp)

[child-of-irony]

Ayaka Hosoda - 2018 Japanese Nationals FS I’m here for the ladies learning new jumps and hitting their stride in their 20s. Well done!

[kittyprincessofcats]

Ayaka Hosoda not qualifying for Japanese Nationals is the worst news of the day :(((((

Still think they should give her an international assignment, though. I want her to get that 3A ratified so badly.

[flapper-dai]

NHK Bilingual News : 2018 Nationals

[woodwind-sensei]

Did anyone watch the Aurora Games figure skating broadcast? The commentators were talking about how Ayaka Hosoda only finished 8th at Nationals last year and one of them said “I cant imagine 7 skaters better than her.” Well sis, I can LOL.

[kazuha-pista-badam]

nancy honey stop playing victim the only thing you're famous for is the incident with tonya

"Good morning good morning, I have some skating tea for you all, ooh, and she is piping hot! Not gonna use names, but it's going to be obvious, you can make all the assumptions you need to, but I feel the need to talk about this, because every single time I see this particular well known figure skating person on a commercial or I don't know, hosting local shows, I just get all. pissed. off.

Fresh off my career, I was invited to compete in this professional competition, we shall call it the Lady Games, because only female athletes were competing at this event, and it was supposed to be this event that was really just celebrating the female athlete. Obviously, I was on board right away. I thought that was super cool, I missed the professional skating circuit, I was all in.

It was hosted in a place that rhymes with 'Schmalbany' and it was not just figure skating, it was a bunch of other sports. The concept? I'm gonna be honest, really cool. Again, I was all in. I went to this event, completed all of my contractual obligations and as far as I knew, we were good to go.

Now it's months later, I'm starting to realize I haven't been paid yet, and I'm like ok, that's weird. So my agent reaches out, but now all of a sudden, I'm hearing from other athletes who are reaching out to me, and they're like, this is a weird question, but did you ever get paid for your event participation at the Lady Games? And I'm like, no- you didn't either?

And I had one figure skater tell me that she gave up training time because she really needed this money to fund her skating and that she hadn't been paid. Now I'm suspicious. So I discover that this well known figure skating person and her husband who happens to be an agent, hosted an event for ladies, and then didn't pay the ladies... and I understand that there are things I don't understand about the event space- world, - universe, but the way that they are kind of getting away with this... to answer questions that I know are going to come up:

So, the amount owed for mostly all of their athletes, is like just barely over the limit for small claims court, but it's not enough to warrant hiring a lawyer because you're going to end up spending more on the lawyer than anything else.

But when your legacy is being, you know, this squeaky clean America's Sweetheart, and then you are actively not paying women for their work... And for me it's like ok, do this to me, fine whatever, but do this to the athletes who genuinely needed it to get by on their training and can't afford a lawyer and can't do anything about it?

That's my tea, and I just wanted to put that out there. Anytime you see this particular athlete on a commercial or hosting events, just know that she is doing that while actively deciding not to support the future of this sport. [her dog barks] WOOF. Amen to that, Ziggy. And that's the tea"

The skaters at this event:

Alysa Liu (USA)

Mirai Nagasu (USA)

Mae-Berenice Meite (France)

Montseinos Cantu (Mexico)

Stanislava Konstantinova (Russia)

Isadora Williams (Brazil)

Ayaka Hosoda (Japan)

Ashley Wagner (USA)