#the warmup before the quad axel

[sunskate]

Men's Free Program warmup at Lake Placid

[iwaswritingmywayout]

BTMH: Chapter 26: Free Skate Debut

“The Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu Figure Skating Championships co-ed singles free skate is about to begin. All eyes are on skater Katsuki Y/N and her coach, Seonghwa Nikiforov,” Morooka said.

Seonghwa stood next to Y/N as she tied her skates. Seonghwa waved at the camera. Y/N’s hair was a little different for this skate. She decided to do a half up half down look. She had her hair curled and hair-sprayed in place to prevent any possible fly-aways.

“Hello!” Seonghwa said, his signature smile present on his face.

“Katsuki ended yesterday’s short program in first place by a large margin. She scored a personal best of 94.36. In her free skate, she will attempt three quads,” Morooka said.

‘Seonghwa and I decided to lower the difficulty and only do one quad, but…’ YN thought. She didn’t truly agree with that decision because she thought she needed multiple quads to win.

“I’m gonna try a quad too!” Wooyoung said.

“Seriously? You’ve never landed one, not even in practice! I’ll try one, too!” One competitor said.

“Okay, I’ll try too!” Another said.

‘Shit, if I only do one quad and they are doing one as well how am I supposed to stand up against them? Only one quad will not be enough anymore. I will have to change that,’ Y/N thought.

Soon enough, it came time for the senior co-ed singles free skate event to become. Y/N was nervous. It was the first time she’d be debuting Y/N on Ice and she was hoping all of her hard work would pay off. Her routine was about her own skating career, so she should be able to portray enough emotion to tell the story since it is her own story, but she was still a little worried. She didn’t even care about the dating part anymore. She just wanted to win that gold medal so she could get onto the path of redemption at the Grand Prix Final. Her not caring about dating doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to date, though. She just realized that the soon to start redemption arc was her main source of encouragement.

Y/N realized she had yet to take off her skate guards, so she took them off and handed them to Seonghwa. Wooyoung watched the two from a little ways away. Once Y/N looked over at him, Wooyoung pumped his fist in the air, determination clear on his face. Y/N looked away, wondering why Wooyoung kept looking at her. Y/N noticed Seonghwa’s mouth opened slightly. One look at Wooyoung could show that the young skaters bubble had been burst. Seonghwa put his hand on his chin as he thought. It was the signature pose he would go into when he thought. Y/N guessed that was how he came up with his best ideas, but she wasn’t sure.

Y/N shrugged before skating onto the ice to start her warmup. She did the various moves she had in her routine, but she stayed away from the jumps. She knew if she missed a jump in warmup it would mess up her whole mindset. She at least was certain about that much.

‘No, no. I have to focus on myself!’ Y/N thought. She did a few more warmups before returning to Seonghwa who was leaning on the rink boards. He did not look pleased. What could she have possibly done this time? The man could never be satisfied.

“Y/N…” Seonghwa said. The tone in his voice made it obvious that he meant business.

Y/N looked at him, a look of confusion evident on her face.

“How can someone who can’t motivate others motivate herself?” Seonghwa said, before slapping her skate guards on the rink boards. “I’m disappointed in you.” He walked away after that.

Y/N’s eyes were wide and she trembled where she stood. ‘What about my own motivation that he just destroyed?’ Y/N thought.

“Representing Hakata Skate Club, please welcome Wooyoung Kenjiro!” The announcer said.

Y/N stepped off the ice and just stood awkwardly against the wall. She didn’t think Seonghwa wanted to be around her then so she decided to just stand alone even though she stood out like a sore thumb.

“Hey, are you listening to me? You’re nervous aren’t you?” Wooyoung’s coach asked.

“Good luck, Wooyoung!” His fans yelled.

Y/N turned around and started to walk in the opposite direction. She suddenly turned around and cupped her hands over her mouth. “Good luck, Wooyoung!”

Wooyoung and his fans looked at Y/N.

“Good luck!” She said again, a smile on her face.

Wooyoung’s eyes started to fill up with tears of happiness. Seonghwa listened from the bench he was sitting on and tilted his head.

Wooyoung’s performance started. He snapped his fingers with the music and the audience clapped along.

‘Wooyoung’s firing up the crowd right off. I guess he’s popular,’ Y/N thought. Y/N knew that younger skaters tended to have an easier time getting the crowd excited. It was partly because they would be over the top due to feeling like they had a lot to prove, but also because crowds tend to get more excited when they see younger skaters and like to encourage them so they continue to skate. From what Y/N saw of Wooyoung’s program, it was very good.

Wooyoung’s first jump was a triple axel. It was executed perfectly. Wooyoung also had a perfect landing. Y/N could tell he’d do even better on his next jump. His next jump was a quadruple toe loop. He landed that one perfectly as well.

‘Wow, Is he on a roll?’ Y/N thought.

Wooyoung didn’t land the next jump he did. The crowd and other competitors watched with their mouths wide open.

‘Man, the way he’s so inconsistent… He reminds me of the skater I used to be. I can’t take my eyes off him,’ Y/N thought. She continued to watch as he came out of his sit spin. ‘He already has the necessary skill set to compete in figure skating.’

Y/N walked away from the rink as Wooyoung continued to entertain the crowd with his routine. Y/N put her headphones in and walked out of the rink to the parking lot. She had her roam roller and yoga mat with her.

‘I can tell by the cheers alone that you’re a star on the stage,’ Y/N thought.

Y/N was no longer able to here what was going on back in the rink. She decided to just focus on her stretching and warm up and hear what she messed during her stretches when she talked to Seonghwa before her free skate.

She finished her stretching and returned to the ice rink. She walked back inside. As she walked past Wooyoung, she felt him looking at her. She paused in her place and turned around to give him a light slap on the back. Wooyoung trembled as his eyes filled with tears of happiness. Y/N continued her walk over to Seonghwa.

“Wooyoung earned a score of 152.14, which made his total score 214.97. He’s in first place right now,” Seonghwa said.

Y/N nodded. She took her jacket off and handed it to Seonghwa. Wooyoung’s mouth dropped when he saw the costume. It looked amazing. It was dazzling. It had several sparkles and rhinestones on it. Y/N thought it was the perfect amount of flashy.

“Yeah, this costume’s great. You look beautiful in it,” Seonghwa said.

Y/N smiled and adjusted the sleeve on one of her arms. When she looked up from fixing it, Seonghwa put a hand on her cheek. Y/N heard the flash of cameras and groaned internally. ‘The tabloids are going to have so much material to use,’ Y/N thought.

“Your lips are chapped,” Seonghwa said. He unscrewed the top off a lip balm container before gingerly dipping his finger in and collecting some on the tip of his finger. He rubbed it onto Y/N’s lips as the skaters around them stared with their mouths wide open. Seonghwa wrapped his arms around Y/N, pulling her in close, hugging her tightly. He rubbed her back reassuringly, since he could tell she was nervous. She kept her arms wrapped around him until he released her. She smiled at him one last time before turning around to walk towards the ice.

Minako and Takeshi sat in the audience near one another. They had been scrolling on their phones until it was time for Y/N to start her routine. They put their phones away and looked up.

“I heard she’s only doing one quad at the beginning this time, but…” Minako said.

“She hates making compromises, yeah,” Takeshi said.

“She’s not going to stick to the one quad. This is Y/N we’re talking about. She saw Wooyoung land the quad. She doesn’t think she can win with just one quad now,” Minako said.

Takeshi nodded, knowing that Minako was right.

At the sidelines, Wooyoung, Jungkook, and Taehyung were watching Y/N. Wooyoung was clearly the most excited to see the routine.

“Good luck, Y/N!” Wooyoung shouted.

“Representing Ice Castle Hasetsu, please welcome Katsuki Y/N!” The announcer said.

“For this first public performance of his free program, the music is an original composition expressing Katsuki’s skating career, titled “Y/N on Ice”. The program was choreographed by her coach, Seonghwa Nikiforov,” Morooka said.

Y/N skated to the center of the ice before getting into her starting pose. She had her head tilted down as the audience’s applause slowly died down. Soon after, the first notes of the piano started and Y/N slowly lifted her hands up, doing the same with her head.

‘The beginning of the program represented the Y/N from back when she felt like she was fighting alone. The first jump is a quad-triple combination. She had been landing it just fine during practice, so I’m not worried about her not landing it,’ Seonghwa thought.

Y/N completed the jump but turned the triple into a double. It was still a good jump, though.

“A quad-double! She nailed it!” Wooyoung gushed.

“It was great!” Jungkook said. Taehyung simply nodded in agreement.

Seonghwa’s eyes widened. ‘She changed the triple to a double. She’s changing the jump elements. Is she going to add a triple in the second half? Or is she going back to having three quads? Do you remember how I told you to focus more on refining the program than being distracted by jumps? You look too stiff! This is the part that expresses when I showed up as your coach, right?’ Seonghwa thought. He thought back to how he told Y/N he would be her coach in the hot springs. ‘You look like you didn’t like it at all!’

Y/N did a spin and the audience cheered. Y/N continued to skate, as she prepared for her next jump. It was supposed to be a triple salchow, but Y/N wanted to do more.

‘A triple salchow?’ Seonghwa thought. He watched Y/N step out of the landing a bit, which caused her to fall. She put her hand down to keep her up, though. ‘No, a quadruple! She stepped out of the landing. Seonghwa put the Makkachin tissue box in front of his face.’ He watched Y/N continue to skate, playing off the mistake. ‘So, she did revert the program to having three quads. Shake it off…good.’

Even with Y/N’s mistakes, all eyes were on her. Even the judges couldn’t look away. It was impossible to stop watching her. She was mesmerizing.

‘A triple loop,’ Seonghwa thought. Y/N landed it perfectly. She spread her arms out, her head tilted back.

‘Now, Y/N’s realized something like love. This takes place when I confessed to her, when we were both sober, on the beach with the seagulls flying overhead. She’s expressing the emotion she was feeling very well. You can feel the love radiating from her,’ Seonghwa thought. ‘But, the second half is coming up and she already looks tired. You’re almost to the end, Y/N! You can do this! Keep the energy up! An outside spread eagle, then an Ina Bauer…Skate like you’re the most beautiful person on the ice right now, since you are!’

Y/N landed her triple axel, her fatigue barely evident on her face. She was able to hide the pain she was in pretty well, too.

“Y/N doesn’t seem to be in any pain today,” Minako said.

“Hmm, I wonder why,” Takeshi said.

‘A triple axel!’ Seonghwa thought. He raised his fist with a loud, ‘yes’. ‘Good, she hung in there. Next up, a triple flip!’ Seonghwa lifted the tissue box in front of his face again. ‘Even though she’s not nailing her jumps, the audience is getting fired up... It’s because she’s skating in time with the music.’

Y/N went into the combination jumps. She landed the first jump well but ended up touching down on the second one.

Seonghwa raised both fists this time. “So close!” Seonghwa exclaimed. ‘Y/N’s being too impatient today, but that’s also why you can’t look away!’ He thought.

Y/N started her next combination jump. She landed both parts perfectly! It was a great jump! She did the step sequence next. It went just as well. The audience was focused on her, there eyes never leaving her form on the ice. Y/N attempts a quad as her last jump, but it doesn’t go as planned. She falls during the landing and her face collided with the rink boards. She could feel the blood drip from her nose. Wooyoung, Jungkook, and Taehyung watched in shock as the event took place. Seonghwa closed his eyes, resting his hand on his face.

‘I told you to make the last jump a triple for the points,’ Seonghwa chuckled. ‘I wonder who she takes after to be so rebellious toward his coach.’

Y/N finished, getting into the final pose with one arm stretched out towards Seonghwa. She was breathing heavily, her shoulders rising and falling with each breath she took. She eventually lowered her hands, placing one under her nose because she didn’t want to get blood on her costume.

‘Oh…it’s me!’ Seonghwa said, realizing that she was taking after him.

The audience cheered loudly. Everyone was so impressed with her routine. She made a very good comeback.

‘If I were Yakov, it’d be an instant lecture. And I’ve done that, too, but…” Seonghwa said, before looking over at Wooyoung

Wooyoung was crying where he stood. He was clapping very loudly. “Y/N!” He cheered.

“Y/N showed her pride as Japan’s top skater!” Morooka said.

Minako stood up in her seat, tears rolling down her face. “Y/N!” She shouted as she held up a banner with Y/N’s name on it.

Before Y/N was able to get off the ice, one of the helpers skated over and brought her some tissues so she could clean herself up. She wiped her face and then shoved a tissue up each nose to make sure it wouldn’t start bleeding again. Once she had that issue handled, she waved to the audience before turning around and smiling sheepishly at Seonghwa. You could see a few scratched on her forehead from where Y/N collided with the boards. Seonghwa stood with his arms crossed as he looked at her. Y/N couldn’t really tell how he was feeling. She put a hand on the back of her head as she stood around awkwardly. Seonghwa facepalmed and then pushed his hair back, before throwing his arms out for Y/N. Y/N’s eyes widened and start to well up with tears.

“Seonghwa!” She said.

Y/N skated towards Seonghwa. Once she got close enough, she jumped into the air straight into Seonghwa’s arms. Seonghwa stumbled a bit when he caught her, but he didn’t fall. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. He smiled as he did so.

“That was the best run, yet,” Seonghwa said as he let her get back onto the ground. She smiled and grabbed the blade guards then put them on her skates.

“Let’s head to the kiss-and-cry now, Y/N,” Seonghwa said, smiling at her. One glance at him would show how much he cared about her. You could almost see the affection radiating from him.

“Uh, why is Seonghwa looking at Y/N like that,” Minako asked.

“Like what?” Takeshi asked.

“Like he wants to kiss her,” Minako said.

“I’m guessing it’s because he wants to kiss her,” Takeshi said.

[scatteredfangirling]

Four Continents 2020 - Men’s FS: Group 4

My heart is soft at Keegan watching Nam’s FS before his group’s warmup - and the HUG !

Post will update as the event goes on

Keegan Messing

ouch that solo quad toe landing was rough - double hands down

keegan pls hold it together

i am a sucker for knee choreo

that’s an...interesting sit spin position - has he done that before?

full butt landing on that triple... sigh

wait he was supposed to combo that jump ??? oh rip where is the emergency combo gonna be

there are so many split jumps in the house tonight

a hydroplane ?? dude keegan who r u ??

this was rough - he really fought for it at the end though

Yuma Kagiyama

Yuma just looks so tiny but I know he’s so powerful (he’s the japanese junior champion and earned bronze at japanese senior nationals this season)

so far so good - he’s been as clean as a whistle

really beautiful triple axel combo

yuma is overall really technically sound - can’t wait for him to grow into the performance aspect a little more

okay, we’re seeing some of that in the choreo and step sequences, now that he’s not focusing on jumps

awwww his cute little happy nod when he finished!

Junhwan Cha

JUUUUUN !!! my favorite mushroom boy

this instrumental is dramatic

good start with the quad toe

clean quad sal !! give it to us jun (please podium pls pls)

triple axel combo goot

oh wow the timing on that solo triple axel is so emphatic, i love

god i’m getting goosebumps

i love his layback ina bauer - it’s just so elegant, it’s nothing fancy in terms of crazy flexibility, but it’s just so nice

wow the crowd is really going nuts at every jump

his spread eagle with the port au bras armssss

wow - he really made this happen back at home

i’m so proud of him !! i’m not crying at all

Yuzuru Hanyu

god celery seimei here we go (someone said yuzu nctzen confirmed in my group chat and i lost it)

i love seimei but i really hope this season is the last time i see it for comps

that first quad was so tilted - bruh

okay we’re back on track with the quad sal

i will never get over his backcounter entry on the 3A (like i will still compare other axels to that in ten years time)

ahh yes, the seimei step sequence sexy catwalks (i’m sorry i have no other way of phrasing it)

another tilted quad - oof and then a fall on quad toe

this was a rollercoaster jump wise - i guess that’s what we get for enjoying a flawless chopin earlier

it doesn’t matter if yuzuru’s kinda “meh” about this performance, it will still rain poohs

lmao literally that one point from the fall prevented him from breaking 300 total

on another note, i completely forgot that we truncated the men’s free by 30s so i thought i was hallucinating how temporally close together yuzu’s jumps were

Boyang Jin

go boyang go !!

the distance of his quad lutz always scares tf out of me - he stuck that landing though

oopsy popped salchow to a double

dude he’s popcorning so hard - what are you doing boyanggg, please get your head on straight

not a fan of the stand-still choreo

okay, there we go, the jumps are back

he’s back in the game and fighting for it

this wasn’t his best run, and he knows it

it wasn’t a disaster, but there were just too many mental breaks :(

Jason Brown

Ready for Jason to hit me with those lines and mega GOEs on his triples

Triple axel combo, check

man group 4 is really just popcorning everywhere huh (then again i’ll take a popcorn party over a splatfest any day)

group 4 also just wants to kill me with all the pretty layback ina bauers

i haven’t seen jason’s spirals in so long, but i fall in love with them all over again every time

that’s such a nice biellman spin position

that dramatique ending pose though

and his “happy with it” smile :) !!

So in conclusion...

Yuzu finally won 4CC for the first time ever, Jason 2nd place !! heck yeah !! and tiny yuma in 3rd

[damaless]

4CC 2020 Men’s Free Skate

Min: wtf happened on that first axel? I’ve never seen someone pop an axel like that

Sihyeong Lee’s Rippon jumps are very striking with those billowy white sleeves

Roman ☹️ That second quad salchow fall was so brutal, missing the combination and getting docked for the repetition. Wonder what’s up, he seemed off during warmup too

Lots of skaters struggling, I hope there’s not an issue with the ice or something

Carrillo’s glass mosaic collar looks really cool

Gonna go watch B99 during zamboni time...

Han Yan: “I like your free skate costume” “Thx it has pockets”

Starting to wonder how many skaters will have a total score beaten by Yuzu’s FS score alone

That was some intense chaotic energy at the end of Kazuki’s program! Lol mimicking his own face in the kiss n cry

I’ve never studied Petrushka but I always love how distinctive Stravinsky is. I’m assuming a lot of Tomoki’s choreography is intended to evoke stuff from the ballet. It’s a cool program to watch

I like Nam but I’m very over business casual costumes. Good improvisation to make up for that popped axel!

I wonder if Yuzu’s going to try for the 4A here since he’s scheduled to skate before Boyang, and Boyang has a 4A listed in his program layout... are we in for some crazy shenanigans??? This could be his last chance to be the first one to do it in competition

Love Keegan’s hydroblade. He’s practically lying down, lol. I don’t understand how one stands up from that. Seemed like the pressure threw him off for a fair bit of this performance though

Lol Nam and Tomoki and Kazuki in a cuddle pile

Yuma’s suspenders are adorable. And taking a cue from Yuzu with the velvet pants, I see

Yuma seems really promising, it will be great to see as he gets older and gains some maturity in his performance

I’m really enjoying the shenanigans among the current top 3. Keegan tickling Nam while Nam does a handstand and Kazuki helps him balance isn’t something I ever expected to see, but I love it

Beautiful 4T from Junwhan Cha, gorgeous 4S. This is a great start. Omg that last 3A coinciding with the rest in the music. That Ina Bauer! That spread eagle!! What a skate!!!

I swear if this commentator says “cat among the pigeons” one more time...

Wtf is that hat? Beautiful rose bouquet though

Underrotations schmunderrotations, that was an amazing performance

Here we go!!!!! Yuzu!! My heart is beating so fast!

Omg that near fall on the opening 4Lz, the fall on the 4T, it’s too stressful! Still, some unbelievably high quality jumps... almost +5 GOE on that 3A? And of course all the transitions, skating skills, that step sequence... he deserves this title

Lol Yuzu wants a hat too. Pooh will have to suffice

I understand the program changes but I miss the Origin costume, it was gorgeous

Now to see if Boyang follows his planned layout... 😬😬😬 I would love to see a clean free skate from him! Good effort! No 4A, guess he decided to stay sane, lol

I like his costume, especially up close, the colors show up better

I wonder if Jason will attempt the 4T again... aww, popped

Ugh he’s such a beautiful skater, I hope he medals

Yesssssss!!!!!! PCS saves the day! Silver for Jason!!!

They’re giving the medalists teddy bears? Because obviously they haven’t gotten enough stuffed animals lol

Awww Jason and Yuzu hug looked so genuine and warm

Jason and Yuzu cradling their bears like a baby omg

Awww that little head pat Yuzu gave the bear

Wait they don’t have actual flags?? It’s just a screen?

Lol for once Yuzu doesn’t have to go up on his toes to meet the height of his fellow medalists (I guess he wouldn’t have had to at Japanese Nats but I missed those)

They actually laid out the victory carpet in such a way that the skaters don’t have to awkwardly step over it whenever they reach it during their victory lap

Lol Yuzu moonwalking. I haven’t personally tried it but I’m pretty sure it’s not as hard to do it in skates than it is to do it on a floor

So wholesome!! This was a great competition!

[artificialqueens]

learning to be silent (multi) — chapter five - Roza

[ summary ] : the race for the grand prix final continues as the free dance begins and winds down the competition in france for the ladies. brooke is praying to come back from a disappointing result and sasha can't help but let her emotions get to her.

[ author's note ] : this took SO long to update but I swear : I had school, I had my month and a half sold out musical run that I miss beyond belief already, more theatre, model un, crazy month. finally on break however and I can finally update!

(*˘︶˘*).｡*♡ / AO3 / My Tumblr

— *.✧

"Sasha, do you think you're going to beat everyone for the gold tonight?"

"How are you feeling going into the long program, we saw you holding back during your training!"

"Вы выиграете еще одно золото для России?"

Everything was beginning to melt into place as Sasha entered the doors to the arena, turning down the volume on her wireless headphones as she nervously questioned the utter bombardment of reporters. Her coach pushing them all aside, hearing the questions become louder and louder as they moved along.

"Sasha knows anything in this sport can change in an instant and I believe she absolutely as enough for the gold, that is all the questions we will take!" Her coach yelled as they made their way to the skater's area.

It was a good day of training and then some before the Russian realized that indeed, she still had the free skate. She'd never prayed so hard to win the top spot, it be the extra push and points she needed to make her end goal meet: qualify with the Grand Prix with thirty points or two gold medals.

Sasha began to lace up and tighten her skates as she made eye contact with Brooke who stood stern, arms crossed with her Canadian team jacket covering the top part of her costume which had a beautifully styled ballerina tutu. Her coach, Manila Luzon, stood idly by as she watched her spin in her sneakers, practicing her jumps on the hard surfaces knowing warmups still having some ways to go before hopping on the ice considering they'd be in the last group of girls to go.

The blonde huffed and breathed on to her hands before rubbing them together, gripping her laces together before finishing up the knots before standing and putting on her guards over the blades and blasting the music through her headphones.

She had warmed up a good three hours prior to driving over from the hotel, she felt both ready and yet absolutely horrified. The media pressure, the pressure from her coach— no matter what front was put on, she knew skating to them was about the medals and the prize money. The artistry and athletics came after that fact. Sasha couldn't lie to herself, the medals were what supported her family.

It would be 36,000$ USD if she won top spot at the podium this Grand Prix. Enough to send to her father and help him along. Sasha had enough sponsorships and publicity to make it through her own daily living and still enjoy herself.

"Sash!"

Wincing, she lowered the volume on her headphones as she heard both her name being called and the announcers beginning the presets to begin the free skate competition. Finally looking to her left she gasped and immediately ran over to Shea who had her arms wide open with a small laugh, a grin placed widely across her lips. The two held hands firmly as the first group was beginning to take to the ice and start warming up on the rink.

Another sold out crowd, for an arena of over 5,000 it was certainly pact out with lots of domestic and international fans. Shea adjusted the collar on her jacket as she took out an earbud, "I can sense you're nervous, your hands are very shaky."

The American gently rubbed her wrist as the Russian smiled genuinely, her cheeks flushed as she laughed nervous for the day that was to be ahead.

"You shouldn't be nervous, you'll blow us all away as you always do. I have no doubts."

Her fingers curled around her blonde hair as she giggled at Shea, the American seeming calm and confident in both of their abilities. Admitting to Sasha that she hoped they would once again be the top two.

"Expect maybe this time I'll beat you."

"We'll see about that."

— *.✧

Manila rubbed the Canadian's shoulders as she took a deep breath and threw her skate guards next to her duffel bag. The whispers from her coach only for her motivation and willpower, the white strands scattered throughout her black hair bouncing as she passionately spoke towards her skater.

"I believe in you so much, this is what you were born to do and there's a reason I wanted you to do the program I first started with as a senior— you're a ballet dancer first and foremost and I wanted this music and gorgeous costume to reflect that."

The blonde nodded though her eyes must've shown nothing but absolute panic and fear as her coach groaned and jumped, clutching her shoulders, "Make yourself proud this time, think of all the effort you've put into this skate and this sport, don't let one stumble yesterday let you go down please. I rhinestoned the fuck out of this, please." Brooke had to giggle as she wiped her eyes and gave a kind gaze, gripping her hand before letting go and hearing the announcer, immediately skating on the ice.

"Next to skate, representing Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes."

"À côté du patin, représentant le Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes!"

The Canadian immediately waved as she heard the screams of what must've been her supporters as well as a distinctly familiar voice that screamed, "C'mon Brooke!" She turned and smiled widely at Detox who yelled and gave her two thumbs up, knowing that she had developed this program well enough for Brooke to skate to it.

Her hands ran down the red tutu that was perfectly sewn in with the rest of the costume, the details on the chest and gloves (her personal favorite part of the costume), she finally felt her full ballet fantasy and the fact she would be skating to Don Quixote only enchanted the pure joy felt within her heart.

Do this for Canada, it's all for Canada.

She crossed her legs forward as she bowed in position, letting her arms extend behind her back as she smiled: her eyes glimmering in anticipation as she waited for the music to begin.

The first notes of the program begun as Brooke jumped to the orchestra, placing her hands in front of her in the shape of an X as she then began to step around the rink, swirling into her left foot as she did a crossover— each beat a different ballet position, she felt completely at home with such a reflective program. This music, this costume, it was quintessential Brooke Lynn Hytes.

Her skates jumped as she landed on her left foot, turning back and stretching her arms before placing them on her knee as she began to float across the ice. Kicking her legs perfectly straight in the air as the music would slow. She started to transition into her first jump: a triple toe and triple loop combo.

Brooke let the music cue her as she started her forward approach on the inside edge, switching to a backward-facing position before she felt herself takeoff, landing on her right back outside edge. Hearing the ravenous applause certainly helped her confidence as she continued with utter poise and grace. She bent to the ground and her leg kicked up, her gloves holding on to her skate. Brushing the blonde strands of hair out of her face, she then stood again and jumped in the air with a split, coming to the ice once more as she continued.

Her quad flip was next and she felt the entire music burst with her as she prepped. Beginning to take off from a back inside edge she jumped and felt herself rotate what she prayed would indeed be four times and landed on the back outside edge of her opposite foot, giving a small smile to the positively delighted audience that awaited for more.

Nailing her triple axel was easy enough but her next jump would be a quad salchow, she had been working on it all of training— getting back up from the ground each time and cheering for the few times she managed to actually land it.

The Canadian heard the violins begin to come in as she slammed her skate's toe pick in the ground as she began takeoff from the back inside edge of her right foot and rotated four times in the air before landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot.

Holy shit.

She didn't let the complete roar of applause and flags waving stop her nearly perfect performance so far as she reached for her straightened leg and pulled it up in front of her face in a vertical angle, completing her I-Spin in the center of the rink as she continued.

Two more triple combinations stacked up before she let herself breathe knowing all that was left was to show off her flexibility and let her step sequence do all the talking. She skated perfectly clean on the edge of the ice, the music was beginning to pick up again as she started to make the rounds to finish up her program.

One last push and her fate was completely up to the judges and her free dance.

She added more jumps and splits before beginning to spin on one foot with their other leg extended behind them and above their head, forming the iconic teardrop shape that came with a Biellmann spin. It was a required element for all the ladies and Brooke was best known for it, what better way to show her extreme flexibility.

The music picked up pace as Brooke sat with one of her final moves, in a squat position she led her leg out straight and in front, toes pointed as she spun with her sit spin.

One more jump and kick before she executed her scratch spin to the ending beats, hopping over two steps before ending with the exact same position she began with as she smiled and let the music end, fully embracing the cheers and screams most noticeable to Brooke from the Canadian section of the arena as she pumped her hands in the air and laughed wanting to just jump up and down and collapse on the ground.

"Representing Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes."

"Représentant le Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes!"

The blonde bowed as she felt her hands almost melt on her tutu, completely immersed in sweat she blew a kiss to her mother who she nearly couldn't spot before laughing and skating off being met with a tearful Manila who couldn't stop crying and wheezing every three seconds. The duo hugged and Brooke sniffled, feeling herself finally be proud of her own program after all the breakdowns and training that came with it.

Sitting at the Kiss & Cry couches she was bombarded with a bouquet of flowers from Plastique who ran over quickly and kissed her cheeks, proud of her skating sister before Brooke held onto the flowers and whispered a prayer staring at the screen replaying all the jump footage.

"I don't think anything has been under rotated or anything, it looked fantastic." Her coach whispered as the blonde took a bobby pin from her hair with a sigh of relief.

"The scores please."

The two held hands as Brooke stared at the results waiting and hoping it was enough, she was out of the gold medal for sure: there was no way Sasha would fall that bad however, she needed Silver or Bronze for even a chance at the Grand Prix final.

"Brooke Lynn Hytes has earned in the free dance a total combined score of… 248.30 points."

Manila screamed and immediately jumped up, "What!?" She yelled, in an utter state of shock as Brooke had broken the record. From being fourth best last time this was definitely a step up in the right direction.

"She has earned a new personal best and has set a new world record."

"Brooke Lynn Hytes a obtenu en danse libre un score total combiné de 248,30 points!"

The Canadian covered her eyes in her gloves and cried, biting her tongue as Manila jumped up and down and grabbed her for the tightest hug of her life as Brooke laughed, teary eyed, at all the gasps and screams that turned into applause.

I did exactly what I wanted, I am going to win a damn medal, so help me.

Manila running off after the next skater was called, Brooke taking the top seat that was being held by Adore who now moved down one seat. The Canadian tapped her thighs as Aquaria was next to be called down to skate. She clapped for the young american though she began to feel an uneasy cloud over her; she had beaten Brooke before, there was no reason Aquaria couldn't pummel her into the ground again and leave her without a medal.

Her program music was Sleeping Beauty, another classic ballet, and of course: she had a long and flowing pink costume to match with drapes for her arms: she was stunning and her long platinum hair was completely untamed besides two braids in the front to keep the hair from her face to not fall.

"C'mon Aquafina!" Screamed the distinctly recognizable voice of Alaska from the stands as she stood close with most of the American team, rooting for her training partner.

Brooke's eyes laid only on Aquaria, watching her skate to the ballet. Her footwork was excellent and she was beyond talented though she must've been extremely nervous, her heart wasn't in the piece as much as she had shown for her short program. Every jump was clearly done with force and there was no room for her to breathe and focus with the cheers and with her coach watching.

She prepped for her quad flip but once she rotated all four times the blonde couldn't keep her stamina up and fell on her side with a hard thud. Much to the dismay of her coach and all those around her who were rooting for the young girl, Brooke gasped as Adore groaned in horror.

"C'mon Aquaria…" the American grumbled beside her in horrific anticipation. The blonde quickly recovered and continued a smooth program though Brooke noticed the apparent mumbles when Aquaria must've underrotated her Quad into a Triple salchow. She was completely giving up, it was incredibly strange considering the utter fire in her eyes skating to Björk just a day ago in the short program.

The Canadian clapped when she nailed her quad flip, it was a beautiful quad as well and as she spun from her Arabesque into her Biellmann spin, Brooke had to wonder what had gone wrong. Aquaria's painful expression only ended with a shake of the head as the camera's caught while she sat completely defeated in the Kiss & Cry.

Patiently waiting for the scores, Brooke realized that if Aquaria's stumbles had truly added up that fast it would mean that the Canadian would be guaranteed a medal considering the only two left were the original short program medalists: Sasha Velour and Shea Couleé.

It was great for Brooke but a complete disappointment for Aquaria.

"Aquaria Coady has earned in the free program, a total combined score of 210.90 points. This is a new season's best."

Brooke gasped and covered her mouth realizing she was officially guaranteed a medal, no matter who slipped at this point. Shea or Sasha could knock her down all they wanted and she'd still hold on to at least a bronze medal. She applauded and stood up for Aquaria who shook her head and cried in her hands aware that she'd have no chance at winning.

"Aquaria Coady a gagné dans le programme gratuit, un score total combiné de 210,90 points. C'est le meilleur d'une nouvelle saison."

Adore and Aquaria exchanged places as the two hugged, the American trying her best to hold it together for the camera's though Brooke felt her exact emotions just a day ago and now she sat: at the top of the world, a gold medal. This was simply the world of Figure Skating.

— *.✧

Aquaria's result had come beyond unexpected to Shea who stood in a state of disbelief, possibly worse than Sharon. This was meant to be the defining dance of her entire career: everything down to the aesthetics was perfectly planned.

Tightening the laces on her skates Shea stood firm and took off her Team USA jacket, knowing she was next up to bat and had to keep this streak going. Maybe she could win against Sasha, in the back of her heart she knew it was a small chance but you never really knew with a sport this unpredictable.

"Listen to me." Bob said, grabbing her skaters shoulders as the announcer began to speak above them and in the arena. "Don't think about medals right now, think about your program and nailing your damn jumps because that and your attitude is what will get you medals and it is what will get you the satisfaction of winning. I'm proud of you regardless but if you fall on any jumps so help me God." Shea snickered before the two hugged, the American crossing her chest and letting out a deep breath before skating out on the ice.

Immediately hearing her corner of fans which included her American skating sisters and the large huddle of USA fans with their posters, their signs and flags waving proudly as Shea's name was announced. She had to make an impact and she had been waiting far too long to skate, every motivation was itching to get out and do what she did best for this medal spot, for first place.

"Next to skate, representing the United States, Shea Couleé."

"A côté du skate, représentant les États-Unis, Shea Couleé."

She adjusted the loose strands of hair from her face as she grinned and stood in the center of the ice, starting in a kneeled position as she held her hand on the ice with a deep exhale before silence came over the arena.

The piano notes played and Shea began what would he the longest four and a half minutes of her life.

She slid across the ice before easily standing and putting her entire body on the edge as she held her hands in the air, completely liberated before the singing had even started. Her skating slowing down once more until the vocals began, her skates picking up off the ice as she crossed over backwards into a spin.

The song was entirely in French and appreciated the distinctly loud cheers from the natives in the arena as the words began to flow out of the singer's mouth. Shea had learned after weeks, months of training to finally find the proper headspace to convey a song about hurt, sickness.

Hell, the song was called "Je Suis Malade" which would translate to "I Am Sick."

Shea turned on her skates prepping for her first quad, a salchow. Her takeoff from the back inside edge of one foot came with her four rotations along with a proper landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. She couldn't smile even if the cheers and screams from the arena were a large help and motivation, she couldn't ruin the intent of the piece.

Her first jump was a complete success and as she twizzled across the arena she couldn't possibly get distracted but the back of her heart was hoping Sasha was near and watching, she had to be! She was next up and had to be getting fully prepared. She kicked her leg out as she spun into an I-Spin, making sure every edge was clean and perfect as she then began making the rounds around the arena.

Completing her triple toe, triple loop was easy enough but there was still quad's waiting to be accomplished. Any boost in a score a skater could possibly get: an attempt would be better than just skipping it all together.

The music was building as Shea began to skate into the quad salchow, hoping for a decent result after practicing it so much on and off the ice. An entrance from a back outside edge lent her to slam her toe pick before completing her four rotations, landing on the back outside edge of her opposite foot as she timed her hands in the air to beat, applause shouting to her all around, from every corner.

Bending backwards she let her free leg hold on in attitude position as she spun into her layback spin. She flipped over and extended her hands over as the music only became more and more tense.

Another triple combination and an extra quad flip thrown in saw the movement into her triple axel, perfectly timed at the end of the bridge just when the music would completely explode— it was Shea's favorite section of the entire program. She entered with a camel spin before skating across the rink, beginning with a forward takeoff Shea approached with a series of backward crossovers in direction to the jump's rotation, followed by a step forward onto the forward outside takeoff edge, she jumped and rotated three times before landing on the right and inside edge of her blade.

It was perfectly timed and the American girl couldn't help but feel extremely proud of the work she had put in to make this program as authentic as possible.

She was officially moving on to her spins and her steps, there were no more scheduled jumps and her stamina was beginning to lower as the program was beginning to wrap up. She kept her energy forward as she accomplished her compulsory Biellmann spin. Her skates gliding across the ice as she let all her expression and emotion be completely exposed and poured out on the ice.

The final notes were approaching and she jumped into her sit spin as she held out her legs she transitioned into one final layback, extending her leg finally in the air as she turned with it: combining in one more I-Spin for a final push as the music stopped. Shea held out her entire body and almost immediately dropped to the floor as the music stopped, covering her mouth and laughing through her hands as she heard the energy from the crowd and saw all the gifts being thrown.

She picked up a stuffed bear and a rose and took off from the ice as she slammed into Bob who was waiting for her patiently off the ice, her coach groaning and smiling with pride as she explained that was exactly what she needed, what she had been looking for this entire season.

The two walked over to the Kiss & Cry with nothing but exhilarated smiles and utter exhaustion, all of Shea's energy was officially gone as she stared at the screen. Her eyes noticed a small clap and wide smile from the rink nearby, Sasha waved and clapped in her direction: the Russian was thoroughly impressed by her competition and so called rival.

Shea grinned and winked, holding back a thumbs up as she turned to the screen, Bob's arm stretching around her shoulders as she comforted her skater. This would be the score that sealed her fate and would tell her if she was guaranteed a possible top three finish. Shea believed in her ability but that didn't mean the judges would.

The music dimmed as the scores were to be announced.

"Shea Couleé has earned in the free program, a total combined score of 256.96 points. This is a new personal best and a new world record, she is currently in first place."  

The American held onto Bob's arm in disbelief as she heard her peers completely screaming in excitement. She heard her coach simply whisper a small "wow" next to her ear before the two got up, teary eyed and hugging. She was guaranteed at least, bare minimum, a silver medal.

It dawned on Shea rather quickly beside the fantastic result that Sasha still had to go and would be the last to go: the short program gold medalist and Russia's own shining star to the ice.

"Shea Couleé a gagné dans le programme gratuit, un score total combiné de 256,96 points!"

Brooke clapped and stood to move as Shea and Aquaria embraced quietly, Shea whispering something to the younger girl who moved down to third, painfully aware that she would be moving down to fourth after the next four and a half minutes.

"Last to skate, representing the Russian Federation, Sasha Velour!"

"Dernier à patiner, représentant la Fédération de Russie, Sasha Velour!"

The blonde skated on the ice with her legs gliding across the ice as she traveled perfectly to the center of the rink, waving to the Russian crowd and all those in between who had come here to support her or those who were simply rooting for her.

She held her body straight and firm as she closed her eyes, waiting for the music to start so she could begin the program. Her heart pounding as the tension built up thick. A part of her didn't want to win against Shea, she wanted her newfound friend to have her moment.

But what would be the fun in that? She couldn't let her emotions stick to her career that easy: not every little thought could buzz around her stomach especially not during a competition where she needed focus and stamina.

I'm sorry Shea but I have to beat you today, I need that gold medal.

[lynnneposts]

[Huffpost exclusive interview] Brian Orser speaks Junhwan Cha, Yuzuru Hanyu, and Yuna Kim

Even though they’ve been separated for eight years, Orser is still proud of Yuna Kim.

At the Gangneung Ice Arena, where the figure skatng competition for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics was held, there was a person who was the busy like nobody else.

On the day of the men’s competition, he had to change his clothes three times, and run around here and there for his three skaters. He’s a familiar name for Koreans. It’s figure skating coach Brian Orser.

After his retirement, the 1984 and 1988 silver medalist took Yuna in as his first student and led her to the top of the world. Although their relationship didn’t end on a good note, Yuna won silver at Sochi after their separation and Orser raised world class athletes even after Yuna.

Orser sent five athletes in total to PyeongChang. South Korea’s Junhwan Cha, Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, Spain’s Javier Fernandez, Canada’s Garbrielle Daleman, and Elizabet Tursynbayeva are the names.

Junhwan ended up as 15th in the individual event and succesfully completed his olympic debut, and Yuzuru Hanyu became the two time consecutive olympic gold champion. It’s the first time since in 66 years, since Dick Button of the United States. Fernandez also won the bronze and made it to the podium with Yuzuru. Daleman and Tursynbayeva ranked 12th and 15th respectively.

What did PyeongChang mean to Orser? Did he feel anything new since it was Yuna’s home country? On the 22nd, the day before the ladies’ free skate, Huffpost met with Orser in Gangneung and asked about his experience at the olympics. Before he was even asked about his past students, Orser brought up Yuna’s name. Although their separation is still a topic of discussion, to this day, Orser is still proud of Yuna Kim.

— first, congrats on your students. how did you feel when yuzu and javi stood on the podium?

“very proud. it was a great experience for me as a coach since i’ve spent quite a long time with both of them. 7 years with javi, 6 years with yuzu. it was wonderful to see them both on the podium.

this olympics was very important. since yuzu, javi and my students were competing at the olympics again, it was important to be with them. yuzu was looking to become a two time olympic gold medalist along with a gold medal.

yuzu was very happy to stand on the podium with javi since he was 4th at the last olympics by a small margin. but since he ranked fourth then, we could see him for three more years. if javi had won a medal four years ago, he would have retired then.

i thought this comp would be a showdown between javi and yuzu. i can’t pick one over another since i coached them both. when you were young, whenever you asked your parents to pick their favourite child, they always replied the same since everyone is special. i’m feel the same. i love all my students the same. they each have different personalities and traits. i’m not much different than a parent.”

— you were called the busiest man at the ice arena. you had to change twice, and coach five students. what are some things to keep in mind when coaching multiple students at once?

“attention to detail. i have to wear a team spain jacket when javi’s in practice. the same goes for yuzu, junhwan, gabby, and elizabet. it gets a bit complex when they’re in the same warmup session. i wear neutral jackets then but prepare team jackets as well. planning is important. before i leave the village, i check if i have all the jackets and draw the path i have to take in my mind. it’s not that hard if you plan accordingly.”

— how was the opening ceremony?

“the opening ceremony felt very special to me. the last part where Yuna lit the torch was truly beautiful. I almost had tears in my eyes. I have pride in her. I know how important this olympics was to her. She was part of the bidding and the organizing committee.

— we all had tears in our eyes when Yuna appeared.

“that’s right. Especially for me. It was a great scene, and a perfect choice.”

junhwan

— this was junhwan’s first olympics. what kind of goals were on his mind?

our first goal was to get a spot for the olympics. this was the first year he could vouch for one. in Korea, there’s three skaters in the men’s field competing for the spot. except for junhwan, the two have some experience at Worlds and senior comps.

we started preparing at July but he had an injury back then, a problem with the skates, along with the need for a new program. we weren’t prepared.”

it was also physically challenging. he’s grown so much in the three years i’ve been with him. in figure skating, the body’s axis is the most important. when your body grows, the axis changes as well and you can’t spin as fast as before.

we went through a series of frustration. along with junhwan, i was a bit disturbed as well. the parents, who don’t know much about fs, were also worrying as well. so we had to be patient.

in the first qualifying comp, junhwan was 24 points behind. in the next one, he was 3 points behind. he had to win by over 27 points in the last comp. so i reminded him of how he won over the two skaters by 5-60 points in a competition last year. and he won the spot.

i think the fed chose the right person since they have to think about the future. we need to consider what the olympic experience would mean to junhwan, and what effect it would have on his career in the future. Junhwan didn’t disappoint anyone.

— what do you think of junhwan as a skater?

“do i think he’s in the top 5, 6, 7th in the world? yes. do others think so? no. the judges are also people. they already think about the scores skaters would get in their heads.

junhwan’s skate was impressive, but they may be afriad of him getting a score they didn’t anticipate. but if junhwan skates well in the future, the judges would be able to trust him more.

junhwan’s standing at a 8 point barrier. when he’s capable of producing 8 points, he’ll move on to 9 points. we must take our time. it will happen someday. we just have to wait with patience.”

— does junhwan have any weaknesses?

“not really. if i had to pick one, it would be ‘responsibility.’ when he was young, he couldn’t lead his daily trainings. he was used to doing what others asked him to do, and maybe used to thinking what others wanted him to think.

but now, he has his own opinion and his own voice. i want to teach him to express his opinions to me. if he doesn’t like the music, choreo, or element, i hope he speaks up. i think he has grown enough to voice his own opinion.

he was able to grow into the young man he is due to the olympics, and he’s ready to take responsibility for his own decisions. Junhwan is ready to go for the next step.”

— does junhwan feel pressured to do quads?

“junhwan is capable of doing quads and he already landed the quad toeloop. but i don’t want him to jump quads too quickly. i don’t want him to get hurt. i saw too many skaters who got injured because they were overdoing quads.

the important thing is whether they are able to land quads combined with other elements. quads themselves are important, but it’s more important whether a skater can land a quad toeloop after a triple axel. that would be true art and something that you rarely see.

personally, i don’t want to get caught up on quads.

you wouldn’t want to forget the essence of figure skating just for quads. if skaters don’t get points for skating skills, transitions, choreography, speed, and power, we can only resort to quads. it would be very sad if that happens.”

— junhwan’s next goal?

“preparing for the grand prix season. i hope he gets taken as a serious competitor and i also hope he medals. he’s ready for that. i hope his growth spurt ends so he can finally adapt to his body. he’ll be able to practice quads once he maintains his balance and axis.”

— yuzu had a three month gap due to his injury. how did he spend it?

“yuzu was in Toronto the entire time. It was very gloomy at first. I was sad to see him on crutches because i knew how much he wanted to train.

Instead of training, he imagined training in his head and practiced on land. He was very serious about it.

the turning point came three weeks before the olympics. a road seemed to open up. he started training from then, and had to do all the elements we planned. so i gave him confidence and planned a strategy. and he did it.

it’s a miracle that he produced these results. i never underestimated him, but it felt like he was a ‘superpower’ from a different planet. i’m not surprised that he produced these results. i’m just happy since i know what he went through to get them.”

— some criticized yuzu for reusing his 15/16 season program. what do you think about this?

“i think it was a wise decision to display the program again after time had passed, since it’s a very special program. isn’t it something you would see at the olympics? i think doing the program two years ago was too early for the olympic-worthy program.

the same goes for the short program. it’s beautiful and exquisite, and you never get tired of watching it.”

— was it yuzu’s choice?

“it was 100% his decision, and i supported him. he made the choice with responsibility. he always has good ideas. i think the press talked a lot about his decision. but a lot of people wanted to see this program. the judges especially liked it.

when yuzu broke his world record with this program, some judges remarked that ‘it was the best moment of my life to be able to watch and judge this wonderful and magical performance.

the judges who weren’t able to watch that competition live was able to watch it during the olympics, so i think it was a good decision.”

— how many skaters do you coach at the moment?

“except for the skaters that competed at the olympics, i have 4-5 more that i work with on a regular basis. i don’t know what yuzu’s decision is going to be, but i know javi is going to retire after the olympics.”

— what’s your secret in finding young skaters?

“luckily, they tend to come to me. there’s something that’s more important than teaching skaters. it’s spending time with them in order to learn more about them.

when i train with top skaters such as junhwan, javi, yuzu, and gabby, i spend time with each of them. i couldn’t do the same if i had twelve students. that’s why i choose skaters selectively and limit their numbers.

i’m not the right coach for a skater that needs a quick fix. it takes about a year and a half to see results with my teaching. it takes about a year and a half to establish basic foundations of skating and to see change.

i’m planning to take in one or two new students when the olympics is over. these students, as my current ones have done, should be able to accept that progress takes time.

it’s like learning piano. learning theory and practicing scales all day is very boring. but you need to set the foundation. you can produce a richer and fancier sound with a good foundation. the same goes for skating.”

— any traits you look for in a young skater?

“they have to love figure skating. i want to see them fly on the ice. i want to see them show off their beautiful skills when they’re practicing edges with the other skaters. most of all, they truly have to love skating.”

— any young skaters you’re interested in?

“i’m coaching a young but skilled skater. he’s debuting as a junior this year and i’m planning to prep him for beijing 2022. He’s Canadian Stephen Gogolev. he turned 13 two months ago, but he can land all the quads. he landed a triple lutz at the age of 10. although we did coach him, God himself gifted him with the skills. He is a beautiful skater, and was born to rotate and jump. but since he is still growing, there are obstacles that we’ve yet to overcome.

i’m also watching junhwan. i’m not sure whether Gogolev, who’s 3 years younger than him, would jump better quads, but in terms of flow and maturity, junhwan is much better. beijing would be a battle between the two [junhwan and Gogolev]. they may become rivals, but it would be interesting to watch.”

— did Yuna love skating?

“when i first started coaching her, it seemed as if she didn’t really love skating. it felt like a challenge at first. but after the year and a half of training, she established the basics, and Yuna came to love skating. it seemed like she started loving training because she became better at skating. during training, Yuna seemed to realize her jumping skills and beautiful movements that she didn’t notice before.

yuna’s delicate movements were breathtakingly beautiful. it was enjoyable watching her grow up to a great skater.”

— how did you feel when Yuna announced her retirement?

“we separated on a sour note, and to this day, it still feels confusing to me. but i had to move on and continue with my work. after the separation, we met a couple times and we treated each other with great kindness.

i know that Yuna is proud of my accomplishments as a coach. when we met at Sochi, she congratulated both Yuzu and Javi on their performances. In my opinion, I think she is proud that I’ve produced great results with other skaters. So i hope to meet Yuna here, at pyeongchang.

we’ve been together for a long time. we had our good moments and the bad ones, but we were always together. I was sad when she retired. Everyone loves it when Yuna takes to the ice.”

— did you get to meet Yuna at PyeongChang?

“not yet. it’s a bit hard to approach her since she’s so famous. Yuna’s busy with her olympic schedule, and I’m busy with mine. Maybe we’ll meet at the ladies free skate. i hope we get to say hello at least.”

— what do you think about diversity in the olympics?

“it’s a world stage to spread great messages. Adam Rippon is spreading his message with positivity and helping out teens that are going through hard times. this kind of education is appropriate for the olympics. the olympics is the perfect stage to promote diversity since everyone is watching and listening.

somewhere in a small village, a young child would gain confidence watching the olympics instead of falling into depression or thinking that there’s something wrong with them.

there’s also a pride house in the Canada house. I’m proud as a Canadian. they had one at the last olympics, but the one at pyeongchang seems more visible.

it takes time for people to understand diversity. some may never understand. but that’s okay. everyone is entitled to their opinions, and they have different thoughts, religions, and teachings. people should be a bit more sensitive towards each others different traditions and cultures.

— Korea is developing into a society that embraces diversity. what do you think?

“I visited Korea for the first time in 1988, exactly 30 years ago. Ever since i visited Korea as I started teaching Yuna, I could feel change in the role of women in this society.

women began to gain convidence and a voice. I think Yuna had a lot to do with it, since many women look up to her. The world isn’t just for men. The world has changed.”

— what is orser’s next goal?

“i need a break. the past few years of my life was dedicated to the olympics. i couldn’t do a lot of things because of it. my partner waited for me and understood that my world revolved around the olympics.

i was often awake due to the time difference between Toronto to Korea and Japan. In the past year before the olympics, I only took a break once, for a week. And during that week, I kept checking my emails when my partner wasn’t looking.

I also had some health issues. my partner was so concerned. i think it’s because of stress. stress causes all kinds of diseases, doesn’t it. so i need a break. Worlds are coming up. I think i’ll take a week off after then.”

original article found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.kr/entry/brian-orser_kr_5a8fd6bbe4b01e9e56ba48cb?utm_id=naver

[wherespacepooh]

(above: After focusing himself, Yuzuru landed a beautiful 4Lz 35 minutes into Day 1 Practice, COR 2017. Practice notes and footage behind the cut.)

Yuzuru Hanyu’s Quad Lz Debut – 2 subs, 1 article, some personal notes from practice (COR Pt 1/3)

Yuzuru landed the 4Lz (+1.14) in competition for the first time during the free skate at the Rostelecom Cup. The training, the decision, the days leading up to it. – gladi.

🎥 Yuzuru characterizing 4S, 4T, 4Lz to Shuzo

✨✨A tadakixd x wherespacepooh collaboration!✨✨ 

The Lutz still has mood swings. When things go well it snuggles up to me, when things go poorly it's like bye-bye. 

(Asahi Hodo Station 2017.10.23)

🎥 Yuzuru’s philosphy towards challenges, and August 4Lz footage released post-COR

[If I were to avoid challenges], then that isn’t a competition, is it? That’s how I feel. And it just seems that I’ll have lost the point of skating... 

The Olympic anxiety is something particular––I thoroughly understand. To execute difficult jumps amongst it all, is just something that I must [approach] with confidence. 

 (NTV News Every 2017.10.23)

📖 A formidable element summons Hanyu’s combative spirit – The Power of the Quad Lutz (2017.11.6 AERA)

Mie Noguchi https://dot.asahi.com/aera/2017110100060.html

Finally, Yuzuru Hanyu (22) successfully landed the 4Lz. A formidable element that he’d overcome his coach’s objection to master. Will this jump become Hanyu’s weapon? Or is it a double-edged sword?

Hanyu first successfully executed the 4Lz in competition during the Free Skate event of the Rostelecom Cup, the first Grand Prix. Of all successfully landed jumps, it is the one that garners the most points.

Behind his decision to challenge [the element] lies a dilemma stemming from the Autumn Classic in September. 

Due to pain in the right knee, Hanyu had avoided the 4Lo, his most difficult element. Lacking the fire of a challenge, he made mistakes repeatedly and concluded the competition in second place. After his performance, he declared, “Without challenging myself, there’s no way I can perform like myself after all.” However, just as he was planning to train the 4Lz with the Rostelecom Cup in sight, coach Brian Orser objected, “4Lz is a dangerous element. If it [were you, you] can hit the world’s highest scores even without the Lutz.”

So Hanyu explained his approach to competing, “The current world’s highest score was reached with nothing but the Toe Loop and the Salchow [in terms of quads], and if [I follow] that strategy, actually I do have the self-assurance of going clean. But, in going for a safe strategy, personally I feel that I’ll have lost the meaning as to why I skate. If I were to only focus on artistry, then, I think, that is not a competition.”

Orser accepted this explanation, and Hanyu began his training of the 4Lz.

The Free Skate of the Rostelecom Cup arrived. The success rate [of the 4Lz] during Official Practice was 10%, and Hanyu was second place in the Short Program the day before. Even so, Hanyu was in high spirits from the challenge. “All around me, and myself included, everyone looks forward to my landing the 4Lz. I would like to tackle this, properly, and with greed towards victory.” 

And then, at the outset of the free skate. Landing the 4Lz admirably, [Hanyu] demonstrated his “strength at the crucial moment.” 

“At last, I was able to challenge with this layout. Taking this as a step [forward], I’m going to raise the level of completion,” said Hanyu after the competition.

Of course, one sees both good and bad [in this].

On the mental side, the good is greater. Hanyu himself says this: “This time, while tackling a variety of things, I was so nervous, and I really felt the joy of skating until my legs turned to mush. When I put pressure on myself and that [pressure] is aptly released––that’s when I can become stronger.” Through incorporating the 4Lz, the entire jump layout of the program is also boosted.

Under the rule of “repeating up to 2 types of jumps,” “there ends up being one solo triple, and I’m able to jump the triple Axel, my specialty, twice (t/n 3A being 3.5 revolutions). In terms of points, that’s huge. The fact that I was able to place first in the free skate even with such numerous mistakes was due to the base value of the Lutz.” (Hanyu) 

But, the risk is also great. The base value of the 4Lz is 13.6, but in the event of underrotation by 180 degrees or more, plus a fall, it becomes 2.9. A cleanly landed 3Lz is able to garner a maximum of 8.1, so if the success rate is low, avoiding the element would be a good plan. 

There’s also the difficulty of bringing together quads of different forms.”With the 4Lz and the 4Lo, I have to properly reconcile the arrangement of my focus. The ways of executing the jumps are completely different, and if I’m fiddling with this and that (of my form), it ends up in this jumbled state. I’m still inexperienced.” (Hanyu)

An immense element that [allows him the flexibility to] “scale up or dial back.” *

Orser was extremely calm. “With [the inclusion of] the Lutz, [the number of possible] patterns are increased. We will work out strategies with Yuzuru’s fighting spirit and my theory from experience in mind.”

In any case, the fact that Hanyu has a new weapon in hand is certain.

(fin)

* t/n - Interpretation is contextual here based on the QA from which the quote came from: できるだけやりたい。『守ることでも、捨てることでも』、いつでもできるので, on practice day. 

📋 Practice Notes

On review, I had the impression that he was ramping up to it, not quite harried, methodically figuring things out. The ice, the timing, how to switch in the short period between the 4Lz and the 4Lo in a packed program. Perhaps the distribution of energy, the breathing pattern? Plenty of communication with Brian throughout.

3A warmups across all open practices.

📖 2017.10.18: a day before the official practice, Yuzuru borrowed the rink for a 45-min closed practice session alone (media was allowed in). Extracted and summarized from B.B.Mook’s Yamaguchi’s report on Figure Skate Magazine, the first 30 minutes of the practice:

Hanyu began with some stroking, getting a sense of the ice. After warming up: 1A, 4T, 3A, 3A-2T(rippon), 1S, 4S slight stumble, 4S, 1Lz, 4Lz fall, 1Lz, 1Lz, 4Lz landed. 4S, 4Lo, 4Lo (both hands down), 4Lo (fell on butt), 4T (fell). When asked if he would incorporate the 4Lz that day, Hanyu did not reply, smiling as he left the arena.

📋 2017.10.19: Warm-up 3A, 2T, 4T, 4S, saved 4S, 2Lo, 4Lo in the first 10 minutes, before going through the motions for the Lutz, followed by a heavily landed attempt at the 11m mark. He then did a seemingly intentional popped Lz, nodding afterwards as if he had checked what he wanted on the landing. SEIMEI RT (popped Lz). 4T-Lo-3S, SP 3A. Almost 30 minutes into the practice, he began fiddling with the Lz and Lo again:  3 popped Lz in a row, confirming arm and shoulder movements into the Lz with Brian. Lo (SP entry, pop), 2Lo, marking Lo (SP) with twizzles, 4Lo (turnout, hand down), 4Lo (SP). Talked to Brian, squatted near Pooh, and focused. And then, at 35m, a beautiful 4Lz (GIF above).

Practice session fancam, full timestamped annotations in description.

📋 2017.10.20 (SP Day): Back-counter 3A out of nowhere to warm up. Chopin StSq, 3-turns into 3F, 4S3T, 4T-Lo-3S, 3-turns into 4T3T(rippon). Similar to the day before, he attempted the Lz’s around the 10m mark: 1Lz (pop), checking with Brian, pointing to shoulders, 1Lz (pop), perfect 4Lz on third attempt. Then went back to Brian/Kikuchi to check out the recorded footage. Afterwards, marked 4Lz motions with twizzles to confirm.

Practice session fancam, full timestamped annotations in description.

📋 2017.10.21 (FP Day): Focus today definitely seemed to be more about rotating and having the 4Lz in tandem with the 4Lo. Warm-up 3A, 4S (a bit tight), transition into 4T – 3A2T(rippon), transition into 4T-Lo-3S, 4Lo (good but not  much flow out), around 10m, 4Lz (step out), checked with Brian afterwards. 4Lz (starting from the beginning of the program, full entry, followed by transition into Lo), 2Lo (pop). After going to Brian, he attempted the Lz again from the start: 3 popped Lz in a row, 4Lz (two hands down, fall, low). Stroking, StSq, 3A, 4S3T, 4T-Lo, 4Lo, 1Lz (pop). Checking hip alignment here, he then landed 4Lz on toes (heavy landing, step out). SEIMEI RT (4Lz low landing and turn-out, 4Lo fall).  

Practice session fancam, full timestamped annotations in description.

6-min: Stroking, 3A, 4S3T, 4TLo3S, 4Lo, 4Lz (two hands down, fall), 1Lo (pop). At that, he gestured to Brian seeming to ask if he should go for another try or not. Intentional 1Lz.

FS 6-minute warm-up fancam, full timestamped annotations in description.

[shoma-uno]

Special Talk with Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno at 2017 Dreams on Ice

“By receiving motivation from each others’ quads” -- World Figure Skating No.79

Please do not repost this translation without permission.

The two of you know each other since your junior days. Do you remember your first impressions of each other?

S: We weren’t in the same competitions in the Junior Grand Prix Series, but even without the triple axel, Nathan would receive way higher points than me when I also didn’t have my triple axel yet. By knowing this, I realised that it’s possible to get such high marks without having difficult jumps.

In comparison to your impression of him back then, what is your impression of him now?

S: Nathan has become so grown up and mature, while I’m still far from being there.

N: Shoma, you’ve matured as well. (laughs) As he said, we first met around the time of the Junior Grand Prix Series, but I don’t remember much from then. What I do remember is Junior Worlds. I watched Shoma’s performance with Nam, and it was shocking how good of a performer he was. He had so much speed and power. Back then, he seemed like a young child so I was so taken aback when he started skating. His learning speed is so quick, and he’s gotten even better in the past 2 to 3 years. He pushes forward the field immensely and pushes me to move forward as well.

What has changed about Shoma?

N: Well he’s obviously changed since our junior years. (laughs) On ice, he’s like a different person. Because Shoma landed the 4F, it encouraged me to challenge it too, and it also made me feel as if I could push this field forward as well.

Through the beneficial rivalry, you two are now able to land many types of quads. How do you perceive each other’s quads?

N: We both learned quads in a very short timespan. But the reason why I became able to land quads in a matter of 1 to 2 years was because Shoma landed one, which made me think, “I can do this too”. We have completely different body types, but it’s nice to see us both being able to do the same types of quads stably.

S: When I first landed my 4F, I didn’t even think about challenging more quads. I didn’t think everyone would start landing these different types of quads so soon, so at the following NHK Trophy, when I heard that Nathan landed a 4Lz and a 4F, I wondered, “Is that actually true??” But then I did see that he was landing them very stably, and that changed my mindset into thinking, “I can do more”, and not just be satisfied after learning a couple of new things.

What do you think of Boyang Jin, the other challenger of quads in your generation?

N: He is pushing the sport with an incredible force. I’ve watched him since we were juniors, and he was already landing three quads in the FS when I was just starting to land my 3As. By seeing that, I decided to seriously challenge the 4T and the 4S. The increase in skaters who land quads has been drastic, and of course there’s Yuzu. Boyang’s lutz gave me motivation, and Shoma’s flip made me want to challenge it. It’s cool that we get so influenced by each others’ jumps.

S: I also wouldn’t have challenged the 4F if it weren’t for Boyang’s 4Lz. I think people are quite influenced by their emotions. When someone lands a new jump, the thought of, “Oh, this is a jump that can be landed”, and also the thought of “Nobody’s landed this before so I want to challenge it” are very important. Seeing Boyang easily land the 4Lz was an inspiration for me.

You guys are now getting up on podiums in international competitions such as GPF and 4CC. How were the views from the podiums?

N: Us young skaters don’t have the experience that skaters like Patrick and Javi do, so we go into competitions with our fresh and young minds. All of our goals is to get closer to them. I’m so thankful to be able to compete with them each time. It’s crazy that we get to go on the podium with top skaters like Yuzu, Javi, and Patrick isn’t it?

S: I just finished my second senior season, and I was able to do what I was not able to do in my first season as a senior, and I think I was able to make good use of my experience from that first season. However, Nathan won at 4CC, and I haven’t even won Worlds or GPF, so I really adored his position. I want to compete on that stage and become a skater who fights for the gold as well. In the first half of the season, it felt as if I was working hard just underneath them and I was barely able to keep up, so next season, I want to be able to fight for the gold as well. Since this will be my third senior year, I hope that I will be able to use my experience well in my own way.

There was a period of time when you (Shoma) struggled to land the 3A, and you (Nathan) suffered from an injury that left you out from competition for a while. Both of you have experienced tough times in your junior years. What would you tell your younger selves right now?

N: Honestly, I didn’t have many goals until now, so it’s difficult to answer that question… Hm. “Don’t be so down.” It was a good experience in terms of stacking up my career and learning new things. I was able to see the positive and negative possibilities.

What would you say to young Shoma?

N: “It will be okay as long as you don’t give up.” I mean, he lands amazing 3As now. (laughs) Everything will go as planned as long as you continue your efforts.

What would you say, Shoma?

S: My answer is going to be the same as Nathan’s but… I think I’m one of the less injured skaters, but even when I had my minor injuries, it was really tough for me. It’s really painful to not be able to do something you want to do. But because Nathan didn’t give up during that time, the Nathan Chen that we know today exists, so really, I have the same answer as him. “If you don’t give up, everything will connect to your success.” I wouldn't say that if you work hard, everything will come true, but I don’t think efforts go to waste.

N: Very true.

There’s been an increasing case of you two skating together in the same groups in competitions. Could you tell me about each other’s competitive selves?

N: Honestly, I’m too focused on myself during the 6 minute warmup. The thing that I am most careful about is to not run into anyone.

S: That’s true. This is very off topic, but whenever Japanese television shows Hanyu, Nathan is often in the shot. (laughs) I see that a lot, and I just thought that was funny.

N: (laughs)

S: In our junior years, we weren’t in the same groups very much, but I always watched Nathan’s performances, and it really is exciting to be able to skate in the same groups now.

Do you have any secrets for focusing?

N: I think about the things I need to do in the program, and the things I need to do at that moment. If I do that, my switch naturally turns on.

S: I also naturally focus when I think about my practices and things I must do, since it’s impossible to think about two things at the same time. Time always goes by very quickly then, so my secrets are to enjoy it and make good use of it.

N: Exactly!

The Olympics are approaching soon. What type of ‘you’ do you hope to be at the Olympic stage?

N: All athletes work hard with the dream of going to the Olympics, and ideally, I would like to do perfect performances. Regarding the programs, I just wish to connect with the audience and the music. I want to enjoy the dream-like stage of the Olympic ice.

S: I would like to do performances that are very like myself. The phrase “since it’s the Olympics” will come up many times, and because of that, my real self might be contained. In order for that to not happen, I want to work on one thing at a time, and work hard to be chosen for the Olympics. And if I do get there, I hope to do a very ‘me-like’ performance.

Yuzuru Hanyu, who is aiming for his second gold at the Olympics, is getting a lot of attention for being the top gold medal contender. How do you see him right now?

N: Yuzu won Worlds, and as someone with a lot of worldly accomplishments, he is a skater who will get a lot of attention at the Olympics. But I think the top 6 is in a state right now that makes it impossible to predict a winner. We won’t know anything until the day comes.

S: I have the exact same view. Personally, Hanyu is an admiration. That admiration is still there, and now, he is a skater who I want to win against the most. There are other skaters who I don’t want to lose to, but out of all of them, Hanyu is the one I want to win against. Because I admire him so much.

You two see each other often in competitions and shows. Has anything interesting happened recently?

S: Was it an ice show… Oh, it was at WTT! After WTT, we went to a yakiniku restaurant, and four of Team USA were waiting outside. We asked them what they were doing there, and they said the seats were full. Coincidentally, we had reserved a table for six, but only two of us came, so we ended up eating yakiniku with them. (laughs)

N: Thank you for that! We were saved. (laughs)

Is there anything you want to say to or ask each other?

N: Hit me up when you are near California.

S: This is gonna be an actual question, so I want to think carefully… Ah, what do you do when you’re not skating? I game a lot.

N: I just finished high school, so I would go to school before. Now, I study to be prepared for university and I go to the beach with friends since we live in California. Mostly that.

S: You study hard? Impressive!

What are your thoughts for your plans post-Pyeongchang?

N: I’m leaving it up to my results at Pyeongchang, so it’s hard to answer that right now. But I’m just very excited. More skaters will be popping up, and thinking about that is very exciting.

S: I only have skating. I love skating so much, especially competitions, so even after the Pyeongchang Olympics, I want to skate for as long as I can. I want to continue my competitive career until I feel like I’ve done enough.

And finally, if you were to show each other around your hometowns, where would you take each other? Nathan, which Californian beach do you recommend for Shoma?

N: I live near Long Beach, and it’s fun so we should definitely go there together. There are so many streets, and it’s a place where you can have fun shopping as well. Laguna is famous for its surfing, and if we go a little further, we can get to LA. Palos Verdes is also famous, the ocean is beautiful there.

And Shoma, where would you recommend for Nathan?

S: I am so sorry for this, but I am a recluse. I think Nathan knows more about Japan than I do.

N: (laughs)

How about games you recommend?

S: Games! I only play games on my phone, but Vainglory is accessible worldwide. It’s a combat game, but one fight takes 20-30 minutes. (laughs)

N: My brother games a lot, but he never lets me do it. Since he games alone, it’s probably similar to how you game. (laughs)

Thank you so much. I am looking forward to both of your successes this season.

[wakabond-blog]

PyeongChang Men’s SP Reaction

FOREWARNING: someone remind me to never do this again I literally sweat through my shorts going through this emotional earthquake

I had reservations about doing this reaction post but I’m watching the NBC mini-promos for everyone (cue lil’ kid saying that Javi is his ONLY hero <3) competing tonight and all the feels flooding in.

Also gonna put my dream podium out there in advance so I can lay claim to my fantasies before they possibly flop: Yuzu, Nathan, Javi (in that order for Gold, Silver, and Bronze), but ofc the best scenario is that everyone skates well and leaves the ice happy and the gremlin judges can do whatever. I haven’t watched a lot of the earlier-group men this season, but looking at their music choices I’m pretty excited for Julian Zhi Jie Yee’s Build a Home program (P/C’s 2016 FS from Euros that year still sticks with me) and hopefully Yaroslav hits his 4F. Just writing out everyone’s name is getting me hella nervous

THIRTY ONE GUYS UP 4 HOURS FML LET’S GIT TO IT, first group up on warmup ice: ayyy Vincent hitting a nice 4Lz-3T

AHHH NBC dropping me randomly into Felipe Montoya’s program right into a botched 3F-2T; c’mon man AISH U TOOK AWAY JAVIER RAYA’S SPOT FOR THIS uwu I kinda dig the all white costume tho but must be a binch to find from the audience viewpoint

Chafik Besseghier actually into taximan more than during the Team SP like yeah sure NBC say it’s part of “French creativity” but that taxi look is wonky...points for commitment though, right? 77.01 with all those lil’ green boxes gouda job Chafik; also a note on that French quirky creativity comment anyone else remember Brian Joubert trying to “disprove” people calling him gay by doing a nude photoshoot

MY BOI Vincent Zhou HITS DAT 4Lz-3T first at the Olympics with that 4Lz-3T combo!!! gah other two jumps off-axis but damn he has the hardest technical content but man you gotta deliver all of it including rotations and GOE; also *pushes glasses up* Vincent ~almost~ got a perfect ACT score wat u doing get that 36 (LOL AT THE COMMENTATORS SAYING HIS SIS GOT A PERFECT SCORE); BANG 84.53 with some stubby GOEs I can live with that new season’s best YAAAS u chase those cars

Okay so the announcement for Denis Ten is in English over the loudspeakers but there’s like a little interruption when they just repeat the word “Kazakhstan” but in Korean phonetics; REIGNING BRONZE MEDALIST LET’S GO nope there goes the 4S-->2S, NICE triple axel though!, also loving the royal blue shirt, triple lutz triple NO (sorry had to say that), but the music is great kinda operatic but not like a loud Bocelli; considering his injuries and other hurdles this is alright, his entire season had a rough start ALSO the flower girls have dresses that match the rink so QUTE also Frank Carroll is still not retired mkay

Matteo Rizzo NICE 3A also considering that this is choreo’d by his mom this is great, strong Italian vibes, really good lines, straight camel with the leg position above the hip, good rotation; love the arms out of the 3Lz this would be a program I would want to do OKAY NBC WE GET THAT U NEED A QUAD TO GET ON THE PODIUM but friggin Matteo’s job is to make his mom choreo proud also considering how this is by far the biggest stage he’s been on after dethroning Ivan Righini, dis is gr8

Michael Christian Martinez honestly still love his taking YOI in stride basically Phichit IRL, not a great performance by any means, really low score in the 50s sheesh but hey that signature Biellmann though! this first group was alright still looking ahead

Yaroslav Paniot that was rough :/// also he took out the 4F and fell on all 3 passes (I mean he landed on his knee on the axel but like...what do you even call that?) damn Tammy Gambill coaches him too, into last place :(( it’s okay Yaroslav

Yan Han going for that hard nose blow and tissue grab looks intense LOVE THAT HARD SLAP ON THE BARRIER you got this my man, AHHH yas more Twilight, NICE TRIPLE AXEL BEST SO FAR man was that rotation fast, crap that 4T still looking for a clean toe in this comp; also these SPs are passing really quickly, Vincent still in the lead after Han’s 80.63

Julian Zhi Jie Yee OMGOMGOMG okay excited for this, awww love the shot back to the opening ceremony; love his shirt with the slight slit V not intrusive but modern and sleek LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVE it; AHHH THE BEATS OF BUILD A HOME ready for this show off for Malaysia, NICE TRIPLE AXEL he had so much space coming down, maintaining composure, come on GREAT LUTZ halfway mark here come the lyrics and ahhh slipping on the 3F-3T, I think that content should be enough for him to make the FS, lines could be a bit better but his spin levels seem there good for him! Man he really floated on the 3A I’m hoping this’ll go into the low 70s yep 73.58 good score for him

And cue more ice-less places Brendan Kerry kinda attractive in that down-under way, used to be really smol but then hit that caucasian puberty WHOOO first clean 4T of the comp, like the shimmery dark blue shirt, nice 3Lz-3T who needs a quad sal if there’s anything the pairs comp taught us it’s that going clean leaves a greater impression than hard tricks, saved that 3A, this cut of Everybody Wants to Rule the World is so #inspirational someone get me my book of self-affirmations also getting all these coach-skater revelations Nikolai Morozov coaches Kerry?? dang, whoa slots right in behind Vincent with an 83 and change

Moris Kvitelashvili okay who tf put his name as Morisi on the official docs they actually announced his names as that ETERI U ONLY HAVE ONE BOY, bring on the Buble, smooth 3A that flow, def on feelin good on that 4S, after Boyangman’s Spiderman program I’ve grown to have a deeper appreciation for Michael Buble, he’s really tall but one of those lanky awkward guys but eh I give him props for having the gumption to compete for Georgia and getting to compete on Olympic ice

Keegan Messing LOL his intro “actually born in Alaska, proficient Yo-Yo master” aww singin in the rain WOW nice 4T-3T I’m laughin at clouds too Keegan, oof that 3A fall though, very fast spinner no travelling either...okay but seriously can we get RIka Kihira here to give these guys a 3A clinic or something, for a second this really feels like a Javi program, nice 3Lz to finish out the jumps my god I thought his coach was either Eteri/Shawn White c.2010 hair wow 85 taking away the lead from Vincent; 12 men done, 18 left!

This next warmup group Danny wit dat fresh haircut, NBC hyping up the final group omg chill ur horses, Michal with those sleeve ribbons!

Michal Brezina those bedazzled dragons, WOW QUAD sal (okay I thought it was a flip at first), good 3A nothing under review, not to compare but to compare this is like Seimei beta ver., beautiful delayed 3F, also I feel like I hear people clapping along to the drums but I don’t see anyone...it’s prolly the NK cheer squad, this skate should just sneak into 1st, damn his profile sideshot looks like a dinosaur, AWWW RAF lol still surprised by these coaching situations OH BOI lol just into 1st by 0.04 over Keegan

Cha Junhwan c’mon get that gypsy dance on bring the soul of Wakaba to the games (I expect shoulder shimmies), TAKE A DEEEEP breath Brian, wow dicey moment with the 3F-3T but landed flawlessly, even better 3A crowd goes WILDDDD, quick interjection these scores that are starting to pile into the mid-80s are seriously reminding me of the bronze-medal battle in Sochi I mean yeah now there’s a pretty solid list of 5/6 guys for the podium but still..chills..., might have urs but really bringing the energy otherwisein the stsq arms flairs right on the beat of the music (I’ll count those as shimmies) wow first standing O very well deserved all the korean flags!!

Other sidenote you know who’s gonna get more cool team jackets than Marina Zueva? Brian friggin Orser: Canada, Korea, Japan, Spain, Kazakhstan! all those colors!! gotta catch ‘em all and with a score of 83+ Junhwan goes into that pack of mid-80s

Paul Fentz jacksepticeye doppleganger back on the ice, honestly great 3T-3T screw the squad his air position is really good, wow wild like on the 3A but again great air position (honestly this plus straight legs on camel spins are like the must-haves), also loving this jazzy music it works for him, Wonderwall was WUNDERFUL

Interjection of hockey testosterone jeez being a referee in that would be terrifying you’re wearing no padding sheesh

Misha Ge okay srsly what is the point of saying “Uzbekistan” in English and then again in Korean phonetics? not into the brown ombre, good 3A, getting gypsy pirate vibes gawd that spin extension though ta die fo

Cutaway to Yuzu absolutely DESTROYIN that EZ applesauce pouch (okay it’s not applesauce but man is he twistin every last drop out)

And since I’m already doing this huge ass shitpost I might as well comment on some of the commercials, the 23andme thing where Warren Buffett narrates “ill let u choose any car but u only get one you’d take care of it so well right WELL THAT’s UR BODY”...kinda hypocritical coming from a dude who only eats McDs, See’s Candies, Coke and steak...

Jorik Hendrickx awww I actually had no idea his sis Loena made it too, gosh Je Suis Malade reminds me of Adelina’s failed comeback...anyway good 3A to start; I remember how emotional his qualifying through Nebelhorn was enjoy this bb, wow he’s gonna join the mid-80s pack too judges panicking how tf do we separate them AWW Loena clapping so cute and Jorik smiling!! love this

Also screaming about how I can see the final group on my shitpost list getting closer to my cursor *bites nails*

Literally the biggest actual fuqboi of this comp Daniel Samohin is up with a new ‘do that fresh fade also doesn’t he have that company/group thing black wolf white wolf WELL DAMN BLACK WOLF JUST HIT HIS 4T-3T god remember when he destroyed his shoulder at Skate America, whoa first two clean quads of the comp so far who knew flopchild would it get together at the Olympics also classic Daniel guitar solo ay fuq down on the 3A gdi this is why we can’t have nice things LOL also the first skater to finish in the wrong direction, cute lil’ smile at the end though! Also gonna hit the low-80s aww happy tears!!! omg is that Nikolai Morozov yup 80 points and change jeez top 6 all separated by less than 2 points lol

Group 4 on the ice jeez those short sleeves SLAY BOI LOL THESE ADAM PROMOS literally all of the vernacular “fierce, I’m a full prone monster” *smizes* okay I’m going for a walk and hope to be back by Deniss see ya’ll in a quick sec and good luck to the first five in this group...but srsly I gotta get up or else risk carpal tunnel at this point </3

Adam Rippon, Dmitri Aliev

Okay jk I made it back for Patrick Chan midway through his performacne looks like his first couple jump elements were good supposedly missed his 3A he looks really tense damn PChiddy it’s alright (sidenote his chest looks bigger than I remember), also ofc Dimi is in the lead now with a tech score over 50

Keiji Tanaka, Alexei Bychenko both happened but I took a shower to be clean for some clean skates

Also isn’t it crazy how Deniss is literally skating right before Yuzu man those world standings were a bit of a surprise at first Deniss Vasiljevs (jk my shower also overran his performance so I’m looking at the protocols rn but hey, good thing is my energy’s now conserved for GROUP 6!)

YESS NBC showing (at least part of) the warmup; Javi hits a BOSS 4S so smooth; Nathan’s smiling, Yuzu looks healthy! my god seeing all the faves on ice together warming up at the OLYMPIC stage is just *clutches chest* a lil’ too much for a casual Thursday evening; okay one more set of commercials and we are off to the RACES!!!

Yuzuru Hanyu TAKES THE ICE the first bars of Ballade a personal fave piece, breatheee, head roll, sway,ohmigod you could hear the sound of a pin dropping, come one quad sal to open...YES OH MY GOD NICE 13 POINTS!!! for that one element, great donut spin, 1 2 3 1 2 3 getting all of his levels ofc great character in spins timed to music, love the sound of his blades BLIND MOHAWK INTO 3A TRADEMARK HIT IT’S HAPPENING ONLY THE COMBO LEFT IS HE GONNA DO THE RIPPON ON THE END YES NICE HE HIT IT OH MY FUQQIN GOD THE POOHS THE OBAACHANS IN THE AUDIENCE THIS IS SERIOUSLY MAGICAL BEAT THAT WOWOWOW THE POOH BEARS RAIN DOWN AGAIN I have never seen so many thrown down at once at him DAMN; this is a true champion, my god yes yes YES!!!! my god I don’t know how get got that 3T WITH RIPPON out at the end lol Ghislain Briand and B Orser jumping; WORLD RECORD GIVE IT TO HIM NEVER DOUBT YU.ZU.RU. HAN.YU; BAM 111 triple ONES BEAT THAT YESS AND HE’S SMILING

OKay okay I gotta calm down for Nathan Chen the Poohs are cleared, yes this is a POTO costume but he looks good; GOD DAMN IT CAMERAMAN YOU MISSED THE FUQQIN DIP YOU HAD ONE JOB ARGHHHH, blade sounds are louder than YUZUS BUT HERE COMES THE 4LZ...OH SHIT MY GOD AND THE QUAD TOE JESUS FUCKING HELL IT WASN’T A COMBO either wow...I’m speechless..come one Nate finish it out finish it out OH FUCKING...33 TECHSCoRE?!?!?!?!?!? He’s still breathing though, looks alright, okay he’s still honestly so young and I understand he exudes this chill outlook which is great but all the pressure had to have gotten him (or he just got unlucky with this bad day :///) nerves?? I know there’s still the free skate left but I want him to walk away from all this feeling okay, not hating skating or anything and making a comeback (hopefully??) in Beijing and maybe having a Chloe Kim kind of moment OH FUQ 13th place 82+...my god

Mikhail Kolyada actually shaking his head after seeing Nathan’s scores we’re all shocked buddy; but skate well hit that sky-high lutz loving your mozart, come on come one; okay triple honestly I just don’t want to see any more thuds on the ice that’s good oh fuck...4T a goner out of the four disciplines this is the one that has the least assured gold medalist and maybe that’s contributing to the nerves? It’s okay Mikhail, your 3A was pretty, and YAY GOT A SMILEY SPASIBO y’know at the Olympics all I can hope for as a spectator is that everyone skates happy and goes as big and clean as possible and leaves happy or at least not too hard on themselves and I know that’s easy to say but so much of sports/life in general is psychological and it just pains me to think of how these guys might react to this under-delivered performances

Shoma Uno smolma please whisk us away with Winter, literally gonna bounce the fuq off of Shrooma if he lands everything please save this; NICE 4F, lines ofc can’t compete with Hanyu but you know...World Silver...he’s got the goods, get those clean edges, skating skills, stsq levels, okay 4T YES YES YES 3T great my god SHOMA SAVES THE TRIPLE AXEL PRAISE AWWWW THE SMILE!!!!! FUCKING MELTING FOR THIS DARK HORSE WHO BTW IS WORLD SILVER REIGNING, MY GOD THIS IS CLUTCH; AND HE HAS HIGHLIGHTS TAKE THAT BINCH, ugh I’m so conflicted right now with all of these flops and clean skates and my head is muddled guessing 106 okay okay lowballed the components gets a 104 also had to save a couple landings I get it but THOSE THUNDERTHIGHS SAVING THE DAY

Javier Fernandez oh please please please all I want is for you to bring home a medal GIVE US CHAPLIN GIVE US 4S AND 4T3T THIS IS YOUR CHANCE GO FOR IT, NICE ON THE COMBO, NICE 4S HOLY HELL ALSO SHOUTOUT TO MY MOM FOR RECOGNIZING THIS AS CHAPLIN U KNOW HE’S DOING HIS JOB and that AMAZING TRIPLE AXEL; so lovely oh my god this is beautiful, tbh I think my mom is actually falling in love with him “his costume looks so good on him O.O” she’s predicting he’ll win and my mom is like...never wrong so...okay tech score just exactly 60, I’m hoping 109 range oh my god GIVE HIM THE PCS IF NOT FOR HIM FOR MY MOM OH MY GOD

HYPING UP Jin Boyang for my mom okay come on GIVE US THAT CROUCHING TIGER MAGIC, LORI CHOREO DO UR FUQQIN $10K MAGIC, AMAZING 4LZ-3T, ONE OF THE BEST 4T, OG QUAD KING TARA MENTION THAT YES YES *DOES MERYL MEME POINTING FINGERS*, BEAT DRUM DROP, ERHU  YES THAT 3A OH MY GOD YES YES YES JIN GO GO GO YES THE KARATE HANDS IN THE SIT SPIN, WORD THE STSQ YOU’RE GETTING ALL OF THE LEVELS GO GO GO THIS IS YOUR LAST ELEMENT HIT THE POSES GET THE EDGES GET THE TURNS KICK TWIZZLES BUTTERFLY KICK YES FIST PUMP YES YES YES YES YESSSSSS MY GOD YES GIVE HIM A SCORE TO COMPETE WITH SHOMA 104+, okay okay I can work with 103.32

Okay wow so heading into the FS tomorrow:

-Nathan, get that redemption skate, go big, go clean, love it, love yourself

-Yuzuru: bring that Seimei power, work your natural magic, be yourself, keep the intensity, and just let it flow

-Javi: VAMOS VAMOS VAMOS BE QUIXOTE, get your own redemption from Sochi (also lol I don’t think it matters what happens in the end but you’ve already won in my mother’s heart)

-Shoma: SHOOM SHOOM INTO OUR HEARTS EVEN MORE, channel your 2017 Worlds Diva moment, do it do it DO IT

-Boyang: BRING THE STAR WARS HIT US WITH THAT ANGELIC SAUCE

[nathaneisan]

"It wasn't shock," Chen said of his reaction. "It was more disappointment, the fact I didn't do what I want to do. I'm not going to show that I'm happy and kind of fake it if I'm genuinely not."

Chen truly had nothing to be happy about when it came to his performance. His highly anticipated Olympic debut Friday morning in the short program of the team event was a flop.

It was Chen's lowest-scored short program, by some five points, in two seasons as an international senior skater. None of his three jumping passes went either clean or as planned. He fell on a triple axel. He also turned a planned second quadruple jump into a double, giving him no points on that element because at least a solo triple jump is required.

The performances of Chen and that of the skater who followed, Russian Mikhail Kolyada, were so uncharacteristically bad that they unsettled Japan's Shoma Uno, who watched both before going out as the last of 10 men in the team short program.

"I have never seen them skate so poorly before," Uno said. "I was wondering if it was too early in the morning or they were too nervous because this is a special event. It made me doubt myself on the quad flip."

That was Uno's opening jump, one that he botched, stepping out on the landing. But he recovered nicely and far outscored the rest of the field with 103.25 points.

Israel's Alexei Bychenko was a surprising second at 88.49 points. Despite two falls, Canada's Patrick Chan was third (81.66) and Chen fourth (80.61).

Kolyada's eighth-place implosion, with two falls and a popped axel, had the most significance in the standings. It meant Chan's debacle did not effectively kill Canada's hopes to beat Russia -- OK, "Olympic Athletes from Russia" -- for the gold medal in the team event, which ends Monday.

The schedule, with a 10 a.m. local start time to accommodate prime time TV in the United States, was disconcerting for everyone.

"None of us have competed this early, let alone at the Olympics," Chan said.

Two-time U.S. champion Chen got to the rink at 6 a.m. for a warmup session an hour later and did not have time to return to the Olympic Village before the competition began. He performed at 11 a.m.

"We practice at home around this time (10 a.m.), but I don't get to the rink at 6 for warmups," Chen said.

Chen, 18, expressed regret he had let down Team USA, but it remains in good position for an expected bronze medal. Canada leads with 17 points, followed by the USA (14), and Japan and OAR (13) after what amounts to one-fourth of an event that resumes Sunday.

What Chen really fell short of was the image as a potential Olympic superstar that has accompanied him to South Korea, exemplified by his portrayal as "King Quad" in a United Airlines "Superheroes" advertising campaign.

"We all put these expectations on him, and popping the balloon makes them more realistic, even if he didn't intend to do that," said 1992 Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie, working here as a Westwood One radio correspondent.

Chan, 2014 Olympic individual and team silver medalist, understands what such burdens mean. His Olympic debut came as a 19-year-old on home soil eight years ago in Vancouver.

"And I had a fraction of the pressure an American skater has," Chan said. "I hope he (Chen) knows it is very normal not to have a good skate."

Chen insisted pressure wasn't a significant factor. Yet he had an uncertain landing on his first jump, a quad flip, forcing him to reduce the second part of that combination to a double toe loop. He looked slow and tentative before making the two bigger jump mistakes later.

"I thought I would be way more nervous," Chen said. "I thought there would be a lot more pressure. Honestly, I felt really comfortable, pretty relaxed, ready to go. I think I was just a little too excited.

"Right now, all I can do is try to analyze what I did wrong and let it go."

He will not compete again until the men's individual event begins next Friday. Adam Rippon is scheduled to go for the U.S. in the team men's free skate Monday.

Chen has been a master of shrugging off horrible practices at a competition. But shrugging off a very bad performance to begin a competition will be a new challenge for him -- and one made more difficult by having to do it at the Olympics.

"One of two things can happen," Wylie said. "Either it makes you really concentrate on the rest, or you freak out and think, 'I'm really off, what's wrong with me?'''

Could Chen's problem have been that he was distracted by something -- perhaps the realization that he's at the Olympics?

"Ultimately, it just kind of feels kind of like any other skating competition," Chen said.

Then he circled back.

"There's the vibe of the Olympics, the idea that you see the rings," he said. "It's different."

Relaxed and too excited? The same yet different? Clearly, Chen was searching for answers.

[magicaleggplant]

anon replies, 4CC edition

#Give Shoma Uno chapstick 2k17

i think a bunch of fans are doing this now, by the end of the season he’s just gonna have a whole bag...and still not use them

wasn't Yuna supposed to present the medals?

turns out she was only at the ladies’ medal ceremony. great to see her again though

omg i feel like yuzu skating second is cursed >.> but at lease shoma did well!!! :D

doubled a sal in both programs...conspiracy confirmed 👀👀👀👀👀

In the men's preview post you mentioned boyangs iconic streams. Where does he do them and can we expect one after 4cc?

he does them on the chinese live streaming app inke; his ID is 8768895. he doesn’t have a set schedule for them lol. and he didn’t stream at 4CC, but zijun li did - someone put her banquet stream up on youtube.

"Why isn't X european skater at 4CC" duuuuuude, europeans colonized the actual four continents, I damn well hope they don't invade 4CC too!!!

👀👀👀👀👀👀

@scifikimmi: Im worried about how much pressure yuzu is going to be putting on himself to get over 110 on his short at worlds. Like i worry about how much pressure he puts on himself.

there is always a lot of pressure on him, it’s true. but he also said this 4CC silver was the happiest silver medal he’s won, so i think he’s gonna be ok. maybe going into worlds without being the overwhelming favorite will be good for him.

do you think that it would be weir if someone skated to Lacrimosa from Mozart as a sp?, since its a Réquiem and kinda religious

people have used mozart’s lacrimosa in skating before. there’s a certain disconnect between most religious classical music and actual religion these days, it gets used a lot more often than, say, christian pop music, which i don’t even think i’ve ever seen before. (then again, classical music in general is used more often in skating.)

Peng/Jin are cute enough but jin should be with Yu T-T T-T

why can’t jin yang skate with both girls :( but now that the situation is the way it is, i’m really rooting for peng/jin to do their best.

why was zijun crying?

i didn’t watch most of the ladies’ fs but apparently she had a bad fall in warmup and hurt herself, i guess she was just feeling very emotional afterwards and disappointed with her performance (even though it wasn’t bad)

I'm kinda pissed off that Nathan won (not to mention got over 300) with that quads-loaded-overscoredPCS free. I really like the fact that they are pushing the boundaries for skating with those quads, but tbh, I felt nothing watching Nathan's free. It was empty cause all he focused on was "jump, JuMp, JUMP" while isn't this sport more than just that?

bruh...i’m not the biggest fan of nathan’s free skate, but i’m also pretty tired of the whole “he doesn’t do anything but jump” argument, so i’ll just leave this be. suffice to say that 1) most of the top men are overscored at some point or another, 2) nathan has a lot to improve in but his skating as it is now is quite strong for his age, 3) i’m ok with the final standings. totally fine if you’re not into his skating though.

At least your dumb child kept the good Loco costume so he at least looked good splatting on the axels

small mercies. maybe he heard me screaming at him from across the ocean and decided the burn the damn chicken costume.

I'm. Not. Okay. F U MEN'S FS. I need you to express my deep feelings of the men's field. Could you... Make something for the men's 4cc like you did for the intro... But now the results. I'm crying I wanted Patrick to get medals from Yuna.

yuna was only at the ladies’ ceremony anyway. maybe that’s why patrick bombed, he saw yuna wasn’t gonna be at the ceremony and just peaced out lol. (i’m actually really sad he bombed, rip.) also i am exhausted in my body and soul from 4CC, and asian winter games starts in a few days, so i’m probably not writing a recap, but you can backread my screaming on twitter if you want (@magicaleggrolls)

i need your thoughts on shoma's white pants

they look uncomfortably tight, how does he skate in them

At 4cc, there was an attempted marriage arm weave by Yuzuru and Shoma behind Nathan's back. The story continues lol

nathan, the perpetual third wheel. i love that the marriage arms are an inside joke with yuzuru and shoma lol

Why did Shoma just do 1 combo? Do you think he forgot the existence of them?...

well both of his 3As were planned combos (3A3T and 3A1Lo3F) so he missed both combos and a ton of points when he fell on the 3As. he could have added a 3T to his 3S at the end, but maybe he wasn’t feeling secure enough about it, idk. after GPF, he's not about to forget combos if he can help it.

Hi! I'm a new fan and I love your blog :) I was wondering how did you get into figure skating? And why did you decide to make a tumblr for it?

i got into skating during the 2010 olympics, but i didn’t make a tumblr until 2011. it was mainly because a lot of my online fs friends were also making tumblrs so i just joined in.

What's shoma dos??

shoma uno (1) aka. shoma off ice: most awkward and shy human alive, doesn’t know how to interact with people, just wants to sleep, skate, and play video games, permanently confused, protect this poor child

shoma dos (2) aka. shoma on ice: glare smoldering enough to set the judges on fire, deranged grinning after landing quads, LOCO LOCO LOCO, YOLO 4 QUADS AHAHAHAHA

Have you seen the picture Nathan posted on his instagram? He's quad bae now XD

lol i saw a while ago. fitting.

Why are 4cc medals so small?

ISU championship medals have always been small, world medals are tiny too. it’s kind of funny.

Nathan's hair is actually not permed. I dm'ed him about it

then he’s got some impressive natural volume. natural success perm.

Is Zhang Hao really 32 years old?

he’s 33, according to his ISU bio

[winterolympicssports2018-blog]

(Olympics) S. Korea's figure skater Cha Jun-hwan finishes 15th in men's singles at PyeongChang

Click here for More Olympics Updates https://www.winterolympian.com/olympics-s-koreas-figure-skater-cha-jun-hwan-finishes-15th-in-mens-singles-at-pyeongchang/

(Olympics) S. Korea's figure skater Cha Jun-hwan finishes 15th in men's singles at PyeongChang

By Kim Boram

GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) — South Korean teenage skating star Cha Jun-hwan again set a fresh personal high both in his free skate and overall scores to finish 15th at the PyeongChang Winter Games, marking the highest Olympic ranking by a Korea-born athlete in men’s figure skating.

Skating to the original soundtrack from “The Postman,” Cha earned 165.16 points in the free program and an overall 248.59 to finish 15th in the men’s singles held at Gangneung Ice Arena. His personal best scores were 160.13 in the free skate and 242.45 overall.

The 16-year-old also gained a personal high of 83.43 points in the short program on the previous day.

His 15th-place finish was two notches higher than Jung Sung-il’s 17th at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.

At the same time, Cha is the first South Korean male skater to compete at the Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City 2002 and also the first South Korean man to skate in the free program at the Olympics since Nagano 1998, when Lee Kyu-hyun finished 24th.

The gold medal in the men’s singles went to Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, who pulled off 317.85 points overall. His free program was 8.91 points behind Nathan Chan’s 215.08 due to some mistakes in jumps but still high enough for him to clinch the gold medal at his second Olympics.

Hanyu became the first male skater to defend the Olympic title since American Dick Button in 1952.

His compatriot Shoma Uno, the runner-up in the 2017 World Championships, won silver with an overall 306.90 points.

Spanish Javier Fernandez, who was in second place after the short program, performed a clean free program and won bronze with an overall 305.24 points. The six-time European champion brought his country its first Olympic medal on ice.

Chinese Jin Boyang came in fourth with 297.77 points, while Nathan Chen of the United States received an overall 297.35 points and soared to fifth place from a disappointing 17th place finish in the short program. He landed a record six quadruple jumps for a personal high of 215.08 points in the free skate.

Cha, the youngest men’s singles skater, had one quadruple jump and three triple combination jumps in his free skate program. He began the 4:30 long program with a clean triple lutz-triple toe loop combination jump, but he fell on a quadruple salchow.

But he nailed a double axel-double toe loop and triple axel in a clean way, and went through another combination jump. In the latter part of the program, the teenager made no mistakes in handling three remaining jumps, steps and spins.

South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan falls on a quadruple salchow at the men’s singles figure skating free program of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Gangneung Ice Arena on Feb. 17, 2018. (Yonhap)

“Despite the high scores, I had a big mistake on a jump. I’m really sorry for that,” Cha said. “But I did my best until the end of the program. As I said yesterday, I sprang to my feet right after I fell. I’m satisfied with this Olympics.”

   For the troubling quad, he said he will do his best to tuneup the jumps in the coming years.

“I did well in landing quads last season. But this Olympic season I think I failed to keep myself in good shape,” the 16-year-old said. “In the warmup in the morning the quad salchow was good, so I was relieved a bit. But it didn’t work in the competition.”

   The enthusiastic support from the home crowd that filled the Gangneung Ice Arena helped him put on the best performance and enjoy his first ever Olympics.

“I had been so nervous about each element of the free program before I stepped on the ice,” he said. “When I heard them root for me, such worries disappeared. I really felt the music and breathed well while skating.”

   South Korea’s figure skater Cha Jun-hwan raises his arms high after finishing his free program of the men’s singles competition at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Gangneung Ice Arena on Feb. 17, 2018. (Yonhap)

brk@yna.co.kr

(END)

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[wakabond-blog]

I had reservations about doing this reaction post but I’m watching the NBC mini-promos for everyone (cue lil’ kid saying that Javi is his ONLY hero <3) competing tonight and all the feels flooding in.

Also gonna put my dream podium out there in advance so I can lay claim to my fantasies before they possibly flop: Yuzu, Nathan, Javi (in that order for Gold, Silver, and Bronze), but ofc the best scenario is that everyone skates well and leaves the ice happy and the gremlin judges can do whatever. I haven’t watched a lot of the earlier-group men this season, but looking at their music choices I’m pretty excited for Julian Zhi Jie Yee’s Build a Home program (P/C’s 2016 FS from Euros that year still sticks with me) and hopefully Yaroslav hits his 4F. Just writing out everyone’s name is getting me hella nervous

THIRTY ONE GUYS UP 4 HOURS FML LET’S GIT TO IT, first group up on warmup ice: ayyy Vincent hitting a nice 4Lz-3T

AHHH NBC dropping me randomly into Felipe Montoya’s program right into a botched 3F-2T; c’mon man AISH U TOOK AWAY JAVIER RAYA’S SPOT FOR THIS uwu I kinda dig the all white costume tho but must be a binch to find from the audience viewpoint

Chafik Besseghier actually into taximan more than during the Team SP like yeah sure NBC say it’s part of “French creativity” but that taxi look is wonky...points for commitment though, right? 77.01 with all those lil’ green boxes gouda job Chafik; also a note on that French quirky creativity comment anyone else remember Brian Joubert trying to “disprove” people calling him gay by doing a nude photoshoot

MY BOI Vincent Zhou HITS DAT 4Lz-3T first at the Olympics with that 4Lz-3T combo!!! gah other two jumps off-axis but damn he has the hardest technical content but man you gotta deliver all of it including rotations and GOE; also *pushes glasses up* Vincent ~almost~ got a perfect ACT score wat u doing get that 36 (LOL AT THE COMMENTATORS SAYING HIS SIS GOT A PERFECT SCORE); BANG 84.53 with some stubby GOEs I can live with that new season’s best YAAAS u chase those cars

Okay so the announcement for Denis Ten is in English over the loudspeakers but there’s like a little interruption when they just repeat the word “Kazakhstan” but in Korean phonetics; REIGNING BRONZE MEDALIST LET’S GO nope there goes the 4S-->2S, NICE triple axel though!, also loving the royal blue shirt, triple lutz triple NO (sorry had to say that), but the music is great kinda operatic but not like a loud Bocelli; considering his injuries and other hurdles this is alright, his entire season had a rough start ALSO the flower girls have dresses that match the rink so QUTE also Frank Carroll is still not retired mkay

Matteo Rizzo NICE 3A also considering that this is choreo’d by his mom this is great, strong Italian vibes, really good lines, straight camel with the leg position above the hip, good rotation; love the arms out of the 3Lz this would be a program I would want to do OKAY NBC WE GET THAT U NEED A QUAD TO GET ON THE PODIUM but friggin Matteo’s job is to make his mom choreo proud also considering how this is by far the biggest stage he’s been on after dethroning Ivan Righini, dis is gr8

Michael Christian Martinez honestly still love his taking YOI in stride basically Phichit IRL, not a great performance by any means, really low score in the 50s sheesh but hey that signature Biellmann though! this first group was alright still looking ahead

Yaroslav Paniot that was rough :/// also he took out the 4F and fell on all 3 passes (I mean he landed on his knee on the axel but like...what do you even call that?) damn Tammy Gambill coaches him too, into last place :(( it’s okay Yaroslav

Yan Han going for that hard nose blow and tissue grab looks intense LOVE THAT HARD SLAP ON THE BARRIER you got this my man, AHHH yas more Twilight, NICE TRIPLE AXEL BEST SO FAR man was that rotation fast, crap that 4T still looking for a clean toe in this comp; also these SPs are passing really quickly, Vincent still in the lead after Han’s 80.63

Julian Zhi Jie Yee OMGOMGOMG okay excited for this, awww love the shot back to the opening ceremony; love his shirt with the slight slit V not intrusive but modern and sleek LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVE it; AHHH THE BEATS OF BUILD A HOME ready for this show off for Malaysia, NICE TRIPLE AXEL he had so much space coming down, maintaining composure, come on GREAT LUTZ halfway mark here come the lyrics and ahhh slipping on the 3F-3T, I think that content should be enough for him to make the FS, lines could be a bit better but his spin levels seem there good for him! Man he really floated on the 3A I’m hoping this’ll go into the low 70s yep 73.58 good score for him

And cue more ice-less places Brendan Kerry kinda attractive in that down-under way, used to be really smol but then hit that caucasian puberty WHOOO first clean 4T of the comp, like the shimmery dark blue shirt, nice 3Lz-3T who needs a quad sal if there’s anything the pairs comp taught us it’s that going clean leaves a greater impression than hard tricks, saved that 3A, this cut of Everybody Wants to Rule the World is so #inspirational someone get me my book of self-affirmations also getting all these coach-skater revelations Nikolai Morozov coaches Kerry?? dang, whoa slots right in behind Vincent with an 83 and change

Moris Kvitelashvili okay who tf put his name as Morisi on the official docs they actually announced his names as that ETERI U ONLY HAVE ONE BOY, bring on the Buble, smooth 3A that flow, def on feelin good on that 4S, after Boyangman’s Spiderman program I’ve grown to have a deeper appreciation for Michael Buble, he’s really tall but one of those lanky awkward guys but eh I give him props for having the gumption to compete for Georgia and getting to compete on Olympic ice

Keegan Messing LOL his intro “actually born in Alaska, proficient Yo-Yo master” aww singin in the rain WOW nice 4T-3T I’m laughin at clouds too Keegan, oof that 3A fall though, very fast spinner no travelling either...okay but seriously can we get RIka Kihira here to give these guys a 3A clinic or something, for a second this really feels like a Javi program, nice 3Lz to finish out the jumps my god I thought his coach was either Eteri/Shawn White c.2010 hair wow 85 taking away the lead from Vincent; 12 men done, 18 left!

This next warmup group Danny wit dat fresh haircut, NBC hyping up the final group omg chill ur horses, Michal with those sleeve ribbons!

Michal Brezina those bedazzled dragons, WOW QUAD sal (okay I thought it was a flip at first), good 3A nothing under review, not to compare but to compare this is like Seimei beta ver., beautiful delayed 3F, also I feel like I hear people clapping along to the drums but I don’t see anyone...it’s prolly the NK cheer squad, this skate should just sneak into 1st, damn his profile sideshot looks like a dinosaur, AWWW RAF lol still surprised by these coaching situations OH BOI lol just into 1st by 0.04 over Keegan

Cha Junhwan c’mon get that gypsy dance on bring the soul of Wakaba to the games (I expect shoulder shimmies), TAKE A DEEEEP breath Brian, wow dicey moment with the 3F-3T but landed flawlessly, even better 3A crowd goes WILDDDD, quick interjection these scores that are starting to pile into the mid-80s are seriously reminding me of the bronze-medal battle in Sochi I mean yeah now there’s a pretty solid list of 5/6 guys for the podium but still..chills..., might have urs but really bringing the energy otherwisein the stsq arms flairs right on the beat of the music (I’ll count those as shimmies) wow first standing O very well deserved all the korean flags!!

Other sidenote you know who’s gonna get more cool team jackets than Marina Zueva? Brian friggin Orser: Canada, Korea, Japan, Spain, Kazakhstan! all those colors!! gotta catch ‘em all and with a score of 83+ Junhwan goes into that pack of mid-80s

Paul Fentz jacksepticeye doppleganger back on the ice, honestly great 3T-3T screw the squad his air position is really good, wow wild like on the 3A but again great air position (honestly this plus straight legs on camel spins are like the must-haves), also loving this jazzy music it works for him, Wonderwall was WUNDERFUL

Interjection of hockey testosterone jeez being a referee in that would be terrifying you’re wearing no padding sheesh

Misha Ge okay srsly what is the point of saying “Uzbekistan” in English and then again in Korean phonetics? not into the brown ombre, good 3A, getting gypsy pirate vibes gawd that spin extension though ta die fo

Cutaway to Yuzu absolutely DESTROYIN that EZ applesauce pouch (okay it’s not applesauce but man is he twistin every last drop out)

And since I’m already doing this huge ass shitpost I might as well comment on some of the commercials, the 23andme thing where Warren Buffett narrates “ill let u choose any car but u only get one you’d take care of it so well right WELL THAT’s UR BODY”...kinda hypocritical coming from a dude who only eats McDs, See’s Candies, Coke and steak...

Jorik Hendrickx awww I actually had no idea his sis Loena made it too, gosh Je Suis Malade reminds me of Adelina’s failed comeback...anyway good 3A to start; I remember how emotional his qualifying through Nebelhorn was enjoy this bb, wow he’s gonna join the mid-80s pack too judges panicking how tf do we separate them AWW Loena clapping so cute and Jorik smiling!! love this

Also screaming about how I can see the final group on my shitpost list getting closer to my cursor *bites nails*

Literally the biggest actual fuqboi of this comp Daniel Samohin is up with a new ‘do that fresh fade also doesn’t he have that company/group thing black wolf white wolf WELL DAMN BLACK WOLF JUST HIT HIS 4T-3T god remember when he destroyed his shoulder at Skate America, whoa first two clean quads of the comp so far who knew flopchild would it get together at the Olympics also classic Daniel guitar solo ay fuq down on the 3A gdi this is why we can’t have nice things LOL also the first skater to finish in the wrong direction, cute lil’ smile at the end though! Also gonna hit the low-80s aww happy tears!!! omg is that Nikolai Morozov yup 80 points and change jeez top 6 all separated by less than 2 points lol

Group 4 on the ice jeez those short sleeves SLAY BOI LOL THESE ADAM PROMOS literally all of the vernacular “fierce, I’m a full prone monster” *smizes* okay I’m going for a walk and hope to be back by Deniss see ya’ll in a quick sec and good luck to the first five in this group...but srsly I gotta get up or else risk carpal tunnel at this point </3

Adam Rippon, Dmitri Aliev

Okay jk I made it back for Patrick Chan midway through his performacne looks like his first couple jump elements were good supposedly missed his 3A he looks really tense damn PChiddy it’s alright (sidenote his chest looks bigger than I remember), also ofc Dimi is in the lead now with a tech score over 50

Keiji Tanaka, Alexei Bychenko both happened but I took a shower to be clean for some clean skates

Also isn’t it crazy how Deniss is literally skating right before Yuzu man those world standings were a bit of a surprise at first Deniss Vasiljevs (jk my shower also overran his performance so I’m looking at the protocols rn but hey, good thing is my energy’s now conserved for GROUP 6!)

YESS NBC showing (at least part of) the warmup; Javi hits a BOSS 4S so smooth; Nathan’s smiling, Yuzu looks healthy! my god seeing all the faves on ice together warming up at the OLYMPIC stage is just *clutches chest* a lil’ too much for a casual Thursday evening; okay one more set of commercials and we are off to the RACES!!!

Yuzuru Hanyu TAKES THE ICE the first bars of Ballade a personal fave piece, breatheee, head roll, sway,ohmigod you could hear the sound of a pin dropping, come one quad sal to open...YES OH MY GOD NICE 13 POINTS!!! for that one element, great donut spin, 1 2 3 1 2 3 getting all of his levels ofc great character in spins timed to music, love the sound of his blades BLIND MOHAWK INTO 3A TRADEMARK HIT IT’S HAPPENING ONLY THE COMBO LEFT IS HE GONNA DO THE RIPPON ON THE END YES NICE HE HIT IT OH MY FUQQIN GOD THE POOHS THE OBAACHANS IN THE AUDIENCE THIS IS SERIOUSLY MAGICAL BEAT THAT WOWOWOW THE POOH BEARS RAIN DOWN AGAIN I have never seen so many thrown down at once at him DAMN; this is a true champion, my god yes yes YES!!!! my god I don’t know how get got that 3T WITH RIPPON out at the end lol Ghislain Briand and B Orser jumping; WORLD RECORD GIVE IT TO HIM NEVER DOUBT YU.ZU.RU. HAN.YU; BAM 111 triple ONES BEAT THAT YESS AND HE’S SMILING

OKay okay I gotta calm down for Nathan Chen the Poohs are cleared, yes this is a POTO costume but he looks good; GOD DAMN IT CAMERAMAN YOU MISSED THE FUQQIN DIP YOU HAD ONE JOB ARGHHHH, blade sounds are louder than YUZUS BUT HERE COMES THE 4LZ...OH SHIT MY GOD AND THE QUAD TOE JESUS FUCKING HELL IT WASN’T A COMBO either wow...I’m speechless..come one Nate finish it out finish it out OH FUCKING...33 TECHSCoRE?!?!?!?!?!? He’s still breathing though, looks alright, okay he’s still honestly so young and I understand he exudes this chill outlook which is great but all the pressure had to have gotten him (or he just got unlucky with this bad day :///) nerves?? I know there’s still the free skate left but I want him to walk away from all this feeling okay, not hating skating or anything and making a comeback (hopefully??) in Beijing and maybe having a Chloe Kim kind of moment OH FUQ 13th place 82+...my god

Mikhail Kolyada actually shaking his head after seeing Nathan’s scores we’re all shocked buddy; but skate well hit that sky-high lutz loving your mozart, come on come one; okay triple honestly I just don’t want to see any more thuds on the ice that’s good oh fuck...4T a goner out of the four disciplines this is the one that has the least assured gold medalist and maybe that’s contributing to the nerves? It’s okay Mikhail, your 3A was pretty, and YAY GOT A SMILEY SPASIBO y’know at the Olympics all I can hope for as a spectator is that everyone skates happy and goes as big and clean as possible and leaves happy or at least not too hard on themselves and I know that’s easy to say but so much of sports/life in general is psychological and it just pains me to think of how these guys might react to this under-delivered performances

Shoma Uno smolma please whisk us away with Winter, literally gonna bounce the fuq off of Shrooma if he lands everything please save this; NICE 4F, lines ofc can’t compete with Hanyu but you know...World Silver...he’s got the goods, get those clean edges, skating skills, stsq levels, okay 4T YES YES YES 3T great my god SHOMA SAVES THE TRIPLE AXEL PRAISE AWWWW THE SMILE!!!!! FUCKING MELTING FOR THIS DARK HORSE WHO BTW IS WORLD SILVER REIGNING, MY GOD THIS IS CLUTCH; AND HE HAS HIGHLIGHTS TAKE THAT BINCH, ugh I’m so conflicted right now with all of these flops and clean skates and my head is muddled guessing 106 okay okay lowballed the components gets a 104 also had to save a couple landings I get it but THOSE THUNDERTHIGHS SAVING THE DAY

Javier Fernandez oh please please please all I want is for you to bring home a medal GIVE US CHAPLIN GIVE US 4S AND 4T3T THIS IS YOUR CHANCE GO FOR IT, NICE ON THE COMBO, NICE 4S HOLY HELL ALSO SHOUTOUT TO MY MOM FOR RECOGNIZING THIS AS CHAPLIN U KNOW HE’S DOING HIS JOB and that AMAZING TRIPLE AXEL; so lovely oh my god this is beautiful, tbh I think my mom is actually falling in love with him “his costume looks so good on him O.O” she’s predicting he’ll win and my mom is like...never wrong so...okay tech score just exactly 60, I’m hoping 109 range oh my god GIVE HIM THE PCS IF NOT FOR HIM FOR MY MOM OH MY GOD

HYPING UP Jin Boyang for my mom okay come on GIVE US THAT CROUCHING TIGER MAGIC, LORI CHOREO DO UR FUQQIN $10K MAGIC, AMAZING 4LZ-3T, ONE OF THE BEST 4T, OG QUAD KING TARA MENTION THAT YES YES *DOES MERYL MEME POINTING FINGERS*, BEAT DRUM DROP, ERHU  YES THAT 3A OH MY GOD YES YES YES JIN GO GO GO YES THE KARATE HANDS IN THE SIT SPIN, WORD THE STSQ YOU’RE GETTING ALL OF THE LEVELS GO GO GO THIS IS YOUR LAST ELEMENT HIT THE POSES GET THE EDGES GET THE TURNS KICK TWIZZLES BUTTERFLY KICK YES FIST PUMP YES YES YES YES YESSSSSS MY GOD YES GIVE HIM A SCORE TO COMPETE WITH SHOMA 104+, okay okay I can work with 103.32

Okay wow so heading into the FS tomorrow: 

-Nathan, get that redemption skate, go big, go clean, love it, love yourself

-Yuzuru: bring that Seimei power, work your natural magic, be yourself, keep the intensity, and just let it flow

-Javi: VAMOS VAMOS VAMOS BE QUIXOTE, get your own redemption from Sochi (also lol I don’t think it matters what happens in the end but you’ve already won in my mother’s heart)

-Shoma: SHOOM SHOOM INTO OUR HEARTS EVEN MORE, channel your 2017 Worlds Diva moment, do it do it DO IT

-Boyang: BRING THE STAR WARS HIT US WITH THAT ANGELIC SAUCE

[nathaneisan]

HELSINKI, Finland – Nathan Chen felt out of sorts. He stressed over having slept badly Wednesday night. His skating boots were literally letting him down, no matter how much duct tape he used to hold them together. His warmup before Thursday’s short program at the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships saw him fall on one quadruple jump attempt and step out on the landing of another. “I think the pressure got to me a little bit,” he said. Each issue made Chen a little more nervous about his world championships debut at the end of a season in which he had gone from a first-year senior with great promise to the cynosure of all eyes in the sport. He had become the U.S. champion, the Four Continents champion and the first to land five quads in a free skate. Now he faced 20 minutes between the end of his warmup and his start time, which he spent thinking about making sure the quads were secure and worrying about how the 11th-hour struggles might affect his performance. “That kind of got me a little shook up,” he said. It would be more than a little ironic, though, that the last and best thing Chen did in the warmup was a very good triple axel – the jump that has remained his nemesis as he leaped to the top of his sport with a dazzling number and variety of quads. “Triples are hard,” Chen would say with a laugh after the short program. “Quads are really my thing.” Chen would hit both quads in the short program, extending his streak of successfully landing quads to 20 over four competitions. Then he fell on the triple axel, a mistake that cost him at least four points for that element and impacted his execution and scores for the footwork and spin that immediately followed. Those mistakes left him sixth in the standings with 97.33 points, nearly 12 points behind short program winner Javier Fernández of Spain (109.05), world champion the past two years. But the talented Chen stands only 4.8 behind third-place (and three-time world champion) Patrick Chan of Canada, a gap Chen may try to close by trying an unprecedented six quads in Saturday’s free skate. “Why not, why not?” said his coach, Rafael Arutunian, who intimated that an additional jump would be a second lutz, the most difficult quad anyone ever has done. “He’s a young kid. He needs to learn to do that.” From start to finish Thursday, Chen’s skating to music from the ballet Le Corsaire lacked the powerful attack that he had shown in every program beginning with his victorious, four-quad free skate at December’s Grand Prix Final. Two of his four non-jump elements in Helsinki were scored Level 3, as opposed to the Level 4’s he received at Four Continents. That difference cost him more than a point. “He was a little bit slow,” Arutunian said.

[magicaleggplant]

another batch of replies

Will you put Lavender2 with the others pics of Shoma in your Shoma tumblr? Because it's really beautiful.

mmm maybe, i’ll get around to it eventually

on the topic of shoma can i laugh at shoma falling during the 4cc warm up and he got up with a heart shaped ice pattern on his butt. also does shoma frequently fall during warm up like during awg he looked like he was anticipating his falls when he jumped then

lmao it was amazing. also he has good warmups sometimes and bad warmups at other times? i don’t think there’s a pattern to it.

what is an asian success perm?

google it

If shoma does wear the chicken costume at worlds. And God forbid if he sticks to it till the olympics. Would you do the honor of burninf the dead chicken costume for us?

i mean, i highly doubt he’ll keep his current FS for next season so at least the chances of seeing the chicken costume again after this season are low. probably.

Every time we scream at his dead chicken or bad life choices, i think of his face laughing out loud when the fortune teller said that 60-year-old grandpa was in his mind. He is so wicked kid

being 60 years old doesn’t excuse bad fashion choices!!! some 60-year-olds have excellent fashion sense

Hello eggplant! Do you think Shoma could make his new EX to This Town into SP? It's so full of cough*transitions*cough and Ladies in Lavender doesn't really work for him this season :( Also: why is 4T+3T such a b**** to him?

no, he’s not going to change SPs right before worlds. also, if he were to make his EX into a SP, it would require some significant re-choreographing because it’s not structured like a SP right now. some of the nice bits might need to be taken out in order to leave room for jumps and spins. i get what you mean though, it’s a really nice program for him and i like it much more than his LIL. i hope that in the future his actual SPs can be as good as this exhibition. as for the 4T3T...who knows lol. he’s just a SP headcase in general, for some reason he’s really bad at skating SPs.

hey why is daisuke takahashi nicknamed unco? I googled it and all I got were links to posts from your blog where you tag him as "unco" lmao

unco-ception...it’s an inside joke lol. just a misspelling of “uncle”.

IT'S LATE BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE 'QUAD BAE' PHOTO ON NATHAN'S INSTAGRAM

i have! #baethan

How old r u?

Skaters and Hogwarts houses! i almost sort them in the same way you do, except mao in ravenclaw and dai in hufflepuff.

i think everyone has a bit of all the houses in them lol, so you can find reasons for any sorting! some people are just more obvious than others.

I love shomas new EX but those pants are so tight I'm getting Labyrinth flashbacks

bowie’s pants were tighter lbr

Favorite part about Yuzuru's SP this season? His step sequence

are you asking me or telling me

Hanee nailed 3A-3T, but singled solo Axel. Can I hope he saved it for Worlds? #justhaneethings #thanksheavensspinsvalidated

the 3A3T was a beauty *___* hopefully he gets all his 3As at worlds...and everything else too. you gotta be specific when you make a wish, otherwise he might land his 3As and pop everything else

i didnt know who ran the fyeahchinesepairs but the moment i saw xiaoyu's.... partner (UGH) cropped out in the pic u just reblogged i went like, probs eggplant. I WAS RIGHT

😇😇😇 though frankly i’m not the only person around here who would do that.

how happy are you that shoma only changed his SP costume

only mildly relieved, the real test is at worlds

What would b your dream podium at worlds?

i just want sui/han to win. shoma medaling with good performances would make me happy too, but most of my other concerns about worlds are related to olympic spots.

why does australia compete at the asian winter games?

they’re guests, probably because australia is geographically close to asia. australian skaters can’t actually win medals at AWG though.