Grand Prix Final 2012/2013 @Sochi, Russia

Japanese usually wear mask to prevent bacteria in the air like
when there is pollen allergy so I think she is fine. But her hip
injury will effect at least, her loop jumps.

ballerinamao wrote:

Star85 wrote:

I hope the hip injury is nothing serious too. Also, does Mao have a cold? I see in the one picture she is wearing a mask. I've always heard they don't do anything to prevent you from catching a bug, but they do help prevent a sick person from spreading it.

On a side note: I heard this about the new rink in Sochi: "The smooth, curving lines of the building’s façade are intended to evoke the trajectory of a figure skater performing a triple axel." I'm going to look at this as a lucky sign for Mao. For this competition obviously not, since she can't do the 3A this time. But for the Olympics, how perfect will it be for Mao to skate in a building like that where she's the only woman who can do a 3A?

she has been the only one who does this jump since she was a junior!

In asia, the mask is for both prevent a sick person form spreading it or prevent catching cold. In one of the news that it said Mao wore that for later reason. If my memory is correct, at least Taka and Dai wore that from time to time especially go to country with lower temperature.

See some information but no time to post the news link.

first of all, the ice is not cool down enough...everyone said it's slippy except yuzuru. Dai almost got angry about that...you can feel how frustrated they are, when you finally go to your dream place then everything is bad except how the building looks. Machida said it melted too much and will have impact on spin and step and everything. because the ice is melting, Taka said you need to stop 10-15 cm earlier than you expect or you will hit the wall. then because the part of ice closed to wall melted faster, so when you skate close to wall...that is a "down trend"...so you need to stop earlier.

second, the traffic is terrible, TAT got angry about that yesterday.



third..the hotel is horrible...Yuruzu said the room is small and dirty...and with a lot of dead bugs in his bathroom..he said "very very sad (here with a little bit miserable feeling)" (chu kanasii)...Akko said "we can't "don't live in the hotel" in next six days"...in English...she means she doesn't want to stay there but still need to stay there for next six days. then they can't charge their mobile phone in hotel...make me wonder what kind of hotel they live @@ hope skaters can take good rest. for ppl from Japan or ever go to japan know, hotel room in Japan is normally not big but always clean. so it may be harder for them.

Mao arrived and before leaving for Sochi she said she won't do 3A due to her back /waist (腰痛..to me means the part of waist especially on the back but everyone is saying hip(?)). after arriving, she said she wants to have nice sleep
ETA: Mao's arrival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIecPXlozn4

^ Shikure, where did the say that? Do you have the youtube link or article? Thanks.

let`s talk wrote:

^ Shikure, where did the say that? Do you have the youtube link or article? Thanks.

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/sports/article/news/20121206-OHO1T00018.htm
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/sports/news/CK2012120602000088.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/06/kiji/K20121206004713730.html


let`s talk, I know you are good at Japanese (or you are native speaker ), pls correct me if I got anything wrong...need to get back to work.
I remember there are other articles but can't find it now.

The post by shikure does remind me this tweet by Maxim Trankov few days ago:

Maxim Trankov ‏@Trankov_jr
50min from hotel to arena today, so many cars, roads not ready yet

And assuming all skaters are staying at the same hotel....well

I hope Mao won't be affected by living conditions, since she was in Russia many times and won't be surprised. But I wonder where they living, I heard a hotel for media is very good, so media has better living conditions when skaters? How funny

polosatik wrote:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskating/opinion/2012/12/grand-prix-heading-for-the-showdown-at-the-sochi-corral.html
Kurt Browning about GPF

He was so right when he said Mao's "biggest competition has been the judges"!

That's so horrible about the hotel rooms. Someone at JSF dropped the ball.

Oh dear, I feel sorry for them. Yuzu found many insects in his bathroom, Akiko said she feels horrible thinking she must stay 6 more day... Taka said the ice is lower toward the corner so they must adjust the speed.

I wonder where other country's skaters staying ?

ddmm wrote:

Oh dear, I feel sorry for them. Yuzu found many insects in his bathroom, Akiko said she feels horrible thinking she must stay 6 more day... Taka said the ice is lower toward the corner so they must adjust the speed.

I wonder where other country's skaters staying ?

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/05/kiji/K20121205004711560.html
it is the news that TAT got angry
first day of practice, the traffic was horriable and Jpn's junior skaters were also in the mess. the 30 mins trip took almost 1.5 hours.
TAT was also in the mess then totally pissed then called the cop to deal with it. eventually her vehicle was leaded by police car to arena.

lucky Maxim..only took 50 min

ddmm wrote:

Oh dear, I feel sorry for them. Yuzu found many insects in his bathroom, Akiko said she feels horrible thinking she must stay 6 more day... Taka said the ice is lower toward the corner so they must adjust the speed.

I wonder where other country's skaters staying ?

Ice dancers otherwise said ice is in very good condition and liked it. I guess for ice dancing soft ice is better.

Well, it's really strange, I just read a lot of articles from American and Canadian skaters, they praised the ice Our skaters also loved it.

polosatik wrote:

Well, it's really strange, I just read a lot of articles from American and Canadian skaters, they praised the ice Our skaters also loved it.

maybe most of jpn skaters used to hard ice than soft ice. ppl said that may due to the nature of water is different, then the ice will be different.
Yuzuru is the only one said pretty okay with the ice...maybe the environment he used to train in Japan is not as good as others.
rest of Jpn skaters have nice home rink (Dai and Machida in Kansai university, Taka and Mao in Chukyo, then akko in her club)
In addition, the rink in Kansai university is very famous of "freezing cold"

but at least most of ppl agree that traffic is not nice

polosatik wrote:

Well, it's really strange, I just read a lot of articles from American and Canadian skaters, they praised the ice Our skaters also loved it.

That brings up a good point of perhaps Japanese skaters should get have their rinks adjusted prior to competitions so that they're not always used to the same ice?
The reality is everywhere they go, the quality will be different.
If they're always used to the same ice as their home rinks, it seems like a big disadvantage...their training should perhaps include skating in different conditions.

shikure wrote:

polosatik wrote:

Well, it's really strange, I just read a lot of articles from American and Canadian skaters, they praised the ice Our skaters also loved it.

maybe most of jpn skaters used to hard ice than soft ice. ppl said that may due to the nature of water is different, then the ice will be different.
Yuzuru is the only one said pretty okay with the ice...maybe the environment he used to train in Japan is not as good as others.
rest of Jpn skaters have nice home rink (Dai and Machida in Kansai university, Taka and Mao in Chukyo, then akko in her club)
In addition, the rink in Kansai university is very famous of "freezing cold"

but at least most of ppl agree that traffic is not nice

Oh yeah, The traffic is ridicolus, and I hope skaters will not be affected by this too much. Our girls from Russian forum just now posted that they almost get killed in the bus, too much people and everyone is fighting for the place to stand Btw is there any news about Mao practice?

Have you heard Dai and Taka story about cat in the Dai's room?
The problem with ice has been solved. Skaters who arrived ealrier said the ice was very good, but yesterday they put a kind of sintetic carpet or something like that on the ice and the ice started melting. So that explains everything, Mao gave a little interview. Didn\t like ice also, but said she didn\t have any problems with that. Sato told her to make less steps before the jumps, also she is paying more attention to her lutz.

Ahh...thanks for the clarification Polosatik!

When Sato said to make less steps before her jumps, what does that mean? Wouldn't that affect her transitions?

Here's an article with tidbits of Mao's interview:

http://en.rsport.ru/other_sports/20121206/634485049.html

"We emphasized the mistakes we made at the NHK Trophy and I practiced to music as much as possible," she said of her preparation for Sochi.

Asada practiced her short and free programs Thursday ahead of the start of competition Friday, but said slightly uneven ice had not allowed her to practice as she would have liked.
"I was being careful," she said, adding it would have "no effect" on her competitive form. Asada said the future Olympic arena in Sochi, the Iceberg Winter Sports Palace, lifted her spirits.

"It was very nice, easy to skate. It's beautiful, the arena was beautiful."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLqQWn8XrtY&feature=plcp
practice vid
no jumps, they only showed one spin

ISU posted photos of Ladies Practice on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151565104512538.603225.278550292537&type=1

Sochi stories: Brown's Junior Grand Prix Final blog
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121205&content_id=40534562&vkey=ice_news Must read

polosatik wrote:

Sochi stories: Brown's Junior Grand Prix Final blog
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121205&content_id=40534562&vkey=ice_news Must read

Thanks polosatik for link and Jason is with such up-lifting personality that even he faced those thing LOL

I am curious about Cat in Dai's room!!! didn't see that on Japanese media.

I hope the injury isn't causing her much problem, cause she is looking fierce here http://photo.sankei.jp.msn.com/highlight/photo?gid={DD226C43-EAF4-4ED7-8163-535DABDD75A7}

kenkyo wrote:

I hope the injury isn't causing her much problem, cause she is looking fierce here http://photo.sankei.jp.msn.com/highlight/photo?gid={DD226C43-EAF4-4ED7-8163-535DABDD75A7}

that's the kind of look i wanted to see from Mao, she looks ready for a fight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMBsjItdL9s mao arriving at rink, and some practice, you can see slight problem with rink, some wet parts, her loop, 3f+2l looked good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMBsjItdL9s&feature=youtu.be
practice vid
I think Mao removed the fan spiral before the 2A in short

tianrushui wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMBsjItdL9s&feature=youtu.be
practice vid
I think Mao removed the fan spiral before the 2A in short

maybe because of her hip/waist injury? I also noticed the 3L-2L, did she go back to 3F-2L-2L...hmmm