Mao: post-Sochi news and articles

COHK wrote:

COHK wrote:

I think there will be another special program scheduled to be aired this coming Saturday, and the program is about her visits to the Tohoku area and her activities with 'Young Japan Action'.

Here's the link to the NHK special program: 'Mao Asada's journey to the 3.11 affected area'

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jhz7l_%E6%B5%85%E7%94%B0%E7%9C%9F%E5%A4%AE-%E8%A2%AB%E7%81%BD%E5%9C%B0%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AE%E6%97%85_sport

It's a 43-min documentary, when Mao was invited to visit areas affected by 3.11 earthquake 4 years ago. Mao visited local ppl, kids who have lost their relatives, children at local school that used to have an out-door skating rink, and the young girl who trains to be a speed skater but encounters difficulties to decide if she could continue training. It's very touching to see that how she attends and listens to the kids and children with their problems, and showing her compassion.

Thanks for the link CONK. Here is Mao's radio show for March 16th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWnKRM1Ku8

Hi guys! I've just uploaded the FP from Sochi from one of Russian Mao's fan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArTNtQl9UQ
Hope you'll like it! You can also find my twitter post here - https://twitter.com/hashioki1978/status/578194915873685505

MaoRussianFan wrote:

Hi guys! I've just uploaded the FP from Sochi from one of Russian Mao's fan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArTNtQl9UQ
Hope you'll like it! You can also find my twitter post here - https://twitter.com/hashioki1978/status/578194915873685505

Thanks a lot for the video. At first, I thought it was too far away but the zoom lens and the different vantage point somehow combined to give the performance a 3D feel and to give an idea of its epic grandeur, especially in terms of Mao's incredible rink coverage in her jumps. Also, I was amazed at how dramatic and expressive her balletic extensions and exits to her jumps were from so far away. Totally unique.

Congratulation, Mao, for graduating from Chukyo U!

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/winter/20150319-OYT1T50134.html?from=yrank_ycont
http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/9907667/
http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20150320k0000m050001000c.html

videos:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jyf4q_150319-%E7%AC%91%E9%A1%94%E3%81%A7%E5%8D%92%E6%A5%AD_sport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZt_ptWNpuA&feature=youtu.be

In the post graduation ceremony meeting, she says she doesn't know yet about the future decision. But she will continue skating by taking the rink at Chukyo-U as her (training?) base.

Thanks CONK for all the links. Congratulations to Mao on her university graduation. Here is another beautiful picture of her in a kimono in celebration of the occasion.  

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20150319-00000063-mai-spo.view-000

COHK wrote:

Congratulation, Mao, for graduating from Chukyo U!

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/winter/20150319-OYT1T50134.html?from=yrank_ycont
http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/9907667/
http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20150320k0000m050001000c.html

videos:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jyf4q_150319-%E7%AC%91%E9%A1%94%E3%81%A7%E5%8D%92%E6%A5%AD_sport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZt_ptWNpuA&feature=youtu.be

In the post graduation ceremony meeting, she says she doesn't know yet about the future decision. But she will continue skating by taking the rink at Chukyo-U as her (training?) base.

Congrats, Mao!

It's great to hear she'll continue to skate. I'm conflicted about her potential return, since she's never been the judges' favourite and it always broke my heart seeing her get screwed by them, time after time I'm not going to lie, I miss her like crazy and the sport just isn't the same without her (at least IMO), but if she decides she's had enough and will only do skating shows, I'm cool with it. Seeing her so happy off the ice... , she really looks like she's at peace with herself.

I hope though, she'll be doing some shows soon, I've been rewatching her programs almost non stop, due to missing seeing her gorgeous etheral skating. And I still get goosebumps watching her worlds SP and especially her Sochi LP.

And also thank to all of you for providing us with the news, translations, and everything else Mao related!

This is awesome news, I have soo been hoping she would return, she is the most gifted skater I have ever seen, as long as she wants too i hope she will stay and continue skating.

Congratulations Mao on another major accomplishment!
And I sincerely hope that your schooling will not get in the way
of your " education ".

MaoRussianFan wrote:

Hi guys! I've just uploaded the FP from Sochi from one of Russian Mao's fan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArTNtQl9UQ
Hope you'll like it! You can also find my twitter post here - https://twitter.com/hashioki1978/status/578194915873685505

Thanks a lot! I just can't help posting again about the fancam you provided.

This bird's eye view gave me a chance to see my all-time favorite performance by a gutsy and radiant angel from a whole new angle, as if Mao had left the bounds of earth and were flying in the sky. Seeing Mao's expressive balletic extensions from such a height reminds me of wings gliding and taking flight and looking down at her wave-like body motions that sway my emotions are like looking down from a high bluff at the swells of an ocean through the lull and gusts of a tempest.  This vantage point reminds me of what one journalist wrote, who was in the audience in Sochi and liked Mao's performance the best. He had such a high opinion of this 4 minutes of perfection that his description was literally soaring with praise:

Asada is the one person in this whole field who does the triple axel....and when she takes off and nails it 10 seconds in, suddenly, this unseasoned observer no longer finds anything funny or unusual about this sport: It is simply beautiful. For the next four minutes, Asada glides about a foot above the ice, flying around the arena, rising into the rafters, lifting out of the arena and into the sky. You will not convince me this did not happen.

The journalist even entitled his article, "Simply Beautiful" in honor of this near miraculous performance by Mao.  

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/68040394/figure-skating-sochi-olympics-final-

This performance will be the diamond standard for all future Olympic performances by women and the greatest testament to the blatant corruption and preferential scoring of the judges.

I am glad you liked it! I absolutely agree, especially with your last sentence!  
Honestly, I want her back so much! I miss her a lot      

I've just made it. What do you think?

MaoRussianFan wrote:

I am glad you liked it! I absolutely agree, especially with your last sentence!  
Honestly, I want her back so much! I miss her a lot      

I've just made it. What do you think?

It's really beautiful MaoRussianFan ! Thank you for taking time to make it. I miss Mao's spirals so much and wish they hadn't been removed from the scoring system, though I don't support the scoring system most of the time when it comes to her, especially in her LPs, which account for most of the scores. Mao was always the most complete skater for me because of her flexibility, elegant balletic extensions. sincere expression, athletic and aesthetically pleasing jumps with intricate balletic movement, complex transitions, beautiful air position and posture and her musical and acrobatic step sequences with so much emotion. Yet, she continuously got obviously deflated scores despite all these extraordinary qualities.  I certainly agree with zarinaballerina's concerns about her coming back with biased and bogus scoring that will likely be turned against her again, but it would be wonderful to see her back.

Photo of Chinese mini Mao and mini Yuzu posted on GS.  


https://twitter.com/paraboloid11235/status/579765790888456192

MaoRussianFan wrote:

I've just made it. What do you think?

One more, although it can't be shown in 2D. Along with Sasha Cohen, she is the only skater to do an impossible Skid-Spiral, an I-Spiral that rotates on the z-axis as it travels on the x-axis. (It's like a very slow and lengthy twizzle in a spiral position.)

WowMao wrote:

I miss Mao's spirals so much and wish they hadn't been removed from the scoring system

The loss of the spiral gutted artistry.
The spiral sequence was possibly the highlight of the Masquerade SP, because it fit the light part of the music so well, and there is almost nothing that could replace that element choreographically. Without the spiral, there would not be a way to differentiate the phrasing of the music from the rest of the choreography.

WowMao wrote:

I certainly agree with zarinaballerina's concerns about her coming back with biased and bogus scoring that will likely be turned against her again, but it would be wonderful to see her back.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is predicted to be World Champion in a few days, and her videos have only about 30K views. Nothing could be more unsustainable. Skating has never been more dead.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Elizaveta+Tuktamysheva

The biggest competition on the planet in a normal skating season, and the favorite can only generate 30K views. A college-level gymnastics meet has a bigger audience.
Mao's competitive programs literally stopped traffic, the entire world came to a standstill for 5 minutes.

Ultimately, match fixing is a business decision, when it makes financial sense.
The ISU is a mafia, but mafias have to make a profit. It was very profitable to inflate Kim, because Korea is the biggest market on earth for sports. It was more profitable for the Japanese media companies to have Kim win, so they could re-sell their exclusive broadcast rights to their Korean counterparts. (Fuji TV is a notorious example.)

What do Russian skaters have to offer the ISU, monetarily? Apparently almost nothing.
Why would the The System unjustly place Mao below someone who brings in 30,000 views? They absolutely would not, because they would lose even more business. They are evil, but not that stupid.
If Mao comes back, wrong placement will not be an issue.
They are not going to rob someone who brings in millions of views, for someone who brings in only tens of thousands.

Here is the latest version of Mao's radio show for 3/23. She is so full of life on her show and has such a gentle and kind voice. She spreads joy and hope like a bright rainbow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UmUaUA8q0

Thank you everyone for the videos, audios and photos!!  

Thank you MaoRussianFan for the fancam video. I had been wondering why there were no fancam videos of Mao's Sochi FS showing up on the internet and desperately longing to see it.

I watched it again today (I watch it once every couple of days or so) and found another fancam video on the side link bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuVql-ti7r0
Many thanks to the uploader!
This one is a fixed point footage and it shows her speed and ice coverage clearly.  

The uploader has posted the SP too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HQeIDh4Zlo
I know there may be some people who don't want to watch it. But I recommend to see it.
After SP, Mao said in the interview that her body didn't move as well as she hoped.
What you see in this video is when her nerve got the better of her.
But even under such condition, she floats across the ice effortlessly.
That's the best quality out of so many of why I love her skating.
It's so mesmerizing and ethereal beauty.

I wish I could watch the 2014 worlds SP fancam video one day.

Here is a post from rosewood at fsuniverse of a lot of videos with Mao working with YoungJapan Action. It is great to see Mao giving and receiving so much joy and kindness and helping in the community.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/inde....89260/page-23

These videos are about three volunteer groups who were granted the grand Prix prize for Young Japan Action projects: one of them is Kakehashi which was affected by the earthquake and tsunami disaster. Mao joined the other two groups as well. One is a group who supports a depopulated village with most inhabitants being senior citizens through agriculture, while the other group patrols the town by jogging together.

agriculture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXRbptjCEoc
pat-run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqVpP6OR9M0
guest house https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8s7iEC6LQQ
60 sec commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gjFsFyYo_k
30 sec commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvL_a67RJVk
news clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eToaHw4T4gc

I miss seeing Mao compete and skate

thanks for alle the updates, eventhough i haven't commented much lately, i still followed all the news and updates about Mao

Same on you, ballerinamao. I check here every day. After the WTT, I miss Mao more. So I wrote a poem.

Thank you for your beautiful poem whiteboots and good to hear from you again linglang and ballerinamao. I totally agree linglang when you said that we should watch Mao's SP alongside her LP in Sochi because I only fully realized the height of tragic grandeur and redemption that Mao climbed to in her Sochi LP after she descended into the valley of despair in her SP. But, if we stop to watch, even in the valley there are moments of profound beauty.
I thought of this video when you said that we should watch Mao's Nocturne program along with her Sochi LP. It is entitled, "The Legendary Day of Mao Asada" and shows in somewhat impressionistic form Mao's SP followed by her LP. I may have posted before, but I can't remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yBg5CCg30w


Here is what I wrote under a video with side by side comparisons of Mao's triple axels to Liza's.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y15D0Aa3Stg

I am impressed that Liza was able to land a nice triple axel. Congratulations to her! However, I think Mao has the most aesthetically pleasing triple axel because of its great height combined with the dynamics of a delayed rotation and rapid acceleration into beautiful tight symmetrical spirals with rapid revolutions. She also has elegant and erect posture and intricate balletic movements on entry and exit, as her arms conduct her into a rhythmic take off then glide gently through a soft landing in her Nocturne program like a swan landing on a placid pond.  

In contrast to the  joyous or fiery side of Mao's skating, when I feel the melancholy and ethereal, incredibly light and beautiful emotions in Mao's skating, I think of this ragtime composition called "Silver Swan Rag" by Scott Joplin. It's a  piano piece, but I really like the way it sounds like the guitar is weeping when played here on the acoustic guitar long ago by Ton Van Bergyk. They both bring tears to my eyes because they ascend to a level of beauty that words cannot describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JDxemWZPkc

WowMao wrote:

Here is the latest version of Mao's radio show for 3/23. She is so full of life on her show and has such a gentle and kind voice. She spreads joy and hope like a bright rainbow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UmUaUA8q0

I'm so behind in providing a summary of the radio show . The following is the summary of the show from 3/23. Actually, the official website of the radio program always posts a post-broadcasting memo right after the airing of each show (with lots of photos). This link is for Mar. 23rd (4th round):

http://www.tbs.co.jp/radio/maosmile/ps/20150323.html

Summary of 4th round:
- First of all, Mao has graduated from university on Mar 19th. She talks about how she feels about graduating.

- She talks about her recent activities, for one, she had the chance of teaching kids in skating lessons. So she shares her thoughts about how she enjoyed teaching kids and how fast they learn and grow.

- She reads a letter from the audience, who asks if she’s into any other sports, and if she supports any sports team, such as local Nagoya baseball team? But she says she’s not familiar with baseball, actually.

- The song she picks for today’s show is “Far away” by Libera (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCjr9VgTCbI) [After listening to the song, I just hope Mao will skate to it one day in the future!!]

- The 2nd interviewee of the show is Hiroyo-san, who belongs to the “For.S” group from Saga University at Saga city. The group is one of the awardees of “Young Japan Action”. Mao had joined the group to experience farming and various activities with the members.

-For the last part of “three things”, a 16-yr-old says one of her three things is to go watching FS competition for once. And Mao mentions that for FS competitions, her favorite arena is Yoyoki Arena at Tokyo, since it’s where she won her first GPF medal.

- Finally, she calls-out to a 20-yr-old girl, who studies fashion at school. One of her three things is to have a ‘figure skating fashion show’. Mao really gets into the topic and starts to talk with the girl about her FS costumes. It turns out Mao does have one that she dislikes: she says she doesn’t like the black dresses of Tango (she says she changed at least 3 times that season and she likes none of them). Then the girl mentions the blue pants suite for Scheherazade is the most memorable one for her.

Okay~  in a couple of hours it will be time for the 6th round!

Hello all Mao's fans! I'm glad to register here finally. Thank you so much for translation, COHK. I also heard at goldenskate that in the last version of Mao's radio show she said that she is like to retire

What do you think about that? I really can't imagine that Mao may retire , but whatever she decide I will support her and wish her a happy life.

Welcome to the forum Sunshine Mao. Here is the post I made at goldenskate hinting at Mao's retirement.

There is a really fascinating post at the following link which gives an insight into Mao's feelings about skating and the rules. It is translated by the poster, rosewood, and came from Mao's radio program on March 30.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/the-mao-cheer-thread-after-finishing-the-season-i-could-truly-say-figure-skating-is-wonderful.89260/page-23 post number 690

Here is the part talking about her feelings concerning retirement:

Mao said, she asked herself a lot of times what she wanted to do in the future, when she announced the break last year. Even though she considered a lot about what to do, she didn't get it at the time. But now, after a while since then, she somewhat feels it's in her sight. And she says she came to feel she does not need to be upset anymore...and on a later part of the radio show she described herself in the past tense like: When she was competing, she had to follow lots of rules. She had rules that she didn't like. Those rules didn't allow her to do what she wanted. ...I think all the things combined gave native Japanese speakers nuances that Mao already has a decision in her mind and it may be retirement.


My thoughts on Mao's retirements

When I read this. I can't help but think that all the constantly changing edge rules like on the lutz, which Mao didn't get penalized on when she was younger and the overly harsh downgrades, the bogus downgrades, and the low GOE on so many of her beautiful jumps must have upset her a lot, but she just had to hide it. The puzzled or poker look on her face after she saw the scores for what she knew were great performances (like 2007 Grand Prix Final LP, Worlds 2010 SP and LP, the Sochi LP, and Worlds 2014 LP) tells me that she was upset.  

While I would love Mao to return to do competitive programs, I don't want her to be upset anymore as she says and the ISU seems to have specialized in underscoring her performances and changing the rules to her disadvantage: stricter and stricter rules on the lutz, removal of the spiral sequence, microscopic analysis of touching the ice with the free leg which can't be seen with the naked eye, reputational downgrades and rock bottom GOE and constant shining of the spotlight on her jumps while more chosen skaters are given a free pass, all of which established a bias in the eyes of many fans and the press. The ISU has also shortchanged Mao in PCS scores by ignoring Mao's intricate transitions, supreme rink coverage in jumps which can be seen in the fancam of her Sochi Lp, her one legged skating and swaying motions instead of constant two foot skating, and her relative lack of back crossovers to build speed compared to other competitors like Yuna Kim and Carolina Kostner who were consistently given higher PCS.

Beyond that, there is the fact that each of Mao's spectacular spirals, spins and her step sequence that she did in her Worlds 2010 LP for example only received like . 1 or .2 points higher than Yuna Kim who did not even do a Biellmann much less one with one hand. The scoring system is focused too much on the jumps which seem to be often manipulated by tech crew downgrades and huge changes in GOE given by the judges. For example, Mao received 10.1 points for her clean triple axel / double toe combo in the Olympics 2010 SP. However, the suspicious downgrade of the combination at Worlds resulted in her receiving only 4.32 points for a pair of jumps that looked identical. The calls were openly criticized by eurosport commentators. This is the "magic manipulation" of scores in the COP system. By labeling a jump ur, Mao loses almost 6 points and can make up only .1 point for a far superior spiral compared to Yuna in this case.  

As others have said, I personally don't feel the ISU deserves Mao Asada. They have proven themselves incapable of properly evaluating her great performances. As one person at fsuniverse wrote, if Mao's Sochi LP cannot get a world record and win the freeskate, then the scoring system should be changed so that it can. Even in Mao's world record SP, she still got a PCS score that was much lower than Carolina Kostner, even though Mao had more transitions and fewer crossovers, and 3rd place GOE even lower than Julia Lipnitskaya whose jumps lack the height of Mao's. Mao should have gotten 80+ points in comparison to the competition.  Honestly, it seems to me that judges often just look at the "perceived or reputational speed of the skater" when measuring PCS and ignore transitions and one legged skating with fewer back crossovers because the ISU is a speed skating organization.  Or sometimes, PCS is just used as a place holder to try to ensure the desired results in important competitions like the Olympics and Worlds where "rigging" or "fixing" of the scores  is most common.

I would love for Mao to have the freedom to skate the programs she wants to in order to express her beautiful spirit without being under the suspect gaze of the ISU. But, selfishly I would still love to see her skate competitively. I am torn between the two.

It's been a long time since I've been on this site, but I couldn't come here and remember how much I miss Mao during this past 2014-15 season. but i'm back and will be checking on updates on Mao.


Hopefully she doesn't compete anymore since the judges don't appreciate her, and she has a lot more to offer and enjoy outside of skating. And as much as I would love to know about things like her having a boyfriend, I value her privacy and hope the Japanese media stays out of her life. We don't need to see private pics of her relationship ala Yuna Kim and her boyfriend. While I hope for the best for her in that dept., I want her to have her privacy. Besides, there's always Mao videos on Youtube to remenise on old programs.  

And welcome to the forum SunshineMao!

In a follow up to a post I made earlier about Mao's attitude towards rules, there is a post by rosewood at fsuniverse in which she translates a song by by Ayumi Hamasaki called "Rule." In the post rosewood says that Mao mentioned the following lyrics from the song during her March 30th radio show:

*Rules decided by someone
No need for such damn things

**Same old damn rules
I don't want to be forced
Start by demolishing them
You and me**

Here is a link to the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzz7HRKDUeU

Here is a link to the post (number 690): http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/the-mao-cheer-thread-after-finishing-the-season-i-could-truly-say-figure-skating-is-wonderful.89260/page-24

My opinion

I can certainly see how these words helped Mao to endure all the rules under which she had to skate that often seemed disadvantageous for her. I know she often had a poker face after seeing her scores. I don't want to speak for her, but I was often frustrated and angry with the scores many times after seeing her performances. I also think that great artist / athletes like Mao feel the need to express themselves in a way that can't be gauged by "a system of rules" because the very nature of great art is to question and redefine them and sometimes as the song mentions demolish them because rules by their very nature restrict freedom of expression. I believe the friction between the two is what creates great artists like Mao with performances that are masterpieces.

I also think her quoting of these words shows the gutsy and fighter side of Mao that she has always had from an early age. I know many people say that she is best at light and ethereal programs, but for me the desperate, passionate and even defiant side of Mao that comes out so well in her Bells of Moscow and Rach 2 performances is the side I like best, especially since she combined it with her elegant and ethereal side at the same time.

What do the rest of you think about Mao quoting these lyrics?