What is this talk show?

No idea. What are they talking about? I wish they would have figure skaters on talk shows in the US more. I wish Tyra would have Mao on her show. I love Tyra, and Mao, so that would be freakin awesome! Tyra would be great for the sport too, if she showed some interest in it.

Can't remember the name...eek. It's a yearly "special" variety show from the looks of it, not to mention the date it was aired - LIVE - and the athletes that were asked to make an appearance, which include:

Our beloved Mao
Kosuke Kotajima (2-time gold medal swimmer @ Beijing)
Yukiko Ueno (ace pitcher for Japan's gold medal-winning softball team)
Nobuharu Asahara (bronze medalist @ track&field @ Beijing)
Ryo Ishikawa (teenage golf player + media darling)
Miwa Asao (beach volleyball player)
Tatsuya Ueta (head coach for men's nat'l volleyball team)

Tsutomu Sekine, Naoki Nokubi, Yuuko Mizuno and Kazuhiro Watanabe (announcer) are hosting this, so it was aired on Fuji TV, no doubt. Hmm...I can't believe I missed this while I was in Tokyo last semester!

The portion on the YT vid is mainly on a "survey" amongst the athletes.
Questions that were asked:
1) Who do you think is the most athletic?
Split votes, Mao voted "everyone"
2) If given the opportunity, who would you like to train with?
Votes between Mao and Asahara-san. Mao mentions wanting to run alongside Asahara on the track; those that voted for Mao mentioned her charm and how cute she is.
3) Which athlete do you think will do well at your discipline?
Most votes for Ryo, incl. Mao. Heh...? Mao mentions that she heard about the axis for jumps in FS and for the swing in golf being similar. That's interesting...
4) If you had another chance at life, who would you like to be?
Most votes for Kitajima, not too surprising. His gold medals at both Athens and Beijing did have an impact in Japan.

Clip shifts to Mao (looks like this was shot right before the Gala for Nats), with Mao talking about her goals for the remainder of the season, which is to do well at 4CC and Worlds to the best of her ability. Mao talks about her ultimate goal again - the Vancouver gold - and the clip ends.

Hope this helps! Hmm...I can't help but feel skaters (and gymnasts, divers, etc.) still aren't being treated as "full-fledged" athletes compared to conventional sportspeople even in Japan where the sport's popularity is high. I guess that's the price you pay when the discipline you follow is even a single bit considered "artistic." I've mentioned it to quite a few people both online and in real life that figure skating is far more exhausting and body-taxing than what the average person gives it credit for - I think it was mentioned that performing Mao's Masquerade is the equivalent of the 400m dash, and then some. This is me being biased to Mao, though, so don't take me too seriously!

Thank you for the summary, clovera!

clovera wrote:

Split votes, Mao voted "everyone"

This was just so funny. I loved when Mao started scrolling her set of cards to show all the names...

Wow, thanks Clovera! You are handy to have around

I agree that with you, that the reason figure skaters, and gymnasts don't seem to be considered full fledged athletes all the time, is because their sports have big artisitc aspects to them. I think figure skaters get this even worse than gymnasts. The artistic aspect confuses people. Is it an art? Or is it a sport? If I didn't know anything about figure skating, I can see myself being confused too. Even though figure skating and gymnastic are officially sports, I must classify them as arts too. Figure skating especially. Just as much artistry goes into figure skating as athleticism.

If figure skating is a sport though, why is dancing not? I always kinda wondered that... Where is the line drawn between a highly athletic performing art, and a sport? Since Figure skating is similar to dancing, this is probably another reason people don't always consider figure skaters full fledged athletes.

That's a good question, Star. IIRC, there are numerous World Championship competitions for ballroom dancing - one of them took place just a few weeks ago - and there's a movement to try and have it named as an official event in the Olympics. Unlike softball, which will be discontinued, ballroom dancing has passionate practitioners worldwide, and is not "completely" dominated by a single nation...not to mention the popularity and media coverage it has, at least in the U.S. (Dancing with the Stars, Kristi Yamaguchi winning! ). If the bid for ballroom dancing as an Olympic event passes, it'll make things even more difficult to distinguish...or maybe the question is, why bother drawing a line between sports and art anyway? Then there are sports that, while not having the "art" factor, are on a slightly different playing field and given the cold treatment by some folks because of the different set of physical skills it requires, like equestrian, shooting, and archery (a personal favorite of mine!).

Slightly off-topic, sorry about that!

I think if ice dance is an olympic sport, it's totally fair to make ballroom dancing one too.

I don't know exactly why a line should be drawn between sports and arts... I guess people kind of want to catagorize things. And yes, there are other sports, which are based on skill rather than athleticism, and the people competing in them aren't really considered athletes at all. Hmm... I tried a hydroxycut today for the first time, and it's made me jittery. This is a bit much for me to think about right now. haha!

thanks!!