Mao news - 2009-10 Olympic season!!

aahhh! It's so good to see Mao smiling again without her eyes looking as if tears will fall any minute.

coconut wrote:

Mao's newest practice clip on today's news!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2_BLcHQ6zs

Mao in Interview

I think I can do much better performance. I haven't shown my best yet. so my goal right now is to do my own best. I've done two 3A last season so it's not something impossible for me.
I always imagine myself being at Olympic Games but before that, I have to focus on Nationals.
When I have a day off, I usually relax and have some good food but other than that, I pretty much skate everyday.

Thanks for posting! I'm so happy we're getting news Mao again! I love how she loves to "have some good food" on her day off... so cute!

Are the practice clips new on this video new as well? I'm a little concerned because she missed a few jumps, but she also hit some gorgeous 3As.

Love Mao's mood here!!! She looks great, and it seems to me that her 3 a became sharper and higher) Gooo Mao!!!!!!!

polosatik wrote:

Love Mao's mood here!!! She looks great, and it seems to me that her 3 a became sharper and higher) Gooo Mao!!!!!!!

Yes, I think the only thing she needs to fix now is trying to get it more and more consistent so she could rely on the jump no matter what

Liffey wrote:

Are the practice clips new on this video new as well? I'm a little concerned because she missed a few jumps, but she also hit some gorgeous 3As.

When she's "on," she can pop those things off like doubles


Thank you for the news clip!

MaoMaoRevolution wrote:

Liffey wrote:

Are the practice clips new on this video new as well? I'm a little concerned because she missed a few jumps, but she also hit some gorgeous 3As.

When she's "on," she can pop those things off like doubles


Thank you for the news clip!

Yes, I have to agree. Did you see her 2005 Junior World's FS? Her triple axel looked so easy and smooth there.

maowataiyo wrote:

Oh! You beat me to it, coconut!! She looks great. Love the necklace!

I've never seen Mao wear a necklace in practice before!! (This makes me very curious--where did she get it? Did someone give it to her?? You all know I have a wild imagination... ) But in her black practice wear with her gold necklace, it really made me think of Yagudin!

Thanks coconut for the link!

I am a little worried about her missing the 3A in the practice clip, but the other one looked solid...

Mao looked happy, which is great, but she didn't quite have that aggressive fire that I was looking for... I wonder when this clip was filmed...if it was before the GPF, then that would make sense. I hope she's super mad and pumped up now!

Thanks for posting the link, coconut !
I'm so happy to see some news again ... I really love her smile at the end at 2:22. There she doesn't look depressed or something like this, just balanced and happy that she can skate.

And I must say, I really like your avatar, polosatik.

josling wrote:

And I must say, I really like your avatar, polosatik.

Aww, thank you!!!

polosatik, is that David Anders looking ever so handsome in your banner?

I thought it may be him, but I'm not sure.

chineseteacup wrote:

polosatik, is that David Anders looking ever so handsome in your banner?

I thought it may be him, but I'm not sure.

Haha, yes this is David! He's awesome!))

New news clip 091214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP9tE-r6hdg&feature=sub

Mao is training 3l-2l-2l!
And Shizuka Arakawa is talking in this clip too.

^Thanks for the clip, ☆Genie! I'm so hoping for Mao news each day.

3L-2L-2L? Does it look like her loops are fully rotated in the clip? I still can't identify a fully-rotated vs a UR jump. :p And her loops seem to be subject to downgrades this season.

Shizuka is looking very pretty but she seems to talk too fast. hehe. I wonder what it is about the 3A they're talking about? And why do they keep showing Mao popping/falling on her 3A?!

roma wrote:

^Thanks for the clip, ☆Genie! I'm so hoping for Mao news each day.

3L-2L-2L? Does it look like her loops are fully rotated in the clip? I still can't identify a fully-rotated vs a UR jump. :p And her loops seem to be subject to downgrades this season.

Shizuka is looking very pretty but she seems to talk too fast. hehe. I wonder what it is about the 3A they're talking about? And why do they keep showing Mao popping/falling on her 3A?!

They seem rotated to my eyes.

A big topic is does Mao have to maintain 3 times for 3A in her program because during her competitions this season, it seems inconsistent.
But Arakawa says, she knows Mao's 3A well and she think Mao still wants to do 3 times for 3A (1 in SP and 2 in FS).

It seems that the problem is not she can do it or not because by practice, Mao can
do 3A and 3A combination as well but she could not carry it out in real competition.
The problem is really mental.

Arakawa says that Mao succeeded in many ways so in the year of Olympic she will
feel nervous on pressure she got. Also another persons said about the risk in Japan
National because except Ando, only 2 skaters will be listed for Olympic and 2 of
them (Nakano and Suguri) had experience while Suzuki is very hot form now so
they seems worried about Mao and wants her to plan her program carefully.

Thanks for the translation, BowbowDaijin!

Does anyone know if it said she was planning on using the 3L-2L-2L or was just practicing random combinations? If she is planning on putting it in, do you guys think that's a good idea? I'm wary of the potential downgrades as well, though I think it'd be less prone to getting downgraded than a 3L-3L.

bellarina wrote:

Does anyone know if it said she was planning on using the 3L-2L-2L or was just practicing random combinations? If she is planning on putting it in, do you guys think that's a good idea? I'm wary of the potential downgrades as well, though I think it'd be less prone to getting downgraded than a 3L-3L.

I think that 3l2l2l part is not from the most recent practice but the old one between The ICE and Japan Open.
Anyway, we could know whether she will put it in program soon

tianrushui wrote:

bellarina wrote:

Does anyone know if it said she was planning on using the 3L-2L-2L or was just practicing random combinations? If she is planning on putting it in, do you guys think that's a good idea? I'm wary of the potential downgrades as well, though I think it'd be less prone to getting downgraded than a 3L-3L.

I think that 3l2l2l part is not from the most recent practice but the old one between The ICE and Japan Open.
Anyway, we could know whether she will put it in program soon

Oh okay, thanks. Yeah, I can't wait to see her skate at Nationals, and see what/how she does.

☆Genie wrote:

New news clip 091214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP9tE-r6hdg&feature=sub

Mao is training 3l-2l-2l!
And Shizuka Arakawa is talking in this clip too.

Thanks for the clip, ☆Genie, and thanks to BowbowDaijin for translating!

But I have to say, this clip really annoyed me. The announcers are saying that Mao has to win Japan Nationals to go the Olympics, which is totally not true. The winner automatically gets a ticket to the Olympics, yes, but the third ticket is totally up to the JSF's discretion, which means I bet they'll pick Mao if they have to.

I feel like they're just trying to over-hype Nationals the same way they've over-hyped Mao vs YuNa in the past. Sigh.

Batsuchan wrote:

But I have to say, this clip really annoyed me. The announcers are saying that Mao has to win Japan Nationals to go the Olympics, which is totally not true. The winner automatically gets a ticket to the Olympics, yes, the third ticket is totally up to the JSF's discretion, which means I bet they'll pick Mao if they have to.

So very true. Mao Asada is the face of Japanese figure-skating.

Not to mention that Mao will probably make a clean sweep at Nationals, so it wouldn't matter either way.

Mao will be going to the Olympics, no doubt about it.

I also think that 3L-2L-2L is in old clip not new one. Though media are so noisy,
this time, I think, they want to hint Mao that she has another way to do too so
they chose this clip in their scoop, though no new clip. Because3A-2T in SP is quite
risky plan so they hinted 3L-2L-2L, other combination jumps to combine with 3F
and 2A. (As we know, this season, there will be no Lutz.) It seems that they want
to say "hey you! You practiced this one, right? So what about to enter
3L-2L-2L in your program instead of 3A-2T because your 3A-2T percentage of success
is so low, just 1/8. And if you add 3L-2L-2L, your pressure will be less than now."

BTW, I think sometimes media has right to say so because their aim is Gold medal in
Olympic (which will be extra in their mind. Guess 2 times direct gold from Arakawa and
promised champion Asada.) so this is not each competitor's plan but country's plan. In
Japanese way, they love to compete by team instead of individual. Their dream is someone
gets gold. 1st plan is Mao gets gold and 2nd plan is Ando gets gold.

For ISU, if Mao is in good condition, their competition will be on fire. And we have to
cheer her every minute to compete with arch-rival Kim Yun-a. Ando cannot beat Yun-a
in good condition but she has chance to get medal too, I think. So though there's problem
with Mao, Japanese will be safe to earn medal from lady figure skating. This is what they
want, according to "Revenge for Ito Midori" clips.

Hope to see her perfect programs.

Batsuchan wrote:

☆Genie wrote:

New news clip 091214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP9tE-r6hdg&feature=sub

Mao is training 3l-2l-2l!
And Shizuka Arakawa is talking in this clip too.

Thanks for the clip, ☆Genie, and thanks to BowbowDaijin for translating!

But I have to say, this clip really annoyed me. The announcers are saying that Mao has to win Japan Nationals to go the Olympics, which is totally not true. The winner automatically gets a ticket to the Olympics, yes, but the third ticket is totally up to the JSF's discretion, which means I bet they'll pick Mao if they have to.

I feel like they're just trying to over-hype Nationals the same way they've over-hyped Mao vs YuNa in the past. Sigh.

Thank you! You said exactly what I was thinking. There was also a clip posted a few days earlier with new clips of Mao's 3A, and I commented that I was a little concerned that she missed a few jumps. But I went back and watched that clip again- and I noticed some gorgeous jumps in there as well. It seemed to me that, visually at least, they were trying to play up Mao's missed jumps in practice to stir up drama before nationals (especially since the last jump they showed was a UR'd 3F combination. I'm sure they filmed several great jumps in that practice judging from the quality of her landed 3As, and that's the clip they decide to end with? )

Mao is definitely going to the Olympics- I'm not concerned about it at all. I just hope at nationals that she regains her confidence and has a couple good skates before she heads to Vancouver.

Expecting total, loving support from the Japanese media is an impossible request at this point so I'm just glad we get to see what little footage of Mao the telly can dish out before Nats.
FujiTV is hungry for big ratings this year, and it's showing.

I hope tokitama wouldn't mind me posting this link to her album here. She tweeted a link to picture of Mao's Nepia calendar on twitter and she looks so lovely. https://s608.photobucket.com/albums/tt163/tokitama/CM/ I wish I can have a calendar like this, too.
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too bad the calendar isn't for sale...