All Japanese skaters might be forced to withdraw from CoC

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20120918-1019167.html
Because of the tense situation between Japan and China over the disputed islands JSF is considering not sending the Japanese athlethes to Cup of China. This directly concerns Mao, Miki, Daisuke , Tatsuki and TakaTran, who were originally scheduled to take part in the event.

It's probably too late for them to be assigned somewhere else, so in the worst case - no GPF... I hope the conflict between Japan and China will get resolved somehow and the athletes will be able to compete safely.

That's disgusting, how dare they? This is figure skating not politics, why skaters should suffer because of countries conflict? I hope the problem will be solved because for Mao GPF is like a big trouble past seasons.

Holly..., I just read this at FSU. Man I hope japanese skaters will be able to attend, because if they don't, this means no GPF!

polosatik wrote:

That's disgusting, how dare they? This is figure skating not politics, why skaters should suffer because of countries conflict? I hope the problem will be solved because for Mao GPF is like a big trouble past seasons.

I agree, sport shouldn't take any part in politics but unfortunately the reality is much different. Let's not forget the olympics boycott. I still feel for those athletes. It wasn't their fault but they were still denied the chance at olympic glory. I know this is a different situation but still...

Does this mean that Chinese athletes won't be allowed to compete at NHK? And if the conflict isn't resolved, will the Chinese athletes be forced to withdraw from 4CC which is in Japan this season? I'm sorry, but it's a bit ridiculous. I can't see fedeartions getting away with this.

I hope this are just empty threats.

From what I read, it's not 100%decided yet . It says that if the anti-japanese riots don't calm down, Hashimoto says that she can't send the skaters.
I totally understand that since there are many Japanese people living in China who got punched on the street just because they are Japanese, the Japanese school in Shanghai is temporarily closed, the Japanese malls and factories are damaged...
I was also supposed to go to Shanghai on my business trip but my boss canceled my trip saying I won't be safe even in the hotel.

Thus, when you think about the skaters' safety, Hashimoto has no choice.
It's really sad...

polosatik wrote:

That's disgusting, how dare they?

From what I've read, they are worried about the safety of the athletes. According to the articles, the sequence of events was like this:
1. The Japanese (government? companies? I'm not sure) decided to purchase the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, which are unihabitated, but rich in minerals.
2. This resulted in the protest by some of the Chinese people (possibly encouraged by the government..?)
3. The Japanese firms urged expatriates (who work in China) to stay indoors, because they are afraid of the possible acts of violence: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/0917/Japanese-firms-brace-for-violence-in-China-over-disputed-islands-video

What is the real situation, I don't know. There isn't much detail given in the articles... I hope everything will calm down soon.

ETA: ddmm was faster than me.

All these land disputes with China are really turning ugly. Japan's not the only one with conflict with them over land. We are, too. And it affects a lot of people. It just never occurred to me that even figure skaters will get affected. Argh!

If they don't get to compete at CoC it means no GPF. The decision ain't final yet so I hope there will be improvements in the conflict and they get to have the go signal to compete. Athlete's safety comes first, though. We want them healthy and safe.

As suggested in the Mao FB page it''' be better if the competition is moved to a different country or maybe the Japanese team can switch places with other athletes but will be next to impossible, though, in such a short time.

If this situation doesn't calm down and Japanese athletes can't enter the competition because of their safety, then ISU should/must do something about it. You can't deprive athletes of their GPF chance, because there are riots against them in a country the athletes are slated to comptete. If skaters cannot be switched this late, than ISU should add them to other competitions and have 1 or 2 gp events with more than 10 spots, IMO.

I agree, athlete's safety must come first.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120918-00000099-jij-spo

It's affecting not only FS but other sports too. The Chinese badminton team withdrew from their tournament in Japan. There are no anti-chinese riots in Japan and they canceled to protest against Japan.

The announcement is for the safety of the skaters, which comes first.
A friend of mine (she studies in China) - informed me that those organizing those riots are very organized - So it would be no surprise if they start riots in front of the skaters' hotels or in front of the rink - Things could get violent as well...
Why can't they just come up with an agreement? :/

Taiwan might be a great place if they are planning to relocate...

When will be the change of the Chinese president, in October or November? I hear many people say in Japan that the Chinese government doesn't want the anti-Japanese riots to disturb their power transition nor to convert to anti-government protests, and therefore they will try to keep those demonstrators under good control and put them to rest when appropriate time comes. So, I think things will be OK as long as the Chinese government does not fail to control them as they planned ... If the power transition is immediately before COC, I think demonstrations will have been calmed down by then and it will not resume for quite a while until the government with a new president will become stable.

I've found this pic on twitter. Those Chinese students cleared up the area around an outlet damaged by demonstrators, calling for patriotism with rationale mind and anti-violence.



There are prudent people and the matter is as I said whether people who were inspired by demo organizers will stop when are told so or not.

As for athletes being affected ... Chinese canceled participation in badminton and archery games to be held in Japan, while Japanese canceled participation in triathlon game and sumo vent to be held in China. Ms. Hashimoto said JSF is planning to discuss with ISU.

Sports are one of good ways for interaction and I feel sorry for those athletes who had to pass up opportunities because of political issues ...

This would mean no opportunity for Machida, Takahashi, Ando, MAO(), Takahashi-Tran to qualify for the final! OMG this is terrible, but there's still more than a month before the competition, so I hope the governments will resolve this terrible problem... Please please please, it's four years that we're waiting Mao at the Final!! It's so horrible when polytics and sport are together in such a terrible way...

linglang wrote:

When will be the change of the Chinese president, in October or November? I hear many people say in Japan that the Chinese government doesn't want the anti-Japanese riots to disturb their power transition nor to convert to anti-government protests, and therefore they will try to keep those demonstrators under good control and put them to rest when appropriate time comes. So, I think things will be OK as long as the Chinese government does not fail to control them as they planned ... If the power transition is immediately before COC, I think demonstrations will have been calmed down by then and it will not resume for quite a while until the government with a new president will become stable.

I've found this pic on twitter. Those Chinese students cleared up the area around an outlet damaged by demonstrators, calling for patriotism with rationale mind and anti-violence.



There are prudent people and the matter is as I said whether people who were inspired by demo organizers will stop when are told so or not.

As for athletes being affected ... Chinese canceled participation in badminton and archery games to be held in Japan, while Japanese canceled participation in triathlon game and sumo vent to be held in China. Ms. Hashimoto said JSF is planning to discuss with ISU.

Sports are one of good ways for interaction and I feel sorry for those athletes who had to pass up opportunities because of political issues ...

Good to know that there are good people who are against violence.
As for the chineses gov, we can actually say that they are the one pushing their people to protest, then let it cool down later. As you can see, the media there is also controlled by the government.

Very sad when you think the athletes have been training so hard for competitions.

And our dear Mao: I want to see her at GPF! it's been so long...

ddmm wrote:

Good to know that there are good people who are against violence.
As for the chineses gov, we can actually say that they are the one pushing their people to protest, then let it cool down later. As you can see, the media there is also controlled by the government.

Very sad when you think the athletes have been training so hard for competitions.

And our dear Mao: I want to see her at GPF! it's been so long...

I believe they are not small in number. I believe majority Chinese are anti-violence. It's just that those prudent people's voice are hardly heard or covered by the media which is as you said controlled by the government. It's very sad ...

roma wrote:

Japan's not the only one with conflict with them over land.

And China is not the only one with whom Japan is in conflict over the land. Actually Japan has territorial disputes with all its neighbours except North Korea (what an irony).

I seconded those who think that CoC, if things won't come down, should be moved to a neutral territory, like Taiwan. I think in soccer they did something similar with the match Japan-North Korea. The problem with CoC is that unlike with soccer where only two teams/countries are involved, in fs we have representatives of various countries. But I don' think that it would be a real issue since Taiwan is not some crazy visa requirements place. I am more worried about ISU. In case of relocation they will have to move their administrative asses a little faster then they usually do. Will they? If not, J-team is screwed- no GPF.

Yes territorial issues are everywhere and for a long time now. China has one with S. Korea too I think.
I would say OK to protest but NO to violence.
And sports & culture should stay away from politics.

Yes territorial issues are everywhere and for a long time now. China has one with S. Korea too I think.
I would say OK to protest but NO to violence.
And sports & culture should stay away from politics.

I think ISU won't relocate event only because of few skaters. It's too expensive.

did the japanese federation say when the final decision will be taken? and it they even ask the skaters of what they prefer to do. cause it kind of is unfair to not allow the skaters if they are willing to takethe risk and go anyway..

europeanfan wrote:

I think ISU won't relocate event only because of few skaters. It's too expensive.

I agree, however if the situation won't calm down and if Japanese athletes can't atend the competition because of safety reasons then ISU must (IMO) find a different solution. Like I said before, the "easiest" thing would be to reasign those skaters to other competitions. I think it's easier to have one or two gp's with more than 10 slots than deal with all this mess.

ISU can't sit back and do nothing in a situation where skaters can't attend the competition because their safety would be in jeopardy. After all it's not skaters' fault that this happened.

Hopefully everything will calm down soon.

As someone who was planning to go to Shanghai for a few days, but is now debating whether actually going or not, I absolutely understand the concern over the safety of the skaters.
I know that not everyone in China want to commit acts of volence against japanese people. I have a japanese friend who lives in Guangzhou, and her life goes on as usual. But for the people who are ready to do just about anything to hurt japanese people, the skaters would be excellent targets.
The ideal solution would be moving the competition somewhere else. (maybe Taiwan, like some people here suggested) I believe this should be done if all the athletes can't compete safely, but with so little time until then, I'm not sure if it's possible.
Anyway, maybe the riots will calm down until then. I just wish the skaters didn't have to train with this feeling of insecurity over what will happen.

ballerinamao wrote:

did the japanese federation say when the final decision will be taken?

The media say they will make a preliminary decision on 23rd at their council meeting. When the final one will be done- I think it depends on the situation entirely. It's 6 weeks before CoC and I do hope things will come down. Otherwise GPF will be farce without top skaters. Since Russia is definitely not interested in it, will Putin say again "it's not an expensive event" and host CoC somewhere in Russia? LOL. I know, it's not funny at all. I simply don't know who else can pay besides Russians if ISU won't. Maybe the idea to reassign skaters as #11 to other GP Cups is a really good one. This ISU keeping quiet is so annoying.

Weeks ago, the Japanese ambassador to China's car targeted by the riots. They blocked the ambassador's car and stole the Japanese flag. Now it says that today (or yesterday?) the amercian ambassador to China's car has been harrassed by the riot groups too.
It's becoming out of control...

where did it all come from, this conflict suddenly popped out off nowhere, can't the japanese and chinese skaters just switch with some other skaters, it would be the easist and safest thing to do!

beside it would be totally disastrous for the isu if top skaters like Mao, miki and dai weren't able to go to the gpf just because of this situation... now i really want Mao to go maybe the can arrange some guards to make it more secure, but it would be unimageable sad if they didn't let them go.

by the way Mao, miki and dai all have the right for a 3 assignment and if they decide not to go to coc they can just ask for the third assignment now, that could also be used as a way to solve this conflict!

ballerinamao wrote:

where did it all come from, this conflict suddenly popped out off nowhere, can't the japanese and chinese skaters just switch with some other skaters, it would be the easist and safest thing to do!

beside it would be totally disastrous for the isu if top skaters like Mao, miki and dai weren't able to go to the gpf just because of this situation... now i really want Mao to go maybe the can arrange some guards to make it more secure, but it would be unimageable sad if they didn't let them go.

by the way Mao, miki and dai all have the right for a 3 assignment and if they decide not to go to coc they can just ask for the third assignment now, that could also be used as a way to solve this conflict!

I agree, GPF without top skaters (especially without Dai, since I don't think he's going to have any problems qualifying) would be ridiculous, especially since their withdrawal from CoC would be because of safety reasons. I think ISU will do something because otherwise they will look bad, but maybe they don't care...

Getting 3 spots is as of this season no longer available, so unless the situation calms down or ISU reassign them or relocate the competition to another country, the skaters are screwed.

I wonder how figure skating fans will react to this.

it's really unbelievable for me to understand how Mao has to face one obstacle right after the other. Just when one is thinking now she can skate and have a "normal" season this happens. I am getting really really frustruating and i think i will either beginn to scream or cry if i have to watch another gpf without Mao. it's really not funny, i just wish that someone would come and say that this conflict never happened and figure skating never got effectet because of this.

This girl has been through soo much especially when it comes to this event,and last year was just a huge schock, dissapointment and then sadness, that's what i felt when watching that event knowing about the tragedie that suddenly out of nowhere came and now this. it's just too much, I can't take it anymore. why does those things have to happen to Mao, why Mao again and again. it's just unbelievable to think about all she has to go through.

i would really find it unacceptable if Mao has to be out of the event considering how much time the ISU has to find a solution. and like i said before Mao was suppost to have a possible third assignment in the GP, and since a situation like this happened, it would be the perfect time to reoffer the third assignment again as a solution! that would be the CHEAPIST and easiest thing and also the most fair for all participants. since Mao from the beginning could have chosen to attend all three assignments!