Thophy Eric Bompard 2010

Wow! BATSUCHAN IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed you so much girl! Thank you for your long post, it was so beautiful and even made me cry We all love Mao and no matter what still will be her fans.
I'm not sure if you are interested in it or not, but after reading Russian forums I get the feeling that almost everyone(with some exceptions) think Kanako is not an option. Not all of them believe in Mao's win at nationals, but they imagine Japanese team will look like"Miki,Akiko and Mao".
And I hope I won't hurt feeling of Kanako fans, I really like Kanako and wish her all the best, but to me she looks like something in between, like was Kimmie.

Hi Batsuchan! Welcome back! I've also missed your comments, stories and thoughts. Glad you are back, our President of the Taka-Mao shippers club!

Batsuchan wrote:

I wonder what Taka-chan thinks of the whole situation....how would he cheer up Mao, I wonder? Let me brainstorm....

hahaha, can't wait fot the dialogues you'll come up with! But I think Taka is doing a good job so far Have you guys seen this?

This was after Mao's disastrous skate at Japan Open. See, he was already comforting her!

Klarification, your caption is hilarious! I can so see this! Oh Mao Mao...;P

Pochi, are you sure that JSF will be so strict? I don't see how it will be unfair to make an exception for Mao. She will be the one defending the world title, not Miki, Akiko or Kanako. There will be almost three months between Japanese Nationals and WCH. I think it would be rather unfair to judge Mao only on her poor GP season + Nationals performance (although I do believe she will rock there and win another title in a row!). JSF knows that Mao is reworking her jumps, she has Sato as a coach now and I think they monitor her progress very closely and for sure know more than we do. In may opinion, if they only estimate that Mao may be in a good condition during Worlds, she will be there. She has too many important sponsors who also sponsor skating events in Japan. They may risk too much. I think that the problems with Mao going to Worlds may arise if she bombs Nationals + will be in a very poor form. But come on, this is Mao Asada we are talking about!
I know many of you may not agree with me, but I think a good Japanese ladies team will be Mao, Miki and Kanako. I like Akiko, I really do. I think she may place high, but she is not a serious medal contender. Kanako is in a great condition this year and may make a surprise. Miki is Miki. And if Yuna will be in form than Mao is the only one who can compete against her.

kaarolcia wrote:

I know many of you may not agree with me, but I think a good Japanese ladies team will be Mao, Miki and Kanako. I like Akiko, I really do. I think she may place high, but she is not a serious medal contender. Kanako is in a great condition this year and may make a surprise. Miki is Miki. And if Yuna will be in form than Mao is the only one who can compete against her.

It really is going to depend on how GPF and Nats will turn out. I think it's safe to say that Miki will be a lock for the Worlds team this season as well, and the remaining two spots will be a toss-up between Mao, Akiko, and Kanako. Quite a few people on FSU and elsewhere seem to be pushing for a possible 4CC face-off like in the pre-CoP days, but I seriously doubt the JSF will bother going through with that process anymore; if they have, Yukari and Akiko would have been doing the same thing for Olys last season.

Pochi got the list of possible scenarios down:
A) Mao will make the team in a heartbeat if she makes the Nats podium
B) Mao will *not* make the team if the podium consist of Miki, Akiko, and Kanako
C) Mao might make the team if she's able to hang into fourth but Haruka and/or the junior girls like Risa will have to play spoiler and place above Akiko+Kanako at Nats

But we can worry about all this when Nats takes place. The GPF haven't even started yet!

As far as Kanako is concerned, we'll never know how she'll develop in the next few years. Both Kanako and Haruka have been written off in the beginning (Kanako as a novice, and Haruka as a junior when she popped out of nowhere) but they were the first of their generation to make it to seniors while their contemporaries like Yukiko, Yuki, and Ayane Nakumura to name a few are struggling to make the podium at JGP events and Sectionals. Her scoring potential is on par with Akiko for now and she is most certainly a legitimate contender at least for this season.

klarification, the captioning is AWESOME!!! I love it!

And kaarolcia, thanks for that picture. It made me I saved it to my Taka-Mao folder. Heeheeehee! So far the only thing I could come up with is Taka-chan thinking he could cheer Mao up by making her dinner. So he decides to make some ramen, but when he's cooking it, our forgetful Taka-chan forgets to add the sauce packet, so it's a disaster. ("Eww, this has no taste!") But in the end, it kinda works out because Mao laughs so hard at him that she completely forgets about being depressed.

Hi polosatik! I missed you too!

Thanks Pochi and clovera for your insights. I guess Nationals is going to be interesting. I guess Mao really has to make the podium to go to Worlds. My #1 hope though is that she doesn't kill herself trying to do well at Nationals and then is burnt out for the rest of the season...

What have the other girls been scoring like? (I apologize; like I said; I've been totally out of the loop! ) If Mao decides that she absolutely wants to make the World team, then I think if she replaces her 3A's with 2A's (one 2A-3T in the long, like at JO), she could potentially master that in time for Nationals. And if she can go clean, I do think the judges will give her so much PCS and GOE that she'll score well, even with a dumbed-down program (by Mao's standards)...

Batsuchan wrote:

What have the other girls been scoring like? (I apologize; like I said; I've been totally out of the loop! ) If Mao decides that she absolutely wants to make the World team, then I think if she replaces her 3A's with 2A's (one 2A-3T in the long, like at JO), she could potentially master that in time for Nationals. And if she can go clean, I do think the judges will give her so much PCS and GOE that she'll score well, even with a dumbed-down program (by Mao's standards)...

I guess we won't truly know how the judges will score everyone this year until Nats officially takes place. As a reference point though, Kanako has been receiving around 63~64 for a clean SP at local events like Chubu Regionals (3T-3T, 3F, 2A) so I'm presuming the other main contenders - Mao, Miki, Akiko, Haruka - will be in the 62~67? range on the condition that they at least go clean, get the levels on their spins, and receive the usual Nats boost.

The free skate is anyone's guess, although Mao definitely has the advantage over everyone if she *does* skate with no major mistakes and lands at least 5 triples.

PCS will be something to watch. Keeping in mind that I'm comparing scores from different competitions, the trend has been Akiko > Miki, (a flawed) Mao > Kanako > Haruka ≈ Fumie in terms of average PCS during the GP. I do wonder if this PCS trend will still hold true for GPF (Akiko > Miki > Kanako) and Nats however.

kaarolcia wrote:

Pochi, are you sure that JSF will be so strict? I don't see how it will be unfair to make an exception for Mao. She will be the one defending the world title, not Miki, Akiko or Kanako. There will be almost three months between Japanese Nationals and WCH. I think it would be rather unfair to judge Mao only on her poor GP season + Nationals performance (although I do believe she will rock there and win another title in a row!). JSF knows that Mao is reworking her jumps, she has Sato as a coach now and I think they monitor her progress very closely and for sure know more than we do. In may opinion, if they only estimate that Mao may be in a good condition during Worlds, she will be there. She has too many important sponsors who also sponsor skating events in Japan. They may risk too much. I think that the problems with Mao going to Worlds may arise if she bombs Nationals + will be in a very poor form. But come on, this is Mao Asada we are talking about!
I know many of you may not agree with me, but I think a good Japanese ladies team will be Mao, Miki and Kanako. I like Akiko, I really do. I think she may place high, but she is not a serious medal contender. Kanako is in a great condition this year and may make a surprise. Miki is Miki. And if Yuna will be in form than Mao is the only one who can compete against her.

I'm not sure of anything kaarolica.
clovera knows much more about JSF's tendencies, so you should listen to her more than me.

But the thing is, until last season when they decided to choose 1 place for the Olys according to GPF results, JSF has been simply sending the highest rankers in Nats to Worlds. They did choose Miki for Turin Olys although she placed 6th in Nats that season, but at least she made 4th in GPF, and Mao couldn't make GPF this season, so she'll have to do better than Miki that season at Nats I think. The other thing is, as a result of sending Miki to Turin Olys, she ended up in 15th place, which was far more lesser than what both JSF and our whole country expected from her. Miki and JSF was bashed for choosing her for the Olys team quite badly, I remember. Many FS fans were sympathetic towards Yukari and Mie Onda because they made 5th and 4th at Nats that year, but weren't chosen for Olys instead of Miki. Onda retired soon after, but as you probabaly know, Yukari continued another 4 years aiming at Vancouver Olys. Most people thought and hoped that she'd make it, but by then Akiko made her comeback with great performances, so aside from Mao and Miki, it was hard to make out who would be the 3rd lady for Vancouver. So in the end, it all came down to Nats' results again. Mao won the title, and Akiko slightly scored above Yukari. And that was it. Akiko was pretty popular within the country by then, so everybody was happy for her, but we all liked Yukari too, and knew how much she had worked hard to make Vancouver, so everybody wept for her inside their hearts. But most people thought it was only fair for Akiko to get the last ticket to Vancouver.

So, from what's been going on all these years, I have a feeling JSF thinks that as long as they stick to the results in Nats, they won't get complaints from fans or be bashed by the media. We all have this impression in Japan that JSF always wants to avoid trouble above anything. I think they'd prefer not to 'choose' who to send to Worlds themselves, but have the skaters compete at Nats and let the results make their 'decisions'.

However...since it's Nats, and not an ISU competition, I have a feeling that the judges won't be so strict in scoring Mao. Even if she can't manage high TES if her jumps don't work, I imagine they would certainly give her high PCS compared to the other skaters. If JSF should want to send Mao to Worlds thinking she is Mao Asada afterall, I know this won't sound very nice, but they may score her like Pattie's been scored throughout GP this season, so to make it possible for her to make the podium as much as they can. In anycase, I do think JSF needs Mao to make the podium at Nats to be able to send her to Worlds.

My people are pretty strict when it comes to what's fair or not in sport. I strongly believe that even most of the biggest Mao fans here (including me), will feel very uneasy about the situation if JSF were to make some special exception only for Mao.

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

But the thing is, until last season when they decided to choose 1 place for the Olys according to GPF results, JSF has been simply sending the highest rankers in Nats to Worlds. They did choose Miki for Turin Olys although she placed 6th in Nats that season, but at least she made 4th in GPF, and Mao couldn't make GPF this season, so she'll have to do better than Miki that season at Nats I think. The other thing is, as a result of sending Miki to Turin Olys, she ended up in 15th place, which was far more lesser than what both JSF and our whole country expected from her. Miki and JSF was bashed for choosing her for the Olys team quite badly, I remember. Many FS fans were sympathetic towards Yukari and Mie Onda because they made 5th and 4th at Nats that year, but weren't chosen for Olys instead of Miki.

JSF's decision to send Miki was, contrary to popular belief, not a surprise decision. Not even close.

The Japanese media is *really* at fault for this, but the JSF had a rather unique method in their selection for the Torino Olys. They basically took a point-based approach that also took into account a skater's performance for 2004-2005. It goes without saying that Yukari had literally no international presence during that season (she was 11th at both her GP events and came in 6th at Nats); Miki, on the other hand, medaled at both of her GP events and won her second national title.

The total points by the end of Nats 05 were as follows: Mao, Miki, Fumie, Shizuka, Yukari, and Yoshie.

Mao was, of course, too young so the three skaters after her with the most points were chosen. Ironically enough, Miki was actually Japan's #1 based on the selection process; part of why it turned out this way was due to both Fumie and Shiz missing the GPF that year and Yukari's abysmal 04-05 season as stated above. Of course, the media (and the public that gobbled their information up) completely ignored the actual details of the selection process and decided to just focus on the fact that Yukari placed higher than Miki at both the GPF and Nats that year.

The rest is history, and as Pochi mentioned, the JSF have put more weight into the result of the pertaining season's Nats ever since.

Sorry for going off-topic - I just wanted to throw this out there since not too many skating fans seem to know this, especially the non-Japanese fans.

Batsuchan wrote:

And kaarolcia, thanks for that picture. It made me I saved it to my Taka-Mao folder. Heeheeehee! So far the only thing I could come up with is Taka-chan thinking he could cheer Mao up by making her dinner. So he decides to make some ramen, but when he's cooking it, our forgetful Taka-chan forgets to add the sauce packet, so it's a disaster. ("Eww, this has no taste!") But in the end, it kinda works out because Mao laughs so hard at him that she completely forgets about being depressed.

Hahaha you have a Taka-Mao folder? Maybe I should make one too - in order to gather all evidence
Cute story!

Pochi and clovera, thank you for sharing your informative thoughts/opinions! I guess we have to wait for the Nationals and see in what condition Mao will be during that time. I just hope that JSF will make a sensible decision!
One question: when will the Nationals take place? I know that in the end of December, but when exactly? And what about ladies' competition?


Oh, and look what I found on YouTube! Two clips of TEB gala closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF1f2zGIld4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnXVij6F1eY

polosatik wrote:

And I hope I won't hurt feeling of Kanako fans, I really like Kanako and wish her all the best, but to me she looks like something in between, like was Kimmie.

OMG now that you mention it, she DOES kind of remind me of Kimmie.

Sorry for bumping this thread again, but I have a question:
Has anyone of you saved Takahiko's EX from TEB? Sony blocked it in Poland on YouTube and I'd love to have it.

Mao and Felicia Zhang at TEB

^ Wow they look alike a little!

kaarolcia wrote:

Batsuchan wrote:

And kaarolcia, thanks for that picture. It made me I saved it to my Taka-Mao folder. Heeheeehee! So far the only thing I could come up with is Taka-chan thinking he could cheer Mao up by making her dinner. So he decides to make some ramen, but when he's cooking it, our forgetful Taka-chan forgets to add the sauce packet, so it's a disaster. ("Eww, this has no taste!") But in the end, it kinda works out because Mao laughs so hard at him that she completely forgets about being depressed.

Hahaha you have a Taka-Mao folder? Maybe I should make one too - in order to gather all evidence
Cute story!

Pochi and clovera, thank you for sharing your informative thoughts/opinions! I guess we have to wait for the Nationals and see in what condition Mao will be during that time. I just hope that JSF will make a sensible decision!
One question: when will the Nationals take place? I know that in the end of December, but when exactly? And what about ladies' competition?


Oh, and look what I found on YouTube! Two clips of TEB gala closing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF1f2zGIld4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnXVij6F1eY

I loved in the video, when mao was named the champion of the world
They for sure love Mao in France (and Europe I guess)