The Mao cheer thread #3 - "For the love of skating"

[Spun Silver]

Oh, I was looking for this thread and couldn't find it. I wanted to post this comment by Tomoki Hiwatashi, the very talented young junior skater who's been named to the US team for Jr Worlds. He had a bad SP at Nats and then came back with a great long. He was inspired by Mao:

"Before the short program, I really felt ready. I went on the ice and I thought I could do everything,” Hiwatashi wrote. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned and I messed up all my jumps and skated terrible which led me to getting 15th. I was very disappointed with myself but I knew I had to get myself to do better for the long.

“Before the long program, I watched Mao Asada’s long program. In Sochi, she also did a terrible short and did the best long program in the world,” Hiwatashi continued. “By watching her video, I gained my confidence and told myself that I should try to attack everything in the long without being scared of mistakes. I was disappointed about my quad toe getting an under-rotation and popping the triple axel but overall I think I did good."

That bungee jump looks terrifying! Go Mao!! I did one once (nowhere near that high but still pretty tall) when I was on an overnight "wilderness" retreat with kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had to set an example for the little ones so I just closed my eyes and jumped as fast as I could without looking down so I wouldn't have time to get scared. (It was still scary but not for too long.) I will never forget the little girl who stood up there for about 15 minutes with everyone calling to her, Come on! You can do it!... then climbed down without jumping. Poor thing. Mao reminded me of her a little bit.

 

[chapis]

Oh, I was looking for this thread and couldn't find it. I wanted to post this comment by Tomoki Hiwatashi, the very talented young junior skater who's been named to the US team for Jr Worlds. He had a bad SP at Nats and then came back with a great long. He was inspired by Mao:



That bungee jump looks terrifying! Go Mao!! I did one once (nowhere near that high but still pretty tall) when I was on an overnight "wilderness" retreat with kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had to set an example for the little ones so I just closed my eyes and jumped as fast as I could without looking down so I wouldn't have time to get scared. (It was still scary but not for too long.) I will never forget the little girl who stood up there for about 15 minutes with everyone calling to her, Come on! You can do it!... then climbed down without jumping. Poor thing. Mao reminded me of her a little bit.

Aww, that is great see to Mao inspiring other skaters, I think Mai said something similar about Nationals. And wow, SpunSilver, you are really brave, I would be totally the girl climbing down.

 

[chapis]

I know this is not so important but why Shizuka and Daisuke run torch relay and no Mao?, she is a marathoner after all .

 

[Spun Silver]

Her knee again maybe?

 

[cohkaix]

No, I think Mao's just busy with her new project later on this year. It doesn't seem she'll be involved much in the up-coming Olympics...(she said before in the interview that she'll probably be cheering up for Olympians at home and will be practicing skating during the time of Olympics)

 

[Miki89]

An recent article on the Japanese Oly ladies team and the search for the next Mao.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rtsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I love this quote from this one fan in regards to Mao.
"“There was just something about her. I got so much energy watching her skate.”

 

[chapis]

An recent article on the Japanese Oly ladies team and the search for the next Mao.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rtsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I love this quote from this one fan in regards to Mao.
"“There was just something about her. I got so much energy watching her skate.”

interesting, but I think it is totally useless to search for the next Mao. The Japanese skaters are talented, beautiful and charismatic, but honestly, I doubt very much that any of them can achieve the level of popularity that Mao achieved. And sometimes the medals are not enough, as is the case with Shizuka.

 

[Spun Silver]

An recent article on the Japanese Oly ladies team and the search for the next Mao.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rtsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I love this quote from this one fan in regards to Mao.
"“There was just something about her. I got so much energy watching her skate.”

There can never be another Mao. We are blessed that there is one.

The younger skaters are talented. Let's cheer them on without asking them to be the genius that is Mao. If one of them turns out to be a genius, then she too will be unique. But I doubt we will have two such skaters in one generation or even century. There has not yet been another Midori and I don't expect there ever will.

 

[rosewood]

When Mao Asada comes and gives a quick lesson to Wollman Academy students

#LearntoSkate #NYC

https://twitter.com/WollmanRink/status/956307614341697536

 

[kittyjake5]

Mao was in New York! I wish I had known I would have definitely fanned girled her. Just joking.

Great photo. Lucky students to have a lesson with the lovely Mao.

 

[Miki89]

https://usdreamsynchro.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/favorite-olympic-moments-part-1/

Mao's Sochi FS was listed as a favorite Olympic memory by a member of the US Synchro team! I love the part that says that performance showed the most important lesson in skating: to get up and keep fighting.


On a more down side, it does irk me whenever I see my favorite skaters (Mao and Michelle) getting their accomplishments undermined from fans of a certain skater in their endless argument that she is the best skater of all time. Personally, I can't consider a skater who doesn't excel in skating aesthetics (extension, positions, and lines) to be the best skater ever, but I can accept different opinions. Unlike these fans who attack me and any other fan who has a different opinion imo.

Regardless, the mention of Mao's Sochi FS shows that her performances has and will remain in the hearts of many people for a long time.

 

[cohkaix]

I don't think this has been shared here yet: it's from Jan 22nd, a news segment about Mao and Mai visited an elementary school to give skating lesson to students and join their classes at school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGkA2DytDU

 

[Spun Silver]

https://usdreamsynchro.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/favorite-olympic-moments-part-1/

Mao's Sochi FS was listed as a favorite Olympic memory by a member of the US Synchro team! I love the part that says that performance showed the most important lesson in skating: to get up and keep fighting.


On a more down side, it does irk me whenever I see my favorite skaters (Mao and Michelle) getting their accomplishments undermined from fans of a certain skater in their endless argument that she is the best skater of all time. Personally, I can't consider a skater who doesn't excel in skating aesthetics (extension, positions, and lines) to be the best skater ever, but I can accept different opinions. Unlike these fans who attack me and any other fan who has a different opinion imo.

Regardless, the mention of Mao's Sochi FS shows that her performances has and will remain in the hearts of many people for a long time.

I completely agree with you and in general Mao seems to be mysteriously underappreciated on this board - and too often by the judges. But I have lost the appetite (or the time) arguing about it. I'd rather commune with those who get her, and fortunately they are many - just not here.

 

[Miki89]

I completely agree with you and in general Mao seems to be mysteriously underappreciated on this board - and too often by the judges. But I have lost the appetite (or the time) arguing about it. I'd rather commune with those who get her, and fortunately they are many - just not here.

I agree about the judges. But I remember there were many who posted sweet messages and wonderful tributes to Mao after she retired last year both here and at GS forum. I think she still has a lot of fans who probably just avoid those threads, which is wise. There’s just some who still hold bias against her and continue the same arguments for years imo. However, I must say that it’s much better than back in 2010 when I remember seeing many critical threads about Mao and actively avoiding them.

As for how she was judged, I think it was a combination of rule changes that did not favor her and her inconsistency. The latter was partly due to her struggles to adapt to the system but I think it was also due to personal struggles in her life that coincided around the same time. Her reputation was greatly affected in a negative way and though she regained it for the most part with skating fans, she never fully restored it with the judges. :/

 

[chapis]

As for how she was judged, I think it was a combination of rule changes that did not favor her and her inconsistency. The latter was partly due to her struggles to adapt to the system but I think it was also due to personal struggles in her life that coincided around the same time. Her reputation was greatly affected in a negative way and though she regained it for the most part with skating fans, she never fully restored it with the judges. :/

I don´t buy that theory anymore, no after see how Carolina is being judged. And how forget Mao´s flutz, I remember how people said that a skater was not competitive without a real lutz and now we see flutz everywhere, from the top skaters, no less. And for people tired of meaningless transitions, we can thank Yuna for it.

 

[butyrskafanatic]

Carolina and Mao are pretty different though. Both are great skaters with high PCS and maturity and elegance that stands out vs the younger girls today. Mao though seems to have a lot of built in deductions in her jumps if she isnt skating cleanly under the current system, underrotations, edge calls, small two foots. Her jump layouts are also complicated and run risk at running into problems with the technical rules if she misses something with repeats, etc....Kostner while she has more tendency to downright splat, pop, and make more visible errors, and tries less risky jumping passes, does not have those problems that create built in losses of points on jumps in other ways, so has a much better shot at coming through with completely clean skates sometimes than Mao post 2010 did.

 

[butyrskafanatic]

I completely agree with you and in general Mao seems to be mysteriously underappreciated on this board - and too often by the judges.

I agree with the judges (post 2010 onwards, 2007-2010 no, but after yes for sure) but on this board Mao is one of the most popular skaters. That is the impression I get anyway? She has tons of fans here and almost no haters which is rare for the big name skaters who retired within the last 2 years or less.

 

[Miki89]

Can you please not hijack this thread? There are plenty of threads which you started to compare skaters x and y. This is a FAN thread.

 

[kittyjake5]

^Thankyou

 

[gotoschool]

Here is a video of Mao doing an interview that I don't believe was ever posted. Great to see her in such a happy mood and combined with her burgundy outfit, she is positively beaming with beauty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTBY0eFv9gI

I believe the bungee jump by Mao was during a travel special during her year off back in 2014-2015, but I am not sure.

I came here to post the video, but regarding comments about scoring, I am strongly persuaded that Mao was repeatedly and severely underscored relatively by both the ISU and JSF and physical evidence makes this obvious to me, as does the fact that she was forced to train in terrible sandy conditions by the JSF during the Sochi Olympics, not to mention the removal of her most watched Sochi LP video when other's did not have theirs removed. I view this as an attempt to defend Mao's efforts, but have done it more so in other places, and to me such comments are difficult to write. But what is a pleasure to comment on is the unique power and beauty I get from Mao's performances that wins me over, and the fact that her most impressive performances transcend any sense of numerical valuation because they pass into the realm of great art.

 

[Miki89]

I always disliked the haphazard way the ISU went about enforcing the UR and edge rules. I agree that it was important to have sound technique. But for years, they kinda turned a blind eye for the most part, so it wasn’t much of an issue. Furthermore, there was and still is no standard jumping technique. How a skater jumped depended mostly on the coaching style and the skater’s natural physique. What the new rules were saying was essentially that some jumping techniques were flawed. Ok, but shouldn’t the next step be focused on helping coaches and skaters find solutions to these problems? I think the ISU made some videos but that’s not enough. They should have trained jump specialists available to assist coaches. But, that’s not what happened. Instead of acknowledging that this was a result of their own neglect of these issues for so long, the blame was mostly placed on some skaters like Mao and Mirai. This was totally unfair because skaters only learn what they are taught. It’s not their fault the system was okay with their technique and then suddenly wasn’t.

Furthermore, instead of working to develop and teach a standard jumping technique so that these issues could be minimized, nothing much has changed. Jump technique is still relegated mostly to the individual coaches. After more than a decade after the rule changes, we still have many top skaters with edge and ur issues; the only thing that’s changed is the calls got more arbitrary.

 

[chapis]

I always disliked the haphazard way the ISU went about enforcing the UR and edge rules. I agree that it was important to have sound technique. But for years, they kinda turned a blind eye for the most part, so it wasn’t much of an issue. Furthermore, there was and still is no standard jumping technique. How a skater jumped depended mostly on the coaching style and the skater’s natural physique. What the new rules were saying was essentially that some jumping techniques were flawed. Ok, but shouldn’t the next step be focused on helping coaches and skaters find solutions to these problems? I think the ISU made some videos but that’s not enough. They should have trained jump specialists available to assist coaches. But, that’s not what happened. Instead of acknowledging that this was a result of their own neglect of these issues for so long, the blame was mostly placed on some skaters like Mao and Mirai. This was totally unfair because skaters only learn what they are taught. It’s not their fault the system was okay with their technique and then suddenly wasn’t.

Furthermore, instead of working to develop and teach a standard jumping technique so that these issues could be minimized, nothing much has changed. Jump technique is still relegated mostly to the individual coaches. After more than a decade after the rule changes, we still have many top skaters with edge and ur issues; the only thing that’s changed is the calls got more arbitrary.

Wow, this post made me nostalgic because the first time I watched Mao, was GPF 2007, I became her fan right away and I remember all the fuss about flutz especially at that time precisely (Dec 2017-January 2008), I don´t remember exactly the ur thing, I guess it was almost at the same time, but I remember that I thought that by 2018, flutz would not exist at the elite level at least, God, I was so wrong . It would be great if someone made a statistic about it to compare if those rules were beneficial.

 

[gotoschool]

Here is a wonderful video of Mao and Mai teaching little children how to skate on a small outdoor rink about 3 or 4 weeks ago in what appears to be a picturesque rural area of Japan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hIXzBUZN8

 

[cohkaix]

Mao's most recent update from her IG account:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfTITh3Ax2c/

She congratulated Yuzuru and Shoma (for winning the gold and silver). Mao also mentioned Nathan in particular and said it's wonderful he could give the best performance. So Mao must have watched through the whole competitions and she said she's touched by the performances and thanked the skaters for giving their best.

 

[chapis]

wow, Mao and Nathan escalated the same places https://yzurus.tumblr.com/post/170970311990/milquetoasted-redemption-n-the-act-of

Though Mao was underscored in the LP and Nathan was not.

 

[cohkaix]

Now that Olympics is coming to an end....

There will be a new DVD/Blu-ray for charity purpose to be released on Apr. 18th. The Blu-ray is entitled 'Prayer'. It will contain 4 programs from Mao, and these are her collaborations with Lori:

- Benedictus (from THE ICE 2015, performing with Carolina Kostner and Joannie Rochette)
- Jupiter (performance from 2016 NHK- special EX)
- Elegie (from THE ICE 2017)
- Wind Beneath My Wings (from THE ICE 2017)

In addition to these 4 programs, there are additional videos and documentaries.

(Link to Amazon.jp: https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product...N=B079ZFL5DB&linkCode=shr&tag=chika3xoops-22&)

And the profit from this DVD/Blu-ray will be donated to 'Support Our Kids'

Date of releasing: Apr. 18th

 

[Miki89]

I wish they included "Ballade" because that is probably my favorite Mao program ever.

 

[cohkaix]

I wish they included "Ballade" because that is probably my favorite Mao program ever.

Actually, Ballade is included in another DVD set 'Mao Asada- Smile forever' released last Oct. The number is included in a second CD of the set, which covers 10 performance selections from 'All Japan Medalist On Ice' (the EX after Japan Nationals)

https://www.amazon.co.jp/浅田真央『Smile...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W9QNN9TYESXVM8RPXX86

Also adding: Mao is helping with the promotion of 'Mary Poppins' musical to be debuted in Japan. There will be a 30-min TV program/documentary on Mar 4th, about Mao visiting the Mary Poppins tour in Germany, and then she went to New York to enjoy several famous broadway musicals...she even got to talk to the famous producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh!

http://www.tbs.co.jp/event/marypoppins2018/

 

[Miki89]

I have a translation request to our kind Japanese fans in this thread. During the 2013-2014 season, Lori did an interview where she talked about Mao and Daisuke's programs that she choreographed that season. I remember there was an translation of that interview on FSU but perhaps it is archived and I cannot find it anywhere else online.
If anyone could please translate the parts Lori said about Mao's Nocturne and her skating style, I'll greatly appreciate it.
Here is the original interview: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASFK0900P_Z01C13A1000000/?dg=1

 

[kittyjake5]

Looks like Mao has a skating tour coming soon

https://twitter.com/figureskatingm1...io/iframe/twitter.min.html#969085488391798784