Mad for Skating blog

Rostelecom Cup review is done! I must apologize for the length of the first part; I had a lot of thoughts on the Russian pairs.

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2019 Rostelecom Cup Pairs’ and Ladies’ Review: Rambling About Russians

Privet! Rostelecom Cup has been my favorite Grand Prix event since I started watching skating in 2014, so I am especially excited to write this review. Maybe it’s my secret desire to be Black Widow…
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This week’s blog post is a personal story. I wrote about my experience with stereotypes as an Asian-American girl and how we can help change the assumptions society makes about us. Please like and share.

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Don’t Call Me Angel: My Experience with Stereotypes as an Asian-American Woman

My name is Isabel. I am 17 years old. My favorite color is black. My favorite movie is The Matrix. My Hogwarts House is Slytherin. I chopped my hair off because I’m lazy and I hate styling my hair.…
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Also, I started a new poetry blog! I’ve already posted 3 poems inspired by some of my favorite figure skaters if anyone is interested. (Sorry for the shameless self-promotion here)
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Write, Skate, Live

Poems, short stories, and whatever else is on my mind.
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My (extremely long) review of the Grand Prix Final. This time, I covered all four disciplines: men, ladies, pairs, and dance. Enjoy!

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2019-20 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Review: Off to the Races

After six weeks of nonstop skating and a two-week break to catch our breath, it’s time for the Grand Prix Final. Overall, I’d say it’s been a fun Grand Prix to watch – dark horses in the men’s even…
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Opinion piece on the WADA ban for Russian athletes. I know it's a controversial topic, but I want to share my perspective on it.
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“What about us?” My Opinion on the WADA Decision for Russian Athletes

“What about us? What about all the times you said you had the answers? What about us? What about all the broken happy ever afters? What about us? What about all the plans that ended in disaster?” &…
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My review of the pairs’ event at 2020 Russian Nationals is up:

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2020 Russian Nationals Pairs Review: It Ain’t Over Till the TAT Lady Sings

My favorite part of Russian competitions is the exhilarating energy in the arena. Russian fans love their figure skating, there’s always several incredible performances, and good old Tatiana Anatol…
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And for fun, I posted some live reactions to the ladies’ short programs.

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2020 Russian Nationals: My Live Play-by-Plays of the Ladies’ Short Program

Before I joined skating Twitter and started my own blog, I used to watch skating events with a notebook in hand and write down a live commentary about each performance. I haven’t done it in quite s…
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This week’s blog post looks at the incredible, respectful rivalry between Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen and the influence they’ve had on the sport in the past few years. Please like, comment, or share.

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A Clash of Kings: A Few Thoughts on the Rivalry between Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen

We are blessed to live in an era with two incredible athletes who have revolutionized the sport of figure skating in only a few years: Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen. Their styles are polar opposites…
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@Mad for Skating, to me this post is more about the fan war of Fanyus vs Chen fans than it is about the rivalry itself. I was disappointed because when I saw the title, I thought Yes! great idea!! Maybe I'm atypical (I don't know) but I tune out the fan wars. I didn't even know there were Chen fans who are comparable to Hanyu fans in their fury, and I don't really care, or think there is much point to complaining about crazy fans. To be honest, their passion is good for the sport from the point of view of ticket sales. You should listen to some call-in talk shows about regular sports like football - fans are rude, crude and argumentative. (Sometimes I hear a few seconds in the car while hunting for a classical or country station.) I don't like football or that kind of show, so I ignore them, but I'm glad they're there, at least I'm glad the Fanyus are there to boost interest in skating as long as they don't hurt anyone. I'm pretty sure Nathan doesn't waste brainpower on them. Hopefully Yuzuru doesn't either.

Anyway maybe you could follow up later with a Take 2 that delves more into Nathan and Yuzuru.
 
Mad for Skating said:
This week’s blog post looks at the incredible, respectful rivalry between Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen and the influence they’ve had on the sport in the past few years. Please like, comment, or share.

madforskating.wordpress.com

A Clash of Kings: A Few Thoughts on the Rivalry between Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen

We are blessed to live in an era with two incredible athletes who have revolutionized the sport of figure skating in only a few years: Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen. Their styles are polar opposites…
madforskating.wordpress.com madforskating.wordpress.com
Click to expand...
Well said. And needed to be said.
 
Spun Silver said:
@Mad for Skating, to me this post is more about the fan war of Fanyus vs Chen fans than it is about the rivalry itself. I was disappointed because when I saw the title, I thought Yes! great idea!! Maybe I'm atypical (I don't know) but I tune out the fan wars. I didn't even know there were Chen fans who are comparable to Hanyu fans in their fury, and I don't really care, or think there is much point to complaining about crazy fans. To be honest, their passion is good for the sport from the point of view of ticket sales. You should listen to some call-in talk shows about regular sports like football - fans are rude, crude and argumentative. (Sometimes I hear a few seconds in the car while hunting for a classical or country station.) I don't like football or that kind of show, so I ignore them, but I'm glad they're there, at least I'm glad the Fanyus are there to boost interest in skating as long as they don't hurt anyone. I'm pretty sure Nathan doesn't waste brainpower on them. Hopefully Yuzuru doesn't either.

Anyway maybe you could follow up later with a Take 2 that delves more into Nathan and Yuzuru.
Click to expand...

I intended to write a post that shows how both of them are amazing athletes and both deserve our respect. I try to block out most of the trolls too, but I saw an excessive amount of nastiness in the fandom within the past year, so I ended up talking about that a bit more than I had intended. Even though this kind of nastiness happens every day, I think it’s important to call people out on it so they don’t just get away with convincing everyone that this is okay. I love how Yuzuru has brought such a huge following to the sport, and most of his fans are good people. It’s just a shame when a few bad apples spoil the bunch. (The same goes for Nathan’s fans). Neither one uses social media much so I don’t think they’ll see much, but it still bothers me that there seem to be little cults of haters who trash them publicly.

If you’d like a post that focuses more on the skating itself, I could easily do a follow-up. Sorry for any misrepresentation this might have caused.
 
I don't think a few bad apples spoiled anything. Why would they, if Yuzu has nothing to do with the craziness? They certainly don't make me change my view of Japanese fans or skaters.

Anyway, you don't owe me another post. :) You should write what you feel called to write. I was just opining. Keep up the great work. I admire your knowledge and passion.
 
Spun Silver said:
I don't think a few bad apples spoiled anything. Why would they, if Yuzu has nothing to do with the craziness? They certainly don't make me change my view of Japanese fans or skaters.

Anyway, you don't owe me another post. :) You should write what you feel called to write. I was just opining. Keep up the great work. I admire your knowledge and passion.
Click to expand...

I just feel bad that fans of either skater would bully their favorite’s rival when Nathan and Yuzuru are clearly so respectful of each other. I try to stay out of it, but lately I can’t even log into twitter without seeing senseless arguing and hate.
I really appreciate your opinion and support for my blog! I like when people take the time to share their comments on what I’ve written. Peace!
 
Mad for Skating said:
I intended to write a post that shows how both of them are amazing athletes and both deserve our respect. I try to block out most of the trolls too, but I saw an excessive amount of nastiness in the fandom within the past year, so I ended up talking about that a bit more than I had intended. Even though this kind of nastiness happens every day, I think it’s important to call people out on it so they don’t just get away with convincing everyone that this is okay. I love how Yuzuru has brought such a huge following to the sport, and most of his fans are good people. It’s just a shame when a few bad apples spoil the bunch. (The same goes for Nathan’s fans). Neither one uses social media much so I don’t think they’ll see much, but it still bothers me that there seem to be little cults of haters who trash them publicly.

If you’d like a post that focuses more on the skating itself, I could easily do a follow-up. Sorry for any misrepresentation this might have caused.
Click to expand...

Nathan is quite active on social media, fortunately he has another twitter basketball account so he wouldn’t be distracted by all the fs drama, but he still logs in to his main account and tweets occasionally. FSU and Fanyus @him all the time. He is very active on IG. Read the comments for this IG post about Michelle’s Yale visit. Nathan had to change the caption three times just to make the fanyus happy. Natha’s sister had to step in to defend her younger brother. She had to defend her younger brother when the interview of People Magazine came out in September

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Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
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Read the comments of this People Magazine tweet, just imagine how Nathan and his sister think when they read the tweet. Nathan’s sister is very active on twitter
twitter.com

People on Twitter

“He's an Olympic Medalist and a College Sophomore: All About Nathan Chen's Life at Yale — While Still Figure Skating https://t.co/NwqLxK4Ndb”
twitter.com twitter.com

He talked about this incident when asked by a fan at M&G, and Ashley who sat next to him at M&G talked about she experienced similar attack.

Fanyus’ attack did impact skaters’ life. They started a campaign try to remove Eric from some ISU post last April around this “goat” incident simply because he voiced his opinion that figure skating is a subjective sport or something like that.

In his interview with Lilah Fear back in July, he did say some criticism about something he cannot change or something he was born with really hurts.
 
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About the friendly rivalry between these two great skater, Jackie tweeted some friendly interactions between the two during worlds. Meryl, Jackie and Orser discussed the friendly rivalry displayed at worlds.

There are several Japanese TV programs about the friendly rivalr. Both of them are great motivation of each other.
 
Alexa said:
Nathan is quite active on social media, fortunately he has another twitter basketball account so he wouldn’t be distracted by all the fs drama, but he still logs in to his main account and tweets occasionally. FSU and Fanyus @him all the time. He is very active on IG. Read the comments for this IG post about Michelle’s Yale visit. Nathan had to change the caption three times just to make the fanyus happy. Natha’s sister had to step in to defend her younger brother. She had to defend her younger brother when the interview of People Magazine came out in September

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com

Read the comments of this People Magazine tweet, just imagine how Nathan and his sister think when they read the tweet. Nathan’s sister is very active on twitter
twitter.com

People on Twitter

“He's an Olympic Medalist and a College Sophomore: All About Nathan Chen's Life at Yale — While Still Figure Skating https://t.co/NwqLxK4Ndb”
twitter.com twitter.com

He talked about this incident when asked by a fan at M&G, and Ashley who sat next to him at M&G talked about she experienced similar attack.

Fanyus’ attack did impact skaters’ life. They started a campaign try to remove Eric from some ISU post last April around this “goat” incident simply because he voiced his opinion that figure skating is a subjective sport or something like that.

In his interview with Lilah Fear back in July, he did say some criticism about something he cannot change or something he was born with really hurts.
Click to expand...

Oh boy, I was hoping that this nastiness wouldn’t reach him, but I guess not. I feel so bad that he’s had to deal with this (I heard some crazies even sent him death threats after Worlds). It’s just so unfortunate.
I remember the incident about Eric - there was literally a petition on Change.org! It was simply ridiculous.

Alexa said:
About the friendly rivalry between these two great skater, Jackie tweeted some friendly interactions between the two during worlds. Meryl, Jackie and Orser discussed the friendly rivalry displayed at worlds.

There are several Japanese TV programs about the friendly rivalr. Both of them are great motivation of each other.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I think it’s amazing to see such respect between athletes at this level because it hasn’t always been like that. That’s what makes these fan wars even more stupid - it’s not like either guy has done something to hurt the other (besides beating him in competition, and if you can’t deal with that, you shouldn’t watch sports).
 
Trigger warning for the blog post below: sexual assault

In light of the #MeToo movement and the recent stories of sexual harassment and assault in figure skating, I’ve written a blog post about what we can do to make the skating world a safer place. I think there are many people trying to support survivors, but it’s sometimes hard to know what’s helpful and what’s not, so I compiled a list of 10 things we can do to show our support.

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What It Really Means to Support Survivors

Trigger warning: sexual assault It’s been one year since the night I saw my favorite sport destroyed. Or at least the illusion of the sport I knew. I received word that John Coughlin had taken his …
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