Beyond competitions

Posted on September 15, 2022 by Martina Frammartino

On July 19, Yuzuru Hanyu communicated to everyone his decision not to participate in competitions anymore. I’m not in his head, I don’t know him personally and I know only the public episodes of what he experienced, what he said or what people around him said, so I certainly don’t know everything, but I think I know enough, and I understand because he decided to leave the competitions. He did it in the moment of maximum form, and with the intention of improving himself even more. And this is an open wound.

The 2022 Hanyu is a better skater than the one who won the 2018 Olympic Games, or the 2017 World Championship, or the one who set six world records over two weeks in 2015. His jumps are better, his steps more intricate, his interpretation has improved. Only the elasticity has slightly decreased, with the disappearance of the biellmann (however performed in the gala of the 2021 World Championship) and a layback ina bauer in which he arches a little less than in the past, and even so there are few skaters able of hold the positions he holds. World Team Trophy aside, he should have won everything in the last few years. Even the competitions where he made mistakes. Even the competitions where he was unlucky. Even the competitions where he had physical problems. Here is the wound. For the victories he deserved and which were denied him. For four years of unjustifiable suffering, and I’m not referring to his injuries. For a competitive career interrupted prematurely, because in normal conditions Hanyu would still have tried to land the quadruple axel in a competition. Even if another skater just landed it because, despite his desire to land the jump, figure skating is not just jumps and, regardless of what is written in the record book, a jump is only worthwhile if it is really part of a program.

But normal conditions no longer exist, they have not existed for years, and Hanyu said enough. What he has won is more than enough to say that he is the greatest skater of all time, and what he has done beyond the victories, from jumps or combinations introduced by him in the discipline to a conception of figure skating as a perfect fusion. of technical and artistic aspects, closes every speech. There has never been a skater like him and I doubt that anyone will ever be able to get close to him. Even if he hadn’t won what he won, his way of interpreting figure skating is unique, and extraordinary, and enough to say that he is the GOAT.

When Hanyu held his press conference, different feelings came together in me. Sadness because I would never see him again in the competitions. Pain for those medals of the past that should have arrived and that had not arrived, and for the possible ones of the future that vanished in that instant. Understanding of the reasons behind his decision, and the acceptance of his will. Disappointment in his choice, or in him? No, that never. One thing has always been clear, even before translations of his words were spread on internet. We had seen it recently at Fantasy on Ice, but we had always known it. Hanyu loves to skate, and when he does something, he puts his soul into it. So the competitions would have disappeared, not the chances to admire his performances. In 2021 the most intense programs, both at the World Championship and at the World Team Trophy, were the two Hana wa Saku skated by Hanyu in the gala. Let Me Entertain You is a fun, energetic program, and on both occasions it deserved to get higher scores, but it’s not as intense as Hana wa Saku. Ten to Chi to is probably Hanyu’s best free skate, but on neither occasion was he able to complete it well, even if at the World Team Trophy his mistakes weren’t so serious. None of the other skaters came close to the quality of five of the six programs (four competition, two gala) skated by Hanyu in those two competitions. And of extraordinary programs, when there was no score, we have seen many during his whole career.

I followed Hanyu’s path through his competition programs through cranes made from his costumes. I started folding the cranes, in random order, last November 4th. Only in more recent times have I followed a chronological path linked to the competitions, and then I have combined the images in two posts.

Growth
Unrewarded growth

The career of an athlete is linked to the results of the competitions, but figure skating is a particular sport that combines the athletic aspect, with a series of remarkable technical difficulties, with the artistic aspect, and the fact that the competitions are closed by a gala highlights that the artistic aspect of the discipline is fundamental. As for the technical content of the gala … that is linked to the choices of each skater. There are those who keep the technical difficulties, those who do the bare minimum (but it must be said that even in competitions some skaters do the bare minimum, knowing that for him the high marks will come the same). I know that in some cases I fell in love with some skaters seeing them in galas or in shows. It all depends on what each athlete chooses to propose. Hanyu, as in the competitions, has always chosen to give his all, and this is why it has always been worth watching his performance, something that will be true in the future as well. Out of the competitions, without scores, these are the programs interpreted by Hanyu. In most cases they are programs born for galas or exhibitions, only in a few cases I made a crane using a detail of a costume worn in a program created for competitions, but which also took on a special meaning outside of competitions.

This is a detail of the suit – the tie knot is clearly visible on the left wing – worn by Hanyu at the start of the new path.

Let’s take a step back a few years. What did Hanyu do on his journey to get here?

Sing, Sing, Sing is a competition program, it’s the short program of the 2007-2008 season, and with this program and The Firebird as a free skate, he won gold at the novice A National championship and bronze at the junior National championship. I wrote that I would focus on the gala and show programs, not the competition programs, but that there would be exceptions. This is one, for two reasons. One is that the costume changes, the shirt is pink and not white as in the competitions, and since the cranes are tied to the costumes, I tried to do a crane for all of them. The other is that even the choreography changes at least a little, because in this occasion Hanyu uses something that can’t be used in the competitions: a hat. Even when he was a child, he always tried to give his best even in galas.

Competition:

and gala (low quality):

Bolero is another competition program, the short program of the 2008-2009 season, with which he won the junior National championship, finished 8° in the senior National championship and then finished 5° in his first junior Grand Prix competition (at 13 ) and 12° in the junior World championship.

What interests me is that the very young Hanyu, together with Mari Suzuki, took part in the inauguration of the Sendai Winter Park in 2008. Performing in front of the public, even outside the competitions, is something he has always done, even in difficult conditions. The light is poor, and in some moments we see that the ice is far from perfect.

Even though the post is about Hanyu, I write a few words about Mari Suzuki. Born in November 1991, she is almost three years older than Hanyu, and she too was coached by Nanami Abe, achieving, as a best result, a second place in the Junior National Championships in the fall of 2008, not too long before of this inauguration. A short biography of Suzuki, in Japanese, can be found here.

Change is a program that Hanyu has skated on several occasions, even after many years, and with different costumes.

As a show in the 2009 Summer:

As a gala in the 2009-2010 season:

Again as a show, in 2011:

As a show, with the Monkey Majik, in 2014:

There may be mistakes in the videos I post, the harder the things you do, the greater the risk of error, and sometimes it doesn’t take much to slip even on a trivial movement. However, reviewing the same program after many years allows us to appreciate the technical and artistic growth. His commitment, that has always been very high.

Vertigo in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL07uIss2aY

and Vertigo in 2015:

White Legend is a competition program, but it is much more.

As a short program of the 2010-2011 season, that of his debut among the seniors at 15, he obtained a fourth and a seventh place in Grand Prix competitions, a fourth place in the National Championship and a silver at the Four Continents Championship.

And then there was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and White Legend became a program from which to rebuild everything. It was the first he skated, on April 9, 2011, in a show whose proceeds were dedicated to reconstruction, in Kobe. I’ve never seen the full video of that show, and some videos I’ve seen on the internet in the past have been deleted. Some fragments of that program, and of that period, can be found in this video:

White Legend, the dedication to Japan and all the people who had suffered and who were continuing to suffer, would also arrive in 2014 in the gala of the new Olympic champion:

White Legend, 2021, with a quadruple toe loop impossible for anyone else for difficulty and beauty, and which continues to take my breath away. Actually I’m not sure that many celebrated champions are able of doing a triple of this level, much less a quadruple.

https://planethanyu.com/video/view/2042-20210822-yuzuru-hanyu-24h-tv-1080p-white-legend-hana-ni-nare/

With the Ice Rink having been closed for repairs for over four months, Hanyu trained in the shows, skating what would have been his 2011-2012 season competition programs. This is Romeo + Juliet.

The program has grown in the shows, even if his highest moment was in a competition, that free skate in Nice that earned him the world bronze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK3MJxS_–E

I leave the competitions and go back to a program born for the gala, Somebody to Love.

Hello I Love You in gala, 2012:

and at Fantasy on Ice, in 2015:

Hana ni Nare:

Gala, 2012:

Show, 2014 (for once without the necklaces):

Hana ni Nare, 2021:

True Love, 2013:

As I explained on Twitter, even when Hanyu wears the same costume for different programs, I try to use different photos to have different cranes.

Story:

One of the lesser known programs, Ienai yo:

Hana wa Saku, show, 2014:

Hana wa Saku again, World Championship 2021. Unfortunately my printer has lost somewhere the orange of the costume, especially in the tail, which was the flapping flap on the right, on the chest, and which here seems to be of a completely different color.

And Hana wa Saku at the World Team Trophy 2021, with an audience response that clearly demonstrates how Hanyu is able of capturing the emotions of those who watch his performances. The program, already extraordinary in 2014, is now breathtakingly beautiful.

The Final Time Traveler costume is one of the costumes where the lights used for the gala and the printer betrayed me the most about color. The costume is light blue, it is not clear from my crane.

Hanyu had skated this program a few months earlier with another costume, the one already used for Ienai yo. I didn’t do the crane, I guess I’ll have to one.

Believe, 2015:

Requiem of Heaven and Earth:

The first time he skated this program was in Kobe, and considering both Kobe’s story and Hanyu’s personal story, it’s not difficult to understand where the intensity that is felt in each gesture comes from.

The season ended with the World Championship. At the time, Lisfranc’s injury was causing him such problems that he feared this might be his last competition. And in the gala he skated again on Requiem:

Notte stellata:

“With one delayed single axel, one triple axel, Yuzuru Hanyu, double gold medalist, just gave a masterclass on what figure skating actually is […] one of the best gala performance I’ve ever witnessed“. Belinda Noonan says all there is to say about this program. A masterpiece.

After his second Olympic gold, Hanyu produced the CiONTU show (but my crane is based on the white version of the T-shirt):

https://planethanyu.com/video/view/1346-2018-continues-with-wings-day-3-plushenko-interview-eng-subbed/

Wings of Words, 2018:

I’ve almost always ignored the opening and closing numbers of the shows, but in Cruel Angel’s Thesis Hanyu skates with such intensity that I just couldn’t ignore him. And, honestly, the emotions I feel with this short program are superior to the emotions I feel with the programs of almost all the skaters who have climbed the most important podiums in recent seasons (apart from boredom, of course).

Masquerade, 2019:

We are talking about a program born for the shows, skated only in some shows in Japan, never in the gala of some competition. Hana ni Nare, Hana wa Saku, Requiem of Heaven and Earth, Notte stellata, Haru yo, Koi, whose crane is further down, have all been skated at least once in the gala of an ISU Championship (Hana ni Nare is the only one that he did not skate at the World Championship, because in 2013 he had to give up the gala because he was injured, but he skated it at the Four Continents Championship), so he knew he had an international audience to admire him. With Masquerade that audience has never been there. In theory it is a program intended only for the small audience of the shows. And, despite this, he skated a very intense program. This is why I never doubted that even with just the shows there would be fun. And to worry about. Have you seen the SharePractice? I watched it live, even though I had to get up in the middle of the night to do it. And when he tried certain jump elements, the quadruple loop (and I struggled to believe my eyes when I saw the quadruple loop-triple toe loop combo), the quadruple axel, the quadruple salchow-triple toe loop combo, I held the breath, hoping he would land them. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t a competition, I was holding my breath like in a competition. Okay, on the quadruple axel I also prayed that he wouldn’t get hurt. And I followed SEIMEI with the same intensity with which I always followed it in the competitions. No, it doesn’t matter that there will be no competitions. Selfishly speaking, I would have liked to see more because I still wanted to cheer for him, I would have liked to see him conquer more victories, but in recent years the results of the competitions have lost all value, with medals awarded in a very arbitrary way. Emotions have not diminished at all, and this is the most important thing. Hanyu is Hanyu, figure skating … once there was a sport with this name, now skaters skate, some better and some worse, but competitions no longer count for anything.

Rocketman? Between a program of only jumps, and made only after a long run, and this program, I have no doubts about what I prefer to watch. Faced with that masterpiece that is Masquerade, sometimes we end up forgetting that on that tour Hanyu presented two programs, and Crystal Memories is also extraordinary.

Haru yo, Koi:

With SEIMEI I go back to a competition program, to remember that sometimes competitions are a limitation for the skaters. Hanyu made it clear that he didn’t do some spins in the competitions because they wouldn’t bring him points. As for SEIMEI, when the step sequence included backwards cross rolls, at Autumn Classic International 2015, it only received level 2. But those cross rolls are wonderful, and as soon as he could, Hanyu put them back into the program. This is Medalist on Ice 2019.

Not only. SEIMEI, like all the best programs, has continued to evolve over time. At 1:48:58 of the SharePractice a perfect version of the program begins, with the Olympic layout but also the cross rolls backwards and a continuous attention to every detail.

Here are just before the triple axel in combination. During the ina bauer Hanyu does a much more precise move with the arms, and if you look carefully at the video in slow motion you can see that the way he bends his fingers at the end is also done very carefully. The wizard Abe no Seimei is casting a spell, so accuracy is key, and the skater Hanyu takes care of the details of the program even outside of competitions. Even if he will no longer participate in any competition.

I had already written the previous comment, on the refinement of the gesture, when Sarah Sohma posted a subtitled video on Twitter:

For some, the old programs are simple repetitions of what they have already done, for Hanyu they are new interpretations, with the intention of digging deeper and deeper inside himself and the music.

We know this as a competition costume, for Let Me Entertain You, but Hanyu also wore it on a show, for Blinding Lights.

Let’s Go Crazy is a competition program, and maybe you have to be a little crazy, as well as have enormous confidence in your abilities and extraordinary technique, to skate a program like Let’s Go Crazy on a small rink and with the lights used in the shows.

This is my first crane with a detail of the trousers instead of the shirt. Some images of Let’s Go Crazy, with a music that has nothing to do with it, can be seen from 4:40.

Here the music is the right one, the problem is the quality of the video.

Let Me Entertain You is a competition program, but since the costume changed for Medalist on Ice 2021, I dedicated a crane to it. The program starts at 5:04:

The last time Hanyu skated before officially turning pro was in Fantasy on Ice. First half of the tour, opening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1feQGnmEwIM

Real Face, 2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgecacG3oOE

Fantasy on Ice 2022, second half of the tour. Opening:

The red part of the costume has disappeared inside the folds, on the other hand the necklaces worn by Hanyu can be seen on the neck of the crane (while the tip of the left wing is the lace of the right shoulder), sometimes the most curious details remain visible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUpOFM6THPE

Raison is the clearest demonstration of how extraordinary Hanyu is. Let’s leave the competitions aside, where there is cheering (however, I don’t like all the competitions programs in the same way, and not all of them have fascinated me since the first time I saw them). With Masquerade it was love at first sight. I saw Masquerade and loved it instantly. Raison is much more difficult for me, both because it is a type of music that meets my tastes less (I am referring only to the notes and the voice of the singer, both songs have beautiful lyrics, but I discovered this only later, when I had the possibility to read the English translations), and because Hanyu’s way of moving is different. Different, not wrong, and as I watched the program, time after time, I became more and more aware of how extraordinary Raison is. Hanyu compared it to surume, and it’s true: at first you struggle, but then you can’t do without it anymore.

Hanyu skated Notre-Dame de Paris wearing the same costume as Raison, but they are two different programs and I made two different cranes.

Raison:

Notre-Dame de Paris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olPlTmciPG8

How much has Hanyu improved over the years? And whoever edited the two videos together didn’t compare the 2022 version with any competition from the 2012-2013 season, when Hanyu often came out of breath at the end of the program. He compared it to the gala of the Internationaux de France 2013, when Hanyu had already been working on skating skills with Tracy Wilson for a year and a half and when he had improved a lot on an athletic level.

Turandot, FaOI 2022:

From 19:42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzNbS5iPKKQ

Fantasy on Ice ended in June. On July 19, Hanyu announced that he had decided to continue as a professional athlete. On 7 August he opened his youtube channel, the logo was released two days later.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXVX37lFVqMfYWNsDvqhdQ

On August 10, Hanyu showed us a training session. The part off ice, and the part on ice. Some things are interesting, some are extraordinary. And I don’t care that he only managed to skate a perfect version of SEIMEI on the third try. He didn’t always manage to do all the jumps even in the competitions, because unlike the jumps of the other skaters, his jumps are always preceded by steps, and this makes them more difficult. Sometimes the jumps went wrong, but when everything worked right, a program like the third SEIMEI in this video would come along, and this program came when he was tired for a training much more difficult than the normal training done before a competition. In SharePractice Hanyu showed everyone the best skater ever, at the peak of his technical and physical form.

At 1:22:30 Hanyu took off his jacket:

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso is the most difficult short program ever skated in a competition. It is not for the jumps, which are only quadruple salchow and quadruple toe loop in combination, it is for everything else. Because there are only six crossovers, and there is not a single moment of respite. I would like to see anyone else skate this program, even with just triples. And as his first public appearance after turning pro, Hanyu chose to challenge himself on the most difficult program ever choreographed, further complicated by the painful memories that this program brought with it. The result is simply to be admired.

Hanyu’s new career has just begun, and of one thing I’m sure: with him, we’ll have a lot of fun.

#AlwaysWithYuzu

This entry was posted in pattinaggio and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Beyond competitions

  1. Fenraven – Fenraven lives in central Florida, which reminds him of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Find him on Twitter and Facebook by searching on 'fenraven'.
    Fenraven says:
    September 15, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    I’m only about a third of the way through the videos, many of which I hadn’t seen before because he was young then, and I came to the fandom late. It is fun to see how he improves over time. 🙂 The one thing that stood out doesn’t even relate to Yuzu: it’s the way the Japanese feel compelled to talk over his performance, to the point where I turned off the sound. That, and the advertising all over the place. And I thought ads were bad in the US! 🙂 To me it shows a lack of respect, because it detracts from his performance and the music he’s skating to, but I acknowledge there are differences in culture when it comes to such things.

    I also want to thank you for collecting such a wonderful list of Yuzu videos in one post! It’ll take me a while to work my way through them, but I’m going to do it!

    Reply
    • Martina Frammartino
      Martina Frammartino says:
      September 16, 2022 at 8:47 am

      I also find excessive comments during the program annoying. The mention of the technical element is fine, because most of the audience does not distinguish one jump from the other, but the rest can be said before and after the program. The thing I hate most, however, are the overlaid writings. With those I get really angry.
      I have watched all of these videos at some point in the last years, but I have not looked at them all while writing the post because otherwise I would have had to spend too much time on them.
      The order in which I inserted them in the post is slightly different from the order in which I published the cranes: when he skated the same program after some time, I wanted to give the possibility to see the technical growth. Yuzu’s is truly an extraordinary path and, even if there will be no more competitions, it is not over yet.

      Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply