#junior grand prix final 2022

[rabidline]

2022 Junior Grand Prix Final - December 9, 2022 Minsol Kwon → Music from “Cats”: Macavity, Beautiful Ghosts (Victoria’s Song), Overture by Andrew Lloyd Webber, choreographed by Yeaji Shin

[figureskatingcostumes]

Yuseong Kim skating to Fly Me to the Moon for her short program at the 2024 Youth Olympics and 2023 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Here's a close-up of her fancy hair accessory, seen here at the 2023 Junior Korean Nationals:

Although, my favourite hairdo for this costume is here, at the Korean qualifying competition for the 2024 Youth Olympics:

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

[oofthwoods]

INTRODUCTION! ── ˙ ̟ the echo !!

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 :: get to know porsche's bet for the newest legend in the making in formula one, dubbed as the echo.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 :: i've been absolutely hooked in @disneyprincemuke vettel reincarnated's series and i have always loved fem!drivers so i decided to give my own take on this <3. | can definitely be read as a reader insert, but the driver will driver under a specific flag and related to a famous driver! even so, physical descriptions will not be given, so you can definitely picture yourself

our fem!driver has a few titles to her name! the most well known, echo, comes from her championship winning f3 & f2 seasons, where she was consistently the fastest driver in the grid, leaving behind only a faint trace of her presence for the other drivers to see.

other nicknames include "lightning" due to her great performances on wet races (as the media says, the only thing faster than the rain is the lightning.), "pg" (stands for both princess of the grid, which is an old karting nickname, and parental guide, given due to her young age), and the legacy.

she is the daughter of ex- formula one driver, rubens barrichello. she drivers under the brazilian flag. i picture her as the middle child, so that would place her date of birth between '01 & '04.

has a streak of four consecutive championship winning years: the italian formula 4 in 2019, freca in 2020, formula 3 in 2021 and formula 2 in 2022.

art grand prix girlie! has been with the french team for both her f3 and f2 seasons.

she was a red bull junior, but was suddenly cut from the team after her formula 3 season. helmut mark claimed that she wasn't consistent enough to justify a contract renewal, which was clearly bullshit as she had literally won the championship.

competed in formula 2 without an academy, but was in talks with porsche to join their team.

committing to her lightning nickname, she chose 95 as her number!

grew up in the paddock! her dad loved to take her around the world with him, and she became a familiar face to all crew and drivers. although she is the youngest of the current grid, she is closer to the oldest guys due to knowing them since she was very young.

outside of formula 1, her closest friends are gabriel bortoleto, felipe drugovich, frederik vesti, liam lawson and clément novalak.

within formula 1, she is closest to fernando alonso, lewis hamilton (both who met her when she was a baby), mick schumacher (her teammate at porsche), lando norris, alex albon and oscar piastri. but she is friendly with everyone, and tries to know them better — it does help that she is a social butterfly who could talk to the walls even if they don't answer.

about porsche: have been in the talks of joining the grid for a long time, and finally got their approval for 2023. they could go for veteran drivers but decided against it, placing their bets of mick schumacher, who had just been dropped from haas, and y/n barrichello, the f2 champion.

when the news dropped, it was the talk of the town! not only she would be the first female to compete in formula one in several years, but the duo barrichello-schumacher would be present again in the grid!

actually loves doing grill the grid and other challenges. some people think it's the rookie rush, but she has always loved playing those games.

has the biggest fat girl crush on susie wolff. would kiss the ground she walks if she could.

still needs a lot pr training due to amount of cursing and off-pocket things she says. apparently saying "i'll throw myself in front of verstappen's car and change the trajectory of his entire life" is not socially acceptable, neither is saying that she's plotting his accidental death.

sponsored by vivienne westwood, which she claims is probably the coolest thing to happen to her.

[yuzurujenn]

[2024.08.05] AERA x Yuzuru Hanyu: 24.8.12-19 No. 37

person in focus

"After all, it's frustrating when I can't perform well."

A session with photographer Mika Ninagawa for the first time in a year. In a long interview exclusive to this magazine, he talks about the ideals he pursues.

Writer: Takaomi Matsubara

Professional skater Yuzuru Hanyu

Born December 7, 1994 in Sendai. 2009 Won the Junior Grand Prix Final at age 14. 2010 Became the youngest Japanese male to win the World Junior Championships. 2011 While practicing at a rink in Sendai, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, and he had to live in an evacuation shelter. The rink where he was training was temporarily closed. 2012 First participated in the World Championships, coming in third. 2013 Graduated from Tohoku High School. Enrolled in a correspondence course at the Faculty of Human Sciences at Waseda University, studying human informatics and cognitive sciences. Won his first Grand Prix Final. Won four consecutive titles thereafter. 2014 First Asian gold medal in men's figure skating at the Sochi Olympics. First World Championship win. 2017 Second World Championship win. 2018 Second gold medal in men's figure skating at the Pyeongchang Olympics. 2020 Won his first Four Continents Championship, becoming the first man to win all major international junior and senior competitions. 2022 Participated in the Beijing Olympics. In July, announced his professional career. The ice show "Prologue" was held in Yokohama in November and in Hachinohe in December. 2023 In February, the ice show "GIFT" was held at Tokyo Dome. In March, the ice show "notte stellata" was held in Miyagi Prefecture. In March and April, he appeared in the ice show "Stars on Ice" (Osaka, Iwate, Yokohama). In May and June, he appeared in the ice show "Fantasy on Ice" (Makuhari, Miyagi, Niigata, Kobe). In November, the ice show "RE_PRAY" tour began at Saitama Super Arena. The following year, it was held at SAGA Arena in Saga in January, Pia Arena MM in Yokohama in February, and Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Miyagi in April. 2024 In March, the ice show "notte stellata" was held in Miyagi Prefecture. In May and June, he appeared in the ice show "Fantasy on Ice" (Makuhari, Aichi). On September 15th, he will be performing in the "Noto Peninsula Reconstruction Support Charity Performance Challenge" in Ishikawa Prefecture.

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It has been two years since he made a new start as a professional figure skater in the summer of 2022. In 2024, he led three successful ice shows: "RE_PRAY" (Saga, Yokohama, Miyagi performances), "notte stellata" and "Fantasy on Ice".

The shoot with Mika Ninagawa for the first time in a year began with a cheerful greeting from each other, "Thank you for your continued support this year," and "Thank you." When she said to him, "You're still as young as ever!", Hanyu replied with a smile, a little embarrassed, "I'm almost 30."

"Move freely."

With those words, he made expressions and gestures as he pleased.

Various scenes were set up in the vast studio. Hanyu, who changed costumes and was photographed in each scene, moved and made expressions freely, sometimes under instructions and sometimes as if he was imagining (creating) a story himself. The people watching repeatedly let out gasps of amazement as the images were displayed one after another on the computer monitor. It was nothing short of amazing how he instantly exuded various moods - from boyish with a hint of innocence to cool and seductive.

His creativity was not limited to the way he behaved as a subject. When the BGM was played during the shoot, his body naturally responded to the music, and he also requested songs himself when he saw the costumes. There was also a moment when he saw a prop that had been set up and asked, "Do you have one more of these?" This revealed his high level of creative awareness.

The shooting has completed.

"Thank you very much," he said, and there was something light-hearted and cheerful about it. After a year, what he showed in the studio was a more mature and expressive side to him.

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Exclusive interview with this magazine

[In pursuit of a distant ideal]

He is now in his third year as a professional figure skater. Reflecting on his days of taking on unprecedented challenges, he spoke about what he has gained from them and what the future holds.

Photo: Mika Ninagawa    Writer: Takaomi Matsubara

Yuzuru Hanyu, the journey continues

hair & make up: Noboru Tomizawa  styling: Masataka Hattori costume: NEEDLES    BED j.w. FORD    YUKI HASHIMOTO  prop styling: Ayumi Endo

Yuzuru Hanyu started out as a professional figure skater in 2022. In his first professional ice show, "Prologue," he performed the first solo ice show in history. He skated for nearly two hours, with a structure that richly conveyed his skating career. Following "Prologue," he then performed a solo show at the Tokyo Dome for the first time in history, "GIFT." The ice show filled the gigantic venue, which had never been seen before.  After "Prologue" and "GIFT," he held the performance "notte stellata" in March 2023, which was filled with thoughts and prayers for March 11. It has been a year since our interview last summer, following those three performances.

Changes in the "depth" of thinking

"When I was interviewed a year ago, it had just been a year since I turned professional. I had a desire to grow and learn more specialized things. In the year since then, I think that my technique, expression, and many other aspects have changed. Among them, I feel that I have had many more opportunities to think about expression. I have been thinking about expression even in my daily life. I think that the way I think about my show, the way I think about each program, the depth of those things has clearly changed." He talks about what triggered the change in the past year. "First of all, I had to spend more time thinking about writing a new ice story after GIFT and also about my own performance.” The new ice story was "RE_PRAY", under the title "ICE STORY 2nd".  It opened on November 4, 2023 at Saitama Super Arena. It was performed in Saitama for two days, on that day and the following day, and in the new year it was performed in Saga on January 12th and 14th, and in Yokohama on February 17th and 19th, for a total of six performances in three cities. After the premiere in Saitama on November 4th, Hanyu said the following. "First of all, I myself have learned from games, manga, novels, and various other sources, about what life is all about, how precious life is, and other similar things that everyone else roughly feels.

In games, the concept of life is really light in a sense, and you can repeat it, so you can use characters to do all sorts of things and push forward with curiosity. If you apply that to the real world, you might be a person who has the drive to grab hold of dreams, or conversely, from a different perspective, you might be a very terrifying person. But if you could do it all over again, I'm sure people would try it."

24 hours a day, always skating

In this story with a game motif, the question of "choice" is often depicted. We make choices in our lives, even if we are not aware of it. What if you choose a different option than the one you originally chose? Or would you choose the same option? This story asks the audience, which serves as an opportunity to reexamine their way of life. Of course, just like "Prologue" and "GIFT," the fact that this story was completed and received with overwhelming acclaim was due to the performance of Hanyu, who was the sole performer. And even after six performances, he did not try to stay in the same place. He continued to evolve. There were many evidences of this growth at the final performance of the Yokohama show, for example. The movements in the performance of "Chicken, Snake and Pig" where he moved forward as if resisting the shackles. The performance of "Megalovania", following a silent performance without music with only the sound of his edges resonating, was more integrated with the music than in previous performances. Not only in the production aspects, but also in the details of Hanyu's performance itself, there were traces of refinement here and there. After the Saga performance, Hanyu spent his days preparing more rigorously for the Yokohama performance.  "Of course, I trained and restricted my diet. Well, how should I say it, there are 24 hours in a day, but I spent the entire time on nothing else but skating. In other words, skating was always present, 24 hours a day.” "That's right. To put it simply, it felt like I was spending every day just working on 'RE_PRAY'." The reason he spent all his time facing skating was because he had regrets about the Saga performance. "After all, it's frustrating when I can't perform well." However, the standards of frustration have changed from when he was a competing athlete.

Still not enough

"Gradually, the focus is shifting from scores to an evaluation. If something technical that I had planned didn't go well, then my evaluation vector changes and my perspective shifts. I couldn't accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in Saga, so I was simply disappointed." After spending 24 hours focused on skating, the Yokohama performance came. After the final performance, he said, "I feel a sense of accomplishment like winning the Olympics." While he felt a sense of fulfillment, he wasn't completely satisfied. He also felt that his ability had not yet caught up with what he wanted to do. "So I feel like there are still things I need to study more. Of course, I think I'm evolving. I think I'm getting better. But I still feel like it's not enough. As I keep digging deeper and deeper, my ideals become higher, and the things I want to express are becoming more and more specific. The more my ideals become more concrete, the more I feel like I'm not catching up." He is aware that he still has areas where he needs to improve, especially in the finer details. This is something he realises now, which he didn't feel this way when he was competing in the sport. "It's impossible to realise this when you're a competitive athlete. After all, if you can jump, you win. To be honest, if you couldn’t jump, there was no point in talking about it, as the outcome of the competition was pretty much decided by how many types of quadruple jumps there are and where you put them in the program. For example, what memories do you have of this song, the background of this song, what is the story you want to express, how will the story and the song fit together, or what meaning is in the choreography, to be honest, there’s not much room to think about them. You have to complete all your technical elements in one go in the four minutes of a competition (free skate), so that's all you can focus on."

A world not in first place

Win the match. In a competition, that is set as a goal. "Since I had already achieved that, there was no way I could go any higher. If you think about it in the world of competition, I won first place, so even if I tried harder, I couldn't get any higher than first place. In other words, I just tried to see how long I could maintain that first place position.

But in the world I'm in right now, even if I think I'm in first place, it may not be. It’s a place where I can think, "I'm still at the bottom". When I look at the various works of art or technically excellent things from around the world, I feel that there are still many things I can't do, so I think that I still have a long way to go." When he moved from the world of competition, which was fixed in a sense, to a new world, it was no longer a confined space. However, whether one knows its vastness or not, whether one feels that there is an endlessly wide world out there, is up to the individual. So even though the world is infinite, some people only notice a limited space. Or, there are those who limit the space themselves.

Right now, Hanyu thinks, "I still have a long way to go." He feels like he's at the bottom. This is because he knows that the world is endlessly vast. The reason he feels this way is because he has the ambition to move forward without being content with the present. So instead of seeing the place he has arrived at as the end point, he knows that there is still space to go beyond that.

Ideals evolve

"I may have surpassed the ideal I had a year ago. But the sense of distance between me and my ideal is probably the same as it was a year ago. For example, if the distance between me and my ideal a year ago was 10 meters, it may be 10 meters, no, 11 meters now. That's how I feel. I'm living and experiencing life, I see information every day, and in the midst of that, my ideal evolves. My ideal gets further and further away. But at the same time, through what I have seen and experienced, I'm sure I’m also one step closer to my ideal." Then, after a short pause, he continued with a smile. "As long as I want to, I think I can continue for the rest of my life." The skater is still on his journey, striving towards the ideals he has built with his own will. 

Source: AERA issue 24.8.12-19 No.37, pg 9-15 Info: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0D89L6LS2

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

ISU released an article about Shoma

Two-time ISU World Champion and three-time Olympic medalist Shoma Uno of Japan has announced his retirement from competitive skating after a long and distinguished career and is ready to open a new chapter in his life.

“I have decided to retire from active competition,” Uno wrote on Instagram. “I am very grateful to have been able to continue skating for 21 years since I was 5 years old, and to have had a wonderful athletic life.”

The Japanese star will talk in more detail about his retirement and future plans in a press conference scheduled for May 14.

The 26-year-old looks back at a career with many highlights and also difficult times, but he always came back, proving his talent and showing resilience. When five-year-old Shoma went to the ice rink in his hometown of Nagoya with his father to have fun, he had no idea that he would become a World Champion, Olympic medalist and super star of the sport. He only knew that the enjoyed skating and kept coming back to the rink, taking lessons. He trained with Machiko Yamada, the coach of Japanese skating icon Midori Ito and also with Mihoko Higuchi for many years and worked his way up in the skating world.

Uno debuted in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2011 and was so tiny that he was unable to look over the boards. He won a few medals on the Junior circuit but his breakthrough came in what was his last Junior season in 2014/15 when he qualified for the first time for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final where he claimed gold. Shoma went on to take the ISU World Junior title in 2015, in what was his fourth and final appearance at the event (climbing from 10th in 2012, 7th in 2013 and 5th in 2014).

Once at the senior level, Uno quickly became one of the top Skaters in the World. In his World debut in 2016 he placed 7th but then the next year won silver, his first of a total of four World medals. In his first Olympic Winter Games in 2018, Shoma skated off with the silver medal and returned on to the Olympic podium four years later, earning the bronze. In 2022 and 2023 Uno crowned himself ISU World Champion.

However, in between there was a time of struggle. In the 2019/20 season, for the first (and only) time in his career, Uno finished off the podium in the ISU Grand Prix Series. He had left his coaches since childhood and struggled with confidence.

“At first, to be honest, I was thinking about finishing my career,“ he said in an interview at Skate America 2021 about this time.

“I did not know how much longer I would keep going. But imaging the end (I thought) maybe I'll enjoy the rest of this career as an athlete.“

Uno started to work with two-time World Champion Stéphane Lambiel as his coach and choreographer in fall 2019 and soon came back strong. He grew as an athlete and a performer with beautiful programs that highlighted his versatility: “Turandot” (Free Skating 2017/18), “Great Spirit” (Short Program 2020/21), “Bolero” (Free Skating 2021/22) and “Spiegel im Spiegel” (Free Skating 2023/24) to name a few.

At the same time, the Japanese star always pushed the limits technically and made history by becoming the first Skater to perform a quadruple flip in competition in 2016.

“When I train and want to become better, it's not good for me to work on what I can already do. If I'm satisfied with just giving 80 per cent, I'm not good. The right training for me is to push my limits,” Uno said in an interview.

The Japanese Skater has an independent mind and a fun personality. He has a Youtube Channel where you can meet his three toy poodles Emma, Baron and Toro.

“When I am on the ice, I am totally focused on my sport, but when I'm off the ice, I am sure most people know I am just a lazy slacker, but I thought that would be a good way to show to the people how I am off the ice, but still this is Shoma Uno,” he explained.

When asked who inspires him the most, Shoma’s surprising answer was:

"Myself. Of course, I think I am inspired by many people and heard some good words from everyone, too, but in the end when you break it down, I do feel that it is myself that inspires me and sadly, I don't listen to anyone. Sometimes I listen, but mostly I go with my own mind,” he added.

For sure Uno will follow his own ideas in the years to come but you can certainly expect to see him gracing the ice in shows for a while.

[eggplantgifs]

Hannah Lim & Ye Quan: Danse Macabre » 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final

[lilydoeswrite]

you know what my roman empire is? the 3a in figure skating. anna shcherbakova, aliona kostornaia and alexandra trusova. their dominance, how it wasn’t a question whether they’d be on the podium but where on the podium? which step would they stand on and which medal would they bring back because everyone knew they’d place. how much history they made— alexandra with the quads, aliona with the magnificent triple axel and artistry and anna with her artistry and elegance on the ice. the 2019 junior grand prix final where aliona won and alexandra and anna were on the podium. how it was their season, their dominance, how they were said to be the next stars in the 2022 olympics— only for anna to go home with the olympic gold feeling empty, for alexandra to have a complete breakdown in public with cameras all around her and for aliona to completely miss out on it due to injuries. and now in 2024? aliona has switched disciplines to pairs and is the only one still skating with anna and alexandra being unofficially retired. this is my roman empire.

[umgeorge]

george russell is interviewed on media day, miami - may 2, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Interviewer: "A lot of chat around the paddock and in the press about Mercedes' potential interest in Max Verstappen, potentially to be your teammate next year. What would you think if Max was to come here and to be your teammate? You've obviously taken on Lewis, one of the greatest of all time, as your teammate here, but Max the driver who's defining the current generation. How would that be, as a teammate?" George: "Yeah, I'd be all for it, to be honest. I think coming into Mercedes in 2022 was off the back of Lewis' legendary years and victories, and that was a huge task for anybody, jumping into a team where he's been for so long, and I believe in myself. And you need to go up against the best in the same machinery and show what you've got, so I feel that having Lewis as my teammate for the past three years… He's been a hell of a teammate, such a great driver, and we push each other every single week and I think it's fair to say that, so I would welcome Max. I wanna go against the best, I want to… Everybody wants to prove what they've got, so… Yeah. Make it happen." Interviewer: "On the flipside of that, you could be partnered with Antonelli next year. Obviously Mercedes are continuing their process with him and testing over at Imola. Have you kept an eye on his progress and heard from the team about how he's been faring?" George: "Yeah, I've heard he's been doing a good job. Obviously when you're driving alone it's always difficult to get a reference, and for him it's just gaining the necessary experience. There's no doubt that he's gonna be in a Mercedes at some point in the future. Is that next year? Is that in years to come? Time will tell, but he's a great driver and he's won everything in his junior career, so there's no reason not to see him in Formula 1, mixing with the best in the years to come." Interviewer: "And finally from me, we've moved from one sprint weekend into the next sprint weekend. A very different format last time out. So much data, I imagine, to colate in just those three hours after the sprint race and make the changes to the cars before qualifying for the grand prix. What did you guys learn in China that you can bring over to this wekeend, be it positives, or, I guess on Lewis' side of the garage particularly it was certainly negatives." George: "I personally really enjoyed the new format. I think it felt a little bit more chronological, with having the sprint quali first, straight into the sprint race. I think of course a learning is that if you turn the car upside down and then you go straight into a qualifying session, every single lap in Q1 or Q2 is vitally important for how it sets you up for Q3, the tires you have left, and it's very difficult to adapt in such a short period of time, so probably better the devil you know than trying to find that sweet spot."

[beautifulstorms]

Darya Grimm / Michail Savitskiy The Nutcracker • Junior Grand Prix Final 2022

[rabidline]

2022 Junior Grand Prix Final - December 9, 2022 Jia Shin → Tree of Life Suite: Oceano, Floating, Wild Side by Roberto Cacciapaglia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra choreographed by Yeaji Shin

[figureskatingcostumes]

Mao Shimada's free program dress at the 2022 Junior Grand Prix Gdansk, 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final and 2022 Junior Japanese Nationals.

(Sources: 1, 2 and 3)

[yuriplisetsky-rp]

Otabek Altin Ends Career With Fourth World Title

Announces surprise retirement during press conference

Saturday, March 23rd

MONTREAL, CANADA – Otabek Altin of Kazakhstan skated a fantastic free skate to win a fourth world title in a very competitive field. The 26-year-old was second in the free, with a score of 221.69 for a total score of 335.14. The most decorated Asian skater in history, Altin surprised many by announcing his retirement from competitive figure skating during the press conference, citing a recurring back injury that he’s been dealing with but has been getting worse. Altin also said he has already accomplished everything he’s wanted and more.

“It’s great to end my career on such a high,” said the two-time Grand Prix Final Champion. “I know my retirement announcement may come as a shock to some, but it’s something I have thought about for years. I came into this season knowing it would be my last. My coaches have supported me throughout everything, and I thank them for what they’ve done for me over the last few years. I really only stayed in these last couple of years for Yuri, but I’m ready to just be his husband now and to move to the next phase of our lives.”

Altin has had a storied career that many dream of. He had a solid but less than stellar Junior career that includes a JGP Final bronze and two Junior World medals. He placed second at Four Continents the following year and then a surprise bronze at Worlds and hasn’t looked back since. Two Olympic medals, four world titles – six medals overall – three Four Continents titles, and two Grand Prix Final titles. It’s a career many dream of.

Guang-hong de la Iglesia of China won the free skate and came within a point of overtaking Altin. The 24-year-old scored 224.26 for a total score of 334.38. “I’m so proud of what I did here today. I win would have been nice, but I’m glad to be able to skate so well,” said the two-time Four Continents silver medalist. “Of course, we knew that Otabek was retiring all season, and I’m glad I got to have this season competing against him. He’s a great competitor, skater, and friend.”

2022 World Champion Seung-gil Lee of South Korea came up from fourth to win the bronze. Scoring 109.93 in his short, he scored 220.34 for his free skate, for a total score of 330.27. “I am honored to have skated so well,” said the 2020 Four Continents Champion. “I am very proud of how I skated, to skate a personal best and win a medal. It was a very good competition all the way around.” When asked about the retirement, Lee simply said, “He’s a wonderful competitor. I wish him well.”

Hometown favorite Leroy had a popped jump and only scored 208.37 for his free 319.24, ending up in fifth place overall. But combined with his young brother’s eighth-place finish, Canada keeps its third spot for next year’s Worlds.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Why is Yuzuru's 4 Grand Prix Final title not emphasized enough? To me, winning Grand Prix Final is harder than winning World Championships since skaters have to be successful on previous 2 competitions, too. Whereas for World Championships, if they are on form that week, they win. If not, they are unlucky enough to lose despite their high potential. Maybe I simplified the World Championships too much, but that's what I perceived. Yuzuru has won 2 world championships, but when he lost he was not inferior to Javier Fernandez. He was still the best male skater who unfortunately lost a precious title. I wonder why Grand Prix Final is not as valuable as World Championships.

I think in Yuzu's case the 4 GPF titles are not emphasized often because he has other titles with more worth like 2 Olympic Gold medals! You will always see him introduced as two time Olympic Champion, also seldomly as two time World champion. Yuzu's two Olympic titles are so special and he is only the 2nd men to ever achieve it and that more than 50 years later, that this will always be the emphasize when ppl talk about Yuzu's achievements.

In general however GPF titles and medals don't hold the same value as Olympic medals and world titles.

The order of value is as follows:

Olympic Gold (and then every other Olympic medal too) > World Gold medals > GPF Gold > European Gold > 4CC Gold > junior world titles

If someone has only GPF medals but no world or Olympic medals, the skater will be introduced as GPF medalist. Ppl will always emphasize the biggest victories and while I completely agree that 4 GPF Gold medals are a great achievement and should get more praise, it's not the way this sport and its ppl value those medals. Don't get me wrong a GPF title is a big senior title, but not if you won the Olympics twice like Yuzu.

You're right that you need to be good in two competitions to qualify for the GPF, which isn't easy at all, but in the end it's dependent on a lot of factors (forms of the day of competition, the skaters you have to face, which vary a lot in how difficult it can get to achieve a certain placement for example look at GP Sheffied 2022 against NHK 2022 etc)

You could argue with the form or bad luck about every competition. A competition is a competition and in the end the best of two days combined wins, no matter if GPF or Worlds/Olympics. A competition essentially isn't about who is the best skater in theory, but who can deliver the best on the days of competition and what his rivals on the same days do. Imo for example at Worlds 2016 Yuzu was inferior to Javi in this particular competition, because Yuzu wasn't able to deliver what he is capable of (no matter the reasons like injury) and Javi did deliver. I think it's a matter of perspective, being "the best skater" is not a title you can get (unless you count the sh*t ISU awards) and though I would fight tooth and nails against anyone who claims someone else than Yuzu is the best in the world, it's still anyone's right to have a different perspective because it's not a hard fact. (I don't know how one could argue about Yuzu being not the best but saying this objectively)

In the end I think anyone can have their own opinion about which competitions are harder and titles harder to achieve. If you ask skaters from Japan or Russia which is the hardest competition of the season, they would say their Nationals even those titles have the lowest value internationally, but it determines if you even get a chance to become a World/ 4CC/ European or Olympic champion.

[ummick]

Ralf Schumacher Outraged: Mick Finds Out About Cockpit Allocation Via Instagram

Mick Schumacher wants to continue fighting for a cockpit in Formula 1 despite the recent setback.

"In the end, I'm not giving up on my part. There are still two seats open. We have to keep working and keep pushing," said the son of record world champion Michael Schumacher on Sky. "For us it's just a matter of keeping pushing and keeping working, hopefully with a good result at the end of the year." On Friday, the Alpine racing team awarded its second cockpit for 2025 alongside Pierre Gasly to the Australian Jack Doohan, and not to Schumacher. The German certainly had hopes for the place. Schumacher drives for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship and was considered a candidate with good prospects. The decision in favor of Doohan was still "somehow understandable" because the son of the former motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan was already in the "junior program" at Alpine: "There was the link." Schumacher found out about the decision via Instagram, and not in a personal dialogue. Schumacher's uncle Ralf viewed this approach as lacking style. "That's no way at all," said the former Formula 1 driver on the sidelines of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Schumacher confirms talks

Mick Schumacher confirmed that other discussions were currently being held. "But nothing more than that. We have to wait now. Everyone takes a little time to analyze the situation well in order to then make the best choice as far as the drivers are concerned. They know what I can do and what they get. Let's see." There is still one place available at Sauber next to Nico Hülkenberg in 2025. Audi then takes over the team, and Schumacher could recommend himself for the jump to Audi in Sauber's final year. What speaks for him is that he already has "two years under his belt with Haas." "You could already see what I can do. Internally, the teams also know what I can do, even through the years in the junior categories." The 25-year-old drove for Haas in 2021 and 2022, but his contract was subsequently not extended. Schumacher is currently a reserve driver at Mercedes.

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Minsol Kwon, “Danse Macabre” at Junior Grand Prix Final 2022

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Minsol Kwon: Cats » 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final