Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Op-Ed: This Feud MUST End

I'm calling for an immediate cease fire! As head of the Axels, Loops, and Spins International Council on Skating Affairs...I have such authority to do so...

Those in Japan...Those in Korea...anyone else that is feeding into all the conspiracy theories about Japanese skaters attempting to block Kim Yu-Na on warm-ups, or Korean news agencies purposefully being asked to write negatively about Japanese Skaters, or Japanese news agencies being accused of writing negatively about Kim Yu-Na, or any of this hulabaloo...STOP!

The ugliness of this fight is getting in the way of the beauty of their skating. Yes, BOTH OF THEM skate beautifully. We are all devoted to our favorites and want them to win and succeed, but when we resort to this pettiness it doesn't help them or motivate them at all...it just makes the person making these accusations look like an idiot.

So just enjoy skating, stop making unfounded accusations, stop tagging Jeremy Abbott in bogus You Tube videos, just stop! The world will then be a much happier place.

I have a feeling I'm going to get pummeled in the comments of this post...I don't care. BRING IT!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

!Standing Ovation! If only it would stop. They tag many other skaters in those videos, not just Abbott. Search for any ranked skater and you get those ridiculous "impeding" videos. Or so and so hates so and so. It just makes the fans look nutso, and it reflects negatively on their favored skater.

I think the two ladies skaters involved should instruct their fans to tone it down, and be mature and respectful in their admiration. These two ladies are both great skaters. Let the action happen at competition, on the ice. Not on you tube. And leave the other skaters out of it.

I wish all blogs would address this...because it has gotten out of hand.

jumping clapping man said...

thanks for being such a positive light in the midst of all the muck!

but, "tagging jeremy abbott in bogus youtube videos"? what's that? do tell.

Anonymous said...

Yuna being impeded is no conspiracy. She said in an interview herself, she felt threatened during warm ups. She couldn't land her jumps. She said she didn't understand why they had to do that.

Unknown said...

2nd Anonymous, please post a link to the interview to prove she actually said that. Somehow I don't believe it and it reeks of the same SH*T that Tonya Harding pulled (she also said that she had been threatened in warm-ups.

Good post! I don't think it's going to stop though, it's kind of the same fight going on between Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson fans.

Anonymous said...

Katrina here it is. Interview is in beginning and end. Please watch the video too. It shows it is not conspiracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Qa8m145Lk

Unknown said...

Thank you. I don't really think those clips are deliberate in trying to attack Kim. I think part of it is somebody just making a video to make it look like it. The first jumping one, there was plenty of room for Kim.

jumping clapping man said...

off topic: aaron, i'm amused to see the results of your lysacek/abbott/weir poll. i was shocked to see how little support their is for lysacek here. perhaps i shouldn't be surprised, but i was. that being said, i didn't vote for him either. i'm on the fence over jeremy and johnny, personally.

Anonymous said...

I love your posts. But here's hoping that you can be more informed about Yuna being heckled by certain skaters during warm-ups the last few seasons. Don't write it off as being on the same level as the hateful, crazy stuff people put up on youtube. Specific skaters, namely Suguri Fumie, and in some instances Miki Ando, have been known to display poor sportsmanship by blatantly cutting off Yuna during her dress rehearsals and loitering in her landing spots so she can't land jumps.

Watch at 0:16. Later you can see Orser shaking his head in disgust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZztPum8skM

The sad thing about this issue is that it has become buried under a mass of ensuing exaggerated claims contrived by the public that ended up making it seem like another outlandish accusation.
Well in any case, I'm on the same boat with you about these bogus videos. It really has nothing to do with the skaters themselves or with any appreciation for figure skating whatsoever. This puerile business reflects the severely limited mental capacity of those involved. They need to take their nationalistic baggage and hateful repertoire among other issues somewhere else.

I adore both Yuna and Mao.
I have been a figure skating fan for most of my life, and all I want to see like everyone else is an epic showdown at the Olympics with everyone skating at their best. And that means playing fair, on both sides, judges and fans included.

jykang said...

I am one of Yuna's fans that was a little bothered by the claim at first. Ridiculous Youtube videos aside, I always noticed that Yuna is very reserved and careful during interviews, and she means what she says. That is why I felt that if Yuna had brought up the problem herself, there must be some truth to the claim.

However, I went to see Skate Canada this year and after seeing many practice sessions live, my opinion changed. There I saw much worse instances of skaters crossing paths with each other. The rink can easily seem crowded when all the skaters are rehearsing, and they often come close to bumping into each other. Of course they are all careful, and I don't believe (as scary as some moments were) that any of those incidences were on purpose. During a practice session during pairs, two pairs actually bumped into each other, but they simply nodded and moved on.

I still don't know what to think of the issue. I don't want to dismiss Yuna as simply being too paranoid, but those vidoes on the Youtube don't fully win me over either.

I think one fact to consider is that Japan often has two or three women, most of the time all of them competing in the final group of ladies. That maybe why it may seem like Yuna is always bumping into Japanese women, but there are simply a lot of them on ice at once.

Anyways, I completely agree, "radical" fans on both sides have got to tone it down.