頑張れ日本！Japanese Olympic Athletes in Sochi 2014!

[LittleGaijin]

If you read my most recent article―which shed some light on some of my favorite Japanese Olympians―you'll know that I am a huge supporter of Team Japan, and an avid watcher of the Winter Olympics! I decided to create this follow-up thread in order to share the current rankings of the athletes mentioned in my article, the athletes not mentioned in my article, and to discuss the Olympics with other supporters of Team Japan! 

I don't want to miss a second of footage of my favorite athletes!

[LittleGaijin]

　Yuzuru Hanyu
　Figure Skating


　In today's news, after contributing to Russia's win in the Figure Skating Team competition, Evgeny Plyushchenko drops out of the Olympics before entering the Men's Short Program. (Due to an injury during his warmup.) Although Hanyu was able to top the scores of both men in his Team Short Progam, Plyushchenko and Patrick Chan are Yuzuru Hanyu's biggest threats, so this could mean that Hanyu has even more of a shot at gold.

Hanyu's next Short Program airs tonight, with his Free Skate airing tomorrow night.
I have such high hopes for him, and I hope that he can deliver two more flawless performances this week!

[LittleGaijin]

HANYU WINS THE GOLD MEDAL IN MEN'S FIGURE SKATING!

[MidoriAbby]

I'm so happy Yuzuru Hanyu won, he is my favorite oh my gosh I was so proud. Go team Japan!

[Jembru]

I've just seen him interviewed on NTV (probably the same clip they've shown everywhere). I haven't been watching the games because I'm not very sporty these days (I used to be really into skateboarding, especially half-pipe stuff, but I'm too scared of breaking a bone and not being able to work and pay the bills, so I don't do it anymore), but I catch them talking about it now and then while I'm getting ready for work. Is it their first medal so far? I think they said so but you know..

Almost entirely unrelated but, has anyone else seen the coverage on NTV's early morning TV? I love how they're using a little Russian doll symbol when they talk about the games. I can't imagine this kind of thing working on British TV shows. Like the little cartoon bird that appears on the weather map and changes with the weather. I think I prefer Japanese TV just because it doesn't take itself nearly so seriously. That's something I CAN relate too!

[LittleGaijin]

Here's the current medals standing for Team Japan.



Jembru, I did a little digging because I was working during a lot of the actual snowboarding events (everything minus the snowboarding and skiing freestyle competitions...where I was graced with the lovely Swedish freestyle skier couldn't keep his damn pants up), and it seems that Ayamu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka became the first Asians to win medals in an Olympic snowboarding event. Looks like they were among the first medal winners for Japan. 

That's really cool that you were once into snowboarding though! I always thought snowboarding was really cool, but I never tried it. (I went skiing with a group of friends once in highschool, and I had a really bad accident. Tore the tendon in my right knee, and refused to get surgery on it so I ended up quitting soccer. I still go up the mountain to watch skiers and snowboarders though; it feels so incredible up there, and watching the sport up close is really amazing for me! Love taking pictures!) Winter sports are sure scary though, aren't they? So much room for injury. My best friend is a professional figure skater, and I actually sat in on her coaching some students today, and the whole rink is buzzing with news about a girl who crashed last week and received a serious concussion. You just don't hear these things as much in like, say, soccer.

(Yeah, my friends and family are all incredibly sport-obsessed, so I turned out this way early on... haha. My dad is a soccer player, and I've done some kind of sport every year up until my accident. Figure skating, karate, soccer, tennis...)


Haven't seen Hanyu's interview on NHK yet, but I saw the video thumbnails on youtube while searching for his short and freestyle performances again and again.

[Bokusenou]

Yay! Japan's not doing too shabby.

Snowboarding and skiing look really cool! It's too bad about the injury rate for Winter sports in general though. I once started learning how to ice skate, but the things I saw at the rink while watching the more experienced skaters scared me away from it. A person could have done a spin or jump a million times before, but then they make one mistake on spin #1,000,001 and they're carried off in a stretcher, tearful family members following close behind.

[LittleGaijin]

Bokusenou

Yeah, Japan's not doing too shabby! Sadly not in the top 10, but at least Japan has quite a few medals and a handful of world records! Earning a world record is even better than a gold medal in my opinion!! Well... that is until someone tops it.

Winter sports really are so dangerous, but each and every single one is so impressive and beautiful to watch! (Even sledding!) It's a shame, but we can appreciate the athletes even more for the risk that they take to master their sport! I mean, gosh, anyone can kick a soccer ball. But not just anybody can skate on an ice rink, or slide down a mountain! Very impressive! That's why there's only a handful of Summer Olympic events that I watch (soccer, rowing, and gymnastics mainly), whereas I'll watch each and every Winter event!! 

When you were learning ice skating, were you planning to seriously pursue ice skating?? 

[Jembru]

Oh first GOLD... That's what they said. Lol.

Snowboarding.. well, I mainly just skateboarded, because my nearest dry slope is quite a distance from me, but I've had a go at snowboarding too. It's not exactly the same, even balance-wise, as skateboarding, so switching between the two isn't as easy as people assume! I felt safer on a snowboard though. I don't know what it is, but maybe the smaller space and presence of metal coping (and the fact that the board isn't attached to you so there's the danger of rogue boards from other skaters), made me feel more at risk in a skatepark, than on the dry slopes.