#aci2017

If this is not perfection materialized then I do not know what perfection is.  

Credits@Jelliholic 

3.00 AM, Saturday. 

An alarm goes off and I try to turn it off, finally succeeding. The season has officially begun. I take my phone and open the Skate Canada Autumn Classic live stream. It’s just about time for Yuzuru to take the ice. It has been almost 6 moths since I saw him in Helsinki, making history once again.

I struggle to stay awake while watching the skaters before him. My eyelids are heavy, but my heart screams of excitement. In just a few minutes he is bringing back that program I love so much, I tell myself. And then he is called onto the ice.

I breathe heavily, knowing already that I will hold my breath before and during all the three jump passes in his short program. One after the other, he lands them with steadiness I have never seen even from him. And when the announcers say the numbers 112.72, so empty as numbers and yet so important as scores my heart stops for a moment before I smile like I haven’t for a while.

4.30 AM, Sunday.

Once again my alarm goes off. This time it’s even harder to stay awake during the rest of the programs.

When Yuzuru takes the ice I’m worried. Of course I want him to do well, it’s all I dream of at this moment. But he has a sore knee. And really he rarely succeeds in the free after a world record breaking short program. I almost can’t breathe.

As soon as the music starts I notice his stare at the camera isn’t as strong as usually at the beginning of the iconic program that Seimei is. The planned triple or even quadruple lutz turns into a single. And that’s when I know. Nothing good can come of this and with the last notes of the music I’m sad to know I wasn’t proved wrong.

155.52 is the lowest free skate score Yuzuru has received since 2014, when a collision almost took his chances of making the Grand Prix Final he later won with a free program that was, at the time, the second-best free skate of all time. But I must say that for the first time in a while I wasn’t angry or worried after such a skate.

Skate Canada Autumn Classic was the first competition of the season for Yuzuru and he already did the almost impossible - a short program with that jump content can only ever achieve slightly over 115 points. His skate was closer to perfection most people ever get in their life. And with the extreme technical difficulty, good became amazing. 

Helsinki made me look at the least eventful summer of my life differently. Montreal made me look at myself differently. Excellence is rarely achieved everywhere at the same time. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to be incredible and really all you can take from the failure is motivation to do even better. 

AHHHHHH YUZU GANBA!!! It’s almost time for Yuzu’s first skate in a competition (Less than 24 hours!!!) and I’m wishing him the best! Heard that his right knee is in slight pain so he’s gonna have to simplify his programs so I hope he recovers soon!! Wish that he could enjoy his skate, too. (after all, all I want for yuzuru is for him to be healthy and happy ;u;)

I heard he had knee pain, and decided to tone down the level abit. During practices, he popped nearly everything.

The performance today was sooo perfect. Of course the difficulty is not a monstrous like the previous season but the way he carries it is just flawless.

I am very very very impressed of his musicality!! He paid so much attention to the details and filled up every notes with expressions or arm movement even if its just opening or clenching his fists. That musicality level is so impressive.

Those jumps arent the best we've seen but the quality was there. The height the distance and the solid full rotations. He finished on of the quads high up of the ice! Like he would anytime now shoot up with a quint.

I hope he keeps up with this kind of performance and he's good for this season. Stay healthy and stay focus.

And that he was able to explit such musicality ability is because he is so familiar with the piece, musically and choreographily. He handles it like the back if his blades.

Well thats a good start, a nice way to a season debut.

One more thing, remember back in Helsinki last year after he broke the WR, the skaters who were going after him was shattered into piece. A HUGE SHUTOUT TO MISHA he is awesome!! He did an amzing job!! He stayed focus and compact!! Quality sportsmanship potrayed.