Mao Asada announces retirement

Ballade88 said:

Midori was perhaps the best jumper ever. But one must also remember that we are trained to scrutinize skaters' jumps now far more than back in the 90s. Harding's 3A, for example, had tilted air position and she always had to fight for the landings. For Mao to land quite a number of 3As with good GOE in a much stricter system is an accomplishment.

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I would give the title to Mao, Midori had the size, but Mao had the highest and most difficult technical content, not only when it came to the jumpcontent, but also when you take all the other elements like steps, spins, and spirals in perspektive it was topnotch

That aside Mao is the youngst and oldest skater to have ever landed a 3A and the female skater who has landed the most during her career! and she displayed the full arsenal of triple jumps during her career!

I would like to share some absolutely marvelous 3As Mao did in practice, at 2013 Japanese Nationals.

https://youtu.be/GnsGhNYgXGU

These are proof of what you guys have said above - that Mao had the most beautiful 3As.

mary01 said:

I would give the title to Mao, Midori had the size, but Mao had the highest and most difficult technical content, not only when it came to the jumpcontent, but also when you take all the other elements like steps, spins, and spirals in perspektive it was topnotch

That aside Mao is the youngst and oldest skater to have ever landed a 3A and the female skater who has landed the most during her career! and she displayed the full arsenal of triple jumps during her career!

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Yes it's true about Mao but I think that people underrate Midori spins & footwork. I'd say that she had some of the best in her time too as far as technical goes.

apons575 said:

The true greats never reached the top step at the Olympics, but their impact on the sport was legendary. Janet Lynn, Midori Ito, Michelle Kwan...and now Mao Asada. Much love and success to Mao in her future endeavors!!

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Hmm well I would add then Sasha Cohen, Irina Slutskaya, and even greater but the likes of Toller Cranston, Kurt Browning and Brian Orser,

mary01 said:

I would give the title to Mao, Midori had the size, but Mao had the highest and most difficult technical content, not only when it came to the jumpcontent, but also when you take all the other elements like steps, spins, and spirals in perspektive it was topnotch

That aside Mao is the youngst and oldest skater to have ever landed a 3A and the female skater who has landed the most during her career! and she displayed the full arsenal of triple jumps during her career!

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Did Mao really ever have the true full arsenal of triples. Certainly she has landed them all but it seems for most of her career she has always been dodged with issues on some jump.

Ares said:

Yes it's true about Mao but I think that people underrate Midori spins & footwork. I'd say that she had some of the best in her time too as far as technical goes.

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Midori would have done very well under the current judging system, even without the jumps.

Of course she did. Apart from the flutz that was fixed ish later on- she never really had jump problems. Even the salchow became a consistent one for her post Vancouver.

People forget that she used to do 2 triple triples in a free program, and she has a HUGE triple flip even with that first entry she had for years.

Her 'lack of jumps' became associated with her retooling of technique which unfortunately marred most people's perception of her prowess. Do not be fooled, Asada was/is a jumping bean.

Mao and Midori should've skated in each other's respective eras. Despite sharing the triple axel, they are quite opposite in skating styles. Mao's greatest strength was excelling in the aesthetics of the sport (lines, extension, position, etc). Qualities that were valued under 6.0, but don't count for much nowadays sadly. Midori's power and speed would probably give her more advantage if she skated under COP.

Skater Boy said:

Did Mao really ever have the true full arsenal of triples. Certainly she has landed them all but it seems for most of her career she has always been dodged with issues on some jump.

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She has landed and gotten all of the triple jumps ratiesfied, her 3lz got ratiefied in the beginning of her career, in the middle of her career and by the end of her career, she may not have displayed the full arsenal of jumps consistently but she did displayed all kinds of tripple jumps in competition at some point during her career!

Ballade88 said:

Mao and Midori should've skated in each other's respective eras. Despite sharing the triple axel, they are quite opposite in skating styles. Mao's greatest strength was excelling in the aesthetics of the sport (lines, extension, position, etc). Qualities that were valued under 6.0, but don't count for much nowadays sadly. Midori's power and speed would probably give her more advantage if she skated under COP.

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yes and skaiting skills which is also something Mao really excels in and which today isn't valued as much today, like they did before, eventhough good skating skills was one of the main things that were valued in 6.0

TheCzar said:

Of course she did. Apart from the flutz that was fixed ish later on- she never really had jump problems. Even the salchow became a consistent one for her post Vancouver.

People forget that she used to do 2 triple triples in a free program, and she has a HUGE triple flip even with that first entry she had for years.

Her 'lack of jumps' became associated with her retooling of technique which unfortunately marred most people's perception of her prowess. Do not be fooled, Asada was/is a jumping bean.

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she had no weakness in her jumps except for the lutz edge that ISU decided let's change the rules in 2007 as soon as Kim entered the senior skating scene. If that jump didn't hurt her, next they decided to call her triple flip-3loop combos UR and they ALWAYS called her 3flip/3toe UR, except for when she won her first worlds in 2008. If that wasn't enough, they went after her money jump, the triple axel and started calling it UR. So really, she had a pair of two triple triple combo jumps, a triple axel, actually 2 triple axels, yet, it wasn't enough to beat Kim with her one triple lutz/3toe combo. I was furious when the Kim's short program score was announced in Vancouver and I believe (someone can correct me), she beat Mao by a margin of 5 or six points leading into the long program, and this is actually a small point difference now between skaters, but back then, this difference was HUGE, why?? because up until that point, in every competition they had competed against each other, the point difference was by 1 or 2 points, maybe even less than a point difference. She probaby won the short program by getting those GOEs....uber Mao fans used to say, Kim wins by unjust GOEs, hahahaha....and I was definitely one of them

But what a rivalry between those two ever since their junior days. I discovered her while browsing youtube when she skated at the world junior championships in kitchener Canada at the age of 14 against Yuna Kim....and I highly favored Mao early on, so it stuck with me throughout their competitions. She was just so smooth, and floated across the ice just effortlessly, delicate and graceful, athletic. She made her triple axel look so easy, omg. The canadian commentators were so impressed with her. I always looked forward to her exhibitions and my favorite from the top of my head that I've watched countless times already is So Deep is the Night by Chopin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FYKk8ZPUPQ

I've never been so emotional/sad over a competition when she wasn't able to get the gold.

When I remember Mao, I always think back to this brilliant performance (I've watched countless times) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbPbbUeQ3Kw
and for me her last goodbye to the sport ended in this most touching program, in my mind, the most beautiful performance she's done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NjUBWuQBvw I will miss her.

topaz emerald said:

she had no weakness in her jumps except for the lutz edge that ISU decided let's change the rules in 2007 as soon as Kim entered the senior skating scene. If that jump didn't hurt her, next they decided to call her triple flip-3loop combos UR and they ALWAYS called her 3flip/3toe UR, except for when she won her first worlds in 2008. If that wasn't enough, they went after her money jump, the triple axel and started calling it UR. So really, she had a pair of two triple triple combo jumps, a triple axel, actually 2 triple axels, yet, it wasn't enough to beat Kim with her one triple lutz/3toe combo. I was furious when the Kim's short program score was announced in Vancouver and I believe (someone can correct me), she beat Mao by a margin of 5 or six points leading into the long program, and this is actually a small point difference now between skaters, but back then, this difference was HUGE, why?? because up until that point, in every competition they had competed against each other, the point difference was by 1 or 2 points, maybe even less than a point difference. She probaby won the short program by getting those GOEs....uber Mao fans used to say, Kim wins by unjust GOEs, hahahaha....and I was definitely one of them

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This is a celebratory thread for her retirement. This isn't the first time I am posting this but don't be proud of yourself trying to turn this into a comparison thread. Nobody needs to compare Mao to any other skater to know that she was amazing.

I may have missed something, but if not, any information on what Mao plans to do after her retirement? All the discussion about Mao is about her past achievement, which is understandable, but the lack of discussion of her future plan makes me feel as if she would completely disappear from figure skating.
Does she plan to be a coach, a choreographer, a TV host, or just skate in shows...or do something quite different from skating?

^^For the near future, this summer she will have her THE ICE ice shows as she has had in Japan for the past ten years. There are usually around 8 shows that take place in different cities every year, end of July / beginning of August. Haven't heard anything else beyond that.

This still feels like a bad daydream. What a competitor. What a career!

Arriba627 said:

^^For the near future, this summer she will have her THE ICE ice shows as she has had in Japan for the past ten years. There are usually around 8 shows that take place in different cities every year, end of July / beginning of August. Haven't heard anything else beyond that.

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Official website of 'The ICE': http://fs-theice.com

There will be 6 shows in total this summer: Osaka - 7/29-31; Nagoya - 8/4-6

First round of cast/guest skaters announced: http://fs-theice.com/cast/
Japan - Mao & Mai Asada, Oda Nobu, Akiko Suzuki, Mura Takahito
Oversea - Jeff Buttle, Mirai Nagasu, Pang & Tong, Weaver& Poje
(*It's a pity that Kanako Murakami probably will not show up at the final Nagoya shows, as there's a schedule conflict with one of the PIW shows, in which Kanako has been announced as one of the members)

I think Mao herself has mentioned vaguely in one of the interviews that during the month of May she'll spend some time in Canada for choreography. And that will be after the Golden Week vacations in Japan.

^^^ Thx for those additional details. I think they add people as they go along -- seems to me that last year Carolina K was there, Patrick, Jason, etc. I know there were a lot of VERY happy Americans who were thrilled to be invited. I think that's the show where Jason and Florent Amodio did their famous dance battles. Last year was a special year since it was the 10th anniversary. I also thought they had really nice costumes. I am hoping that Shoma gets invited!

Maybe Mao is just taking things slowly right now. I am sure she has many options. I, like many, am still finding it hard to believe she officially retired!

Arriba627 said:

^^^ Thx for those additional details. I think they add people as they go along -- seems to me that last year Carolina K was there, Patrick, Jason, etc.

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yes, I think there should be more skaters TBA. I read from twitter that Mai was doing PR for the show on TV earlier and she hinted that the show this summer will be a gathering for skaters 'who're in good terms with Mao'. (but still holding further announcement for the moment). Actually, I've been to The Ice for the past three years and it has always been a heart-warming show. In the past the organiser would take suggests and requests from audiences/fans on twitter about songs/numbers they want to see. But not this year... it's said that Mao wants to make the decision herself. So it's going to be another special show for The Ice this year!

NB: as for future plan, she's been mentioning about opening up her own skating rink several times for now. It seems she's pretty much set about this goal at least!