Javier Fernandez

MeltedIce said:

Just a few days for Javi GP debut at the Rostelecom Cup, I'm so excited

After his comments about repeating the short program because it was not performed last year to its full potencial I'm wondering what changes we will see there. Do any of you have any news about it?

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I am really curious about the revised SP! Looking forward to seeing it!
I thought I read somewhere that there might be changes to the SP costume, too?

And thank you so much, xibsuarz, for the information about the book! I didn't know that Plushenko first met Javi when he was that young. Wow!

xibsuarz said:

A bit of what Plushenko had to say about Javi.

He met him in Jaca, Spain, when he was 7 or 8 y/o, and he was a very bad skater back then
He said Javier is a wonderful guy, a great friend and has an extraordinary personality. Despite his success, he is still the same person. He says his coach has helped him reach his dreams, and Javier tries to improve everyday. They are a true team.

He is sure Javier has switched the sports mentality in Spain, where soccer dominates; and he has placed Spanish skating in the map.

He is getting physically and mentally stronger. He said his concentration is one of his fortes, and he gets goosebumps when he sees him jump. He sees how happy Javier is and he tells him to pace himself and do things calmly. Everything will come with effort and confidence.

He is a great athlete and person, with his feet on the ground. His success has never gotten to his head and Plushy says Javier loves skating as much as he does. His advice for him is to keep skating forever, whether it’s in competition or for pleasure.

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Thank you!!!

And somebody knows about the schedule of the event? I looked for it in the thread for CoR, but nothing

tzazu said:

Thank you!!!

And somebody knows about the schedule of the event? I looked for it in the thread for CoR, but nothing

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Here

Some new stuff (or at least stuff I haven’t read before)

He was never one for team sports, the closest feeling he got to skating before trying it himself was tennis.
His sisters’ coaches actually didn’t want to take him in because of the limited ice time. His mom convinced them, but he says it was because they wanted to keep Laura, even if that meant accepting a little brother who didn’t even know how to put his skates on.

He said his dad found it hard to understand figure skating, and he thought he could sharpen their blades the way you do with a knife But he studied it and he made his own machine to sharpen it. He quickly moved from the “school” level to the club, and he says that one of the reasons must have been that his coaches didn’t want him to mess around with the other kids

Given that Laura was Spain’s national champion, he felt like he had some privileges. If they wanted her sister, they would have to bear with him, too. But he didn’t take advantage of it, at least not consciously, he was just a mischievous child. His first competitions were more like exhibitions because he was the only one of his category, so he was always 1st, 2nd, 3rd and last. But he didn’t care, because it was just him and the rink.

xibsuarz said:

Some new stuff (or at least stuff I haven’t read before)

He was never one for team sports, the closest feeling he got to skating before trying it himself was tennis.
His sisters’ coaches actually didn’t want to take him in because of the limited ice time. His mom convinced them, but he says it was because they wanted to keep Laura, even if that meant accepting a little brother who didn’t even know how to put his skates on.

He said his dad found it hard to understand figure skating, and he thought he could sharpen their blades the way you do with a knife But he studied it and he made his own machine to sharpen it. He quickly moved from the “school” level to the club, and he says that one of the reasons must have been that his coaches didn’t want him to mess around with the other kids

Given that Laura was Spain’s national champion, he felt like he had some privileges. If they wanted her sister, they would have to bear with him, too. But he didn’t take advantage of it, at least not consciously, he was just a mischievous child. His first competitions were more like exhibitions because he was the only one of his category, so he was always 1st, 2nd, 3rd and last. But he didn’t care, because it was just him and the rink.

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xibsuarz, thank you so much for sharing this with us, it was really fun to read, even though we always know Javi was a "naughty" boy when he was little.

evergreen said:

xibsuarz, thank you so much for sharing this with us, it was really fun to read, even though we always know Javi was a "naughty" boy when he was little.

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Yeah, I was only on the first few pages at the time. I'll try to add some other stuff later on as I read it

xibsuarz said:

Here

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Thanks again, for the information and the translations!:luv17:

Some exceprts from the IFSM interview which came out recently (I don't know what the policy of the forum is with regard to mags that are still in the stands, so I won't post the entire thing yet - if you know better, please tell me!)

"But winning a second World crown last March brought Fernandez more just a medal and a title - it brought him the level of respect in his homeland that had been absent the year before. "It was really hard because there was a lot of pressure on me," the Madrid native recalled. "So many people thought that I got lucky when I won my first title. I heard that so many times after I won my second title. "When I did some interviews in Spain, people were like, 'Oh. when you won the
second title I realized it was not luck - you were good.' That was the idea that so many people had in Spain. I got that more than one time, but I guess that people now realize that when I won the first time it was not because I was lucky."

"David had this music for a long time and he had wanted to use one of the pieces last year. He said, 'I have a great piece of music for you,' but he was not sure if it was going to be a competition program. Someone else told me about it and said it was 100 percent me - it was just my style. "And then this season, Brian (Orser) and David were talking and they decided that we should try and do a free program with it. So they chose the first two pieces of music and I chose the third, just because I liked it a lot. They liked the idea and when we put them together it was amazing. "It is not 100 percent Elvis style, because I think it is important to keep a little bit of my own personality. So we gave it a little Elvis touch and a little bit of my skating style. I hope people will enjoy the music and my skating."

"I am 25 and one of the oldest men in skating. I am competing with Yuzuru (Hanyu) and Boyang Jin, who are way younger than me and their bodies are skinnier and faster. I have to play my game. They will play their game and try and beat me, but I cannot play my game if! fall three times in the program."

"Fernandez chose France and Russia for his Grand Prix assignments this season. He has other obligations to fulfill during the Series and said that his choices were limited. In mid-October, he took on the role of ambassador for the first direct flight of a Spanish airline from Madrid to Tokyo. The flight departed Spanish soil two days before Skate America started, which precluded him from competing at that event or at Skate Canada."

After a very busy month or so at work, things are luckily quitening down just in time for Javi's GPs... During the weekened I watched Skate Canada men's FS live at night and felt already exceedingly nervous for Rostelecom - new version of Malaguena, second outing of Elvis, Javi vs. Shoma vol 2... JO was a good opener for the season for him and it'll be interesting to see what the development has been since - especially with taking almost a week off for the Madrid tourism promotion event!

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So Javi chose 2 GPs back to back on his own will? Is it true or because SA or SC didn't invite him? I still think 2 Gps badk to badk is too much.

Meoima said:

So Javi chose 2 GPs back to back on his own will? Is it true or because SA or SC didn't invite him? I still think 2 Gps badk to badk is too much.

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Well, I don't think SC didn't invite him. Whether it was Javier or Yuzuru, both had a very solid chance of winning, and many Canadians like Javi anyway. But he spent some time in Spain and Japan around SA, and I doubt he would have been ready for SC. And we know he couldn't have chosen COC or NHK anyway.

Btw, Thanks eppen !

Thanks a lot Eppen!!!
I found it strange that he would choose his two GP competitions back to back, but that explains it. I hope he is not too tired in France next week.

xibsuarz said:

Well, I don't think SC didn't invite him. Whether it was Javier or Yuzuru, both had a very solid chance of winning, and many Canadians like Javi anyway. But he spent some time in Spain and Japan around SA, and I doubt he would have been ready for SC. And we know he couldn't have chosen COC or NHK anyway.
Btw, Thanks eppen !

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I had the feeling SA didn't invite him because they want more medals for their men. But if it's his own choice then it's no problem. I just don't want him to push himself too much by doing 2 competitions in 2 weeks.

Meoima said:

I had the feeling SA didn't invite him because they want more medals for their men.

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Not sure why they didn't invite him, but the more medals for U.S. men isn't the reason. For the last 12 years -- 9 Japanese men took gold, 2 Americans, and 1 Czech (Brezina).

Arriba627 said:

Not sure why they didn't invite him, but the more medals for U.S. men isn't the reason. For the last 12 years -- 9 Japanese men took gold, 2 Americans, and 1 Czech (Brezina).

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I don't want to talk about how politics work, but clearly I have heard stories of how some skaters end up with some GPs. Nevertheless, if Javi is comfortable with his GPs this season then who am I to judge.

Again, big thanks to xibsuarz! I could imagine little Javi being a headache for the coaches
I LOLed at Javi's dad wanting to sharpen their blades as if they were knives

And big thanks to eppen, too! It's good to know that Javi is being realistic about training and strategies, and that he's trying to take good care of himself.

I thought Javier for sure would choose SC, he was the only one who beat Patrick Chan there before and it's right in his backyard, only an hour ish away from training grounds. I guess it makes sense that he passed since he had other obligations. Thank you for posting the interview! I hope the back to back competitions won't affect him too much.

Also on the same topic, at SC the programs were $15 and they had a list of all past winners but they got 2012 wrong and put Patrick's name instead of Javier's when he was the one who won that year. Tsk tsk, they also got some of the music for the competitors wrong (one off the top of my head was Choi Dabin's FS). SC you need to do better.

Some more stuff:

When his sister wanted to move to Jaca to train; her former coaches, in an attempt to keep her, told Javier that they would stop coaching him if she left. He eventually got kicked out. So he arranged moving to Jaca, too, with his mother.

Her mother had to stop working due to being diagnosed with anxiety. Javier developed bad habits, he started skipping classes and training sessions to hang out with his friends. As his attitude didn't change regardless of his parents' lectures, her mother decided they would move back to Madrid. By then, his sister had already stopped skating and was back with their father. Back in Madrid he was still rebellious. He wasn’t the best student and skating moved to the background, he didn’t practice any sport officially anymore. But his mother found one of his former coaches in another club and asked him to take Javi in. Once he was back, he remembered the reasons why he was in love with the sport.

Skating was about enjoying, until the National Championships, where he realized it was also about competing and winning. He remembers that the skater before him was Javier Raya. He felt the need to do it right. He felt energized and euphoric, but not nervous, and that feeling made him stronger. He had won, the competition took over him and it was an addictive feeling. Skating stopped being a hobby and it became his life. He was 15.

But at 17, he started losing motivation again, he had learned everything his coaches, and facilities allowed him to learn. That's when the camp in Andorra happened and he met Morozov.

xibsuarz said:

Some more stuff:

When his sister wanted to move to Jaca to train; her former coaches, in an attempt to keep her, told Javier that they would stop coaching him if she left. He eventually got kicked out. So he arranged moving to Jaca, too, with his mother.

Her mother had to stop working due to being diagnosed with anxiety. Javier developed bad habits, he started skipping classes and training sessions to hang out with his friends. As his attitude didn't change regardless of his parents' lectures, her mother decided they would move back to Madrid. By then, his sister had already stopped skating and was back with their father. Back in Madrid he was still rebellious. He wasn’t the best student and skating moved to the background, he didn’t practice any sport officially anymore. But his mother found one of his former coaches in another club and asked him to take Javi in. Once he was back, he remembered the reasons why he was in love with the sport.

Skating was about enjoying, until the National Championships, where he realized it was also about competing and winning. He remembers that the skater before him was Javier Raya. He felt the need to do it right. He felt energized and euphoric, but not nervous, and that feeling made him stronger. He had won, the competition took over him and it was an addictive feeling. Skating stopped being a hobby and it became his life. He was 15.

But at 17, he started losing motivation again, he had learned everything his coaches, and facilities allowed him to learn. That's when the camp in Andorra happened and he met Morozov.

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A million thanks to you, xibsuarz, it is exciting to get your updates about Javi's autobiography on daily basis

honghe said:

It's good to know that Javi is being realistic about training and strategies, and that he's trying to take good care of himself.

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The same interview revealed that Javi's team has selected the music for the Olympic season, how amazing it is

Javi considered that a 3-quad & 2 3 Axel free skate would be enough to defend his title, I don't think so unless he has a sure bet that his main competitor & training mate will not be able to deliver a clean 4 quad & 2 3 Axel long program, otherwise he may need to upgrade his technical ante in the later season like he did in the previous season.

The IceTalk interview with Jackie Wong from Sunday is out: https://twitter.com/rockerskating/status/793785385331650560

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